Curry carries Pens past Hershey, into playoffs

The two most potent offenses in the American Hockey League met in a clash of the titans on Sunday afternoon – and managed to score only one goal.

In a game that was decided by special teams play, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins scored a power play goal and held the fourth-best power play in the AHL off the score sheet, edging the Hershey Bears 1-0 at Giant Center. With the win, the Penguins secured a berth in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Penguins' goaltender John Curry turned aside all 31 Hershey shots he faced to earn his 31st victory of the campaign, setting a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins record for wins in a single season.

"He's just built on everything that he accomplished last year and done more this year," Penguins' interim head coach Todd Reirden said of Curry. "I can't say enough about him as a goaltender and as a player… when all the chips are down, this is the guy that stands up for you."

Curry was an integral part of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's penalty kill that held the Bears to 0-for-6 on the evening. That included 1:14 of a 5-on-3 advantage late in the third period, sixty seconds of which was essentially a 5-on-2 power play for Hershey.

With Miroslav Satan in the penalty box for goaltender interference, referee Ghislain Hebert whistled Reirden for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. After Dustin Jeffrey won the subsequent face-off, defenseman Joey Mormina broke his stick.

The Bears controlled the puck for the next sixty seconds, pinning the Penguins in their half of the ice and not allowing the Penguins to switch personnel at the bench. But Curry denied 54-goal scorer Alexandre Giroux's one-timer and held on to the rebound, stopping the play and allowing the Penguins to escape peril.

"It was chaos… We were lucky we got out of that," Jeffrey said. "Curry made a big save on Giroux there on that one-timer. That really helped."

"I was just trying to focus at that point, try to be in position in net," Curry said.
"Seeing a stick break, it's like, ‘Geez, what's going on now?' The momentum certainly wasn't going our way at that point, but we made a couple huge plays during that P.K."

The successful penalty kill helped carry the Penguins to the end of regulation and when the final buzzer sounded, the Penguins became the first team to shut out the Bears at Giant Center since Manitoba did it in March of 2008.

"Just how good they are, how good their power play is, the scores, you never see Hershey getting shut out," Curry said. "It was a huge team effort. Look how many loose pucks were batted out of the way by our defensemen, tremendous penalty kill, they couldn't get much going all night."

After missing three games due to a lower body injury, Jeffrey returned to the line-up and provided all the offense that the Penguins needed at the 19:12 mark of the first period.

With Hershey's Darren Reid serving a hooking minor, Jeffrey pinched in from the point and one-timed Chris Minard's centering feed past Hershey goaltender Simeon Varlamov.

"Two (Hershey) guys were in the corner, so they had nobody in the slot," Jeffrey recalled. "Minny made a great pass, and I beat him far side."

With the victory, the Penguins leapfrogged the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the East Division standings. They now sit five points back of the division-leading Bears with six games remaining in the regular season.

While winning the division is still mathematically possible, it's not the most important thing the Penguins are worrying about as they head into the final two weeks of the campaign.

"We've sort of left it up to them, to a certain extent," Curry said. "But I think we're going to give it a run. We want first place but I think more than anything we're trying to prepare our game for the playoffs right now. Wherever we end up, so be it."

NOTES

Curry's shutout was the seventh of his career, which ties him with Andy Chiodo for second place on the team's all-time list. Sebastian Caron holds the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with ten blanks.

It was also Curry's fourth shutout of the season. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton record in that category is five, set by Marc-Andre Fleury in 2004-2005.

BOXSCORE

W-B/Scranton  1 0 0 – 1
Hershey Bears  0 0 0 – 0

First Period: 1, WBS, Jeffrey 21 (James, Minard) 19:12 (PP). Penalties: Her, Bourque (hooking) 1:31; WBS, Bissonnette (roughing) 4:08; Her, Bourque (roughing) 4:08; WBS, Bissonnette (fighting) 7:13; Her, G. McNeill (fighting) 7:13; Her, Reid (hooking) 17:57.

Second Period: No scoring. Penalties: WBS, Wozniewski (hooking) 10:20; WBS, Lovejoy (elbowing) 13:48; WBS, Johnson (tripping) 16:15; WBS, Minard (fighting) 19:26; Her, Gordon (fighting) 19:26.

Third Period: No scoring. Penalties: WBS, Wozniewski (interference) 5:13; WBS, Taffe (slashing) 8:41; Her, Reid (slashing) 8:41; WBS, Satan (goaltender interference) 14:09; WBS, Bench minor, served by Minard (unsportsmanlike conduct) 14:54; Her, Perreault (goaltender interference) 17:45.

Shots on Goal: W-B/Scranton 18-10-9--37. Hershey 11-6-14--31.

Power-play opportunities: W-B/Scranton 1 of 3; Hershey 0 of 6.

Goalies: W-B/Scranton, Curry (31 shots, 31 saves). Hershey, Varlamov (37 shots, 36 saves).

Three Stars: 3, Her, Varlamov (36 saves). 2, WBS, Jeffrey (goal), 1, WBS, Curry (31 saves, shutout).

Attendance: 10,666. Time: 2:19.

Referee: Ghislain Hebert. Linesmen: Bob Fyrer, Mike McDevitt.