AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

Pens' Force A Decisive Game 7 With 5-0 Win Over Bridgeport

April 24, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins News Release


WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Friday, April 23, 2004) - Matt Hussey scored two goals and rookie goaltender Andy Chiodo stopped all 26 shots faced to record his first playoff shutout in just his second appearance as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 5-0, before a crowd of 6,288 at Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza in game six of the East Division Semifinals.

With the win, the Penguins evened the best-of-seven series at three games apiece and will try on Sunday to become the eleventh team in AHL history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit and win the series. Game seven is set for 4:05 p.m. at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard.

"We were expecting a tight game because all the games have been real tight," said coach Michel Therrien. "The crowd gave us some inspiration and the support that we got from our fans was outstanding. We had a good start. We were able to take a lead and we built on that." For the first time in the series, the Penguins gave themselves some breathing room in the first period as they scored two goals in a span of three minutes and 52 seconds to take a commanding 2-0 lead.

With Eric Meloche, Reid Simpson and Ryan Tobler all out with injuries, Hussey was inserted into the lineup and the move paid off as he scored his first goal of the playoffs at 13:19 to give the Pens' a 1-0 lead. Toby Petersen walked out from the corner and found Hussey in the slot. He took the pass from Petersen and skated a few feet to his right and lifted a wrist shot of Wade Dubielewicz's right pad into the corner of the net for the goal.

The Penguins increased their lead a few minutes later on Konstantin Koltsov's first goal of the postseason at 17:11. Marquis Mathieu made a nice play chasing down a Tom Kostopoulos dump in and outraced a Bridgeport defender to the loose puck. Mathieu got the puck down near the bottom of the circle and saw Koltsov breaking to the net. He threaded a cross-ice feed to Koltsov in the slot and he knocked in the shot over Dubielewicz's stick for his first goal of the playoffs.

The Penguins increased their lead to 3-0 in the second period when Shane Endicott deflected Tom Kostopoulos' shot from the point past Dubielewicz for first goal of the playoffs.

The goal was set-up by Koltsov who drove to the net but his shot went high and he chased down his own rebound. Koltsov got the puck in the corner and fired a pass back to Kostopoulos, who was all alone at the top of the right circle. Trying to screen Dubielewicz in front of the net, Endicott redirected Kostopoulos' slap shot from the point past him for his goal of the playoffs at the 9:18 mark.

The Penguins put the game out of reach in the third period on goals by Hussey and Kris Beech. Hussey increased the lead to 4-0 as he intercepted a pass inside the blue line and walked in on Dubielewicz and slipped a back hander past him for his second goal of the game at 10:24.

"What a game he played," said Therrien on Hussey's performance." He skated very well. I think Matt was ready tonight. We had a lot of jump and you could tell on the ice. He was a big difference tonight."

A few minutes later, beech got into the act as he took a pass from Matt Murley in the slot and snapped a wrist shot past Dubielewicz for his at 15:32.

Despite last night's overtime game, Chiodo looked sharp early on and got stronger as the game went on. With the 5-0 shutout win, he recorded the second shutout in team playoff history.

And with the series now tied, Therrien is looking forward to Sunday's game. "We certainly have momentum on our side," he said. "We're going to build on that. I think the guys right now are focusing. They want to prove they're capable of making a comeback in the series. They're certainly taking the right way to do it.

"We know we can win there, Therrien added. "It's a good thing to get momentum."

Game Notes ... Scratches for the Penguins were Sebastien Caron (healthy), Pauli Levokari (injured), David Koci (healthy), Eric Meloche (injured), Reid Simpson (injured) and Ryan Tobler (injured) ... The 5-0 shutouts was the Penguins' largest margin of victory in a playoff game ... Of the four series clinching wins in team history, two have been recorded on the road (Hershey and Philadelphia, 2001) ...Bridgeport was shutout for just the third team in team playoff history ... Goaltender Andy Chiodo improved to 2-0 in the postseason with a 0.45 goals against average and one shutout ... Rich Parent recorded the first shutout in team history as he blanked the Philadelphia, 3-0, at the Wachovia Center on April 25, 2001 ... RW Tom Kostopoulos has a three-game point streak in progress with 1-4-5 totals.

Check out the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from April 24, 2004


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central