Pens’ magician in net puts on a special show Paul Sokoloski Opinion

FOR ONE BRIEF moment, John Curry froze in a crouch at the corner of his goal, his back to center ice and his eyes fixed on the dangerous sniper lurking behind the net.

Suddenly, Curry turned into a whirling dervish.

His head snapped around like a character out of the exorcist, his body spun with it, and his glove shot skyward to somehow snag a soaring puck just before it found the net. All the demons swirling around the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series with Hershey disappeared.

“Those are the saves you need to make,” Curry said. “It was just a reaction save. You can’t go into a game trying to make those.”

You can’t plan for them, can’t prepare for them, and really can’t even practice for those do-or-die situations. They either happen or they don’t, which is why the home crowd at Wachovia Arena on Sunday night rose up and roared over Curry’s spectacular save.

“In the playoffs, you have to do that,” Curry said, “get a stick out there, get a glove out there, get a leg out there when you’re out of position.”

Curry wasn’t out of position too often after he became the Penguins starting goalie. He was among the league leaders with a 2.23 goals-against average.

But even his Penguins teammates are amazed by the cool the 24-year-old Curry has brought to the crease for his first professional playoff games.

“He’s a young player who plays much older than he is and carries himself much older than he is,” Wilkes-Barre/Scranton center Tim Brent said. “He’s earned the position to be the go-to guy here.”

At this point, it is hard to tell Curry is an AHL rookie from Boston University who was thrust into Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s starting lineup this year when Ty Conklin was called up to the parent Pittsburgh Penguins at midseason.

After facing 79 shots and stopping 75 of them through three playoff games, Curry has the complete trust and admiration of his teammates.

“Game 1, to me, he was the difference,” Penguins Coach Todd Richards said, referring to a game the Penguins won 2-1.

Curry is impacting games by blending spectacular stops with a steely resolve, prompting one fan to unveil a sign proclaiming him a “Brick House.”

“You don’t have to steal every game,” Curry said. “But a couple of times in the series, you’re going to have to show up.”

Curry showed up in his first AHL playoff series, all right, with a puny goals-against average of 1.30 and an impressive save percentage of .949.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoski said. “He’s stepped up big-time.”

It is a big reason both he and the Penguins are 3-0 in the series with a chance Wednesday night to sweep a Bears team that led the East Division by averaging nearly 3.2 goals per game during the regular season.