Manitoba Moose

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Goaltender Beauchemin fighting through team's offensive struggle

By: Tim Campbell

6/11/2009 12:17 PM | Comments: 0

CEDAR PARK, Texas — He’s seen first-hand the offensive struggles of the Manitoba Moose and tonight, Rejean Beauchemin will live or die because of them.

The Winnipeg-born goalie, 24, will get his first game in a Moose uniform tonight at Cedar Park Center in the suburbs of Austin. He’ll face the Texas Stars in outing No. 2 of Manitoba’s three-games-in-three-nights road trip.

Beauchemin, all alone on the ice this morning because his teammates did not come to the rink, doesn’t see the start as being thrown to the wolves but rather a good place to start his journey back to better places in pro hockey.

"I think I’ve got everything to gain," he said, after having played most of the last four years in the ECHL. "The boys are struggling a little bit right now but it’s one of those things where we just have to find a way.

"All I can ask for is an opportunity to help out. Now I’ve got to bring my best game forward no matter what. Same goes for the rest of the guys. This is not a no-win situation in my eyes."

The Moose, now 8-7-2, have scored just nine goals in the last nine games. They have scored exactly one in each of the last four games, three of them losses.

Tonight, head coach Scott Arniel has decided to rest regular back-up Daren Machesney, who has made six straight starts since No. 1 man Cory Schneider was recalled to Vancouver.

Beauchemin, the 2003 draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, was recalled from ECHL Idaho last week.

He has been at the last two Moose training camps, and took some advice to heart in 2008.

"My first three years under contract, I might have taken a few things for granted," said Beauchemin, who has 23 AHL games and 117 ECHL games on his resume. "I wouldn’t say it was not valuing my job but maybe I didn’t realize my first contract could be my last. Now I have a chance to play another game here, not to get another contract but just to prove I can still get the job done at this level.

"I took it to heart at training camp last year when the coaching staff and Zinger (GM Craig Heisinger) told me they weren’t happy with where my game was because they knew where it could be."

The Moose, at least some of them, will face three former teammates tonight. With the NHL’s Dallas Stars starting up a new affiliation here, Max Fortunus, Ray Sawada and training-camp walk-on Greg Rallo are now members of the Texas Stars.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

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