Comments Off on The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
Posted by nafsnep on March 22, 2017
It’s getting tighter in the Atlantic Division. Remember a few weeks ago when the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had an 11 point lead on second place and the Hershey Bears were floundering around four points out of a playoff spot?
All of that changed, quickly.
The idle Penguins on Wednesday night saw the Lehigh Valley Phantoms beat the St. John’s IceCaps 3-2 in a shootout to draw within a point of the Penguins for the division lead. Wilkes-Barre has 89 points and Lehigh Valley has 88. The Penguins have 12 games left. The Phantoms have 11 after tonight. The Penguins burn off this game in hand that they now have Friday in Syracuse. The Phantoms are back in action Saturday when they host the Penguins.
Wilkes-Barre has 42 ROW, which is regulation or overtime wins, so Lehigh Valley’s win tonight via shootout actually hurts them in the event of a tie in points with the Penguins at the end of the year. Lehigh Valley has 40 ROW.
Do you smell that? I do. It’s the pungent aroma of chocolate and its coming from Hershey. The Bears have won six straight and are all of a sudden four points off the Penguins for the division lead. The Bears biggest problem at this point in time is the fact that they have 10 games left, which is the least amount of all teams in the division. Pens have two games in hand on them and one more head to head. Remember that games in hand don’t mean anything unless you win them.
Hershey heads to St. John’s, Newfoundland for a pair with the IceCaps Saturday and Sunday.
Then there is fourth place Providence. If you ask me they are the team that can surprise all and sneak up and win the division. They have 12 games left and play the Pens, Bears and Phantoms once more time, the Sound Tigers twice more and the rest of their schedule is cupcakes / out of division games.
I have used the “Taking Care of Business” headline before, but that’s exactly what the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins did tonight here against the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Ryan Haggerty’s two goals and Zach Aston-Reese’s professional debut and goal in the first period were what the doctor ordered for a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton team who is holding off a hard charging Atlantic Division as the AHL season hits its final weeks.
The Penguins defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack 5-2 in Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday night.
Casey DeSmith started and was backed up by Tristan Jarry.
Lineup Notes: Derrick Pouliot was reassigned Tuesday morning and Oskar Sundqvist and Frank Corrado were recalled. Story is that Tom Sestito is dealing with an upper body injury, necessitating the Sundqvist recall. Zach Aston-Reese made his highly anticipated professional debut, skating on the top line with Tom Kostopoulos and Kevin Porter. Troy Josephs was back too on the fourth line with Adam Krause, who returned also. Ryan Segalla dressed as the extra man defenseman in warmups.
First Period: Back and forth, run and gun first period by both teams. Penguins came out of the gate flying. Troy Josephs hit a post.
Penguins got behind the Hartford defense and scored twice. Josh Archibald on the first one and Ryan Haggerty on the second one…
But with each goal, Hartford responded to tie the game. Chris Brown left unmarked mid-slot that tied it at one :23 after the Archibald goal and Marek Hrivik shorthanded on a deflection :55 after the Haggerty goal.
So the Penguins needed to score in the final minute and didn’t allow the Wolf Pack to respond right back because you can’t score during intermission.
Meet Zach Aston-Reese.
I told you (well others did, I just put all of their information in a tidy blog piece) about Aston-Reese last week. He scored his first professional goal on a nice pass by Penguins captain Tom Kostopoulos.
Wilkes-Barre would get a power play goal :13 into a Dan Catenacci high sticking penalty when David Warsofsky scored to make it 5-2 and chase Jeff Malcolm.
Enter Mackenzie Skapski. Skapski settled things down for his team, stopping all 10 shots faced in this period and 10 shots in the…
Third Period: Tidy period that saw no scoring. Penguins half pressed with the likes of Troy Josephs and Adam Krause but Skapski would have none of it and the Penguins defense kept it a three goal lead, limiting Hartford to just five shots on goal.
Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (two assists, even) 2) Zach Aston-Reese (goal, even) and 1) Ryan Haggerty (two goals, +1)
Around the Division: Only other game on this Tuesday night was Lehigh Valley on the Rock for the first of two against the IceCaps and St. John’s raced out to a 4-0 lead but Lehigh Valley would storm back and stun the IceCaps (and any fans in the Wyoming Valley pulling for them) and win 5-4 in overtime. These two rematch tomorrow in Newfoundland.
