Penguins Prospect Tied For Most AHL Shutouts

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie prospect Filip Larsson picked up his fourth AHL shutout on Saturday night as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack 5-0.

Larsson, who skated in some preseason games with Pittsburgh, is now tied for the AHL lead along with Ken Appleby (Charlotte) and Brandon Halverson (Syracuse).

After a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss on Friday night to the Charlotte Checkers, the Penguins bounced back with five goals, their first contest with more than three goals since a 7-2 victory over Lehigh Valley on Dec. 21.

In the first period, Rutger McGroarty scored his first of two on the night at 13:44, thanks to assists from Sebastian Aho and Nate Clurman, who has points in back-to-back games since returning to the AHL.

McGroarty extended the Penguins’ lead to 2-0 at 5:11 of the second, burying a feed from Valtteri Puustinen and Vasily Ponomarev, who picked up his 100th AHL point on the play.

Later in the middle period, Ponomarev netted his sixth of the campaign with assists from Filip Kral and Emil Bemström.

However, that was just Bemström’s first point of the night, as he tallied the Penguins’ two goals in the third period to help the visitors build up their score to 5-0.

WBS forward Boris Katchouk, skating in his 200th AHL game, had assists on both of Bemström’s lamplighters, with Mac Hollowell and Dan Renouf chipping in the other helpers.

Meanwhile, Larsson turned away all 33 shots he faced for his fourth shutout, tied for the fewest saves in a shutout this season. He currently leads all Penguins netminders with a 6-3-1 record, a 2.23 GAA, and a .932 SV%.

Regarding his place among qualified AHL goalies, Larsson ranks 5th in SV% and 10th in GAA.

Thanks to the two points, the Penguins leapfrog the Providence Bruins back into third place in the Atlantic Division with an 18-8-3 record. They head to Toronto to play the Marlies on Wednesday night.