Barons Weekly Report

March 29, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Barons News Release


Magic Number... The Cleveland Barons Magic Number to clinch a berth in the AHL playoffs now stands at 3 points. Any time the Barons gain a win, tie, or overtime loss, and every time the 6th place team, determined by winning percentage (currently St. John's), loses in regulation or has a game go into overtime, the Magic Number is decreased. The earliest the Barons can clinch a playoff spot is on Wednesday night. If the Barons win against Syracuse, and St. John's loses or ties, the Barons clinch. If the Barons tie or lose in overtime and St. John's loses, the Barons will clinch.

Flashback... The Barons have improved their record over the last two weeks to 4-2-1-0 by posting a 2-1-1-0 week. It started with a bang as the Barons tied a franchise high in goals by defeating the Chicago Wolves 7-4. The Barons were paced by a Jon DiSalvatore hat trick, his first as a professional. DiSalvatore also tallied an assist. DiSalvatore shared a line with Ryane Clowe and Marcel Goc. Clowe finished the game with 3 assists and Goc finished with 2 goals and 1 assist. Shane Joseph, recently signed on an ATO from the University of Minnesota State-Mankato, recorded his first career point with an assist. Seamus Kotyk earned his 12th win in net for the Barons by stopping 31 shots on the night... The Barons then faced a pivotal game on Friday night. The Toronto Roadrunners entered the night in a third place tie with the Barons. The Barons would waste no time in jumping out to a 2-0 lead via a Grant Stevenson power play goal and a Jesse Fibiger fluke goal. Fibiger dumped the puck in hard off the left boards. Roadrunners goaltender Tyler Moss retreated behind the net to play the puck. The puck had other ideas though. After hitting the boards, the puck caromed hard right and trickled in to the vacated net. Fibiger used that spark and built a solid night by scoring a second goal later in the contest. Nolan Schaefer saved 35 shots on the night to earn his 11th victory of the season. Garrett Stafford, Grant Stevenson, Ryane Clowe, and Jesse Fibiger all recorded multi-point games for the Barons. Nick Bootland tallied the game-winner... The Barons traveled to Cincinnati to continue the Labatt Blue Cup series. The Barons would walk away with a 3-3 tie to send the Labatt Blue Cup point standings to a 3-2-1-0 Barons advantage. Cleveland can clinch the cup on April 7th with a victory. For the third consecutive game the Barons scored the game's first goal, this time on a Ryane Clowe goal. The Barons would then give up 3 unanswered goals to Cincinnati. That is until Barons captain Tavis Hansen converted a beautiful passing play to notch a power play goal. The goal was set up by a rifle pass from Garrett Stafford to Grant Stevenson. Stevenson then found Hansen in front of the net. Shane Joseph would then play the hero in the second period. Working in front of the net, Joseph gathered a rebound and buried it home. His first professional goal will be remembered as a game-tying goal as neither team would score again... The Barons then bussed back to Cleveland to host the Syracuse Crunch on Sunday. The Barons again scored the game's first goal as Grant Stevenson scored a power play goal. Battling penalties, the Barons played short-handed for a good deal of the night. Syracuse took advantage and built a 4-1 lead heading into the third. The Barons would score two goals, including a Marcel Goc short-handed strike, to cut the lead to 4-3. With the goalie pulled, and a man in the box, the Barons allowed an empty net goal. Shane Joseph would fire back for the Barons, scoring a short-hander with just 12.3 seconds remaining. The Barons could not even the game though and fell 5-4.

