Published: March 05, 2006 12:32 am      

Forward just keeps learning

Jean Desrochers has two goals, six points and a plus-5 rating in his past five games with the Johnstown Chiefs.

The second-year center has four goals and 10 points in his last 10 games.

That Desrochers is putting up some big numbers is a positive sign for the fourth-place Chiefs.

Those numbers are just one reason the Chiefs have four consecutive victories entering today’s 3 p.m. game against the visiting Greenville Grrrowl.

But points aside, Desrochers’ defensive tenacity and a willingness to learn are intangibles that have made the second-year pro from Clarkson University even more effective.

“I think the bottom line with Jean Desrochers is he’s a good player,” Chiefs coach Frank Anzalone said after a Saturday afternoon practice at Planet Ice in Richland Township. “He’s learned a lot about the game this year. Jean Desrochers is getting better. It’s a matter of how much he wants to learn, how much he wants to do the right things.

“He still makes mistakes and he’s the first guy to watch them on tape and say, ‘Wow, I did that.’ He’s still got an upside. He’s really grown a lot as a complete player. When you put it all together the ECHL might not be his top league.”

Desrochers was an ECHL all-star as a rookie, when he scored 19 goals and 52 points appearing in all 72 games. This season, the Clarkson University product has 12 goals and 32 points, with a plus-7 rating.

“Frank has taught me a lot by showing me video and looking over my mistakes,” Desrochers said Saturday. “He’s a big preacher and he emphasizes a lot of defense. He says you’re not going to win many games if you’re not playing defense. He’s a good teacher. He’s easy to understand.

“Our system has a lot to do with positioning. You have to make sure you have your man. Communicating a lot with the defensemen is a big part of it.”

The Chiefs won three straight one-goal home games last weekend against Toledo (1-0), Dayton (5-4 in a shootout) and Trenton (4-3). Johnstown followed up with an impressive 6-2 win over North Division-leading Reading Friday at the Sovereign Center.

“Right now we’re on a mission. Every point is important,” Desrochers said. “What’s going to make us win a couple of games is doing the little things right – winning big face-offs, making defensive plays. It doesn’t matter who scores as long as we get those points.”

There’s another reason to expect more big things from Desrochers. Dennis Packard, a 6-foot-4 forward, will rejoin the Chiefs today after spending most of this season with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons. Zybnek Hrdel, a 6-4 Tampa Bay Lightning contract player who was with Springfield much of this season, is expected to play on a line with Packard and Desrochers, who stands at 6-2.

“Last year I played a lot with Packard and Joe Tallari,” Desrochers said. “We should be a big line. Three big forwards. Get it down low and drive the net.”

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What’s this? The Chiefs will play a team outside of the North Division?

Greenville is the Chiefs’ first non-North Division opponent to visit the War Memorial since the Columbia Inferno lost 7-4 on New Year’s Eve.

Since then, Chiefs fans have had their fill of Dayton (five home games), Reading (three) Toledo (three), Trenton (two) and Wheeling (one).

Veteran coach John Marks’ Grrrowl is 9-2-1 in the past 12 games and started a six-game northern swing with a loss in Reading on Tuesday (4-2) and a shootout win at Wheeling on Friday (1-0).

Greenville played at Toledo Saturday night.

“Greenville’s got some good forwards, guys that can handle the puck,” Anzalone said. “They can score goals. On this trip they haven’t scored as many as they’d like yet.

“We have to come out not flat. We have to try to be the team that’s on their toes and look like the team that is at home and has had one day in between games.”

Greenville goalie Cam Ellsworth stopped all 31 Wheeling shots and won the shootout on Friday for the 32-17-5 Grrrowl, the South Division’s third-place team.

Greenville won the shootout when Colin Pepperall, in his first game off IR, scored on Wheeling’s Andy Franck in the fourth round of the shootout.

“Their goaltending has been very good,” Anzalone said. “We have to make sure we go at the goal and create chances to score.”

Right wing John Snowden has 12 points and a plus-8 in his past 10 games prior to Saturday. Center Tim Sestito had 10 points, and forwards Tyler Mosienko and Brock Radunskie each had nine points in the past 10 games.

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Defenseman Jon Hedberg had a solid debut with an assist and a plus-1 in his first game with the Chiefs on Friday.

“Hedberg did OK for a guy coming in cold like that,” Anzalone said of the 23-year-old signed by the Chiefs on Thursday from York University in Toronto, Ontario.

“We always put the new guys with (veteran defenseman) Ian Manzano because Manzano is so good at reading and talking with them. It certainly helped that the team played well. I thought he did pretty well. We’ll see over the course of a few games.”

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The Pittsburgh East District of the Muscular Dystrophy Association announced that Johnstown IAFF Local 463 Fire Fighters collected $500 during their annual “Fill the Boot” fund-raiser to benefit MDA on Feb. 24 during a Chiefs game at the War Memorial.

Chiefs fans attending the game dropped their change and extra bills inside the firefighters boots as they passed through the gates.