Cleveland Barons Weekly Report

Published on February 21, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Barons News Release


Flashback

2/15/2006 Houston 6, Cleveland 4 - Three goals by Barons rookie forward Mike Iggulden wasn't enough on Wednesday night as the visiting Houston Aeros topped the Barons 6-4. The Barons surrendered the first goal of the game on a five-on-three power play for the Aeros. Erik Westrum then extended the lead to 2-0 with his 25th of the year. The Barons answered with 27-seconds to go in the first period as Iggulden swept home a power play rebound goal. The Barons scored three goals within 2:19 of the second period to take the 4-2 lead. Iggulden scored twice and Josh Hennessy found the net on a five-on-four power play. The Aeros then drew two minor penalties and scored on both of the ensuing power plays to tie the game at 4-4. Houston scored the only two goals of the third period for a 6-4 win. Ryan Stokes scored his second of the year and Kirby Law completed the night with an empty net goal.

2/16/2006 Grand Rapids 9, Cleveland 2 - Griffin Tomas Kopecky notched a hat trick in the second period of the game to lead Grand Rapids to a 9-2 victory over Cleveland Thursday night. Grand Rapids took the lead just four minutes into the game as Nate DiCasmirro scored his 12th of the season. The Griffins extended their lead to 2-0 when Doug MacLean earned his league-leading 37th goal of the year. The Griffins lead jumped to 5-1 after forty minutes of play as Kopecky earned a natural hat trick. The Barons responded when Ryane Clowe fired home his 11th of the year just 15-seconds after Kopecky's third goal. The Griffins took over in the third to bring the game to a final score of 9-2. MacLean earned his second of the night on a two-man break in front of Barons netminder Nolan Schaefer. The Barons answered less than two minutes later as Josh Hennessy scored. That would be all the scoring the Barons would do as Grand Rapids scored three more goals to end the game.

2/18/2006 Cleveland 1, Syracuse 3- Mark Hartigan and Joakim Lindstrom registered two point games for Syracuse, leading the Crunch to a 3-1 win over the Barons Saturday night. A low scoring affair featured just one goal through the first forty minutes of action. Cleveland's goaltender Nolan Schaefer stopped nine of 10 Syracuse shots on goal in the first period. Marc Methot's first professional goal gave the Crunch the 1-0 lead at the 8:37 mark of the first period. The Crunch extended their lead in the third period when Geoff Platt scored his 20th goal of the year. Just 1:28 later, Riley Armstrong's second goal of the season cut the lead in half. Hartigan put the game away at the 12:49 mark trickling a puck through the leg pads of Schaefer.

2/19/2006 Cleveland 4, Rochester 2 - Ryane Clowe and Matt Carkner each registered two points helping the Barons to a 4-2 win at Rochester on Sunday night. The first goal of the night came short-handed with just 1:59 remaining in the first period as Doug Janik gave Rochester a 1-0 lead. The Barons scored two goals in the second period as the teams were tied 2-2 through forty minutes of play. Cory Murphy recorded his first AHL goal in his nine-year career to get the Barons on the board. Steve Bernier then gave the Barons their first lead of the night with a power play goal. Dan Focht tied the game with 5:11 remaining in the second. The Barons snapped a 13-game losing streak with a game-winning goal from Lukas Kaspar. Clowe added the insurance goal for the Barons for the Barons into the empty net for a 4-2 victory.

Coming Up

2/24/06 Cleveland @ Peoria- Peoria Civic Center - Carver Arena

The Barons travel to Peoria to take on the Rivermen in game three of four on the season. The series is currently tied, with each team earning a win in the previous match ups. During their last meeting, Peoria out-shot the Barons 23-17 to earn the 3-2 win. Patrick Rissmiller has 5 points in two games against the Rivermen (0-5-5). While Peoria's leading scorer, Trent Whitfield who is 17-32-49 overall, has 2 goals and an assist for 3 points in the series. Game time is 8:30pm ET.

