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The well has run dry.

The tank is on empty.

The sun has gone down.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins bow out of the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs 7-0 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Philippe Paradis had a hat trick, and that was all she wrote on this one.

Head Coach John Hynes put Jeff Zatkoff in net trying to change up the luck for the Penguins. Derrick Pouliot made his debut on the blue line for the Pens, taking the place of Peter Merth. Derek Nesbitt and Bobby Farnham were in for Christiaan Minella and Chris Collins.

I don’t really know what to recap here. The game was close for a good portion of the first period. But then a failed clear by the Penguins, something that has dogged them all season long, cost them again. Vlad Namestnikov bats in a shot to make it 1-0 Crunch.

Then Dan Sexton beats out a Penguin for an icing call. Off the face off, Radko Gudas scores to make it 2-0 Crunch. None of what you read in this paragraph happens if the icing is touched up.

It may have not mattered, because we Philippe Paradis had yet to have his fun.

Paradis wheels around the net in the second period and stuffs one home to make it 3-0 Crunch. The Pens giveaway a puck trying to clear and its 4-0 Syracuse.

Later, a puck hits Warren Peters as the Pens try to exit and Ondrej Palat scores to make it 5-0 Crunch.

At this point, after 40 minutes. The tank was spent. The Pens were running on fumes.

That Paradis guy that I mentioned earlier? Hasn’t had his fun yet.

Brian Dumoulin blows a tire. Paradis flies in and score to make it 6-0 Crunch. He caps off his hat trick to make it 7-0.

Syracuse coasts the rest of the way. The Penguins don’t score. The only player I gave an “F” to in my quarterly grades would end up scoring the final WBS Penguins goal of the season. If you don’t know, now you know.

So that’s it.

Tom Grace had a quote postgame which is appropriate:

“The longer it takes, the sweeter it will taste”

It took the City of Syracuse nineteen seasons to play a meaningful hockey game in June.

Wilkes-Barre expects to play in June season after season.

Moral is, the time is coming.

It ain’t today. It ain’t tomorrow. Hell, it may not be for another five years.

But it’s coming. That I am sure of.

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Hope that you will keep checking out the blog this summer for the latest on what is to come for 2013-14. I will try to keep things fresh here on the blog with content and will have the 2013 Offseason Moves tab up soon.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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You know that one weakness that we all have that, when exposed to what it is that we want to avoid, we ultimately succumb to it?

For example, a smoker that wants to quit for health reasons. They’ve smoked for years and the stench of the countless packs of cigarettes are embedded deep in their upholstery at home that every time they sit down, they smell the smell of the cigarettes and crave just one more drag?

Ultimately, they do, and ultimately they die.

That’s what’s happening to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Minus the cigarette inference.

What’s been the biggest problem all year for this team? Failed defensive clears, sketchiness in their own zone defensively, a tireless or lucky forecheck by a team and then, BOOM! puck is in the back of the net and you are trailing by a goal.

It happened tonight. Again, and again, and again, and again.

The Syracuse Crunch skate out of Wilkes-Barre with a 4-2 win and a commanding 3-1 series lead. They can win the Eastern Conference tomorrow in Game 5.

The setup was nice. Hynes & Co., shook up the lines. D Scott Harrington was in. Alex Grant was out. Jasyon Megna was back. Adam Payerl skated on the top line. Chad Kolarik played on the fourth line. Derek Nesbitt was a scratch.

Thiessen vs. Desjardins was the only semblance of normalcy.

The Penguins would score on the power play just past halfway in the first. Scott Harrington scores on his first shot in his first pro game.

Later, Brendan Mikkelson scored from the blue line when Thiessen was screened after, you guessed it, another failed WBS clear.

Relentless Syracuse forecheck. Penguins can’t clear. Adam Payerl forced into a hooking penalty. It was either this or an ice or a clear out into the neutral zone, a Syracuse defenseman with a take away and right back in the Syracuse attack zone.

Out of no where, literally, Adam Payerl works a puck up and out to Warren Peters. A Crunch defenseman is back and hems him along the wall. The puck squeaks to a suddenly wide open Jayson Megna. Megna skates in, nearly turns it over, but the puck goes in and it’s a 2-1 Penguins lead in the second period.

But wait. Answer goal by Syracuse. Brett Connolly. Tie game again.

I tweeted this before the start of the third:

Gotta believe this is the most important period of the season for Wilkes-Barre. Under two minutes away.

— Jason Iacona (@nafsnep) June 1, 2013

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The very next tweet after that, which would be 1:50 in to the period:

Tyler Johnsin scores. 3-2 Crunch.

— Jason Iacona (@nafsnep) June 1, 2013

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Misspelled Johnson there, it happens.

Anyway, the defense was left chasing. The Crunch wheeled around the net and well, this was the play:

photo credit: Scott Thomas @sthomasphotos (www.sthomasphotos.com)

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It was that bad.

The rest of the period was extremely frustrating to watch. Syracuse came with rush after rush after rush up ice. Pens chased all period. They only managed one shot on goal immediately after the Johnson goal. They finally had some semblance of jump after the ten minute mark but Desjardins and the Crunch kept it a one goal lead in their favor.

Then the Penguins were gifted a power play.

They manage no shot on net, pull Thiessen during it for a six on four, Crunch kill it and pot the kill shot empty netter to make it 4-2.

Bright side: The Pens are undefeated while on the brink of elimination.

Dark side:

Tampa Bay Lightning AHL affiliates (Norfolk last year, Syracuse this year) are now 20-1 in their last 21 playoff games. The 1 was WBS in G1.

— DJ Abisalih (@Nailers_PXP) June 1, 2013

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Game Five is tomorrow in Syracuse. Do the Pens have what it takes to force a Game 6? Game 7???

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

To the end………

Let’s Go Pens!!!!

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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:

In @caldercup Playoff best-of-sevens that are tied 1-1, the Game 3 winner goes on to win the series 70.9 percent of the time (129 of 182)

— AHL Communications (@AHLPR) May 30, 2013

Like I said before, if it were easy, we’d all have Calder Cups.

Let’s Go Pens!