Noronen's NHL trip extended through season
(Tim Graham, Buffalo News, 3/17/02)


TAMPA, Fla. - Promising young goalie Mika Noronen will stay with the Buffalo Sabres for the rest of the season. Noronen was recalled from Rochester on Wednesday to help the Sabres navigate through their three-game road trip, which concludes tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Ice Palace.

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The decision to keep Noronen means backup goalie Bob Essensa might have played his final NHL game.

Essensa said before the season it would be his last. The Sabres would be hard-pressed to use him again, considering their predicament in the Eastern Conference standings.

"It's not looking especially well unless they both go out there and pull a groin in warmup or something," Essensa said. "But I'm here not just for on-ice stuff. I'm here to be supportive and help them along as best I can. If they do need a safety net, that's what I'm here for."

Essensa's season has been frustrating. He is 0-5-0 with a 2.91 GAA and an .850 save percentage. When he signed a one-year deal with Buffalo for $600,000 he was coming off one of his best seasons, going 18-12-3 with a 2.68 GAA and an .892 save percentage for the Vancouver Canucks.

"Last year was fun, and certainly had I ended my career last year there still might have been a couple questions," Essensa said. "Maybe I could have played another year. Not that this year has kind of finalized that in my mind, but certainly it's gone a ways to make clearer what's important.

"I haven't really sat down and thought, "Wow, I could have played my last game.' But it happens to everybody. It's going to come to that point in everybody's career."

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