The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Syracuse Crunch wasted little time in testing out one of the AHL’s new rules Friday night, as the Penguins defeated the Crunch, 1-0, thanks to a 2-1 edge in a post-overtime shootout.
Erik Christensen and Michel Beausoleil tallied shootout goals for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, while goaltender Joe Exter came up with four huge saves on five tough shots.
With the win, the Penguins moved to 1-0-0-0 on the pre-season, while the Crunch fell to 0-0-0-1.
Exter and Dany Sabourin combined to stop all 38 Crunch shots through 65 minutes, while Karl Goehring and Andrew Penner turned aside all 19 Penguins shots before the shootout.
Exter’s four saves in the shootout included stops on Jeff Panzer, Mark Hartigan, Brad Moran and former first-round draft pick Alexander Svitov.
BRIDGEPORT 4, ALBANY 0
David Cann and Alex Westlund combined to stop 30 shots while Chris Campoli had three points as Bridgeport blanked Albany, 4-0, in Shelton, Conn.
Moments after Cann stopped Albany’s Ilkka Pikkarainen on a breakway, Campoli, who has earned rave reviews during the first week of training camp, re-directed a Blaine Down centering pass for a power-play goal to make it 1-0 Sound Tigers.
The Sound Tigers doubled their lead to 2-0 on a similar play 5:34 into the middle frame when Barrett Heisten chipped home the rebound of a Campoli shot. Down drove hard to the net and scored to make it 3-0 with 2:19 left in the middle frame, and Sean Bergenheim made it 4-0 just 1:14 later, with Campoli picking up his second assist and third point.
Campoli, 20, spent the last four seasons in junior hockey with the OHL’s Erie Otters. He was a seventh-round draft pick of the N.Y. Islanders’ in 2004.
SAN ANTONIO 4, HOUSTON 3
Rob Globke scored with six seconds left in regulation as San Antonio rallied from three goals down for a 4-3 win over the Houston Aeros at The Ice Center at Northwoods.
The teams will play again at the Sugar Land Aerodrome Saturday at 7 p.m.
Aeros rookie Josh Harding was perfect with nine saves over 31:51 and 19-year-old rookie Brent Burns, Marc Cavosie and David Bararuk each scored. Kyle Wanvig added two assists for the Aeros, who had won their last eight preseason games.
Lou Dickenson, Gregory Campbell and Ryan Jardine also scored for San Antonio.
Down 3-0, the Rampage started to make a game of it with 4:21 left in the second on Dickenson’s shorthanded goal from the lower left circle. The tally came against rookie goalie Robert Gherson. Campbell made it 3-2 with 1:27 gone in the third when he tapped a loose puck off the edge of the goal line and into the empty net.
Jardine crashed the net and scored the game-tying goal with 7:42 remaining, and with a thick fog developing on the ice and Jordan Krestanovich serving a five-minute high-sticking penalty, Globke threw a loose puck from along the left boards on net, and it eluded Gherson.
The Rampage owned a 16-2 edge in shots in the third period.
