Desfosses Sticking Around

Sorry so late posting this, it's been a rough day, but the Bucks have signed goaltender Kevin Desfosses, who was on a five-game tryout, to a contract for the rest of the season.

Desfosses has been quite impressive in all four of his starts for the Bucks so far, which have turned into a 38-save performance in 6-2 win over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees; a 31-save performance in a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to his former team, the Corpus Christi IceRays; a 42-save performance in a 4-2 win over the Colorado Eagles; and a 36-save performance in a 5-3 win over the Rapid City Rush.

He is 3-1-0 with a goals-against average of 2.00 and a save percentage of .948 in his time with the Bucks and will likely be looked at as the top goalie on the team's roster regardless of who else is still around at the end of the week.

His companion in goal will, of course, be either Kyle Gajewski, the only netminder to survive Bucks' training camp, or Pier-Olivier Pelletier, a rookie who has only played four games for the Bucks in the month since he was signed.

Gajewski, the lone goalie on the roster with pro experience prior to this year, is 5-5-2 with one shutout, a GAA of 3.96 and a .883 save percentage.

He has not played since suffering a head injury in a 6-5 shootout win over the Eagles on Jan. 8, but he did get back on the ice today for practice, his first since that game.

Trainer Bobby Moore was set to check up on Gajewski after practice and help Coach Ruskowski decide if he should be back out there tomorrow.

Today's practice was a good one for him to participate in considering his condition, because it lasted only 45 minutes and was not very intensive at all.

Tomorrow is expected to be a bit of a different story, though Ruskowski does still have some injury concerns with his skaters and might not be able to do everything he wants to do to its full extent.

Meanwhile, Pelletier is 0-3-1 in his time with the Bucks, having been at the bad end of some tough-luck losses. He has a GAA of 4.20, worse than Gajewski's, but his save percentage is a tiny bit better at .890.

Ruskowski maintains that he is confident in both of his options, so they might really be fighting for a roster spot at practice this week, unless he keeps Gajewski out of things a bit longer to test Pelletier some more.

Since I'm on the topic of goalies, I just realized I forgot to share the Springfield Falcons' box score from the other night, which finally saw Jean-Philippe Levasseur face a low number of shots, as he made only 15 saves and still got a 2-1 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack.

But anyway, in another, unrelated and not unexpected roster move, the Bucks placed forward Brent Cullaton on team suspension.

He took a break from his coaching gig with the Boulder Jr. Bison to help the team out last week and really came through, helping them to a 2-1 record against the league's top teams with two goals and an assist.

He played on a line with former long-time linemate Jeff Bes and reigning Rookie of the Year and Player of the Week Darryl Smith, who he played with last year without Bes, and they combined for 17 points and a plus/minus of plus-13 in those games.

Cullaton will now resume his coaching duties, but as long as the Bucks make the playoffs, you can expect to see him in Laredo later this year.

I talked to Bes and Ruskowski about Cullaton's contributions, last week and the big weekend to come after practice today, and I'll share those quotes as soon as I can. Because it is a big prep sports night, that might not be until after practice tomorrow, but I'll do my best.