No silly headlines for games which don’t count. No box score either.

Wilkes-Barre wins its preseason opener on the road up in Rochester by a score of 4-3.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. David Leggio. Starters for WBS were Dumolin – Sneep and Uher – Chupp – Payerl. Riley Holzapfel wore the lone “A”

First Period: Penguins found themselves on penalty kill early. Brian Gibbons had a shorthanded chance twice in one kill. Penguins created enough pressure which lead to at least four Penguin odd man rushes. Paul Thompson scored the first goal of the preseason skating out of a corner and firing up on Leggio then whacking twice and finally by the Amerks netminder for the 1-0 lead. Penguins had a late 5-on-3 but weren’t able to score.

Second Period: Brian Gibbons had another shorthanded chance. Later, Jayson Megna scored to make it 2-0 Penguins off a rebound from a Brian Dumoulin shot which hit the post. Amerks fired right back getting two power play goals from Luke Adam and Phil Varone.

Third Period: Patrick Killeen took over for Zatkoff. Uneventful opening fifteen minutes. Adam Payerl scored to make it 3-2. His initial shot was blocked, rebound right back to him and he fired it through a crowd. Rochester pulled Leggio with under a minute. Philip Samuelsson would sit for delay of game putting the Amerks up 6-on-4. Brian Gibbons, from his own faceoff dot 160′ away, buries an emptynetter to make it 4-2. It would serve as the game winning goal as Brayden McNabb would score with :02 left.

Three stars were 3) Mark Pysyk (RCH) 2) Adam Payerl (WBS) and 1) Mark Mancari (RCH) — I have no idea what the thought process was in naming Pysyk and Mancari stars, as they weren’t mentioned at all tonight, but again it’s only preseason.

The two teams rematch Friday in Wilkes-Barre.

Other news to note:

–> Observer Jason B. chirped in and mentioned that the nets weren’t anchored in tonight. Interesting.

–> The Wheeling Nailers announced a training camp roster.

–> Norfolk signed tough guy Jay Rosehill to a PTO. Fellow blogger Ken Peacock who runs Vultures Row, has details.

Many thanks to the descriptive tweets of Mike O’Brien and Kevin Oklobzjia which, without, this summary would have read, “Pens win 4-3, thanks and good night.”

Penguins valiant in defeat, bow out of the 2012 Calder Cup Playoffs 3-2 in seven games to the St. John’s Ice Caps.

Penguins played out of a hole all game long, stymied by losing their shut down defenseman Robert Bortuzzo early in the first period due to injury. Tom Grace mentioned post game that Bortuzzo was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes the WBS way. Kevin Clark was in for Carl Klingberg on the STJ side.

First Period: Pens looked fatigued, having played two straight must win games. Paul Postma rung the post. First ten minutes was all IceCaps. Bortuzzo got boarded hard. He went to the room, returned, and John Albert stepped by him, dished to Ray Sawada who scored to make it 1-0 IceCaps. Thiessen really kept the score lower that what it should have been.

Second Period: Eric Tangradi sprung Ryan Craig who scored on a breakaway to even things at one. Then, Brian Gibbons took an interference call and in the ensuing IceCaps power play, Aaron Gagnon scored when he centered it and it banked off of Alex Picard’s skate.

Third Period: Aaron Gagnon again. 3-1 St. John’s. Penguins chased and chased and chased this period. Finally, Ben Street was boarded, and Colin McDonald would score the last goal of the season to bring it to 3-2, but your, my, OUR Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were never able to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Eric Tangradi (two assists, +1) 2) John Albert (assist, +1) and 1) Aaron Gagnon (two goals, +1)

The St. John’s IceCaps are off to face the Norfolk Admirals in the Eastern Conference Finals opening Thursday in Hampton Roads.

Blog content now will be scarce unless someone from St. John’s, Norfolk, Oklahoma City or Toronto wants to hire a WBS Penguin blogger to cover a game or two. I’m cheap. I work for free.

Jonathan Bombulie will likely have the UFA / RFA chart organization wide which I will piggy back on and offer here on the blog. Watch for any signings this year too as I’ll closely document the movement in the offseason.

Firmly believe and will continue to believe that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will have her day of reckoning one day. That day is not today, or tomorrow. Here’s hoping it is sooner than we think.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins ride a strong third period with a muck goal from Zach Sill and a sick goal from Paul Thompson to force a decisive Game 7 tomorrow in St. John’s, winning 4-2.

Game 7 is tomorrow at 6 p.m. Wilkes-Barre time.

Before we get to the recap, I want to share with you a quote from Ryan Craig from this mornings Morning Skate that beat writer Jonathan Bombulie shared in the chat today:

“I think we’re loose. We had a good skate yesterday. It was nice to get in here the day before and have a practice. We had a team meal last night and we’re focused and ready to go. Our focus is only about tonight’s game and our start and trying to build off that.”

“It’s just guys individually sticking to their foundations as a player and doing the things they’ve done throughout the year. We practice hard. We’ve been put in positions. We’ve been challenged all year. It leads to this challenge we face now. We look forward to the game tonight.”

When I was wrapping up my chat with Craig, I told him I thought it was a good idea to talk to the captain on the morning of a big game like this to sort of take the temperature of the room. He said, “Sure. No problem. I’ll see you here at this same time tomorrow.”

If that quote was a woman, I would marry it, I love it that much.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes the WBS way. For St. John’s, Arturs Kulda was back in and so was Marco Rosa for Mark Scheifele and Jason DeSantis.

First Period: Jason Williams would open the scoring on the power play by firing a shot off of Spencer Mahachek’s stick. About halfway into the first there was a break and the IceCaps came out firing on all cylinders with chance after chance after chance.

Second Period: Penguins came out flat, and the IceCaps capitalized. After Eric Tangradi took a high sticking call, Paul Postma would fire a puck in from the blueline which would deflect off of Patrice Cormier’s stick and in to even things. Joey Mormina would take a delay of game penalty. The Penguins would kill it. Brian Gibbons would take a questionable trip and Raymond Sawada would waste no time in pushing the IceCaps out ahead 2-1. Then a flurry of penalties to close out the second. In the last minute, Cal O’Reilly would score on a power play to even things at two leading into the….

Third Period: All of the carryover penalties would expire. The Penguins really only got one good shot off during the entire sequence. Then, the Penguins fourth line of Ryan Craig, Zach Sill and Geoff Walker saved the day. Walker fired a shot on net at Pasquale, and Zach Sill swept it in and home past the IceCaps net minder. Then the Penguins chewed up the clock with solid offensive zone time. With under five minutes to go, Paul Thompson stole a puck and flew up the left wing and backhanded a puck in past Pasquale five-hole. St. John’s would pull Pasquale, get a power play via an Alex Picard interference call but no goals came and the Penguins claw back and even the series and force a decisive Game 7.

Three Stars: 3) Derek Meech (assist, -1) 2) Zach Sill (game winning goal, +1) and 1) Brad Thiessen (29 saves on 31 shots)

Gameday for Game Seven will be up tomorrow on the blog at 2:00 p.m.

I have no idea what is going on in the Game 6 between Connecticut and Norfolk, in a game that the Whale need to win to extend that series to a seventh game. Here is the boxscore.

The hashtag on Twitter is #WBSPensIn7 – that is, we are here now at the seventh game. That still can’t be enough. We need to win one more. Now, there is no tomorrow for both teams. Expect one for the ages tomorrow.

Let’s Go Pens!

EDIT: Here’s video highlights from @EricP55 from the Pensblog:

It’s not going to be a race, really. The teams are going to charter back to Newfoundland on Thursday, but it’s past my bedtime. I don’t care, the Penguins are still alive in the playoffs! Simon Despres ended it in double overtime on a backhander of a rebound he created and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are still alive and well after a thrilling double overtime 3-2 victory.

You will hear me beat this drum from now until the series is over: These two teams are evenly matched. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out when you have three consecutive games go into overtime. The games have been decided on bounces. The Penguins finally found one that went their way for once.

Game 6 is Friday.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes for WBS. For St. John’s, Jason DeSantis was in for the injured Arturs Kulda.

First Period: That thing I said earlier about bounces? St. John’s got the biggest bounce in the history of bounces when a routine Jason King clear from the top of the left circle in the St. John’s zone was cleared by King along the wall. The puck travels down as if it were intermission and you have a “shoot from center ice into the clowns mouth” contests. The puck hops Thiessens stick at the top of the crease and into the net to give the St. John’s IceCaps the softest, slowest goal you will ever see at this level of professional hockey. Later, St. John’s appears to have scored again but they kicked the puck in and it was disallowed. This first period was all IceCaps.

