Comments Off on Dirty Dea’s — Pens WIN 1-0
Posted by nafsnep on November 26, 2016
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J-S Dea was a healthy scratch in Friday’s game in Bridgeport against the Sound Tigers. It was the first time in a while that Dea had been a scratch. The usually reliable Dea is a staple in every Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins game. But not last night.
Normally coaches do this to send a message to a player that isn’t performing.
J-S Dea got the message, loud and clear.
The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, one of the stingiest defensive teams in the AHL, finally get their first shutout of the season and end the Bridgeport Sound Tigers four game win streak with a 1-0 win. Tristan Jarry started the game and stopped all 24 shots faced.
A frustrating game from the Penguins perspective through two periods. They were doing everything right, getting power plays and such but were not able to solve starting goaltender Stephon Williams at all and the power play was not clicking, up to an 0-for-28 stretch.
Williams came into the night with an 0-2 record against the Penguins with a .809 SV% and a 5.47 GAA. Just awful numbers against a team not known to fill up the net on a night by night basis. He nearly won the game for his team, but it was the Penguins, using tried and true system of defense, coupled with strong play in net by Jarry that was the decider in this game.
Lines were…
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Thomas Di Pauli – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Patrick McGrath – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty
Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Barry Goers
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith
Lineup Notes: Carter Rowney took warmups but was a surprise scratch. He is day to day with an upper body injury as told to the WBS media by Clark Donatelli postgame. Dea and Haggerty were in for Danny Kristo and what was to be Patrick McGrath. Kristo, highly touted in the trade for Reid McNeill, was a heathy scratch in just his third game as Penguin. Barry Goers was in for Lukas Bengtsson on the blue line. Derrick Pouliot was in for his final game of his conditioning stint. He is expected to be recalled back to Pittsburgh either Sunday or Monday.
First Period: About as even as you could get for the Penguins and Sound Tigers. Just eight shots a piece. The Penguins hit a post on a power play but that was all for excitement from the Penguins perspective.
Second Period: Williams was dialing in. The Penguins couldn’t get anything past him. They were getting a lot of shots and limiting Bridgeport to just one about half way through the period. Pens would continue to have power plays handed to them but were not able to cash. Story to this point was the Penguins inability to crack on the power play, Williams’ stellar play in net and the Penguins defense with Jarry bending but not breaking against a Bridgeport attack that, if you give them a lead, they are hard to beat.
Third Period: Williams continued his stellar play, robbing Dominik Simon with the glove early on. The Penguins were getting another power play though, and this time they cashed when J-S Dea knocked in a puck legally with his stick under the bar on Williams in a big pileup. Williams then delivered a cross body block on Dea, which caused a melee.
Dea’s goal, originally credited to Kostopoulos, came with :01 left on the power play.
Later, Dea got his pound of flesh when he can opened Williams who came out to play a puck. He flipped the Bridgeport net minder on his can, then had to fight Kyle Burroughs. Burroughs received an instigating penalty to go along with a misconduct and a fighting major. Dea only got five for fighting and two for goaltending interference. This is important because Dea’s fight does not count against the, “10 fights gets you suspended” rule.
Not to say that Dea will ever get suspended for fighting ten times in the AHL, but we strive to educate and inform here at Chirps from Center Ice.
Pens had to kill a Chad Ruhwedel trip with about six minutes left to play, did, then weren’t able to score on an empty Bridgeport net but it mattered little.
Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (goal, even) 2) Tom Kostopoulos (assist, even) 1) Tristan Jarry (24 save shutout)
Tom Kostopoulos was announced as the goal scorer at the time of the goal announcement, it wasn’t until after the game that they flipped it to Dea, so I wonder if you can flip three stars. My guess is no.
The Week 7 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog at 4 p.m. Monday and the weekly Wheeling Wrap will be here Tuesday at noon. Anything newsworthy will be sprinkled in during the week.
Comments Off on Two on One – Two for One — Pens LOSE 3-2 (OT)
Posted by nafsnep on November 25, 2016
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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are drawing opponents on the up and up right now.
