Whale jump Pens, 5-2

WILKES-BARRE, Pa, – Kris Newbury scored two goals and added an assist, and Wade Redden had a goal and two assists, to lead the Connecticut Whale to a 5-2 win over the AHL-leading Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Tuesday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
 
The victory was the Whale’s fourth straight, and gave the club a sweep of a two-game season series with the Penguins, who came into the game with a 45-17-0-0 record for 90 points.  The Whale had taken a 6-3 decision from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the team’s first meeting January 16 in Hartford.
 
John Mitchell added a goal and an assist for the Whale, Dale Weise had three assists and Kelsey Tessier also scored.  Cameron Talbot made 29 saves to improve his season record to 10-3-2.
 
Tim Wallace and Chris Collins scored Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goals, and former Hartford Wolf Pack captain Andrew Hutchinson had a pair of assists for the Penguins.
 
Despite being outshot 20-7 in the first period, the Whale came out of it with a 2-2 tie.
 
Connecticut put itself in trouble almost immediately with penalties, with Pavel Valentenko being called for interference only 1:29 in and Newbury for hooking 43 seconds later, and the Penguins capitalized on the five on three.
 
Wallace took a pass from Hutchinson at the bottom of the left circle and moved to the faceoff dot, before snapping a shot that got between Talbot’s blocker and the post to his right.
 
The two teams then combined for three goals in a span of 2:49, starting with Mitchell’s third goal in four games with the Whale at 7:53.
 
Mitchell brought the puck down the left-wing side and undressed a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defender with a stickhandling move, then, using Tessier as a decoy, got Penguin starting netminder Brad Thiessen to move off the post before firing a high shot into the net.
 
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton responded only 1:38 later at 9:31, on Collins’ 12^th goal of the year.  Hutchinson made a great slap pass from the right point to Collins at the left side of the slot, and Collins had virtually an open net.
 
The Whale had an answer only 1:11 after that, though, as Newbury tied it at two at 10:42.  Weise played the puck toward the front of the net from the right-wing boards and after Thiessen made the save, Newbury, headed hard up the middle, shoved the rebound past him and into the goal.
 
The Whale would then get a five-on-three goal early in the second period, after a Wallace slashing penalty carried over from the first period and Joe Vitale was called for tripping at the 17-second mark of the second.
 
With only one second left on the first penalty, Redden powered a shot through traffic from the blue line that eluded Thiessen at 1:54, causing the Penguins to replace Thiessen (three goals-against on 11 shots) with John Curry.
 
It was the second time in two games against Connecticut that Thiessen has been pulled.  Thiessen, who came into the game 27-6-0, with a 1.87 goals-against average, a 92.4% save percentage and six shutouts, leading the AHL in wins, GAA and shutouts, allowed four goals on 10 shots in the first period of the first game between the two teams before being relieved by Curry.
 
The Whale upped their lead to 4-2 at the 1:24 mark of the third period, as Tessier got them some breathing room.  Mitchell fed a deft pass to Tessier at the right side of the slot, and Tessier drove a hard slap shot that went past Curry on the stick side and blew Curry’s water bottle off the top of the net.
 
Connecticut faced another two-man disadvantage of 1:32 shortly thereafter, and two other penalty-killing situations later on in the third, but Talbot was able to hold the fort.  Newbury then iced the game with an empty-net goal at 19:40.
 
With the win, the Whale (32-24-2-6, 72 pts.) now have at least a standings point in nine of their last 11 games (8-2-0-1), and improved their hold on third place in the Atlantic Division to a margin of four points over idle Worcester.
 
Tuesday’s game ended a stretch in which the Whale played ten out 12 games on the road.  Starting with Friday’s game at the XL Center against the two-time defending Calder Cup-champion Hershey Bears (7:00 PM faceoff), Connecticut will now have 10 of its last 16 games of the season at home.
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