Welcome, Matt

BY MATT VEVODA
AnaheimDucks.com

The good news was, he had no time to get nervous.

Matt Beleskey arrived at Honda Center for his NHL debut Jan. 9 against Tampa Bay with literally only a few minutes to spare before puck drop. After they learned Todd Marchant would not play in that night’s contest with a fractured pinkie, the Ducks made an afternoon phone call to their AHL affiliate in Iowa (a place Anaheim had already plucked away five players this season) to retrieve Beleskey. The 20-year-old had already returned home after a pre-game skate (the Chops were facing Manitoba that night) when he learned that the ice he would play on that night would be in a bigger venue approximately 1,678 miles away.

“It was amazing and pretty hectic,” Beleskey said. “I got the call and had an hour to get to the airport. Then to show up 10 minutes before the game, it was a little crazy.”

Once he quickly slipped on his gear in time to be on the bench for the national anthem, Beleskey went on to play 13:53 against the Lightning. The rookie left wing began the game on a line with Andrew Ebbett and Brendan Morrision, but as Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle tinkered with the combinations in search of scoring, Beleskey found himself beside All-Star Ryan Getzlaf and fellow one-time Chops teammate Drew Miller.

That trio was on the ice when Chris Pronger scored a goal (after Steve Montador had done so 12 seconds earlier) to pull even with the Lightning in the second period. But while the Ducks would go on to lose that game 4-3, the day-long experience for Beleskey etched a memory he will always treasure.

“It was definitely a first game you’ll never forget, that is for sure,” Beleskey said. “It was everything you would think it would be, having Ryan Getzlaf as your center. It’s a pretty good feeling to be able to do that.”

Enjoying a more routine day this past Sunday for his second game against New Jersey, Beleskey said he was “actually a little more nervous” because he had time to think about the game. With Corey Perry returned from a four-game suspension, Beleskey saw time (9:48 overall) on the fourth line (also known as the “energy” line) beside Ryan Carter and George Parros and the Ducks held on for a 4-3 victory over the Devils.

“It’s been a lot of fun just trying to get out there, work hard and do the little things they ask from me,” said Beleskey, who was selected by Anaheim in the fourth round (112th overall pick) of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. “It’s a little nerve-wrecking at times, but it’s getting better.”

Following four seasons with the Belleville Bulls (where he amassed 98 goals and 221 points) in the Ontario Hockey League, the 2008-09 season is Beleskey’s first as a professional. Prior to his promotion to the Ducks, Beleskey had totaled 15 points in 18 games with Iowa, leading the Chops in points per game (.83).

“Matt’s a young kid who is in his first year pro and is trying to make a statement,” Ebbett said. “He’s played great down in Iowa and works really hard. He’s got a good shot, a quick release and knows how to shoot the puck.”

Beleskey’s presence in the Ducks lineup brings the number of current players who started the year as Chops to six (Beleskey, Ebbett, Miller, Bobby Ryan, Brett Festerling and Brendan Mikkelson). As each tries to create their own impression on the Ducks and in the league, they are enjoying the luxury of being able to do it together.

“I don’t think any guys down in the American League envisioned them bringing up six guys like that,” Ebbett said. “It’s been wild, but a great opportunity for everybody to get a chance to showcase their skills and hopefully prove that you can stay up here.”

With Todd Marchant projected to be out of action for two weeks with an injured finger, Beleskey should see some action in a handful of games during that span. It’s a nice reward for what was a frenzied start.

“It’s a huge undertaking to grab a guy off an airplane, land him at 6:00 and have him in your lineup at 7:00,” Carlyle said. “I thought he has done fine. He shows that he has the skill set and the ability to skate and bang. He’s surviving.”

Chops moving from Iowa to the Pond and beyond

In the American Hockey League, it’s not uncommon to see players come and go in a matter of weeks, sometimes days.The Iowa Chops have seen more than a few of their players move back and forth in the four months they’ve been a team, including high-scoring winger Bobby Ryan, defensemen Brett Festerling and Brendan Mikkelson, and forwards Andrew Ebbett and Drew Miller.Goaltender David LeNeveu has been recalled twice and former Iowa Chops forward Joakim Lindstrom was traded by Anaheim to Phoenix and is now a staple along the Coyotes' front line and power play. Brett Festerling’s path to the NHL was anything but easy. The Western Hockey League defenseman went unselected in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, and had to try out for a number of teams. He was offered a tryout contract in Anaheim to show the Ducks what he had to offer.His tryout was a success, and he landed an entry-level NHL contract. Festerling’s impressive play with the Chops early in the 2008-09 season got the attention of the Ducks' front office, who brought him up after just 15 games. He made his NHL debut on Nov. 16, 2008, and has three assists in 21 games with Anaheim. Bobby Ryan’s story has been told before. After lighting it up in Iowa, Ryan was called up to the Ducks and he was immediately placed on the top lines, playing against the Los Angeles Kings. He didn’t record a point that game, but the next game, vs. Washington on Nov. 19, was a different story.Ryan lit the lamp twice and provided an assist to Ryan Getzlaf’s goal. The Capitals took the game, 6-4, but Ryan showed the Ducks that he was capable of putting up points like a seasoned vet. Since being called up, Ryan has made himself a legit candidate for NHL rookie of the year. He has played in 22 games for the Ducks, and has 21 points in that span (seven goals, 14 assists). Brendan Mikkelson has taken more than his share of bumps and bruises on the way to the American Hockey League. The Regina, Sask., native spent his first two years in the WHL with the Portland Winter Hawks, but was dealt to the Vancouver Giants in the 2005-06 season. After an injury-plagued first year in Vancouver, Mikkelson came back strong than ever in 2006-07 and put up 29 points in 69 games to help the Giants win the Memorial Cup.

Andrew Ebbett had 29 points in 28 games for the Chops before netting his first NHL goal on Jan. 2.Mikkelson was a part of the 2005 NHL Draft held in Ottawa. He had decided to stay home and watch it on TV, despite his chances of being picked up first or second round. Mikkelson was pleasantly surprised when he was the 31st pick, interrupting an interview with the first-overall pick.“Sidney Crosby was being interviewed when I got drafted,” Mikkelson said. “They cut out of Crosby’s interview to say I had been picked up. It was kind of like my 15 seconds of fame.”Mikkelson was called up by the Ducks on New Year’s Day and played in his first career NHL game on Jan. 2 vs. Philadelphia. Andrew Ebbett has been scoring points in the AHL like there was no tomorrow, notching 29 points in 28 games. It seemed no surprise that Ebbett was destined to get back in the NHL spotlight, and on Dec. 20, he returned to the Pond in Anaheim. Ebbett got the call from the Ducks when star winger Teemu Selanne suffered a leg injury that would put him out for up to six weeks. Ebbett was given an opportunity to shine in the NHL, and so far, he has been performing well under the circumstances. He scored his first career NHL goal in a 5-4 shootout loss against Philadelphia on Jan. 2, but the goal will surely not be his last. Drew Miller was the latest Iowa Chop to be called up to Anaheim, but it isn’t his first stint with the club. Miller actually has his name etched on the Stanley Cup, as he played Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals against Ottawa in 2007.Miller was leading the Chops in goals this season (16) at the time of his recall. Could Miller be in the line-up still for Anaheim on Feb. 2 when the Ducks take on his brother Ryan Miller’s Buffalo Sabres? You can bet Miller will work hard so he can stay in Anaheim to see that day.

Ducks patient with Ryan

By DEREK VAN DIEST, SUN MEDIA

Bobby Ryan doesn't want to end up the answer to a sports trivia question.
What player was chosen second to Sidney Crosby in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft?
While Crosby rocketed to superstardom immediately after being selected first overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ryan has yet to live up to his potential.
But the native of Cherry Hill, N.J., is getting there.
Heading into last contest against the Edmonton Oilers, he had 10 points in 14 games.
"Bobby has been very good," said Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle.
"The expectations on him were very high from the standpoint that we thought he would be able to play with (Ryan) Getzlaf and (Corey) Perry. That didn't really pan out.
"But we took another review of it and said when we brought Getzlaf and Perry into the league, they played on the fourth line. They also got second power-play unit time, so maybe we should reassess how we're going to go forward with Bobby Ryan."

SCORING SENSATION

A scoring sensation in junior, Ryan had 37 goals and 64 assists in 62 games as a 17-year-old with the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League.
That summer he was selected by the Ducks ahead of players such as Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, San Jose Sharks winger Devin Setoguchi and Los Angeles Kings centre Anze Kopitar.
Ryan, 21, returned to play another two seasons in Owen Sound, scoring 43 goals and adding 59 assists in 63 games in his final year of junior.
Last season Ryan split his time between the Ducks and their AHL affiliate in Portland, Me., collecting 10 points in 23 games with the Ducks and 49 points in 48 games with the Pirates.
"Being the second pick in that draft is something that's always going to follow me," Ryan said yesterday.
"I don't feel pressure from the coaching staff and the guys in this room. I think everyone in this room will tell you everyone is their own worst critic."
Expected to make the team out of training camp, the Ducks had to send Ryan down to their new AHL affiliate in Iowa due to salary cap issues at the start of the season. It was a tough pill to swallow.
"Absolutely, especially after the summer that I put in and then the team giving me every indication that I wasn't going anywhere," Ryan said.
"But you move on quickly, you go down, you don't sulk, you do what you have to do down there.
"They told me they would find a way to solve things. From what I understand, they were getting close to solving it without (defenceman Francois Beauchemin) going down.
"It's too bad having to come up under that circumstance, but at the same time I felt like I belonged here from the start."
Ryan has four goals and six assists since being called up in mid-November. A roster spot opened up when Beauchemin went down with what could be a season-ending knee injury.
Ryan's currently being used on the fourth line with Ryan Carter and George Parros.
"That's allowed him some freedom," Carlyle said.