The Hershey Bears are the defending Eastern Conference Champs and whitewashed the Pens 4-0 on Wednesday, this after coughing up a two goal lead to these very Penguins in the third period last Saturday.
The Bridgeport Sound Tigers are a pesky team that, the last time these two teams met, would not go away seemingly and came into the contest Friday night winners of three straight.
Make it four.
A 3-2 overtime win for the Sound Tigers tonight where all three goals were scored on two on one rushes. The Penguins could not solve goaltender Eamon McAdam all night it seemed but manufacture a point anyway. Good teams do this.
The Pens had come into tonight’s game against Bridgeport 4-0 and outscoring their opponents by a 16-6 score coming off of a loss the prior game. The winner in net for every single one of them? Casey DeSmith. DeSmith started tonight for the Penguins and took the overtime loss.
Lines were…
Dominik Simon – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Thomas DiPauli – Kevin Porter – Danny Kristo
Patrick McGrath – Jarrett Burton – Reid Gardiner
Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Tim Erixon
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
Lineup Notes: Oskar Sundqvist and Domink Simon returned from injury. Simon missed about a week, Sundqvist missed just one game…J-S Dea was a healthy scratch. Lukas Bengtsson was scheduled to start the game but was a late scratch in favor of Tim Erixon. Others were Sahir Gill, Ryan Haggerty and Barry Goers. Stuart Percy is still listed as an injury scratch.
First Period: Steve Bernier’s goal at exactly one minute of the first period was all the scoring in the period. It was a quick two on one that Bernier had and took the shot that beat DeSmith just one minute into the period.
Pens ended up 2-for-2 on the penalty kill for the first period. Bridgeport’s first power play was bad, registering just one shot on goal and their second one was better, registering four. Wilkes-Barre had one power play and couldn’t get anything past goaltender McAdam.
Second Period: Penguins did everything right this period. They started the period coming out strong with pucks at McAdam, got an early power play, then Jarrett Burton scored his first of the season off of a perfect pass by Dominik Simon…
Fourth line came though for the Penguins. Great shot by Burton.
Penguins looked like they were going to turn the tide in their favor. Immediately after that goal by the Penguins, the Sound Tigers took a penalty. Wilkes-Barre did everything but score. Goaltender McAdam lost a stick, as did another Bridgeport player. They forced the Sound Tigers into an icing after the power play expired.
So what happened after that?
Bridgeport scores to go ahead 2-1. Tanner Fritz setup Ross Johnson on a two on one to reestablish the lead for the Sound Tigers.
A team that the Penguins couldn’t put away the last time these two teams met had not trailed this game going into the…
Third Period: Penguins are in a 0-for-24 slump on the power play. Gotta think that one or two of them would have helped them in this game. They could not score one the only penalty awarded by the officials in the period.
Eamon McAdam continued to make saves he had no business making, three shots quick in on him in close that he turned away.
Josh Archibald scored from a low angle that finally beat McAdam to put the Penguins even with the Sound Tigers at 2-2. Wilkes-Barre managed to manufacture a point out of essentially nothing, as McAdam wasn’t giving them anything.
Overtime: Connor Jones scored the third two on one goal for the Sound Tigers in overtime. Danny Kristo inadvertently took out Casey DeSmith in the areas allowing Jones to score the game winner. After a brief review by referees Geno Binda and Terry Koharski, the goal stood.
Here is the goal. Sorry for not cutting up every goal tonight. My brother was in and wanted to watch the game with me streamed to the TV vs. me in a corner with a cat on the computer…
Three Stars: 3) Devon Toews (two assists, +2) 2) Josh Archibald (goal, +1) and 1) Connor Jones (game winning goal, +1)
Around the Division: Providence gets over .500 for the first time in a while and beats St. John’s up in Newfoundland by a score of 2-1…Hershey beats Springfield 5-2 in Massachusetts. These two teams rematch tomorrow night in Hershey…Lehigh Valley puts away Binghamton 4-3. The Senators had come back each time on the Phantoms but weren’t able able to put Lehigh Valley away…Albany beats Hartford 4-3 in overtime.
