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Trenton, NJ - Goaltender John Murray led the last-place Johnstown Chiefs to a 3-0 blanking of the Trenton Devils on Wednesday night at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton. The shutout was the first notched all season by Johnstown, and Murray's 27 stops earned him just his fourth win of the season, two of which have come against the T-Devils.



A trio of quality chances for the Chiefs resulted in Johnstown drawing first blood at 10:52 of the opening frame, and that was all the scoring they would need. Dave Caruso made a pad save on the initial shot from Jeff Martens, but the rebound was picked up by Sean Berkstresser, who had been camped out to the left of the Devils netminder. Caruso sprawled across the crease as Berkstresser's rebound bid rang off the post and bounced through the goal mouth to Matthew Myers, who made no mistake in depositing the puck into the gaping cage for his third tally of the season to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead.

Johnstown doubled its lead 2:12 into the second courtesy of forward Bryan Marshall's keen positioning. Gliding down the right wing boards, Troy Schwab held the puck on his forehand and froze Caruso before sending a centering pass to Marshall, who snuck past Trevor Kell and was waiting back door to tap the puck in for his 14th goal of the year as he crashed into the net.

While many of the shots fired at Murray were easily turned aside, Trenton did produce a number of quality chances. Murray's best stop of the night came late in the second period when Dan Eves and defenseman Luke Lucyk broke in on a two-on-one rush. Eves sent the puck cross ice to Lucyk on the far side, but Murray slid to his right to make the pad save.

The Devils had another golden opportunity with nine minutes left in the third, but Murray made a beautiful glove save on Eves. Immediately following the save, Chanse Fitzpatrick threw Tony Zancanaro down to the ice with a horse collar, but the Devils were unable to cash in on the ensuing power play. Trenton had five fruitless power plays on the night and stopped all six Chiefs extra-man chances.

Even without extra-man chances, Johnstown controlled the tempo late in the game. The Devils started the game with only five available defensemen, with Andy Thomas reassigned to Lowell and Justin Pender suspended. The short staff was trimmed further when Justin Coutu left the game in the first period. The Chiefs wore down the depleted squad and added an insurance marker at 13:30 of the third when Fitzpatrick stuffed a rebound behind Caruso for his team-leading 22nd goal of the season.

The Devils (16-21-4-5, 41pts) hold a seven point lead over Johnstown for third place and look to regroup and bounce back Friday against the division-leading Reading Royals. The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. at Sun National Bank Center.