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The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins ran into a stellar goaltending performance in their 4-0 defeat at the hands of the Laval Rocket on Monday night at Place Bell.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (26-31-7-6) threw 41 shots on goal, but none got past Laval goaltender Cayden Primeau. With his lights-out showing, Primeau tied his AHL career-high for saves in a game and established a new personal record for saves in a shutout.
Raphaël Harvey-Pinard buried the game’s first goal at 2:36 of the first period. Two seconds into a Laval power play, Harvey-Pinard stole the puck off a faceoff and rifled it to the short-side top corner.
Penguins goalie Dustin Tokarski became virtually unbeatable after the Harvey-Pinard man-advantage marker. He was asked to make several difficult stops throughout the rest of the opening frame, all of which prompted eye-popping saves.
Primeau saw what Tokarski did in the first period and answered with his own virtuoso performance in the second. The Penguins put 20 shots on net during the second stanza, but Primeau turned them all aside.
The Rocket netminder fended off another flurry at the start of the third period, keeping his team’s one-goal lead intact. That lead extended to 2-0 when Jesse Ylönen fired a bar-down one-timer during a two-man advantage at 7:22 of the third.
Laval put the game out of reach with a snap shot by Gabriel Bourque with 2:14 left in regulation. Later, Danick Martel tacked on an empty-net goal for good measure.
Tokarski finished the game with 33 saves. The two clubs combined for 78 shots, the highest single-game total for a Penguins game this season.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s next game is Friday, Apr. 14, its final road game of the season. Game time between the Penguins and Hartford Wolf Pack is 7:00 p.m. at XL Center.
The Penguins close out their 2022-23 campaign on home ice on Saturday, Apr. 15, and their opponent will be the Charlotte Checkers. Puck drop for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s season finale will be 6:05 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
Tickets for the Penguins’ last home game, as well as season-ticket packages for the 2023-24 season are on sale now. Full-Season, 22-game, 12-game, Flexbook and Premium Seating plans are available by reaching out to the Penguins directly at (570) 208-7367.