Friday night the WBS Penguins held on to a 3-2 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at the Nassau Coliseum. It didn’t take long for the Pens to break things open. Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pest Pascal Morency was whistled for hooking off the opening faceoff, which gave the visitors an early power play to pounce on. Little surprise, it was Chris Minard, who finished the regular season with a team record 21 pp goals, who got the team going. Minard crashed the net and swatted a loose puck out of midair and behind Nathan Lawson at 1:22 to open the scoring.
The Bridgeport bench protested the goal, saying it was either a high stick or thrown in by Minard’s hand, but referee David Banfield allowed the play to stand. “I just remember jamming at the side of the net, and the puck went up so I swung at it,” said Minard. “I didn’t even know it went in. I thought I was going to get jumped for slashing him in the head so I just kind of turned my back.” Dustin Jeffrey stretched the lead to 2-0 with the team’s second power play tally of the night. Jeffrey threw a shot through traffic late in the period, and saw the puck deflect off a Bridgeport defender and into the cage for his first of the postseason.
Luca Caputi made the score 3-0 midway through the game, and the Pens looked to be rolling.
But the Sound Tigers weren’t done just yet. Trevor Smith got the home club on the board with a shorthanded shot that beat John Curry, and Rob Hennigar drove the net and deflected a Mike Iggulden feed to cut the lead to one goal for the Penguins at the end of 40 minutes.
Curry was solid, stopping 15 shots in the final frame to preserve the win. The victory was his 15th postseason win with the Penguins, a new team record. “He steps up to the plate every time and takes care of us,” Reirden said of Curry. “Our penalty kill tonight was phenomenal again and as always, your best penalty killer is your goalie.”
The Penguins are now 9-12 in Game Ones of playoff series, 4-7 on the road and are now 23-30 all-time in road playoff contests.
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