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H.S. Boys Basketball: Wyoming Seminary opens with victory

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WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; As a long-time veteran of five AHL teams, John Muse has won a bunch of games at minor league hockey&#8217;s top level.On Friday, he finally won one for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.Muse stopped all 32 shots against him and Ryan Haggerty one-timed a power play goal, lifting the Penguins out of a three-week funk and to a 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Monsters at Mohegan Sun Arena.&#8220;It&#8217;s awesome,&#8221; said the 30-year-old Muse, who just signed with the Pittsburgh organization on a two-way contract this season. &#8220;That&#8217;s something I pride myself in, being able to win at this level.&#8221;In his two previous starts for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Muse came up empty.He entered Friday&#8217;s clash with the Monsters carrying an 0-2 record, despite allowing little more than two goals a game.That luckless dilemma during his early days with the Penguins ended quickly when he didn&#8217;t allow a single shot to cross the goal line.And Muse deflected a lot of them, as Cleveland came out firing bullets in rapid-fire succession &#8212; out-gunning the Penguins 10-5 in the first period before finishing with a 12-shot third period.Muse made it all for naught with a monster of a game in goal.&#8220;He&#8217;s been good,&#8221; Penguins coach Clark Donatelli said. &#8220;Even his last couple games, he&#8217;s solid. He&#8217;s calming in there. You know he&#8217;s going to make that first save, and he doesn&#8217;t give that many rebounds.&#8221;That dependability is a big reason why the Penguins signed Muse during the offseason, after he collected 86 AHL victories during this decade &#8212; most notably compiling a 63-46-6 record during parts of five seasons with Charlotte.And his steady hand couldn&#8217;t have come at a better time for the Penguins, who snapped a two-game losing streak and had dropped six of their previous seven games before dealing with the Monsters.&#8220;Oh yeah, we&#8217;ve lost a lot of one-goal games and overtime games,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;It&#8217;s good to win a close game with a shutout at home.&#8221;Maybe that type of outcome was overdue for Muse, who dropped a difficult 1-0 decision during his last start between the pipes.&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter if we play incredible and we lose,&#8221; Muse said. &#8220;If it&#8217;s a win, it&#8217;s a win. It&#8217;s frustrating not to get wins in my first two games (with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton). But we played well tonight.&#8221;All it took was one big boost to make Muse a winner for the first time with the Penguins.That came 8:34 into the second period, when Haggerty took a cross-ice pass from Will O&#8217;Neill and blasted home a one-timer from the top of the right circle for the game&#8217;s only goal, and Haggerty&#8217;s first of the season.&#8220;He (later) banged one off the pipe, he hit it square,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;He would have had two.When he gets scoring opportunities, he&#8217;s got a great shot. And he&#8217;s going to score.&#8221;Muse made sure one was plenty enough.&#8220;We did a really good job of boxing guys out tonight,&#8221; Muse said. &#8220;This week of practice, we harped on getting back into the feel of things. I think we saw it. I saw pretty much every shot tonight.&#8221;<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Paul Sokoloskipsokoloski@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>Penguins 1, Cleveland 0Cleveland`0`0`0 &#8212; `0Penguins`0`1`0 &#8212; `1First PeriodPenalties &#8212; CLE, Collins (delay of game), 6:29.Second PeriodScoring &#8212; 1. PEN, Haggerty 1 (O&#8217;Neill, Czuczman), 8:34 (PP). Penalties &#8212; PEN, Taylor (holding) 1:10; CLE, Collins (slashing) 6:49.Third PeriodPenalties &#8212; PEN, Josephs (hooking) 2:35; CLE, Abramov (slashing) 8:23.Shots on goalCleveland &#8211; 10-10-12-32Penguins &#8211; 5-13-2-20Power-play OpportunitiesCleveland &#8211; 0 of 2Penguins &#8211; 1 of 3GoaltendersCleveland &#8212; Jean-Francois Berube 8-7-2 (19-20)Penguins &#8212; John Muse 1-2-0 (32-32)StartersCleveland &#8211; G Jean-Francois Berube, D Dean Kukan, D Dillon Simpson, LW Eric Robinson, C Zac Dalpe, RW Paul BittnerPenguins &#8211; G John Muse, D Will O&#8217;Neill, D Kevin Czuczman, LW Anthony Angello, C Teddy Blueger, RW Thomas Di PauliThree Stars1. PEN, John Muse (32 saves) 2. PEN, Ryan Haggerty (goal) 3. CLE, Jean-Francois Berube (19 saves)Referees &#8212; Alex Ross, Chris Waterstradt. Linesmen &#8212; Tyler Loftus, J.P. Waleski.Attendance &#8211; 5,260</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</shirttailMeta></div>

Muse records shutout in Monster of a win for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins