OKC Barons Sweep Through Texas

This weekend, the Oklahoma City Barons were looking to move past their 7-0 loss to the Texas Stars - a team they would meet again less than a week later. In the Barons' first three-games-in-three-nights weekend, they played all three of the Texas teams, starting in San Antonio, and returning home to take on the Stars and the Houston Aeros.

Friday night in San Antonio, the Barons fought the Rampage in a back and forth battle. Showing that they completely left last weekend behind them, the Barons scored at 1:46 of the 1st, with Ryan O`Marra getting the first goal of the 2011-12 Barons season and Mark Arcobello and Hunter Tremblay getting the assists. Ten minutes later, Bracken Kearns tied it up after a misplayed pass from Chris VandeVelde went right to Kearns. Josh Green grabbed the lead back for the Barons a minute later, sending the teams to the locker rooms with the Barons leading 2-1. The Barons got into some more penalty trouble in the 2nd, and the Rampage tied it up at even strength with a goal by Scott Timmins halfway through the 2nd. The Barons came out strong in the 3rd, and Colten Teubert cradled a pass in the faceoff circle from Mark Arcobello, and scored to give the Barons a 3-2 lead and the win. David LeNeveu stopped 32 of 34 shots on the night as the Barons picked up their first win of the season.

Saturday night, the Barons returned to OKC for the home opener. Signing Kevin Montgomery to an AHL deal earlier in the day, they would get their first chance at revenge for last weekend's game against the Texas Stars. The Barons didn't disappoint the 5,554 in attendance. After getting a few chances in the first 10 minutes, the Barons finally broke through at 11:53 with a goal from Hunter Tremblay, and then again 38 seconds later from Ryan Keller, and then again 49 seconds after that from Triston Grant to give the Barons a quick 3-0 lead as the teams entered the locker rooms after the 1st. In the 2nd period, the Barons would just destroy the Stars. Rather than make one long, run-on sentence, I'll just post the goals:

3:12 - 4-0 - Keller's second of the night, stolen pass in the offensive zone
7:18 - 5-0 Cornet from Keller and Green; Keller's third point
10:39 - 6-0 Pitlick's first career AHL goal from Helmer and Keller; Keller's fourth point
11:13 - 7-0 Hartikainen from Green and Cornet
11:23 - 8-0 VandeVelde from Teubert and Montgomery
18:12 - 9-0 Teubert from Montgomery and VandeVelde

The sixth, seventh, and eighth goal would be the Barons record for fastest three goals, the seventh and eighth would be the fastest two goals, the six goals in the second would be the most goals in a period, and the nine would be the most consecutive goals scored.

The Stars' Francis Wathier scored in the 3rd period to break up the shutout by Yann Danis, and the Barons scored one more time with Tristan Grant getting his second goal of the night as the Barons won 10-1.

Less than 24 hours later, the Barons welcomed the Houston Aeros. The Aeros begin this season without two key players from last season in Patrick O`Sullivan and Robbie Earl, as well as coach Mike Yeo who made the jump to the NHL. The Barons scored first yet again, as Philippe Cornet scored midway through the 1st. Ryan Keller earned a penalty shot attempt near the end of the 1st after being brought down on a breakaway, but Keller was denied. The 2nd period was rather quiet , as both teams had played the night before, until Cornet potted his second of the night on the power play from Ryan Keller behind the net. The third period went by rather uneventfully, and the Barons sealed the victory with a score of 2-0, which gave Yann Danis his first shutout of the season for the Barons.

In their first 3-in-3, the Barons swept the weekend, picking up six points on the season and tying them with Abbotsford for the division lead. Next weekend, the Barons welcome the Detroit Red Wings affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, for a two-game set on Friday and Saturday. Puck drop is at 7 CDT on both nights. Tonight from 6-7 CDT, the Barons will host their new Barons Weekly radio show. You can listen to the show on 96.1 KXY with Mark Arcobello being the guest.