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Barons Weekly Report

November 17, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Barons News Release


Flashback... The Barons played the Rochester Americans for the second consecutive game on Friday night. As was the case in the first meeting, the Barons and Americans walked away with a tie. This time, Seamus Kotyk turned away 41 consecutive shots to secure the Barons a 1-1 tie. Rochester's Ryan Miller was up to the task as well stopping 31 shots. Todd Harvey scored the Barons goal as Garrett Stafford and Tavis Hansen assisted...The Barons arrived back in Cleveland at 3:45am on Saturday morning and played Toronto at 1:00pm at Gund Arena. Dimitri Patzold was tested early and often facing 19 shots in the first period alone. The Roadrunner onslaught would continue as they blistered Patzold with 47 shots on net. Patzold was impressive but he came up just short as the Roadrunners capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play in winning 3-2. Miroslav Zalesak assisted on both Barons goals. Brad Boyes and Niko Dimitrakos scored the Barons goals.

Coming Up... For the third consecutive week, the only games on the Barons schedule consist of a back-to-back Friday and Saturday set. On Friday night, the Barons will travel to Toronto for their first meeting at the brand new Ricoh Coliseum. The Roadrunners have compiled a 0-1-1-0 record at their new barn and the Barons have a 3-1-1-2 record on the road thus far. Cleveland has posted a 0-1-0-1 record against Toronto thus far. Todd Harvey has tallied two of his six goals on the season against Toronto and Miroslav Zalesak has one goal and two assists in the series... The Barons will head to Syracuse on Saturday night to play the third-place Syracuse Crunch. The Barons and Crunch met on October 21st and Syracuse jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead. The Barons battled back in the third period, but fell just short as they lost 6-4 (Syracuse empty net goal). Miroslav Zalesak triggered the comeback with two goals and Garrett Stafford added a goal and two assists. The game was paced by power play scoring, as Syracuse scored 3 on the power play and Cleveland scored 2. Three fights occurred during the Tuesday morning game on the 21st. Matt Carkner, Yuri Moscevsky, and Todd Harvey all got in on the act. Both teams combined to score 10 goals on only 51 shots, a 19.6% shooting rate.

Top Barons... Goaltender Seamus Kotyk has been impressive all season. In total, Kotyk is 2-2-2 with a 2.27 GAA and a .935 save percentage. His 2.27 goals allowed average is 17th in the league. If you exclude the 5-1 loss to Houston on 10-28, Kotyk has amassed a 1.74 GAA and .947 save percentage... Miroslav Zalesak has been hot at home. The Slovakia native has put together a four game point streak at home. During that streak, Zalesak has scored 4 goals and added 2 assists. In addition, Zalesak has recorded at least one point in five out of the six Barons home games. At the Gund, Zalesak has 8 points on 4 goals and 4 assists. Dating back to last season, Miro has registered a point in nine out of his last 10 home games with the Barons. In that time, he has 15 points on 7 goals and 8 assists. Zalesak leads the Barons with 5 multi-point games on the season... Garrett Stafford has been extremely consistent in his time with the Barons. In 12 games, the rookie from the University of New Hampshire has 11 points on 3 goals and 8 assists. Stafford is among the league leaders in defensive and rookie scoring. In fact, Stafford is fourth among all AHL defensemen in scoring. His 3 goals and 8 assists are each tied for 4th among defensemen in the respective categories. Stafford is now tied for third among AHL rookie scorers. His 8 assists are tied for the second most among AHL rookies... Todd Harvey scored his sixth goal of the season against Rochester on Friday night. The 9-year NHL veteran leads the AHL with a 40% shooting percentage. The sniper has connected on 6 of his 15 shots.

Injuries and Transactions... The San Jose Sharks swapped forwards earlier in the week reassigning Niko Dimitrakos to Cleveland and recalling Patrick Rissmiller. In addition, the Sharks reassigned Jim Fahey to Cleveland on Sunday. Earlier in the week, the Sharks recalled defenseman Christian Ehrhoff from Cleveland. Playing in place of Ehrhoff was Greg Labenski, who was recalled from Kalamazoo (UHL). With the Fahey joining the Barons, Labenski was reassigned to Kalamazoo. Tomas Plihal has missed the last 7 games due to injury. He is day-to-day. Jesse Fibiger is out indefinitely.