Second Period: Mr. Moe Mentum changed his address to a Wilkes-Barre one as this period was all Penguins. When the sides were four on four, Paul Thompson picked off a St. John’s clearing bid and roofed one over Pasquale to knot the score at one. St. John’s would get a power play but never get a single shot in on Thiessen. The Pens dominated this period, allowing just three IceCaps shots.

I tweeted this at the end of the period. Using it here because sometimes I admire tweets:

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Third Period: Jason Williams feeds Alex Grant at the high slot and Grant lasered it past Pasquale to put the Pens out ahead 2-1. Eleven seconds later, Geoff Walker took a holding call. Paul Postma shot from the blue line and scored, even though I thought I heard a tip in front and the IceCaps evened it at two. Penguins then looked to not go to over time. Alex Grant buzzed a post, Paul Thompson was stopped in the slot, Ben Street had a good chance. Then, Brad Thiessen got bloodied by Simon Despres’ stick. Trainer Patrick Steidle could not stop the bleeding so enter Scott Munroe. Munroe made two shaky saves before Thiessen re-entered. Observers said that Thiessen looked possessed after that. Ben Street nearly ended it late but it was off to…

Overtime: IceCaps came in on a two on one but did not score. Chances back and forth but it was headed to…

Second Overtime: Longest AHL playoff game of the season, third longest WBS playoff game in team history, at 12:08 of the second overtime, Simon Despres fired a shot from the left circle then chased his own rebound and backhanded it past Pasquale to send the Penguins back to Newfoundland on Friday.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Grant (goal, +1) 2) Paul Thompson (goal, +1) and 1) Simon Despres (game winning double overtime goal, +2)

Notes: Dogged Ben Street on Twitter and here. He had two assists tonight. Philip Samuelsson did not see overtime ice.

Penguins will charter a flight to St. John’s with the IceCaps Thursday.

If you are on Twitter, do the following: Use #WBSPensIn7 as a hashtag and follow me if you aren’t already. We can do this. Still miles to go. St. John’s is going to come out full of vim and vigor looking to end it on Friday at home in front of a sold out crowd. Penguins are out to play world beaters. As far as content goes between then and now, I have no idea what I am running or could run. I think I may have some fun with numbers like I said I would after Game 4. So why don’t we do that. I’ll dive into the numbers and put up a post probably tomorrow or Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!

Today’s game could be summed up by the following: The Penguins were great in the first period, off to a 2-0 start before the period was 7:00 old. The IceCaps were great in the second period, bringing things level at 2-2 when the period ended. Both teams were great in the third period which forced overtime, which didn’t take long. Ben Maxwell scored just :27 in and the IceCaps have a 3-2 win and a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Game 5 will be Tuesday night in Wilkes-Barre. If the Pens want to live to see Wednesday, they will need to win. The IceCaps will want to finish it and rest bodies. They say the toughest game to win is the put away game. You all saw what happened to Hershey when they were down 0-2 in the best of five. They won the next two and lost in a decisive Game Five. The Penguins need to win three straight or it’s another year and no Cup. Can they do it? Absolutely. Will they? Remains to be seen.

These two teams are so evenly matched. It could easily be 3-1 Penguins or dead even and now a best of three.

In reality, it isn’t. The Penguins need to dig deep. Real deep. Deeper than they have ever dug, deep if they want to advance.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes either way.

First Period: Colin McDonald shuffled around a man and went high glove on Pasquale and scored on the first shot of the game. Then, Geoff Walker and Eric Tangradi worked a give and go and Tangradi was able to slip it past Pasquale while diving to lunge for the puck on the second shot of the game. Some push back from the IceCaps. The Penguins got a power play they couldn’t score on. Late, a Paul Postma shot struck Thiessen squarely in the mask.

Second Period: Derek Meech scored from the blue line when Brian Gibbons was in the box for a slash call to cut the lead in half. Maxime Macenauer redirected a Paul Postma slap pass past Thiessen when the iceCaps were really pressuring late to even things at two. This was probably the worst period of hockey the Penguins played because they seemed overmatched and tentative. IceCaps took advantage and evened the score.

Third Period: Really back and forth, thrill a minute hockey. Few whistles, lots of hitting, every puck chipped in was earned for. No scoring or penalties and it was off to…

Overtime: I heard Tom Grace in the post game say that the Penguins lost two face-offs, and the latter ultimately costing them in a scrum in front of Thiessen in which Ben Maxwell was able to shoot past Thiessen.

