Sports

AHL

JUDY OWEN For the Times Leader

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – Ryan Bayda made his coach, teammates and family very happy Thursday night.

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The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins forward scored the game’s only goal 39 seconds into overtime for a 1-0 win over the Manitoba Moose.

“It was kind of an ugly game, to be honest,” Bayda said.

“There wasn’t a lot of offense to be had from both ends. It was just one of those games where we were just kind of patient and sticking with it.”

The Moose outshot the Penguins 23-22 in front of 6,238 fans at MTS Centre.

Among the fans were Ryan’s parents, grandfather, father-in-law and some cousins, who drove seven hours from Ryan’s hometown of Saskatoon, Sask.

John Curry got the shutout for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Daren Machesney was in net for Manitoba.

“Both teams played, I don’t want to say conservatively, just smart, smart hockey, not too many risky plays,” Curry said.

Manitoba was without starting goaltender Cory Schneider, who was called up Wednesday to the Vancouver Canucks after Canucks’ goalie Roberto Luongo suffered a hairline fracture to a rib.

Curry (5-2) stopped a breakaway by Moose forward Tommy Maxwell in the third period that seemed to bolster his teammates.

Ryan credited defenseman Chris Lee with feeding him the game-winner.

Lee had carried the puck up the ice and Bayda drove to the front of the net in hopes of making a play.

“I was hoping he was going to do what he did and I was just trying to redirect it and I got a good tip on it and it went in,” Bayda said.

The victory was the first of three straight road games in Canada for the Penguins, who upped their record to 5-2-1-0.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton came into the game off an overtime loss against Bridgeport, which had snapped a three-game winning streak.

The Moose (7-4-2) were also coming off an overtime loss to Milwaukee.

The Penguins and Moose play the rematch Friday night and then the Penguins head to Toronto for a Sunday game.

Coach Todd Reirden was especially happy with the play of Curry, who had given up a couple goals in his last outing against Hershey.

“For me, it was a bounce-back game for John Curry and certainly he shut the door,” Reirden said.

“Our guys felt extremely confident he was going to get the job done for us.”

Curry’s effort came in a game where the team was without points-leader Chris Conner (2G,6A), who was called up by the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in the day. Nick Johnson was out with an injury.

That caused some line juggling, with Reirden sending out a top unit of Bayda, Wyatt Smith and Luca Caputi.

“A lot of our leading scorers weren’t available tonight for us, but certainly it was a team effort, playing the right way,” Reirden said.

“We have to limit their chances if we’re not going to have a ton of offensive players in our lineup.”

The Moose were also missing Sergei Shirokov (team-leading 10 points) and Michael Grabner (six points) because of recent call-ups.

First Period – No scoring. Penalties – Brookbank, WBS (cross-checking), 0:03; Boogaard, WBS (fighting), 3:51; McCue Mtb (fighting), 3:51; D’Aversa, WBS (high-sticking), 10:24; Ramsey, Mtb (slashing), 10:24; McCue, Mtb, (slashing) 13:10

Second Period -- No scoring. Penalties – Salcido, Mtb (high sticking), 4:45; Boulerice, WBS (fighting), 7:20; Lee, WBS (tripping), 7:20; Maxwell, Mtb (fighting), 7:20; D’Aversa, WBS (tripping), 11:21

Third Period – No scoring. Penalties – Boogaard, WBS (fighting), 7:18; Maxwell, Mtb (fighting), 7:18;

Overtime – 1, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Bayda 5 (Lee) 0:39. Penalties – None

Shots on goal -- Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 6-4-11-1--22. Manitoba 7-7-9-0--23.

Power play opportunities -- Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 0 of 2, Manitoba 0 of 3.

Goaltenders -- Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Curry 5-2-0 (23 shots-23 saves). Manitoba, Machesney 1-3-0 (22-21).

Attendance – 6,238

Referee – D. Banfield. Linesmen -- Joyes, Lang.