The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins took advantage of an under-manned and out-gunned Bridgeport team tonight, shutting out the Sound Tigers 3-0 and moving into a tie with Binghamton for first place in the East Division.
The Penguins best continued to lead the way tonight. Chuck Kobasew scored his 8th goal in 8 AHL games and Peter Mannino stopped all 17 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season. The Penguins host Albany tomorrow night before an East Division showdown in Binghamton against the Senators on Sunday afternoon.
The Penguins were off and running tonight against a Sound Tigers team decimated by late-season call ups and trades. They took a 1-0 lead on a bit of a broken play 10:13 into the first period.
Sound Tigers goaltender Kenny Reiter had trouble handling a puck behind his net and Anton Zlobin stole the puck and fed a wide-open Bobby Farnham in front of an empty net for an easy tap in goal. Brendan Mikkelson added an assist on Farnham's 6th goal of the season.
The Pens extended their lead to 2-0 on a great individual effort from Chuck Kobasew, who stole a puck off a Sound Tigers defenseman and scored an unassisted goal 13:30 into the opening period. Kobasew later stuck up for a teammate and fought Chris Bruton after Bruton crunched Barry Goers with a big hit behind the WBS net.
The Sound Tigers responded with a much better effort in the second period, outshooting the Penguins 11-7, but were unable to get one past Pens netminder Peter Mannino. Mannino stopped Brant Harris on a breakaway midway through the middle frame and looked solid in net through 40 minutes in limited action.
I say limited because the Penguins were dominant at times, often possessing the puck in the offensive zone for minutes at a time. The Penguins depth and ability to roll four lines proved too much for an out-manned Bridgeport team.
Dominik Uher added a shorthanded goal with 2:07 left in the 2nd period to make it 3-0 and that just about did it, minus some physical play and rough stuff in the final frame.
ROSTER NOTES
Peter Mannino got the start in net, stopping all 17 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season and improving to 9-3-1 with WBS this year.
Andrew Ebbett was recalled by Pittsburgh earlier this evening and announced just before the AHL Pens took to the ice for warmups tonight.
With Ebbett's departure, Spencer Machacek returned to the WBS lineup and no veteran scratch was needed. Anton Zlobin also returned to the WBS lineup, as Carter Rowney was scratched to make room.
Scratches: Philip Samuelsson (lower body), Zach Sill (upper body), Carter Rowney (healthy), Harrison Ruopp (healthy), Conor Sheary (healthy), Matia Marcantuoni (healthy) and Bryan Rust (healthy).
Lines
Zolnierczyk - Kobasew - Machacek
Zlobin - Drazenovic - Kostopoulos
Uher - Payerl - Archibald
Farnham - Carman - Leblond
Dumoulin - McNeill
Harrington - Mikkelson
D'Agostino - Goers
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