Coming Up... A huge week of hockey will ensue for the Barons, in which they will play three of the top four teams in the North Division. The week will definitely help clarify the playoff positioning that is so hard to determine at this point. On Wednesday, the Barons will travel to Syracuse to avenge Sunday's loss to the Crunch. Syracuse currently sits 7 points ahead of the Barons in second place of the North Division. The Barons are 2-4-0-0 against Syracuse on the season. Garrett Stafford has 9 points (4 goals, 5 assists) in the six games against Syracuse. The third period in this series has been a shooting range. Syracuse is outscoring Cleveland 10-9 in the third period. Nineteen of the series' 39 goals have been tallied in the third period. Syracuse has been outscored 8-2 in the third period of their last two games (vs. St. John's; @ Cleveland)... The Barons will travel to Toronto on Friday to battle the Roadrunners, who sit one point behind the Barons in the North Division. The Barons are 2-3-1-1 against Toronto this season. Miroslav Zalesak has recorded 9 points in the 7 games with Toronto thus far, the most of any player in the series. Toronto's Mike Bishai has played well against the Barons. Bishai has 5 goals and 3 assists against the Barons. Defenseman Dan Smith has two of the Roadrunners 4 game-winning goals against the Barons. The Barons will play the middle game of a three-in-three set on Saturday night. The Barons will travel to Hamilton to battle the first place Bulldogs. Cleveland has fared well against Hamilton this season posting a 4-4-0-1 against the North Division leaders. Miroslav Zalesak owns 1 goal and 9 assists against Hamilton this season. Patrick Rissmiller is not far behind, as the second year forward owns 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points. The Barons only overtime victory of the season came against Hamilton as Garrett Stafford stuffed away the game-winner on January 9th. The Barons have scored the game's first goal in seven of the nine contests against Hamilton this season... The Barons will play their third game in three nights and fourth game in five nights on Sunday evening. The Barons will host the Syracuse Crunch for the teams' last meeting of the season. Syracuse has swept the three games at Gund Arena this season.

Cleveland Barons Hockey Show... Every Monday night Jamie Smock and Jason Gibbs will host the "Cleveland Barons Hockey Show", a weekly one-hour radio talk format show, on WKNR 850-am. The "Cleveland Barons Hockey Show" will be aired live from 7pm-8pm each Monday night until April 12th. The Voice of the Cleveland Barons, Jamie Smock, will co-host the show with Jason Gibbs, Promotions Director for WKNR. Smock has been the Barons radio voice since the 2001-02 inaugural season. To participate in the show, call 216-578-0850.

Barons Player of the Week... The Cleveland Barons Player of the Week is center Grant Stevenson. This marks the second consecutive week that Stevenson was honored as the Player of the Week. On the week, the rookie from Minnesota State-Mankato appeared in 4 games and registered 2 goals and 4 assists. Stevenson was the spark plug to the Barons offense as he tallied two first-goals on the week. Stevenson's 6 points comprised 31.6% of the Barons offense on the week. With 3 points on the power play, Stevenson helped the Barons to a 21.7% conversion rate on the week.

Les Cunningham Award Candidate ... Miroslav Zalesak has been the model of consistency for the AHL this season. Zalesak has missed a total of three AHL games due to a call up to the Sharks. Zalesak has recorded a point in 69.6% of the games he has appeared in (48/69). Currently, his 72 points are third in the AHL, his 33 goals are third, his 39 assists are tenth, and his 13 power play goals are fourth.

It's All In The Name... Garrett Stafford must be strongly considered for Dudley "Red" Garrett Trophy, given annually to the league's most outstanding rookie. If he wins, Stafford would be the first player to share the award's namesake in either his first or last name. The University of New Hampshire product leads all rookie defensemen in points, goals, and assists. Among all rookies, the blueliner is tied for fifth in points, tied for first in assists, tied for second in power play points, and tied for third in power play assists. Among all defensemen, Stafford is third in points, tied for second in assists, and tied fourth in goals.

21 And Counting... Jon DiSalvatore pushed his goal total for the season to 21 with his first career hat trick on Wednesday against Chicago. DiSalvatore became the second Cleveland Barons rookie to eclipse the 20-goal plateau. Chad Wiseman scored 21 goals in his 2001-02 rookie campaign. (note: Brad Boyes was a 30-goal scorer last season, but only scored 7 goals with the Barons). With one more goal, DiSalvatore will become the Barons all-time rookie goal-scoring leader.

