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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins sent their largest crowd of the season home happy and prepared to hit the road.
Kevin Roy scored the game-winning goal, Casey DeSmith put up a 25-save shutout Saturday night and the Penguins stopped the Eastern Conference’s top team cold in a 3-0 victory.
“This team’s the top team in the league,” Penguins coach Mike Vellucci said. “We didn’t give them a sniff offensively. Our D was really good tonight. All the young guys played really well, and Casey made a couple saves when he needed to.”
The defense played well while going without Jon Lizotte, the team’s plus/minus leader, who was held out by Vellucci for precautionary reasons after taking a hit to the hit in a big collision Friday night.
David Warsofsky, the team’s 29-year-old captain, was joined by Macoy Erkamps, Niclas Almari, Matt Abt, Michael Kim and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, a group with an average age of 23, on the blue line.
The Penguins came into the final game of a six-game homestand on a five-game losing streak, but they had allowed just a goal in 65 minutes during Friday’s 2-1 shootout loss to Hershey. After a shutout before a season-high crowd of 7,353 at Mohegan Sun Arena, they have not been scored on in more than 104 minutes.
“We played unbelievable team hockey,” DeSmith said in his on-ice first-star interview. “We kind of got it started (Friday). We had a real solid defensive game (Friday).”
DeSmith backed that up with an outstanding game of his own for his third shutout of the season.
“He was very strong when he needed to be,” Vellucci said. “I thought he was very square to the puck and he controlled his rebounds. When they were shooting, he was putting the rebounds up in the glass or up in the netting like we want him to. He was exceptional.”
The Penguins entered the night tied for 25th in the 31-team league in goals scored.
Goals still did not come easy, but the Penguins got what they needed.
The teams were scoreless beyond the midpoint in the game until the forechecking of Sam Miletic and Chase Berger worked the puck free. Roy gained control in the slot, glided backward to the right circle before firing off a wrist shot for the goal.
Warsofsky and Anthony Angello, who scored his team-high 15th of the season, had unassisted, empty-net goals in the final 1:03 to put the game away.
Warsofsky stole a pass just outside the blue line, hesitated to make sure he did not carry the puck in offsides, then got close to the top of the left faceoff circle before ripping a slap shot off one Hartford player and past another, who tried to get between him and the goal.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (18-15-3-3) remained sixth in the eight-team Atlantic Division, but closed the gap on the teams in playoff position above them by beating first-place Hartford (23-9-2-5).
The Penguins will be away from the Mohegan Sun Arena until Jan. 31 at 7:05 p.m. when they host the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Vellucci said the team will leave Monday for its trip, which includes two games each against the Texas Stars, San Antonio Rampage and Charlotte Checkers, beginning Wednesday.
NOTES: Roy and Warsofsky were the second and third stars. … The Penguins are 28-7-2-1 against the Wolf Pack since 2012. … The upcoming road trip is the longest of the season for the Penguins.
Penguins 3, Hartford 0
Hartford`0`0`0 — 0
Penguins`0`1`2 — 3
First Period — No scoring. Penalty — Lettieri, Hartford (tripping), 1:31.
Second Period — 1, Penguins, Roy 5 (Miletic, Berger), 18:12. Penalty — Abt, Penguins (hooking), 14:10.
Third Period — 2, Penguins, Warsofsky 4 (unassisted) 18:57 (EN); 3, Penguins Angello 15 (unassisted) 19:48 (EN). Penalty — Lettieri, Hartford (tripping), 4:44.
Shots on Goal — Hartford 8-5-12—25. Penguins 9-9-9—27.
Power-play opportunities — Hartford 0 of 1; Penguins 0 of 2.
Goalies — Hartford, McCollum 0-1-0 (25 shots-24 saves). Penguins, DeSmithh 11-10-2 (25 shots-25 shots).
Referees — Conor O’Donnell, Ted Anstett. Linesmen — J.P. Waleski, Luke Murray.
A — 7,353.