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It wasn’t for lack of effort tonight. It was there.
It wasn’t for lack of shots tonight. They were 22 a side.
Power play? Nope. Neither team capitalized.
Goaltending? I defy you to hang this loss on Brad Thiessen.
I have watched enough minor league hockey to say with confidence that games come down to plays. In the second period of the game tonight, Pens D Alex Grant coughs up a puck on his own blue line. Syracuse gets it, goes the other way, cycles, and Vladislav Namestnikov scores to put the Crunch ahead 1-0.
You can’t let the Crunch score the first goal. They are insanely hard to beat when you do, having the best record in the regular season when scoring first.
That was the only blemish on an overall even Game 3 in Wilkes-Barre tonight. Starting goaltender Brad Thiessen stopped 21 of 22 shots. Crunch goaltender Cedrick Desjardins stopped all 22 shots put in his way. J.T. Brown for Syracuse scored a meaningless empty net goal with under ten seconds to play.
Penguins put ten shots on Desjardins in the first period then just twelve the rest of the way. They had a period in the first half of the game of extended five on three power play time but were not able to capitalize. The game went back and forth and ebbed and flowed as a playoff hockey game would. Syracuse would get their chances, the Penguins would get their chances. It seemed though, that Syracuse had more of the chances and better looks and the Penguins had more hastened rushes up ice and hurried shots at Desjardins, who made the saves he needed to preserve the shutout.
One thing that had me scratching my head late in the game was the constant rolling of the third and fourth lines for the Penguins. Seemed every time I looked up Dom Uher or Warren Peters were out to take a shift and no where to be found were the top line guys like Trevor Smith, Derek Nesbitt or Chad Kolarik.
Olli Maatta made his pro debut tonight on defense, taking the spot for Reid McNeill. The 18 year old didn’t look out of place and played about as well as an 18 year old making his professional debut in the third game of the Eastern Conference Finals in the American Hockey League playoffs could play. He had a shot from the slot late in the third that Desjardins went into the splits on and make a glove save on.
Dylan Reese, Bobby Farnham, Cody Wild and Jayson Megna did not play for the Penguins tonight.
Game 4 will be Friday in Wilkes-Barre. A must win for the Penguins if they want to advance to the Calder Cup Finals. A comeback down 0-3 against the top seeded Providence Bruins was nice, but cannot be expected again against the core of what won the League Championship in Norfolk last season.
I’ll leave you with this tweet from the AHL’s PR department:
Like I said before, if it were easy, we’d all have Calder Cups.
Let’s Go Pens!
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Chirps from Center Ice 