The St. John’s IceCaps carried the momentum of their Game 2 victory all the way to Wilkes-Barre with them, and rolled to a 5-0 win over the host Penguins in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night.
The IceCaps are up 2-1 in the best-of-seven series with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday evening.
St. John’s got goals from five different skaters, Andrew Gordon notched three assists and Michael Hutchinson made 30 saves for his second shutout of the playoffs.
The IceCaps opened the scoring with two goals in a span of 1:51, beginning with Patrice Cormier‘s first of the postseason off a feed from Josh Morrissey during a St. John’s power play at 11:24 of the opening period.
The IceCaps quickly made it 2-0 as Gordon intercepted a Penguins pass behind the Wilkes-Barre net and centered it to Jason Jaffray, who one-timed it past Peter Mannino for his third goal of the playoffs.
St. John’s capitalized on another Penguins turnover just 1:35 into the second period as Eric O’Dell pounced on a loose puck in front and netted his eighth goal of the playoffs to make it a 3-0 lead.
Kael Mouillierat scored late in a two-minute 5-on-3 power play for the IceCaps to extend the lead to 4-0, putting a pass from Gordon over an outstretched Mannino for his third goal of the postseason.
Zach Redmond scored his first playoff goal just before the horn at the end of the second period, putting a shot from the point past Mannino to give St. John’s a 5-0 lead after 40 minutes.
The third period was scoreless, with Hutchinson (9-4) making 10 saves in the final frame to preserve the shutout. Matt Murray played the third in relief of Mannino (8-6) and stopped all eight shots he faced.
NOTES: The IceCaps were 2-for-5 on the power play after going 0-for-8 in the first two games of the series… The Penguins were 0-for-6 in Game 3, falling to 0-for-14 in the series… St. John’s has won all four of its previous series when splitting the first two games and then winning Game 3… Since taking a 5-0 lead over Providence in Game 7 of their second-round series, Wilkes-Barre’s opponents have scored the last nine goals at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Eastern Conference Finals – Series “M” (best-of-7)
4-St. John’s IceCaps vs. 6-W-B/Scranton Penguins | Series Snapshot
Game 1 – Sat., May 24 – W-B/Scranton 3, ST. JOHN’S 2
Game 2 – Sun., May 25 – ST. JOHN’S 2, W-B/Scranton 1
Game 3 – Wed., May 28 – St. John’s 5, W-B/SCRANTON 0
Game 4 – Thu., May 29 – St. John’s at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
Game 5 – Sat., May 31 – St. John’s at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 6 – Tue., June 3 – W-B/Scranton at St. John’s, 6:00
*Game 7 – Wed., June 4 – W-B/Scranton at St. John’s, 6:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern
