In front of a sellout crowd of 6,659 at the DCU Center Saturday night, the Worcester Sharks were shutout 4-0 by the Albany Devils. Harri Sateri stopped 23-of-27 shots for the Sharks, who fell to 0-3-0-1 and are now 3-2-1-1 in seven home openers.
For the fourth consecutive game, the Sharks allowed the first goal when Adam Henrique caught the Sharks running around in their own end and scored on a delayed penalty call at 8:53 for his first goal of the season
At 14:20 and with the Devils on a power play, Harri Pesonen got positioning in front and deflected a Bobby Butler shot from the left face-off circle past Sateri for his first goal of the season. The goal was also the Devils’ first power play goal of the season.
In the second period, the Sharks out-shot the Devils 14-8 but it was Jacob Josefson of the Devils with the period’s lone score at 15:39 to extend the lead to 3-0. After a rush by Sharks rookies Yanni Gourde and Travis Oleksuk ended due to an extra pass, the Devils transitioned 200 feet with tic-tac-toe passing and Josefson beat Sateri with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle for his first goal of the season.
Early in the third period, Josefson sent some Sharks fans towards the exits after he got behind Matt Tennyson, corralled a cross the crease pass from linemate Tim Sestito and slammed the puck into an open net for a shorthanded goal at 4:13 to extend the Devils lead to 4-0.
Things got chippy between the teams at 6:33 after Sestito upended Petrecki with a low, but clean, hit. Taking exception, Petrecki got up and started pounding on Sestito. Alexander Urbom came over to to help out Sestito but got dropped by Brandon Mashinter with one punch. Both Petrecki and Mashinter got four-minute double minors for roughing and Petrecki also got a 10-minute game misconduct.
At 14:05, Matt Pelech dropped the gloves for the second time this season as he battled Devils captain (and former Worcester Shark) Jay Leach in front of the Devils bench after Leach cross-checked Freddie Hamilton from behind. Pelech was given a game misconduct for leaving the bench, which could result in a suspension, but Pelech appeared to have already been on the ice at the time of the cross-check. In addition, the AHL will be looking into which Devil threw a punch from the bench during the fight between Pelech and Leach.
NOTES: Shots were 30-27 in favor of the Sharks… The Sharks went 0-for-9 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill… Sateri is now 0-1-0-1 with a 3.37 goals-against-average and.873 save percentage… Pelech played in his 300th career AHL game… The teams combined for 66 penalty minutes, 41 of which were assessed to the Sharks… This was the first of two meetings between the teams this season… Jimmy Bonneau (susp), Brodie Reid (inj), Taylor Doherty (inj), James Livingston (scr), Curt Gogol (scr), Marek Viedensky (scr) and Daniil Tarasov (scr) did not dress for the Sharks… Danny Groulx played in his first game this season for the Sharks as they dressed seven defensemen.
Three Stars:
1. Keith Kinkaid – Devils (30 saves, shutout)
2. Harri Pesonen – Devils (1-1-2)
3. Jacob Josefson – Devils (2-0-2)
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