2/25/06 Cleveland @ Chicago - Allstate Arena

Cleveland heads to the Windy City to take on the Wolves for the final face off of the season. Chicago leads the series, 2-1-0-0, but a win by Cleveland could tie it up. Rookie Josh Hennessy has 5 points (1-4-5) so far in the series with Mike Iggulden right behind him with 4 points (2-2-4). Justin Morrison (2-2-4), Ramzi Abid

(3-1-4), and Stephen Baby (2-2-4) each have 4 points against Cleveland. The Barons come into the game with a record of 21-35-2-2 and Chicago is 20-25-2-6. Game time is 8:00pm ET.

Barons Player of the Week

The Cleveland Barons Player of the Week is right wing Mike Iggulden. Iggulden recorded his first hat trick of his career and the Barons first of the season in Wednesday's game against Houston. Iggulden finished the week with four points (3-1-4) and an even plus/minus rating in four games.

End of the Road

The Barons broke their 13-game losing streak (0-11-1-1) with a victory on Sunday at Rochester. The streak matched the franchise record, set in 2002-03. Prior to Sunday, the Barons had not won a game since January 15th. However, during that time span, the Barons played good hockey. First, the Barons outshot their opponents in nine of the 13 games. Although they outshot the opponent by a total of 439 shots to 370 shots, the Barons were out-scored 33 to 56 during their losing streak. They also created 93 power play chances, while allowing only 62. The Barons scored 15 goals in those 93 chances, a 16.1% success rate.

Home Cooking

The Barons completed their franchise record nine-game homestand on Thursday against Grand Rapids. They had a record of 0-9-0-1 on the homestand. The Barons have played their last two games on the road and will play three more on the road before returning home on March 3rd to take on the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Early Bird Gets the Worm

The Barons have scored the opening goal of the game in just three of their last 20 games. During that time span, the Barons hold a record of 5-13-1-1. Overall, the Barons are 12-11-2-1 when they score the first goal of the game and 9-23-0-0 when their opponent scores first.

Heni-Powered

Rookie center Josh Hennessy has six points (2-4-6) in his last five games and 14 points (4-10-14) in his last 10 games. Hennessy currently paces the team with 49 points in 60 games. He is just one point away from tying a franchise mark for best season for a rookie, currently held by Chad Wiseman for his 50-point season in 01-02.

Don't Get Bernier-ed

Barons rookie Steve Bernier has already made his mark on the Barons record books by establishing franchise records for scoring streak to begin a career (7 games, 4-5-9) and consecutive point streak to begin a season. He also established a new single season high for game winning goals with six. The six-foot-two, 230 pound right wing needs two goals to tie the rookie mark set by Jon DiSalvatore (22) in the 03-04 season. Bernier currently has 43 points (20-23-43) in 48 games this season.

Rubbermaid Player of the Game

At the end of each game the Barons select a Rubbermaid Player of the Game, given to the player who displays toughness and durability throughout the game. At the end of the season, the player with the most selections will receive a prize package courtesy of Rubbermaid. Currently, Josh Hennessy leads the race for the Rubbermaid with seven selections and Steve Bernier is second with five picks. Matt Carkner, Brad Staubitz, Mike Iggulden and Shane Joseph are tied for third place with four selections apiece.

Player Appearances

On February 23rd, Slapshark will make an appearance at Renaissance Tower City for the Cleveland Sports Commission Banquet. Additionally, on February 27th, Steve Bernier and Mike Iggulden will be in Elyria for a mite practice at 7:30.

Breakaway With The Barons

The season's fourth and final National City Breakaway with the Barons, presented by the United States Air Force and WDOK SoftRock 102.1 will now take place on Tuesday, March 21 at Iceland USA in Strongsville Ohio. The event had originally been scheduled for March 20. Each Breakaway features a one-hour Barons practice session, followed by a post-practice skate with the team. This is the perfect opportunity for fans to get photographs with and autographs from the team.

Barons Broadcasts

All games this season will be broadcast live and in their entirety on-line via the B2 Networks. Fans can enjoy the play-by-play action of Barons hockey provided by the "Voice of the Barons" Jamie Smock, by Crashing the Net at www.clevelandbarons.net. Fans can watch the game via B2 Networks' Live Video Stream of the game on a pay-per-view basis of $6.00 per game. There is also a free audio version of the broadcast offered. Every Barons game broadcast begins with a pre-game show 15-minutes prior to face-off.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 21, 2006


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