Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By STEVE SEMBRAT steves@leader.net
Thursday, March 20, 2003 Page: 1B
WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Jean-Sebastien Aubin on Wednesday allowed
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to hold its breath during early moments of an American
Hockey League game against Syracuse.
Tom Kostopoulos, Milan Kraft, Matt Murley and Shane Endicott then scored
goals that allowed the Penguins to breath a sigh of relief as two frustrating
streaks came to an end.
Aubin stopped all 33 shots he faced, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton ended a skid
of three consecutive shutout losses on home ice, as the Penguins blanked the
Crunch 4-0 in front of a crowd of 8,267 at First Union Arena.
“It feels great,” said Aubin, who recorded his first American Hockey
League shutout. “We played a solid game. That’s all it was. It made it easier
when we scored four goals.”
Especially when you consider that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (31-30-5-5, 72
points) hadn’t scored on home ice since a loss to Syracuse on March 10.
“We were sick and tired of losing,” Murley said. “We know what kind of
game Syracuse plays. We had to go out and execute.”
However, it was the Crunch (22-39-7-4, 55 points) who had the edge in play
in the opening minutes. They were denied by Aubin, who did his best work while
the Penguins had two men in the penalty box.
“I did a pretty good job on that,” said Aubin, who made a number of key
saves with Syracuse enjoying a two-man advantage for one minute, four seconds.
“I tried to stay patient and not slide all over the ice. When you stay
patient in a situation like that, it gives you a better chance.”
The momentum shifted when Kostopoulos tipped Micki Dupont’s shot from the
blue line past Syracuse goalie Pascal Leclaire during a power play at 11:38 of
the first period.
“It was perfect,” Murley said of the goal. “It killed two birds with one
stone.”
And both of those birds were an albatross.
Kostopoulos’ goal was the first Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scored on home ice in
203 minutes, 25 seconds of play. It was the team’s first overall in 140
minutes, 10 seconds, going back to a victory at Hershey on Saturday that
started the Penguins’ stretch of four games in five nights.
It was also Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s first power-play goal in over six
games. The Penguins had gone scoreless in 33 straight chances with a man
advantage, and wound up 2-for-4 against Syracuse.
“It was also Mick’s first point,” Murley said of Dupont, who came here in
a trade last week and recorded an assist on the Kostopoulos goal. “Plus it
was (Aubin’s) first shutout here.”
The goal energized Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which played the remainder of the
game with a renewed confidence.
Kraft made it 2-0 at 14:03 of the first period. He made a steal in the
Penguins’ offensive zone, stopped near the top of the right offensive faceoff
circle, and zipped a pinpoint shot to the far upper corner of the net.
Murley made it 3-0 with a power play goal at 6:16 of the second period. He
took a cross-ice pass from Toby Petersen, who was on the offensive left-wing
board, and deflected a shot past Leclaire.
Endicott made it 4-0 when he took a pass from Alexandre Daigle and finished
off a 2-on-1 break 56 seconds into the third period. From there, Aubin
completed the shutouts, with more quality stops coming when Syracuse enjoyed
another two-man advantage for a 1:05 stretch of the final period.
“He played great the whole game,” Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Glenn
Patrick said of Aubin. “The early saves were the big ones.
“We were getting chances in our last game and we still are. Now we’re
cashing them in. I’m very happy with the way we played.”