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PENS BAG MOOSE IN SHOOTOUT, 3-2

  

The Penguins' extra round mastery of the Manitoba Moose continued on Thursday night, as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pulled out a 3-2 shootout victory in Winnipeg. The victory is the Pens' third in a row against the Moose, with all three requiring extra time to determine a winner (two in overtime, one in a shootout).

Once again, Erik Christensen was one of the Penguins' heroes, as the Wilkes-Barre center scored Wilkes-Barre's first shootout goal. Christensen scored the OT winners in each of the Pens' last two games against the Moose as well.

Ryan Stone countered a Brandon Reid tally in the one-on-one portion of the contest to secure the win for the visitors, who extended their winning streak to five games and upped their record to 6-1-0-0 on the season.

It took just 64 seconds for the Pens to open the scoring, as defenseman Matt Carkner found the back of the net off a Tom Gilbert rebound. The goal was Carkner's first with the team, and was the fifth time in seven games that the Penguins got on the scoreboard first.



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Wilkes-Barre held onto that lead for more than half the game, as Andrew Penner extended his shutout streak to 79 minutes. But Rick Rypien swatted home a loose goal in the goal crease 13-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame to tie the game up for the home squad.

Jannik Hansen, who was whistled for an OT penalty that led to Christensen's game-winner on opening night, redeemed himself a little by putting Manitoba in front less than four minutes after Rypien's score.

Netminder Drew MacIntyre couldn't hang on to an innocent dump in from Dennis Bonvie early in the third period, and rookie Tyler Kennedy was waiting to scoop up the loose rubber for his second goal of the year.

Wilkes-Barre fended off the Manitoba attack with Stone serving five mintues for a high sticking infraction, allowing just a single Moose shot during the extended advantage. That allowed the game to advance to overtime, and finally onto the victorious conclussion for the Pens.

Penner picked up his second consecutive victory by stopping 17 shots. The teams will battle again on Friday night in Manitoba.

NOTES: Curtiss Patrick made his AHL debut in the game, going scoreless and even for the Pens... Despite scoring in the shootout, Christensen saw his point streak snapped at six games (3+7=10)... Dennis Bonvie appeared in his 767th career AHL game on Thursday, tying him with Don Cherry for 29th place on the league's all-time list... The Penguins have outshot the opposition in all seven of their games so far this season, after posting a 32-19 advantage on Thursday... Penguins scratches were Tim Sestito, Alain Nasreddine and Eric Cairns, who was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier in the day on a conditioning assignment.