WDOK Breakaway With The Barons... The Barons will hold the third WDOK Breakaway With The Barons on Monday, November 17th at the Kent State University Ice Arena at 6pm. The WDOK Breakaway With The Barons will feature a one-hour practice session followed by a post-practice skate with the Barons. All kids 14-and-under will receive a complimentary Barons game ticket courtesy of SoftRock 102.1 WDOK. Admission is free to all. The KSU Ice Arena is located on the corner of Loop and Rhodes Road in Kent. For more information, contact the Barons front office by calling 216-420-0000. Adding to the excitement of "WDOK Breakaway With The Barons" is WDOK's "1-on-1 With The Barons" promotion. Register for your chance to be the lucky player two weeks prior to the event at www.wdok.com . One lucky person will be selected to skate "1-on-1 With The Barons" during practice for each event.

Ohio State Tailgate... The Cleveland Barons are hosting the Ohio State Tailgate at Shula's Steak 2 in Independence on Saturday at 11am in honor of the 100th meeting of Ohio State and Michigan football. Tickets for the event are $50 and will benefit the American Lung Association. Food and beverages are included in the price of admission. For more information call 216-524-5864.

Out and About... On Tuesday at 6:00pm, Garrett Stafford and Craig Valette are scheduled to appear with SlapShark at the Cleveland Skating Club and the Cleveland Heights Recreation Center as part of the Barons Rink Buddies Program. The Cleveland Skating Club is located in Shaker Heights on 2500 Kemper Rd. The Cleveland Heights Recreation Center is located on Monticello Boulevard at Mayfield Road. The players are scheduled to appear at the Cleveland Heights Recreation Center at 7:30pm.

Barons Player of the Week... The Cleveland Barons Player of the Week is goaltender Seamus Kotyk. Kotyk saved 41 consecutive shots in the 1-1 tie against Rochester, his only action of the week. Seamus has compiled a 0-0-2-0 record with a 1.38 GAA and a .963 save percentage in his last two games, both against Rochester.

Standings... Cleveland maintains their fifth place hold on the North Division with 13 points. With only 13 games played on the season, the Barons are tied for the second fewest games in the league. Only Milwaukee has fewer games with 12, while Houston, and Albany each have 13. Leading the North Division is the Hamilton Bulldogs. The Barons have posted a 1-1-0-1 record against the Bulldogs this season. In the East Division, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Hershey Bears are tied in first with 22 points. Bridgeport is riding an 11-game streak in which they have registered at least on point. The Atlantic Division has defined parity as only 8 points separate first-place Hartford and seventh-place Springfield. Hartford holds the best winning percentage in the league with a .733 mark. Out in the West Division, San Antonio, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Grand Rapids are playing hot potato with the division lead. San Antonio and Chicago are tied atop the West with 20 points while Cincinnati and Grand Rapids have 19.

Up and West... The Sharks had a busy Sunday. In addition to reassigning defenseman Jim Fahey to Cleveland, the Sharks acquired a 2nd round pick in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft from the Calgary Flames in exchange for goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff...During the week, the Sharks posted a 0-1-1-1 record. On Tuesday, the Sharks fell to the Colorado Avalanche 4-3, as former Shark Teemu Selanne scored the game-winning goal. On Thursday, the Sharks exploded to score 3 goals in 45 seconds against St. Louis. The Sharks earned a point by taking the game to an extra frame, but fell in overtime 4-3. On Saturday night, the Sharks went to overtime yet again, this time with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Nine of the Sharks 18 games have gone to overtime. Their seven ties are the most in the National Hockey League this season. San Jose has three games slated on the week, including a set of back-to back games on Friday and Saturday. It is the fourth time the Sharks will have played back-to-back games this season.

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