SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks blank Penguins 4-0 for sixth win in a row

The Worcester Sharks scored three first period goals with Daniil Tarasov, Freddie Hamilton, and captain Bryan Lerg all connecting in the opening twenty minutes, and a second period tally by defenseman Taylor Fedun was just icing on the cake as goaltender Troy Grosenick went a perfect 25 for 25 on shots against to register his first shutout of the season in the WorSharks 4-0 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Saturday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 5,132 fans.

Worcester Sharks goaltender Troy Grosenick had 25 saves in his first shutout of the season
in Saturday's 4-0 WorSharks win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It was Grosenick's third career
AHL shutout. Grosenick also has an NHL shutout over the Carolina Hurricanes this season.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll once again point to the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Greger Hanson, Nick Jones, and Eriah Hayes (shoulder). J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender. The plan was for Anderson to start Sunday afternoon in Manchester, but head coach Roy Sommer might be having second thoughts with Grosenick posting a shutout last night and having a great weekend so far.

With the win Saturday night Worcester went a perfect five for five on their home stand, the first time that’s ever happened in franchise history. It’s also the first time the WorSharks have ever had five wins in any home stand no matter how many games it was. Their six game winning streak ties for the second longest, having done it now three times, the latest being from March 7th to the 16th last season. The Worcester Sharks longest winning streak is seven games set in the franchise’s first season, from March 16th to the 31st. This writer had the WorSharks franchise record point streak as nine games, but this morning we’ll make a quick edit to mention Bill Ballou has in the T&G the record as being eight games. We’ll doff our cap to Ballou and go with his eight.

In a stat teased last night on twitter, with Grosenick’s shutout last night for the first time in WorSharks franchise history they’ve had a season with three different goaltenders registering shutouts. You’d likely have made a fortune in Las Vegas had you wagered on that happening and then parlayed that bet into the correct order of it taking place as Aaron Dell–generally of the ECHL’s Allen Americans this season–had the first one in St John’s with a 1-0 win on December 5th. Usual back-up Anderson followed suit a few days later with a 1-0 victory of his own on December 14th vs Portland. The Worcester IceCats also did it just once in their 11 seasons, in 1996-97, when Mike Buzak, Jamie McLennan, and Travis Scott all recorded shutouts that season. Grosenick’s personal six game winning streak is one short of the franchise record of seven, held by Thomas Greiss and Al Stalock.

Prior to the game there was the standard gathering of the minds, such as they are, on the concourse behind the press row area. As he occasionally does Sharkspage minion Tyler Lowell joined the group, although this time with a broken stick belonging to Hamilton that was broken in warm-ups. That brought back the age-old discussion that with the new composite sticks breaking fairly often penalty killers would be best served using wood sticks. The lines are well drawn in our argument on the subject, but perhaps now all will be on my side of the issue after a second period WorSharks penalty kill saw three players end up without sticks. First Taylor Doherty broke his stick blocking a shot, so John McCarthy passed his stick back to Doherty. Within a few seconds Doherty broke that one too. After a pile-up in front of Grosenick he ended up without a stick, only Doherty, now camped in front of the net, didn’t have one to give him. Somehow Worcester was still able to clear the puck.

If you looked at the score sheets you’d think Tarasov was having just an “OK” week. In three games he has a couple goals, is about close to “even”, and has just a handful of shots. If you watched the actual games you’d have seen a completely different player out there. Tarasov is playing like a guy that has finally figured out what he needs to do to get a shot at playing in the NHL and is doing it. His play on both ends of the ice has been fantastic over the last three games, with about the only thing he hasn’t done is get into a fight yet. With the WorSharks playing Manchester Sunday for the third time in a week a fight is certainly a possibility for the suddenly very feisty Tarasov.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 1 Troy Grosenick (25 save shutout)
2. WOR – 11 Bryan Lerg (g)
3. WOR – 20 Matt Taormina (2a)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Daniil Tarasov.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Tierney/Coetzee
Haley/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Lerg/Trupp/Langlois
Bonneau/McCarthy/Carpenter

Taormina/Doherty
Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun

BOX SCORE

W-B/Scranton 0 0 0 – 0
Worcester 3 1 0 – 4

1st Period-1, Worcester, Tarasov 10 12:11. 2, Worcester, Hamilton 8 (Haley, Oleksuk), 15:05. 3, Worcester, Lerg 6 (Langlois, Taormina), 19:31 (PP). Penalties-Drazenovic Wbs (high-sticking), 17:59.

2nd Period-4, Worcester, Fedun 3 (Trupp, Taormina), 14:38. Penalties-Abeltshauser Wor (hooking), 4:04; Farnham Wbs (hooking), 12:38.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-W-B/Scranton 6-12-7-25. Worcester 8-4-6-18.
Power Play Opportunities-W-B/Scranton 0 / 1; Worcester 1 / 2.
Goalies-W-B/Scranton, Zatkoff 11-9-2 (8 shots-5 saves); Murray 7-7-1 (10 shots-9 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 15-6-1 (25 shots-25 saves).
A-5,132
Referees-Jonathan Alarie (38).
Linesmen-Ryan Gibbons (75), Brandon Gawryletz (2).