AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

Penguins Defeat St. John's, 3-2

Published on October 15, 2002 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins News Release


WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Monday, October 14 2002) - Although the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are only three games into the 2002-03 season, things are definitely on the upswing for the franchise. With two wins now under their belt, they are way ahead of last year's pace. And when a team like the Penguins, with a group of talented offensive threats like Kris Beech, Shane Endicott, Milan Kraft and Toby Petersen goes 1-for-13 on the power play, and still win, things are definitely going your way.

With that, the question is how did the Penguins do it tonight against a St. John's Maple Leafs team that was coming a convincing 7-3 win over the Albany River Rats on Saturday, and a squad looking to avenge last Thursday's opening night lost to the Penguins. Well, that's very simple: with strong goaltender, terrific special teams play and timely scoring.

The Penguins got a strong performance from goaltender Sebastien Caron, who looked especially sharp early on, as he stopped all 16 shots faced in the first period. The Pens, who spent most of the opening 20 minutes of the contest killing off penalties, were outshot 16-8 by the Maple Leafs in the period.

In the first period alone, the Maple Leafs had five power play opportunities, including a pair of 5-on-3 power play chances but came up empty. Not only did the Penguins successfully kill off all five power play chances, but also defensemen Ross Lupaschuk gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead with a short-handed tally on the first 5-on-3 power play opportunity at 11:19.

In the second period, St. John's finally solved Caron as Josh Holden notched his third goal of the season with a even-strength goal at 7:32 to even the game at 1-1. Later in the period, the Maple Leafs took their first lead of the game as Brad Leeb scored his third goal of the season at 16:05 to give the Leafs' a 2-1 lead. The goal was Leeb's third in two games against the Penguins this season.

But like in the first two games of the season, the Penguins struck late in the period as Lupaschuk, who played one of his better games as a Penguin tonight, registered a power play goal with 1:36 left in the period to tie the game at 2.

Latter, the Penguins regained the lead a little over midway through the third period as Eric Meloche unleashed a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff that went past goaltender Sebastien Centomo and around the end boards to Brooks Orpik on the left side. Orpik took the shot in stride from the high point and his shot was tipped in by Beech for the eventual game-winning goal.

With still almost nine minutes left in regulation, the Maple Leafs had plenty of time left to force overtime, including two ore [power play chances, but the Penguins held on to record their second win in five days against St. John's, a team that they could not beat in six tries at home prior to this season.

The Penguins killed off all nine of the Maple Leafs' power play chances and improved their penalty kill rate to 88.9%.

The Penguins are off until Friday, when they visit the Philadelphia Phantoms in the first game of a home-and-home series against South Division rivals. Game time is set for 7:05 p.m. at the First Union Spectrum.

Game Notes: Last season, the Penguins did not record their second win of the season until November 2 (4-3 OT win at Quebec) ... The Penguins opened last season with a 2-9-1-1 mark ... The Pens did not recorded their first win of the year until October 17 ... They opened the season with a five-game winless streak ... Goaltender Robbie Tallas is expected to get the start in goal for the Penguins on Friday against the Phantoms ... Scratches for the Penguins tonight were David Koci (healthy), Michel Ouellet (healthy), Andrew McPherson (lateral meniscal tear in left knee), Jason MacDonald (healthy), Matt Murley (fracture of the right index finger), Rob Scuderi (dislocated shoulder), Tomas Surovy (hernia; will have surgery tomorrow), Brendan Walsh (suspended - carryover from last season; has 2 more games left to serve) and Alexander Zevakhin (proximal greater tuberosity fracture of right humerus) ... Center Kris Beech leads the team in scoring with four points (2+2) ... Beech has a three-game point streak in progress ... The 13 power play chances tonight for the Penguins is a new team record ... The previous mark was 10 (March 17, 2002 vs. Syracuse) ... The Penguins are 5-for-27 (18.5%) on the power play ... The Penguins have successfully killed off 16 of 18 (88.9%) opponent's power play opportunities.

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American Hockey League Stories from October 15, 2002


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