Devils Shut Down Penguins in Front of 8,114
February 18, 2012 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany Devils News Release
ALBANY, N.Y. - The Albany Devils are seeing a correlation between 8,000-plus fans at the Times Union Center and 3-0 shutout victories. First, the team defeated the Adirondack Phantoms, 3-0, in front of 8,194 on Jan. 28. Then they knocked off North-Division leaders, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins with 8,114 fans in the building Saturday night.
"It was awesome; the crowd was great," said Devils goaltender Jeff Frazee. "I came out for warm-ups and everyone was excited and had energy and it gave us energy. I think we fed off of it."
The win was the fourth in five games for Albany, which improves to 23-19-5-3. The Penguins move to 30-16-2-5.
Frazee highlighted the team's defensive efforts, turning away 32 saves for his second shutout of the year and ninth of his four-year AHL career.
"Coach made some adjustments to our fore check and our neutral zone," Frazee said. "We played a very solid game and the defensemen battled and got rebounds out in front of me. I filled in when there was a mistake and our forwards got enough goals. It was a great overall team win."
Offensively, Eric Gelinas struck twice. He opened the scoring at 14:13 with a wrist shot from the high slot. The assists went to Darcy Zajac and Mattias Tedenby.
Gelinas second tally came with the net empty with 36 ticks on the clock.
Tim Sestito was responsible for the game's most dramatic 10 seconds. After serving an unsportsmanlike penalty, he found himself on a breakaway with a Penguin trailing. As Sestito began his move his hand was interrupted, forcing the official Jon McIsaac to reward a penalty shot at 18:27.
"As soon as I got out [of the penalty box], I saw (Dan) Kelly made a nice block," Sestito said. "I don't even know if he saw me or not, but he put it right on my tape. I was coming back towards him and had to stop and get going the other way. I almost lost it, I just tried to get something on net and I got rewarded a penalty shot."
As Gelinas did four minutes earlier, Sestito beat goaltender Brad Thiessen on the blocker side.
"Not so much because he scored there," Sestito said when asked if Gelinas' goal influenced his shot decision. "I don't have the greatest hands in the world and I pretty much knew I was going to be shooting."
The Devils, who were outshot, 32-23, went 1-for-4 on the power play and limited the Penguins man-up unit to go 0-for-6.
A short turnaround for the Devils, who welcome the defending Calder Cup Champions, the Binghamton Senators, to the Times Union Center Saturday at 4 p.m. Fans can follow the action on ahllive.com.
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