NO PRESSURE

"He's doesn't have the pressure of having to go out there and perform and get that big goal for us every night. And he also doesn't have to up against the best checking lines in the NHL, as Getzlaf and Perry do."
The line has been productive of late. Prior to last night, the trio had nine points in their previous five games.
"It's a different role, absolutely," Ryan said. "But it's something you have to embrace, you have to conform because you are in the NHL and you have to do what you are asked to do.
"Whether it's a temporary thing or a mainstay for me in the long run, I don't know. But for now, I feel like I'm somewhere in the grooming process.
"That's how the coach feels it's best for me to come along, so who am I to feel any differently."
The Ducks would like to see Ryan develop into a top-line player, hoping some of his scoring exploits from junior transfer to the NHL level.
The fact he's yet to become a dominant force has brought the Ducks some criticism. Even Oilers president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe used it as ammunition in his public spat with then Ducks general manager Brian Burke this summer.
"All that other stuff that comes up in the media, I will leave it on the backburner and not worry about it," Ryan said.
"Sidney Crosby is an exception; he's been incredible in everything he's done and is obviously great for the game.

Chops' Green has seen the mountaintop

By ROB GRAY • robgray@dmreg.com • December 20, 2008

As Mark Messier, by then 43 and a six-time Stanley Cup champion, skated to a standing ovation, colleagues tapped their sticks on the ice, the ultimate rink-based round of applause.

The historic moment: Messier's last NHL game, March 31, 2004, capping one of pro hockey's most decorated careers.

The site: Manhattan's sports mecca, Madison Square Garden.
One of the tappers: current Iowa Chops forward Josh Green, who suits up today at Wells Fargo Arena for a 7 p.m. American Hockey League divisional game against Peoria.

"I was just happy to be in the lineup that night playing," recalled Green, who has played for seven NHL teams and has eight goals and 11 assists this season. "Just to be involved in that, being a part of it and sitting across from him was pretty cool."

Green, taken by the Los Angeles Kings in the second round of the 1996 NHL draft, has had a pretty "cool" career, too.

In 322 NHL games, he's notched 35 goals and 39 assists, but hasn't become a fixture at any of his top-level stops.

It's a well-traveled way of life that the 31-year-old Camrose, Alberta, native has come to accept.

"I think early on it was tough for me because I didn't envision my career going that way - bouncing from team to team, going up and down," said the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Green.

"You just kind of take it as it goes and wherever you are, you try to build some roots, make some friends and play as hard as you can. Kind of treat it like a job that way - 'Where are they sending me now?' "

That's Des Moines and the Chops, of course.

"We play in a great city and a great facility," Green said. "A lot of the guys live out in West Des Moines - especially guys who have wives or girlfriends. It's a nice, clean, safe area, so I was happy about that. Keep the wife happy at home, you'll be happy at the rink."

Green is pleased with his team's performance so far - the Chops entered Friday with a 15-9-1-2 mark - but hopes another big push comes soon in the stacked West Division.

"We're starting to get into the dog days now, December, January, February," Green said. "The teams that are contenders try to separate themselves from the pack, and if you fall into a lull you find yourself at the bottom very fast."

Iowa coach Gord Dineen called Green "the consummate professional," a profile in stability and work ethic.

"He rubs off on the younger guys," Dineen said. "They see what he does and the way he approaches it and that's huge. He's still got ambition to play in the NHL, which he should. He's got every capability of being there."

Proof of that resides in both the present and the past.

That night at Madison Square Garden, Green said, Messier presented a signed stick to each player, including him.

Green also scored that night, giving him another treasured memento from a game he won't forget.

"I took the game sheet and I have it framed at home," he said.

