Off Topic » Only superstition stopped Cormier from handing out

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- At the risk of jinxing his red-hot teammate between the pipes, St. Johns IceCaps forward Patrice Cormier kept his comments about the play of goaltender Michael Hutchinson understated Wednesday night. "Hutchinson was again pretty good," Cormier said. "Knock on wood." Only superstition stopped Cormier from handing out more effusive praise. Hutchinson made 30 saves to record his second shutout of the playoffs as the IceCaps routed the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 5-0 on Wednesday in Game 3 of the American Hockey Leagues Eastern Conference final. The IceCaps lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will be played Thursday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. "We had a couple early power plays that sort of got us going," said winger Andrew Gordon, who had three assists. "Maybe they didnt execute quite to the level that theyre used to in this building, but we had a real good effort. Sometimes you get rewarded." Eric ODell had a goal and an assist. Jason Jaffray, Kael Mouillierat, Zach Redmond and Cormier all scored as well. Hutchinson raised his post-season record to 9-4 with a .945 save percentage. The IceCaps scored on consecutive shots less than two minutes apart in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Josh Morrissey, on his 19th birthday, took a cross-ice pass from Gordon in the right face-off dot and put a puck on the stick of Cormier in the slot for a re-direction goal on the power play at 11:24. Gordon intercepted a pass by Penguins winger Spencer Machacek behind the net and fed Jaffray in front for a goal at 13:15. "They outplayed us all over the ice," Penguins winger Tom Kostopoulos said. "They capitalized on their chances. They were clearly the better team." After killing a 65-second five-on-three Penguins power play late in the first period, the IceCaps forced another turnover on the forecheck early in the second, and ODell buried at loose puck at the left post to make the score 3-0. "If they score (on the five-on-three power play), youre like, Uh oh, its a game," Cormier said. "Kill that and I dont want to say weve got momentum, but we go into the second feeling good." Mouillerat scored from the goal-line on a five-on-three advantage at 6:24 and Redmond sent a slapshot on net from the blue-line that hit the glove of goalie Peter Mannino and trickled over the goal-line with a second left in the period to give the IceCaps a 5-0 edge going into the third. "I think there were a couple goals today that were backbreakers," Gordon said. "That one with a second left, that hurts. Ive been on the other end of those a few times and that hurts. Timely goals today were probably a momentum killer for them." Mannino, who played every minute of the Penguins first 13 playoff games, was pulled after stopping 19-of-24 shots in the first two periods. The Penguins are 0 for 13 on the power play in the series. Matt Murray stopped all eight shots he faced in relief. FLIMS, Switzerland - The Canadian mens junior curling team will play for bronze after falling 6-5 in an extra end to Switzerland on Tuesday at the world junior curling championships. Braden Calvert and his Winnipeg rink of third Kyle Kurz, second Lucas Van Den Bosch, lead Brendan Wilson and alternate Matt Dunstone trailed the Swiss 5-3 in the Page 3-4 match up, but earned two in the 10th to force an extra end and keep their gold medal hopes alive. Switzerlands YYannick Schwaller, however, had last-stone advantage and used it to knock out the Canadian rock and pick up the winning point.dddddddddddd Canada will face Norway on Wednesday for bronze while in the gold medal match Scotland plays Switzerland. The Canadian womens team, which is made up of skip Kelsey Roque, third Keely Brown, second Taylor McDonald, lead Claire Tulley and alternate Alison Kotylak, square off against Korea for gold on Wednesday. ' ' '