WBS Pens Sneak Past Senators, 6-0 on the Season

The WBS Penguins refuse to lose.  They are now 6-0 on the season and looking strong.  John Curry was absolutely insane in goal tonight, stopping 37 saves on 38 shots, and six out of eight in the shootout.  That's no typo either. The game went eight rounds in the shootout tonight before being decided.  More after the jump.

Lineup Notes

- Besides John Curry instead of Brad Thiessen in goal, the lineup remained the same.

- Brett Sterling did not play or even take the warmups tonight.  Hopefully he will be ready for the team's next game, which isn't until Friday.

Recap

Tonight was a goaltender's duel between John Curry (37 saves) and Barry Brust (36 saves).  Neither Curry nor Brust allowed a goal through 40 minutes of play.  Both made a ton of fantastic saves. 

The key stat from this game was the powerplay.  The Pens were rather undisciplined tonight and the referees were terrible.  I usually dont shun the referees but they were extremely inconsistent and missed a lot of pretty obvious calls on both teams.  The Pens luckily went 8 for 8 on the penalty kill. 

The Pens didn't score on their first three powerplays but they took a powerplay into the third period after Binghamton's Erik Condra took a cross-checking minor in the last minute of the second frame.

Just 52 seconds into the third period, before some of the fans got back into their seats, Chris Conner thread the needle on a cross-ice pass through the faceoff circles finding Steve Wagner wide open on a back door play.  Wagner slapped the puck home and the Pens finally got on the board.  Dustin Jeffrey also assisted on the goal as he worked behind the net to get the puck to Conner.

Unfortunately Binghamton tied the game with 10.6 seconds remaining to set up a very exciting finish.  The Pens took the last three penalties in the third, and were also whistled 20 seconds into the overtime on a very questionable play.  Joe Vitale was called for tripping, the correct call, and while the Pens were chasing to touch up the puck a Penguin was hauled down.  The referee only called the first tripping penalty and handed the Senators a 4 on 3 powerplay.

Luckily the Pens killed it off and shortly after Vitale came out of the box, the Pens drew a hooking call and got a power play of their own.  They had a ton of chances but Brust was equal to the task in net.  The game went to a shootout.

In the shootout Curry shined.  He made some ridiculous saves.  Dustin Jeffrey and Keven Veilleux scored for the Pens in the shootout but it wasn't enough and they had to go to the overtime of the shootout.  After two rounds of misses for both sides, Chris Conner deked around a Brust poke-check and walked the puck into the wide open net. Curry made one more save and preserved the win for the Pens.

Interesting Stat -

Keven Veilleux, not known for his ability to fight, recorded the Penguins first fighting major of the season.  I'm surprised it took six games for the first fight but Veilleux didn't disappoint.  He got tangled with a guy by the name of David Dziurzynski (yeah I checked the spelling about six times).  Veilleux knocked Dziurzynski's helmet off, landed a big right to the chin and finished him to the ground.

My Prediction:

Not a big night for Veilleux but he did get the first fighting major, and scored in the shootout.  With Sterling out right now, Wallace and Veilleux are the top two left wings.