Comments Off on Bear Bites Back — Pens LOSE 4-0
Posted by nafsnep on November 23, 2016
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The unreasonable Penguins fan will be mad with this result.
That’s because the unreasonable Penguins fan expects their team to win 85-0 every game.
Don’t be an unreasonable Penguins fan.
Here’s what I wrote in my Gameday setup this afternoon…
Bears cannot be happy with the way Saturday went. Expect a relentless attack from Hershey tonight. Pens can’t be thinking about the turkey dinner yet or they’ll get embarrassed tonight.
Final result was a 4-0 Penguins loss. I wouldn’t call it an embarrassing loss, but whenever you get shutout of a game or lose by multiple goals, it’s not the first topic of conversation.
It’s also unreasonable to expect the Penguins to sweep the Bears all 12 games in this season series. The Bears are a good team and well coached. They were legitimately embarrassed by coughing up a two goal lead in the third period last Saturday against this very Penguins team. To think that this did not stick with Hershey and wasn’t a focus point in practice this week is unreasonable.
I mean if you disagree, this is an open forum and the comment section is always available. If no one comments I assume I am correct in my analysis, but I am not mad at this loss at all.
Now, if the trend continues and the Pens are swept by Bridgeport, themselves a very dangerous team, then the unreasonable fan may be onto something…
Tristan Jarry opposed Vitek Vanecek.
Lines were…
Tom Kostopoulos – Carter Rowney – Danny Kristo
Sahir Gill – Kevin Porter – Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – J-S Dea – Josh Archibald
Thomas DiPauli – Jarrett Burton – Reid Gardiner
Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith
Lineup Notes: Derrick Pouliot is down for his conditioning stint, playing his first game for Wilkes-Barre since January 16 at Syracuse. Oskar Sundqvist was a surprise injury scratch. Obie said on radio that he picked up a minor lower body injury in practice Tuesday. It isn’t expected to be long term. With Jake Guentzel currently on recall to Pittsburgh, Danny Kristo took his spot on the first line, making his debut in a Penguins sweater.
First Period: Better start by the Penguins to start in contrast to Saturday. Wilkes-Barre had six shots on the board before the Bears registered their first. Both goalies made saves on breakaways. Vanecek on Josh Archibald and then later Jarry on Ryan Bourque when the Penguins were on a power play.
Second Period: Game was settling into a defensive battle, with just five shots by the teams nineteen minutes into the second period. Then, with 20.5 seconds left, Zach Sill scored his first goal of the season on this shot that broke the 0-0 deadlock…
Bears had started to setup and control the offensive zone time before breaking though on the goal by Sill.
Third Period: Pens weren’t going to win this game tonight after Josh Archibald was stopped for the second time on the breakaway by Vanecek. Hershey comes right back down the other way and scores this goal that made it 2-0 for the Bears…
Referee Evgenii Romasko appeared to be out of position slightly to not be able to initially blow the play dead on the initial stop by Jarry. I guess in hindsight he was in perfect position because he allowed play to continue and Christian Thomas to score the goal. After an officials review, the goal stood.
That goal wasn’t the reason why the Penguins lost this game. Something seemed off here by Wilkes-Barre. They seemed to be chasing the game since around the half way point and the score line showed.
Three Stars: Vitek Vanecek (24 save shutout) 2) Christian Thomas (goal, even) and 1) Zach Sill (game winning goal, +1)
Observations: Derrick Pouliot had a good game, drawing three tripping penalties. Noticed Danny Kristo a lot in the first half of the game, but not so much in the second half. Shots ended up 24-18 favoring the Penguins.
Around the Division: Bridgeport beat Hartford 4-2. One of their goals was scored in this manner…
Not only is Hartford a bad team (in last place in the Atlantic) but there have ZERO puck luck.
Other finals included a Lehigh Valley 1-0 win in Binghamton in a game that was similar to the Pens / Bears game somewhat in a defensive battle. Rookie Alex Lyon picked up his first AHL shutout with 28 saves….Providence beat Rochester 6-4. The Amerks have lost four in a row.
