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Manchester, NH — Rookie Matt Murray spun a shutout and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins received contributions throughout the lineup in a 3-0 win over the Manchester Monarchs Saturday afternoon.
The win salvaged the weekend series for the Penguins who trudged through an ugly 6-3 loss to the Monarchs on Friday night.
“I thought that Manchester played really well (Friday) night and we didn’t skate at all and our compete level wasn’t where we wanted it to be,” Penguins head coach John Hynes said. “But, yes it was certainly opposite ends of the spectrum (Saturday). The big difference was the guys used their legs and skated (Saturday), and that was the big difference.”
Murray garnered first-star kudos in the win, finishing with 32 saves including a stop of a penalty shot by Manchester’s Sean Backman at 10:00 of the third.
“He’s played solid and the level of consistency has been outstanding for a guy of his age,” Hynes said. “The key is to keep a level head and we’re very pleased with his play.”
The Penguins, in stark contrast to their ghastly opening period the previous night, in both ends of the ice, stifled the fifth-best scoring club in the league, holding them to a mostly innocuous eight bids on Murray.
The uptick in play paid off for the Penguins when center Matia Marcantuoni struck with under three minutes remaining in the period. For the former Kitchener Ranger of the Ontario Hockey League, the go-ahead tally was his third goal of the season.
Dominik Uher forced the upper hand in a corner matchup, swung the puck to the high slot where Marcantuoni wasted little time in unleashing a rising wrist shot past Manchester goaltender Patrik Bartosak.
“(Friday) night we had basically had two lines going at certain times in the game, but (Saturday) we had good results from all of our lines; and they were able to stretch that out to a full 60 minutes,” Hynes said.
Murray came into weekend action with AHL bests in shutouts (8), and save percentage (.936) to compliment a stingy 1.65 GAA in 28 games.
Conor Sheary pushed the Penguins advantage to two at 6:45 of the middle period; the goal, his 18th of the campaign arising out a goalmouth scramble in front of Bartosak. Tom Kostopoulos and Andrew Ebbett collected assists on the play.
Tom Kuhnhackl provided his squad with their third goal of the afternoon while the Monarchs were working on a power play; stripping Monarchs center Jordan Weal of the puck just inside the neutral zone before honing in on Bartosak solo and scoring on a backhander.
Penguins 3, Monarchs 0
W-B/Scranton 1 1 1 — 3
Manchester 0 0 0 — 0
1st Period — 1, W-B/Scranton, Marcantuoni 3 (Uher), 17:30. Penalties — Kostopoulos Wbs (unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:43; Crescenzi Mch (unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:43; Sabourin Mch (tripping), 11:58; Letourneau-Leblond Wbs (fighting), 14:17; Sabourin Mch (fighting), 14:17; Horvat Mch (roughing), 14:57.
2nd Period — 2, W-B/Scranton, Sheary 18 (Kostopoulos, Ebbett), 6:45. Penalties — Raine Mch (kneeing), 14:43; Payerl Wbs (roughing), 19:58.
3rd Period — 3, W-B/Scranton, Kuhnhackl 7 9:00 (SH). Penalties — Dumoulin Wbs (elbowing), 8:04; Kostopoulos Wbs (interference), 11:10.
Shots on Goal — W-B/Scranton 12-10-5-27. Manchester 8-7-17-32. Power Play Opportunities — W-B/Scranton 0 / 3; Manchester 0 / 3. Goalies — W-B/Scranton, Murray 17-8-1 (32 shots-32 saves). Manchester, Bartosak 9-7-0 (27 shots-24 saves).
A — 7,097. Referees — Tom Chmielewski (43), Jon McIsaac (45). Linesmen — Joe Andrews (32), Alex Stagnone (7).