A Rivermen reunion? Chopped

Thanks to 23 saves from JP Levasseur and goals from Josh Green and Francis Wathier, the Chops broke out of their three-game skid with a 2-1 win in Peoria on Friday night. The 1st period was scoreless thanks in large part to save big saves from Chops goaltender JP Levasseur and some good penalty killing from Iowa, who outshot the Rivermen 10-8 in the scoreless 1st period. The 2nd period began with more back and forth action and some more saves from Levasseur and Rivermen goaltender Chris Holt, who denied both Josh Green and Drew Miller on seperate breakaways. However, Miller and Green would have their revenge as the Chops scored their first goal of the night late in the period. Andrew Thomas fed Drew Miller, who skated the puck around the back of the net, into the high slot and wristed a shot in on Holt. Holt made the original save, but the rebound went right to Green in the slot who potted one over the shoulder of Holt for a 1-0 Chops lead. The 3rd period period was the most exciting of the game, as the Iowa Chops went up 2-0 thanks to a nice individual effort from Ryan Dingle who was stopped by Holt from a shot from the side, but Holt's rebound sat in front of him and a diving Dingle chipped the puck out in the high slot for a streaking Francis Wathier, who touched home a shot past Holt for a 2-1 lead. Peoria would finally answer after a couple more brilliant saves from Levasseur Steve Wagner found a rebound in the high slot and fired home the first Rivermen goal of the game. The rest of the way out was more defensive brilliance from the Chops, who had to spend the last minute with an extra Peoria attacker on the ice. The Chops now return home to the Wells Fargo Arena for the tail-end of the home and home series against the Rivermen. Face-off time Saturday is 7:05pm. AND


FOR ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW

PEORIA —

It looked good on paper.

Chris Conner, back from the Dallas Stars. Jonas Junland and Cam Paddock, back from the St. Louis Blues. Happy reunion.

But the Iowa Chops, playing without their top goaltender and top forward, spoiled the party Friday, beating the offensively challenged Peoria Rivermen 2-1 before 3,459 at Carver Arena.

Rivermen defenseman Steve Wagner scored Peoria's lone goal, with under six minutes left.

The Rivermen have eight goals in their last five games. Six of those are from defensemen. In fact six of the last seven goals the team has scored are from its blueline unit.

'We had some opportunities,' Wagner said. 'Our goaltending, it was better than good enough. We just have to put the puck in the net. We have guys who've been away from the team for 15 games, travel all day to get back here, and it's like starting over with the first game of the year together.'

But they also have guys who have been here, and clearly are slumping. Rivermen right wing Steve Regier stretched his streak to nine games without a goal — seven since returning from a Blues call-up.

Center Nicholas Drazenovic logged his seventh consecutive game without a goal, and has one in his last 11 games.

Key forward Julian Talbot was held without a shot, and has just just eight chances in his last seven games.

'I felt comfortable, but in those first two periods I was definitely tired,' said Conner, who spent eight hours getting to Peoria from Dallas on Friday and arrived just two hours before the game. 'We needed to get some shots to the net, and we needed to stay at the net, not peel off and give up on it.'

Chris Holt made his fourth consecutive start in goal, during which the Rivermen have backed him with just six goals. He was beaten by Iowa backup J-P Levasseur, who lugged an .885 saves percentage into the game.

Peoria got some help in the West Division race, as Chicago, Rockford, Milwaukee and Quad City all lost as well.

The Rivermen had a chance to jump on Iowa early, drawing three power plays in the first period — including two in the game's first four minutes — but could not convert.

Holt robbed left wing Josh Green eight minutes into the second period when he slid across and blocked a backhander off a three-on-one walk-in.

Iowa broke the scoreless tie at 16:44 when Drew Miller's drive from the right circle left a rebound below the left hashmarks, from where Green roofed it into an open left side of the net.

The Chops rolled in, three-on-one against defenseman Justin Fletcher at 6:59 of the third period. But Holt came up big again, smothering Andrew Thomas' redirect bid from between the circles.

Holt misplayed a routine shot by Ryan Dingle from the left circle at 7:58, though, juggling the puck in his midsection and leaving it loose in front of him. Dingle, laying on his stomach near the left post, swatted the puck toward the goalmouth, and Francis Wathier tapped it into an empty net for what proved to be the game-winner.

Wagner ended Levasseur's shutout at 14:39 when he sneaked down to the net and put a second rebound in from the top of the crease to make it 2-1.

RIVER READINGS: The St. Louis Blues sent rookie goaltender Ben Bishop back to the Rivermen late Friday. With Chris Holt making four straight starts here and playing well, bet on Peoria shipping goaltender Marek Schwarz back to ECHL Alaska today so he can get some minutes. ... Rivermen veteran defenseman Andy Wozniewski (upper body injury) scratched from his second straight game. ... Iowa was without top winger Bobby Ryan, on a lengthy call-up to Anaheim.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - The Bakersfield Condors, official ECHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks, announced that G Dave McKee has been recalled to the Iowa Chops (AHL). McKee, 25, has appeared in 12 games with the Condors this season, posting a 4-6-2 record, 3.57 GAA and .894 save percentage. This is the second recall to Iowa for McKee this season, after being initially recalled on Nov. 25 and reassigned back to Bakersfield on Dec. 2.