Comments Off on Battling Back the Bear — Pens WIN 4-3 (OT)
Posted by nafsnep on November 19, 2016
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When the Hershey Bears get a multiple goal lead on an opponent at Giant Center, it’s lights out for the opponent.
You can’t stop a Chris Bourque train.
Zach Sill will hit you into next week if you try to take liberties and look like you want to come back.
It’s hard to think when a sellout crowd of 10,000+ is yelling and screaming for their home team en route to another win for the storied Hershey franchise.
Yeah, well none of that fazed the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins who, were down for most of this game and down two goals in the third period when the come back happened.
A Garrett Wilson single to center, through the pads of Joe Cannata and in for a 3-2 Bears lead.
Watching the game on AHL Live, on my computer in my cats basement, even I could feel the tension of the Bears faithful. The Bears weren’t going to blow this lead, against this team, were they?
Were they?
Tom Kostopoulos, the captain and living legend of Wilkes-Barre teams past and present, scored on his own rebound with 64 seconds left and poof, the lead was gone.
Penguins possessed for much of the overtime that followed and Carter Rowney swept in a puck using the stick blade as almost and extension of his arm, harmlessly past a sprawled out Cannata who never sealed off the post.
There would be no Chris Bourque train.
No Zach Sill booming hit.
A crowd of 10,355 left the Giant Center with their mouths agape, stunned as to what happened.
Comments Off on Tiger Tested — Pens WIN 4-3
Posted by nafsnep on November 18, 2016
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It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough to get the job done.
A 4-3 Penguins win at home tonight over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers who stuck around all game and almost and rightfully maybe, should have won.
Bridgeport did not have a single power play tonight. After a dominating, scoreless first by the Sound Tigers, the Penguins strike twice in the second period to go up 2-0, then see Bridgeport cut the deficit to one three times. The Pens had gone up 3-1 (Bridgeport scored to make it 3-2) then 4-2 and then your 4-3 final.
Call it a test passed by the Penguins. Bridgeport is a very good hockey team that is missing a big break to put them over. Are they elite? No. But I have stressed that in this AHL, there are a few great teams, a handful of good teams and a boat load of bad teams. The Penguins right now are a great team. Bridgeport right now is a good team.
The thing that plays in the favor of the Sound Tigers is that they get two more cracks at the Penguins. Next Friday in Bridgeport then Saturday back at Wilkes-Barre. They are well coached and have good leadership and a crop of promising players.
Casey DeSmith opposed Stephon Williams.
Lines were…
Garrett Wilson – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Kevin Porter – Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea
Thomas DiPauli – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Reid Gardiner – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty
Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry
Lineup Notes: Dominik Simon is day to day with a lower body injury as told to the WBS media postgame by Head Coach Clark Donatelli. Sahir Gill and Ryan Haggerty were in for the injured Simon and Patrick McGrath. Ethan Prow, who should play every game in my opinion, was in for Stuart Percy, who should also play in my opinion. Percy is nursing an injury, so maybe this is good that he and Prow swap games.
First Period: Casey DeSmith made 13 saves in the period and every single one of them were challenging. A deflection stopped with the pad. A denial in close. More saves on deflection. Pens didn’t register a shot on goal until the nine minute mark and were getting dominated. Wilkes-Barre was lucky to not be down a goal or more heading into the…
Second Period: Penguins scored what appeared to be a good goal five seconds into a power play but referee Guillaume Labonte waved it off immediately on account of an Oskar Sundqvist high stick. The arena showed the replay (I don’t think they are supposed to) and what I saw was a 50/50 call that could have gone either way. Labonte, then gave the Penguins :41 of 5-on-3 but Wilkes-Barre was not able to score.
It was the Sound Tigers that didn’t have a shot on goal for a long stretch of the period. Oskar Sundqvist finally scored a goal that counted when he punched one through the pads of Williams. Sundqvist is now tied for the team lead in goals (6) with Jake Guentzel.