Top Barons... Grant Stevenson has been on fire since the Barons signing of his former college linemate Shane Joseph. In the seven games since the signing, the Barons are 4-2-1-0. Stevenson has combined for 4 goals and 7 assists in those games. Stevenson's 11 points comprise 40.7% of the Barons offense in those games. He has recorded a point in the last five games... Shane Joseph has been a spark for the Barons since they acquired

him on 3/17/04. The Barons are 3-1-1-0 in his five games this season. Joseph has recorded a point in three out of the last four games. He scored the game-tying goal against Cincinnati on Saturday and followed that up with two goals on Sunday... Seamus Kotyk has been stellar between the pipes for the Barons. He is 10-5-2 in his last 17 decisions. In those 17 games, Kotyk owns a 2.39 GAA (41 GA/1030:02) and a .931 save percentage (550-591). Kotyk was injured in the first period during his start on 1-2-04 resulting in a no decision. Kotyk's .927 save percentage is tied for tenth in the AHL this season... Jon DiSalvatore is tied for 8th in rookie scoring with 42 points. Among all rookies, he is tied for 5th in goals (21), tied for 17th in assists (21), and tied for third in shots (182). He has recorded at least one point in the 13 out of the last 19 games with 10 goals and 7 assists. He also has recorded at least one point in 17 out of the last 25 games. During that time, he has recorded 11 goals and 11 assists... Ryane Clowe has recorded at least one point in his last three games. During that time, Clowe has two multi-point games. He has recorded 1 goal and 5 assists in the three games. Overall, Clowe is having a great season. Among all rookies, Clowe is tied for 11th in scoring (39), fourth in assists (28), and tied for 8th in plus/minus (+14)... Matt Carkner recorded a point in a career-high three consecutive games from Wednesday to Saturday. The defenseman recorded one assist in the first three games in his return to the lineup following a 7-game absence. Carkner now has a career high 11 points all coming on assists.

No Fooling, First April Date Is A Hit... The Barons will have their hands full against Syracuse on Sunday, April 4th. The fans will too! The first 3,000 fans in attendance will receive a Cleveland Barons Nesting Doll. Following the game, the Barons will take part in the last Post-Game Skate courtesy of Marc's. Fans are welcomed and encouraged to bring their skates to the game. ICE SKATES WILL NOT BE PROVIDED.

Monday Madness At Buffalo Wild Wings... Ryane Clowe, Jon DiSalvatore, Craig Valette, and Doug Murray will be at Buffalo Wild Wings in Medina on Monday, April 5th from 7-9pm. The players will meet and mingle with restaurant goers as the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game will be played. A Labatt Blue Slapshot Zone will be set up for fans to shoot on. Buffalo Wild Wings – Medina is located on Rte. 18 just west of I-71 in Medina.

Up and West... The San Jose Sharks defeated the Dallas Stars in overtime by a score of 2-1 on Sunday night. With the victory, the Sharks now have 100 points on the season, their best single season point total in franchise history. San Jose now leads Dallas by five points with three games remaining for both clubs. With two games against Los Angeles and one with Vancouver, the Sharks can wrap up their second division title by capturing just two of their six remaining possible points. That is just one victory or two ties and another Pacific Division banner will hang from the HP Pavilion rafters. Fans have to like the odds considering San Jose has gone 8-1-1-0 in their last 10 contests. In the race for second place in the Western Conference, the Sharks lead Colorado by six points, but the Avalanche have a game in hand. Thus, San Jose needs to obtain three of their possible six remaining points to clinch second overall... Jason Marshall played in his 500th career NHL game.

Practice Makes Perfect... Below is the Barons schedule for the week. Practice times are subject to change. For information, contact the Barons at 216-420-0000...

Date Event Location Time
3-30 Practice Gund Arena 10:30am
3-31 @ Syracuse Onondaga War Memorial at Oncenter 7:00pm
4-2 @ Toronto Ricoh Coliseum 7:00pm
4-3 @ Hamilton Copps Coliseum 7:00pm
4-4 vs. Syracuse Gund Arena 7:00pm

Barons Broadcasts... All road games can be heard on Fox Sports Radio 1350-AM. All games this season can be heard live by Crashing The Net at www.clevelandbarons.net.



American Hockey League Stories from March 29, 2004


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