Last Game: Saturday at home against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Penguins lost a close one 3-2. Oskar Sundqvist scored a late shorthanded goal that brought the Penguins to within one. For Hartford, the Wolf Pack were in Hershey this past Saturday and lost 6-4. Taylor Beck scored a goal and assisted on two others in the loss and picked up third star honors.
Last Meeting: March 10 in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins won 8-1. Derrick Poulkiot had a goal and three assists. Barry Goers had two goals and one assist. Taylor Beck scored for Hartford.
Record: For WBS: 42-18-3-0 (87 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division) — For HFD: 21-36-4-2 (48 pts., 8th place Atlantic Division)
Why you should care: Points are at a premium as we are in the final stretch of the season. The Penguins cannot take the Wolf Pack lightly as they gave the Hershey Bears a fight in the two games down in Chocolatetown this past weekend. Two points are for the taking for the Penguins is they stick to the game plan and execute.
Other Game to Watch: Lehigh Valley visits the Rock and take on the St. John’s IceCaps. The IceCaps are trying to fend off a hard charge by the Utica Comets.
Next Five Games: @ SYR 3/24, @ LV 3/25, UTI 3/26, @ SPR 3/31, LV 4/1
Comments Off on Wheeling Wrap 3/21
Posted by nafsnep on March 21, 2017
Tuesday afternoon and that means another look back at the week that was for the ECHL affiliate of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, the Wheeling Nailers!
The season is winding down in the ECHL. Eight games remain for Wheeling, but let’s look back at the last four.
On Wednesday, the Nailers were in Elmira visiting the Jackals for a trip to New York and beat the Jackals 5-4. Gage Quinney had a hat trick, Christian Hilbrich and Brett Stern both had two assists each and Doug Carr picked up the win, stopping 29 of 33 shots. The Nailers went 1-for-5 on the power play.
On Friday, the Nailers visited the Adirondack Thunder for the first of two games with the Thunder on the weekend. The Nailers picked up a big 5-2 win. Cody Wydo picked up a pair of goals and Sean Maguire stopped 32 of 34 shots to pick up the win.
Saturday in the rematch, the Nailers were defeated 5-4 in overtime by the Thunder. Wheeling went up 3-0 on the Thunder before seeing the Thunder storm back for four straight goals, Christian Hilbrich’s goal with :20 left forced overtime. Alex Wall scored with :16 left to give the Thunder the extra point. Wheeling’s newest acquisition Kale Kerbashian picked up three assists. Wheeling struck twice on the power play. Sean Maguire took the overtime loss.
On Sunday, the Nailers bussed back to where their New York trip began in Elmira, and were defeated by the Jackals 6-5 in a wild, back and forth affair. The aforementioned Kale Kerbashian had two goals, Alex Carrier dished out two assists but the Nailers were unable to get the overtime game winner they would have loved on this road trip. Doug Carr took the loss in net for the Nailers and Wheeling went 1-for-5 on the power play.
The Nailers sit in fourth place in the North Division with a 31-25-8-0 record good for 70 points, five points behind the Manchester Monarchs for the fourth and final playoff spot in the division.
This week, the Nailers play host to the Idaho Steeheads, who come in for three games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at Wesbanco Arena.
Week 23 is in the books and we already have a ticket punched to the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs.
They are your number one team in the AHL overall and the number one team again this week, the San Jose Barracuda. San Jose locked up a playoff spot Saturday night.
The team behind them, the San Didego Gulls, should be joining their Pacific Division brethren very soon, as soon as this week in fact.
But there is a team that has been there the most times and has the most hardware which reside in Central Pennsylvania who are rising like a phoenix due to a man named Pheonix. The Hershey Bears are your number three team this week after jumping to third in the ever competitive Atlantic Division.
Oh, but in fourth is the team that has been at the pinnacle of the League’s best Division for months now, and one that the Bears would love to knock off. It’s the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.
I think I have given enough away in this lede, so please jump through if you didn’t link in anywhere direct to see where the other 26 teams and maybe where your favorite team ended up in this weeks rankings.
Comments Off on Stole Ours — Pens LOSE 3-2
Posted by nafsnep on March 18, 2017
vs.
3 2
–
It’s not supposed to be this easy.
If the Penguins would have defeated the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tonight, they would have went seven points clear of second place in the Atlantic Division and probably would have iced away the division championship.
It’s not supposed to be this easy.