Pens doubled their lead on a nice keep in by Lukas Bengtsson who chipped it back to Garrett Wilson who found Kevin Porter in front who was denied initially but collected his own rebound and scored. Bengtsson collected the secondary assist on the goal, his first North American point.
Bridgeport responded. They started with a naked two on one, then scored when Bracken Kearns scored to cut it to one. DeSmith made one acrobatic save but could not make a second an the Sound Tigers were on the board.
Two minutes and ten seconds later, J-S Dea scored on a deflection in front that re-established the two goal lead for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.
But the Sound Tigers would score with 26.5 seconds left when Andrew Rowe sweeps in a puck that popped over DeSmith and cut it back to one.
Bridgeport coasted for 13 minutes, got scored on twice and came back and scored two.
Third Period: Garrett Wilson pushed Pat Cullity into Stephon Williams as Williams came out to play a puck cycling around his net. Williams fell down. Tom Kostopoulos scored the easiest goal in his life that made it 4-2 Penguins.
Penguins outshot the Sound Tigers 10-7 in the period and were looking like they were going to cruise to a win. Not so fast, my friend. Josh Winquist scores a tap in back door goal at 14:55 that made it a one goal game again.
But with Williams off with time dwindling his team was never able to find the equalizer.
Three Stars: 3) Jon Landry (two assists, +2) 2) J-S Dea (goal, +1) and 1) Carter Rowney (goal, assist, +1)
It’s the first time all season that an opponent scores more than one goal on Casey DeSmith.
Around the Division: Hershey beats Syracuse 5-1. Bears may be a bit understaffed tomorrow against the Penguins. They may end up seeing players get called up to Washington and may be dealing with a rash of injuries. Utica beats Springfield 5-4 in overtime. Strange game here. Darren Archibald scored in overtime on a goal which was not initially rewarded….Lehigh Valley scores two in the third period to tie it then one in overtime to win it against the Providence Bruins. 4-3 the final there and the Phantoms have won eight straight. Hartford was off.
Wheeling Update: The Nailers were smoked by the Indy Fuel 6-1. Christian Hilbrich scored the only goal for the Nailers. Doug Carr took the loss, stopping 24 of 30.
Video highlights….
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Pens travel to Hershey for a 7:00 date with the Bears. Gameday setup for the blog will be here at 3 p.m.
Comments Off on Four Straight to Get to Seven — Pens LOSE 4-1
Posted by nafsnep on November 16, 2016
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In the third period of a tight game, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms explode for three straight goals and win this one 4-1. It’s the seventh win in a row for the Phantoms, who are edging closer to the Penguins at the top of the Atlantic Division. Lehigh Valley scored four straight goals and have now won seven games in a row.
Anyone looking at just the score line would think that it was a blow out win by the Phantoms and they couldn’t be more wrong.
Third period. Tie game at 1-1. Shot from the point deflects off of Chad Ruhwedel to Greg Carey down low who catches Penguins starting goaltender Tristan Jarry out of position and puts it behind him.
Later in the period, Lukas Bengtsson took an uncalled high stick that briefly stunned him and put him out of position when Taylor Leier scored to make it 3-1.
T.J. Brennan hit an empty net from 180 feet away that made it 4-1 in garbage time.
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. The Penguins probably will never be able to hash out this equation with the Toronto Marlies because they only play them twice this season but with the Phantoms, these two teams meet 11 more times.
It was the aforementioned Tristan Jarry against Alex Lyon.
Lines were…
Garrett Wilson – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Kevin Porter – Jake Guentzel – Dominik Simon
Thomas DiPauli – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Reid Gardiner – J-S Dea – Patrick McGrath
Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Stuart Percy
Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith
Lineup Notes: Today was the 300th AHL game for Kevin Porter. The second game in a row that the ‘GRK’ line was broken up. Garrett Wilson was on the top line with Jake Guentzel centering the second line. Sahir Gill took warmups but was scratched. Tim Erixon is battling a lower body injury and was a scratch.
First Period: No scoring, but both teams did everything but score.