Three Stars: 3) Derek Meech (goal, -1) 2) Maxime Macenauer (goal, +1) 1) Ben Maxwell (overtime game winning goal, assist, -1)

St. John’s outshot the Penguins 29-16.

Not going to recap or mention what Connecticut or Norfolk are doing in Game 3 of that series, which is tied 1-1. If you want, here is the box score.

No idea on content for Monday. Check out Jonathan Bombulie’s blog for updates on that side and me on Twitter, regurgitating what he may have to say about personnel.

Game 5 is Tuesday. Get ready.

Let’s Go Pens!

vs. 

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Eastern Conference Semifinal – Game 4

AHL Game: J4

Who: St. John’s IceCaps

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 4:05 p.m.

Series: STJ leads 2-1 (best of seven)

Media Kit

Last Game: Last night at home, the Pens lost in overtime 2-1. Brock Trotter scored both goals for the IceCaps and Eric Tangradi scored with 1:02 left in the third to force overtime.

What to Watch For: More of the same for the Penguins, just hopefully this time with more offense. I documented last night the slow starts to both Bryan Lerg and Ben Street’s postseason campaigns (1-2-3 between the both of them) – so if the Penguins should happen to win this game and even the series, one or both could play a part in doing so.

Referees: Graham Skilliter / Darcy Burchell

Linesmen: Scott Pomento / Tom George

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @IceCapsAHL

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie / @telybrendan

Broadcasters: WBS: Tom Grace @TGracePens and Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / STJ: Brain Rogers

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep

Radio: For WBS: 102.3 The Mountain / For St. John’s: CJYQ 930

Television: AHL Live

When is Game 5?: Tuesday night in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05 p.m.

Brock Trotter is becoming a pest to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. He has four goals in the series. A series which has a total of 8 goals for the IceCaps and 7 goals for the Penguins. He scored the overtime game winner to put the IceCaps out ahead of the Penguins 2-1 and giving St. John’s a 2-1 lead in the series.

Penguins only held St. John’s to 18 shots on goal all game, including zero in the second period. Goaltender Eddie Pasquale was in a word, astonishing for the IceCaps this evening.

Pasquale vs. Brad Thiessen – no lineup changes for the Penguins. For the IceCaps Marco Rosa and Jason DeSantis were out and Maxime Macenauer and Zach Redmond were in.

First Period: Thiessen has to make some saves early, as the IceCaps came out with a bit of a jump in their step. Penguins had a few chances on Pasquale but he held them out. Late, a Zach Redmond slap pass to Brock Trotter beat Thiessen to put St. John’s on the board 1-0.

Second Period: You already know that the IceCaps did not have a single registered shot on goal on Thiessen. But this is not where the game was won for the Penguins. The IceCaps took three consecutive penalties, including two which put the Penguins on two separate 5-on-3’s. Cal O’Reilly had a sure goal which Pasquale somehow made a save on. Eric Tangradi and Geoff Walker got blown down on an offsides where they were attacking 2-on-1.

Third Period: Eric Tangradi was robbed by Eddie Pasquale when Pasquale somehow got a leg out across of where Tangradi was going to put the puck in the net. But, with 1:02 left in the game and with Thiessen on the bench, he would finally tuck one past Pasquale to even the score at one heading into…

Overtime: Penguins got the better of the chances. But, St. John’s would come in on a two on one crash and score. Guess who? Brock Trotter again.

The eventual St. John’s game winner was set up by the pinching of Philip Samuelsson. He let a man get by him and then the Penguins chased the length of the ice and got scored on. Need to be more disciplined than that, especially in overtime.

Three Stars: 3) Brad Thiessen (16 saves on 18 shots) 2) Eddie Pasquale 28 saves on 29 shots and 1) Brock Trotter (two goals, +2)

St. John’s has a 2-1 series lead in the best of seven with Game 4 coming tomorrow afternoon in Wilkes-Barre at 4:05.

I’ll end this recap with a game I just made up called “Pessimist / Optimist”

Pessimist: Anytime that Ben Street (8 GP, 1-0-1, -1) and Bryan Lerg (8 GP, 0-2-2, -2) want to show up in these Calder Cup Playoffs would be fine by this writer. They have pretty much been offensively invisible this postseason.

Optimist: Hold a team to 18 shots on goal, with none in the second period, and you will wear them down. One question which begs answering is whether or not Eddie Pasquale played his best game of the series tonight or not?

We find out I guess tomorrow at 4:05 p.m. Gameday up here on the blog at 12:05 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!