A mess of penalties taken by the Penguins put them behind the 8-ball all night, they couldn’t build any momentum, Phantoms get two goals :15 apart in the second and hang on to win 3-2.
A lot will be said about the officiating of the game from referee Peter Tarnaris. I thought he had an okay two periods and then sort of lost control as the game was getting close and chippy in the third. Some of the calls were questionable, the Josh Archibald slash on Anthony Stolarz was abhorrent, but overall it wasn’t the penalties that killed the Penguins. Wilkes-Barre’s penalty kill went 6-for-6.
The AHL will eventually be at a four man crew in 2019 once they have enough capable officials trained. Friday and tonight you had all 30 AHL teams in action meaning at 15 different venues, you needed at least one referee. The AHL isn’t at the level where they can trust 30 referees to work on a night where every team is in action. Also you have to remember that a lot of these referees work in the NHL and ECHL, so that’s something else to consider.
Look, I am not defending the officiating tonight. I am just saying it wasn’t the major reason why the Penguins lost the game.
Tristan Jarry opposed Anthony Stolarz.
Lines were…
Sahir Gill – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Thomas DiPauli – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Troy Josephs – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty
David Warsofsky – Frankie Corrado
Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow
Brett Stern – Barry Goers
Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith
Lineup Notes: Troy Josephs made his pro debut tonight replacing Adam Krause on the fourth line. I personally thought he played well and showed flashes of brilliance in the limited role he had on the fourth line. No other lineup changes for the Penguins.
First Period: Josephs first shift almost netted the Clarkson product a goal as he came dangerously close to tipping in a shot from the point.
Tyrell Goulbourne scored his first goal of the season on a nice shot that made it 1-0 Lehigh Valley at 6:01.
Penguins had a lot of runs up the ice shorthanded all night with Oskar Sundqvist leading the charge. This time, he couldn’t get a shot off.
Penguins had to kill two different sequences of 5-on-3 Phantoms power play time and did successfully, here in the first for :51.
Second Period: It was :15 that put the Penguins down in a hole they couldn’t get out of.
Tristan Jarry was knocked down by a teammate, couldn’t get back on his skates when Reece Willcox scored to make it 2-0. On the next play Danick Martel made it 3-0 on a turn around shot that went in.
The rout was on. Or was it?
Wilkes-Barre would go on to outshoot the Phantoms 21-8 in the period but still could not solve Stolarz. In this period, the Phantoms took three penalties to the Penguins one, but Wilkes-Barre was unable to get one past the Lehigh Valley goaltender.
Third Period: Tom Kostopoulos bangs one in on a rebound to put the Penguins on the board early in the third on a power play goal.
Penguins found themselves down two men again when they had to kill :52 of Phantoms two man advantage. This was the sequence where Archibald was called for slashing on Anthony Stolarz. Here’s Penguins Head Coach Clark Donatelli’s thoughts on this play as told to Tom postgame….
Donatelli: I don't think he hit him that hard that he spun him like an umbrella in a 360 and he falls down like a building.
Tarnaris was a good 80 feet away from the play, working by himself, saw something and needed to make a call in the split second. Was it the right call? I don’t think so, but again, these officials are drilled to protect the goaltenders at all costs.
Oskar Sundqvist scored shorthanded on a separate penalty kill to bring the Penguins to within one…
The Penguins then got a power play late with under two minutes to play. But, after a time out and with Jarry pulled for the extra man, were never able to find the equalizer.
Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, even) 2) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, -1) 1) Chris McCarthy (two assists, +2)
Around the Division: Hershey beats Hartford 6-4 at home. They bus to Bridgeport overnight for a huge Sunday afternoon meeting against the Sound Tigers…the aforementioned Sound Tigers beat Utica 4-1 to stay two points out of a playoff spot. Providence beat Springfield 4-2.
Comments Off on RAPID RECAP – Pens LOSE 3-2
Posted by nafsnep on March 18, 2017
It’s not supposed to be this easy.
If the Penguins would have defeated the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tonight, they would have went 7 points clear of second place in the Atlantic Division and probably would have iced away the division championship.
It’s not supposed to be this easy.
A mess of penalties taken by the Penguins put them behind the 8-ball all night, they couldn’t build any momentum, Phantoms get two goals :15 apart in the second and hang on to win 3-2.
More in a bit. I like this lede enough that I’m going to use the first four paragraphs above in the actual game story later.
vs. 
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 