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| Eric Hartzell stopped all 25 shots for his first career AHL shutout. |
It's only been two games into the Eric Hartzell era for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, but it's hard not to be impressed with the rookie goaltender from Quinnipiac after his first career AHL shutout, a 25-save performance, and 1-0 victory in his 2nd start tonight against a hot Binghamton team.
An interesting quote from Hartzell about playing in the AHL after his first AHL win last Saturday:
"The higher up you go the better it gets," Hartzell said. "I think the way guys shoot the puck and the ice that people see. It's incredible. The hockey's great. It's an unbelievable league."Hartzell seemed to be in the right place tonight and was able to hang in there in the third period to hold onto the 1-0 lead and improve to 2-0-0 on the season. The win puts the Penguins back into a first place tie with these BSens.
With 3:24 left in regulation, after a pile up in Hartzell's crease, play was stopped after Hartzell was slow to get up. WBS trainer Kyle Moore tended to Hartzell and after some stretching and skating around, Hartzell remained in the game to kill off a Penguins penalty.
The Penguins were able to grind out a 1-0 win tonight and look to build off that heading into tomorrow night's matchup at the Giant Center against the Hershey Bears.
The Pentuins had their chances in the first period, failing to score on three straight power plays. They held an 8-4 shot advantage after 20 minutes, but BSens goaltender Nathan Lawson was up to the task.
The Pens appeared to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission when they scored a goal with no time remaining in the opening frame. The referee waived the goal off, and confirmed the no-goal call after a very brief review.
The Penguins had to kill off a Brian Dumoulin double minor for high sticking about eight minutes into the middle frame to keep the game scoreless, which was quite a feat considering the BSens came into tonight's game with the 3rd best power play in the AHL.
The Penguins broke the scoreless tie with 4:14 left in the 2nd period. Philip Samuelsson kept a puck in the offensive zone at the blue line and found Brian Gibbons down-low. Gibbons fed a pass across to Harry Zolnierczyk, who tallied his team-leading 9th of the season to put the Pens in front 1-0.
ROSTER NOTES
Eric Hartzell made his 2nd career AHL start for the Penguins, stopping all 25 shots he faced for his first AHL shutout. On the season, Hartzell is 2-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA, .964 SV% and the one shutout.
Dominik Uher did not play tonight. Uher left in the 2nd period of Wednesday night's game and didn't return. Uher's absence made it six regular forwards out of the WBS lineup.
Carter Rowney made his WBS debut tonight on the 4th line.
Peter Merth took the warmup skate tonight but was the seventh defenseman and the lone healthy scratch.
Out of the lineup in addition to Uher and Merth tonight: Reid McNeill and Nick Drazenovic.
Lines
Zolnierczyk - Gibbons - Kostopoulos
Kuhnhackl - Carman - Thompson
Farnham - Payerl - Leblond
Sylvester - Manderson - Rowney
Samuelsson - Dumoulin
Harrington - Mikkelson
D'Agostino - Stevenson
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