Carter Rowney actually did…
Here's the Rowney no goal. You can see G. Wilson stop and almost try to avoid contact with Lyon: pic.twitter.com/XHO5FAROev
…but it was waved off by referee Alex Garon on account of incidental contact with the goaltender. That player was Garrett Wilson. Tough call to make, but these officials have to allow these goaltenders to play their position.
Tristan Jarry turned away all 16 shots he faced by the Phantoms high powered offense. He was on his game early on. He stopped Scott Laughton point blank after the Penguins failed to score on the only power play in the period.
Second Period: Thomas DiPauli was featured by Coal Street this week, so what does he do to back up the press? Score a dirty goal.
Phantoms then had a chance to go on a power play and Tristan Jarry made a couple of big saves for his team. Colin McDonald whiffed on a rebound laying there before Jarry covered. Penguins got a chance to go on a power play and Chad Ruhwedel struck iron.
Corban Knight scored for the Phantoms on what looked like a lucky goal…
Smidge has a tendency to jump on the table where the computer where I watch the games from. She is here most of the time anyway, so who’s table is it, really?
Taylor Leier scored 54 seconds later…
VIDEO: Taylor Leier goal against the Penguins that made it 3-1. Yes, I talk to my cats. What of it? pic.twitter.com/0f9nxnduCV
Don’t worry. Smidge is 12 years old, which is like 84 in cat years. She’s pretty spry for an octogenarian.
Joking aside, the Phantoms shut down the Penguins power plays that were awarded by referees Chris Schlenker and Alex Garon. If the Penguins score on one or two of them, it’s an entirely different result quite possibly.
T.J. Brennan with army sniper marksmanship on this empty net goal from deep in his own zone iced the game away…
Don't normally shoot video of ENG'a but this is impressive marksmanship by TJ Brennan into an empty Penguin net. pic.twitter.com/8bFGXXn1xA
Before you think the sky is falling, remember that this is just the third time in 14 games where the Penguins have allowed more than two goals.
Three Stars: 3) Greg Carey (game winning goal, +1) 2) Alex Lyon (30 saves on 31 shots) and 1) Corban Knight (goal, +1)
Around the Division: Hershey beats a bad Utica team 4-2 in New York…Hartford battles back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Springfield Thunderbirds 3-2 in a shootout. Bridgeport and Providence were off.
If the Phantoms put up video highlights I will edit those in when I see them. Otherwise, short of anything breaking news wise Thursday look for the next blog update to come Friday for the Gameday setup at 3 p.m. against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Comments Off on First to Ten, Perfect on Sunday’s — Pens WIN 4-1
Posted by nafsnep on November 13, 2016
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It’s gotta be something about Sunday’s.
The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins remain perfect on Sunday afternoon games and are the first team in the American Hockey League to ten wins as they beat the Hartford Wolf Pack by a score of 4-1. Two power play goals in the first period were enough cushion that the Penguins needed to pick up the win.
Here are some more nuggets for you.
Pens are undefeated in the third game of three-in-threes (3-0-0-0) For that matter, unbeaten whenever they played the night before (7-0-0-0)
Thomas DiPauli – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Jake Guentzel – Dominik Simon
Reid Gardiner – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Ryan Haggerty – J-S Dea – Patrick McGrath
Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Stuart Percy
Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith
Lineup Notes: Thomas DiPauli, Reid Gardiner and Patrick McGrath were all in the lineup for the Penguins for Kevin Porter, Sahir Gill and Jarett Burton. Porter, if you were around this afternoon, was suspended for the game. I had words with video on that here. Defensively, Tim Erixon yielded to Stuart Percy. It was the pro debut for Lukas Bengtsson, who took the spot that Ethan Prow had last night. Also, the “Greek” line was busted up. With Porter suspended, Jake Guentzel put in work at second line center.
I don’t know what is up with Reid McNeill and why Donatelli and company keep playing him. Reid had three penalties Saturday night against Providence and looked frustrated. Perhaps there is insulating going on with Ethan Prow, but they should let the rookie play.
Lots of video here with this one, so if you didn’t link in direct, hit the jump.
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