Alexandre Picard scored twice and Jaroslav Janus stopped all 22 shots he faced as the Norfolk Admirals shut out the Connecticut Whale, 4-0, on Wednesday night at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn.
With the victory, the Admirals now lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series, three games to two.
Ondrej Palat and Pierre-Cedric Labrie also scored for the Admirals in the win. Norfolk outshot Connecticut, 35-22.
The Admirals opened scoring 15:15 into the game on Picard’s first goal of the series and fifth of the playoffs overall. The veteran forward took a pass from Labrie and went behind the Connecticut net. He then re-emerged in front and to the left of Whale netminder Cameron Talbot before sending a wraparound shot past the goaltender for a 1-0 Norfolk lead.
Picard doubled the lead early in a dominant second period for the visitors. He found the rebound of a Scott Jackson shot in the slot and sent a shot into the net while falling at 2:43. It was the only one of 15 shots by the Admirals to get past Talbot in the second period, as Norfolk outshot Connecticut, 15-7, in the stanza.
Norfolk went ahead, 3-0, late in the third period. Tyler Johnson chased a dump-in behind the Connecticut net and centered the puck to Palat in the slot. Palat’s wrister beat Talbot, blocker-side, for his third goal of the playoffs at 14:06.
Labrie iced the victory with a goal with 5.2 seconds remaining just after a power play had expired.
Norfolk was 0-for-3 on the power play while Connecticut was 0-for-4.
Cameron Talbot (5-3) made 32 saves on 36 shots for the loss.
The game was played in Bridgeport because of an arena scheduling conflict at the XL Center in Hartford.
Game 6 will take place on Friday night at Norfolk Scope Arena at 7:30 p.m. ET. Playoff tickets are on sale now at the Scope Box Office, any Ticketmaster Outlet, charge-by-phone at 1-800-745-3000 or online at ticketmaster.com.
