Last Game: Last night at home against Springfield, the Pens lost 1-0. Reto Berra made 23 saves and the Thunderbirds blocked a boatload of shots. For Syracuse, they hosted Utica and lost 5-4. The Comets cashed on the two power plays awarded. Gabriel Dumont was named first star of the game with two goals and an assist.
Record: For WBS: 1-1-0-0 (2 pts., 3rd place Atlantic Division) — For SYR: 2-1-0-0 (4 pts., 3rd place North Division)
Why you should care: Crunch were in a track meet last night with the Comets and lost. Penguins were in a defensive battle last night with the Thunderbirds last night and lost. Does fast and loose prevail or is the team that is better on defense win tonight?
I’m not a journalist, but games like these must be fun for those guys whose names you see in the paper after every Penguins game. Tom and Seth must love games like these.
Goaltender battle where there isn’t anything out of the ordinary extracurricular wise that steals away from the main game story. Player A scores the only goal for Team A and Team B can’t do anything to get a puck past Team A. Quotes on how guys fought hard and will take a positive out of giving up just one goal in a loss fills out whatever space the copy editor back at the sports desk allows for that night.
A 1-0 Springfield Thunderbirds win tonight. A seemingly harmless Ryan Horvat shot in the first period that Tristan Jarry can make a save on in his sleep gets by. Reto Berra stops all 23 shots sent his way and the Thunderbirds steal one in Wilkes-Barre.
One thing I noticed in stark contrast to the Hartford game last Saturday was Springfield’s speed. The Wolf Pack seemed stuck in mud all game and the Penguins ran circles around them. Not tonight. It was Springfield that took it to the Penguins early.
Reto Berra opposed Tristan Jarry.
Lines were…
Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – J-S Dea
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Reid Gardiner – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty
Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Stuart Percy – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Tim Erixon
Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith
David Warsofsky was recalled by Pittsburgh earlier in the day. Derrick Pouliot was placed on injured reserve. The Penguins swapped out Patrick McGrath up front for Reid Gardiner, making his pro debut, and Warsofsky for Reid McNeill.
First Period: Thunderbirds jump all over the Penguins from the start, outshooting them 8-2. Then Ryan Horvat scores on his lucky shot that Jarry doesn’t get the pad down on and lets in for a 1-0 Thunderbirds lead.
Penguins get a penalty kill, it was perfect this evening, and get some jump from the success of the kill but aren’t able to manufacture a goal.
Second Period: Berra’s best save of the night came in full splits with the glove from a Stuart Percy blast from the blue line ticketed for the back of the net. Later, Cameron Gaunce was roughed giving the Penguins a power play. I thought at the time that it had the feel of a turning point, but Springfield blocked a ton of shots in the game.
Tristan Jarry made tremendous saves giving his team the opportunity to tie the game. I said in the Rapid Recap that I felt he was the better of the two goaltenders this evening despite the loss.
Third Period: The biggest thing to happen in this period was Josh Archibald leaving the ice after taking a puck to the mouth. The update after the game was that he was cut, and should be fine, as told to the WBS media.
Berra made one save at the buzzer with Jarry vacated for the extra man off of a deflection which would hav =e counted, but the Penguins never found the equalizer.
Three Stars: 3) Tristan Jarry (22 saves on 23 shots) 2) Ryan Horvat (goal, +1) and 1) Reto Berra (23 save shutout)
Around the Division: Bridgeport beats Lehigh Valley 5-2. Sound Tigers struck three times in the second and twice in the third….St. John’s, after starting the season 0-3, spent all week in Providence this week and beat the Bruins 4-1. Hartford and Hershey were off.
Standings: Early days, but Springfield and Bridgeport with 4 points each, Wilkes-Barre, Hartford, Lehigh Valley and Providence with 2 and Hershey with 0.
Wheeling Update: Nailers were off. They are in Cincinnati Saturday.
If the Pens run a video highlight package tonight, I’ll edit it in here. There were no fights, so I don’t know what, other than the Horvat fluke goal and maybe a few saves from Berra and Jarry, they can come up with. It would make a blogger happy though.
Gameday setup for Saturday’s game against Syracuse hits the blog Saturday at 3.
Comments Off on RAPID RECAP – Pens LOSE 1-0
Posted by nafsnep on October 21, 2016
A seemingly harmless turnaround shot by Ryan Horvat in the first period of this game somehow eludes Tristan Jarry to give the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead, and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins can’t get any quality shots at Springfield goaltender Reto Berra and lose 1-0.
Shots were 23-23. Springfield must have blocked double that. Berra was good when he needed to be, but Jarry was better. I know that doesn’t make sense because he took the loss but he kept his team in the game, they just could not do anything for him in the offensive category.
Last Game: Saturday in the home opener, the Penguins beat the Hartford Wolf Pack 6-2. Josh Archibald scored the first goal of the season for the Penguins, Jake Guentzel had four points. For Springfield, they were in Bridgeport last Sunday and won 2-1. Reto Berra stopped 17 of 18 shots and was named first star of the game. The Thunderbirds missed on two penalty shots, :37 apart.
Record: For WBS: 1-0-0-0 (2 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division) — For SPR: 1-1-0-0 (2 pts., 3rd place Atlantic Division)
Why you should care: The Penguins rolled the Hartford Wolf Pack last Saturday. They will be looking to do the same against a Springfield Thunderbirds team that is still looking to find it sea legs. You can’t underestimate Springfield, but the Penguins should be ready for the challenge.
Promotion(s): November Magnetic Schedule (First 5,000), Postgame Autographs
Other Game to Watch: I like Binghamton / Albany. The Devils obliterated their competition last weekend and the B-Sens shut out the Hershey Bears last Saturday. Could be an interesting matchup.
Next Five Games: SYR 10/22, @ HER 10/23, ALB 10/26, @ SPR 10/29, SYR 10/30
Comments Off on Wheeling Wrap 10/18
Posted by nafsnep on October 18, 2016
I am debuting a new feature on the blog on Tuesday called, “Wheeling Wrap” where I take a look at the week that was surrounding the Penguins ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers.
The Nailers were in action just once this past weekend and raised their Eastern Conference Championship banner Saturday night at home against the Brampton Beast. They also kicked off their 25th season.
David Vallorani would open the scoring for the visitors at 4:26 of the first period. The Nailers would answer back in the second period when Josh Shalla would score the first goal of the season for the Nailers at 9:13 of the second period.
Wheeling would edge ahead of the Beast in the third period with a goal by Darryl Lloyd.
Luke Pither would answer at just about half way for the Beast at 9:59 for the Beast that made it a 2-2 game. Pither would later win the game for his team in overtime, beating Nailers starting goaltender Doug Carr at 3:27 of overtime. Carr would stop 30 of 33 shots in the overtime loss.
Neither team capitalized on the power play.
The Nailers are 0-0-1-0 very early on in the North Division, a division that consists of six teams. Adirondack, Reading, Brampton, Manchester and Elmira all are in the same division with the Nailers this season.
Wheeling plays host to the Reading Royals this Thursday before traveling to Cincinnati to take on the Cyclones Saturday night.
It’s the first weekend of AHL hockey for the 2016-17 season and the Week 1 AHL Power Rankings are due.
If you are new to this, it’s one guys attempt at ranking all the AHL teams, 1-30. It runs all season on Monday at 4 p.m. most times, right here on the blog.
In this weeks version, the defending champs sit at the top of the mountain after raising a banner and beating a division rival.
The Eastern Conference runner ups and their closest competition are 2 and 3 this week.
Every team played a game this week except for the Bakersfield Condors, who are ranked, you just have to find them.
I won’t keep you. The Rankings begin after the jump if you didn’t link in direct.
For the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, this was about as complete a game you will find.
Yes, I realize it is the first game, but these points matter as much in October as they do in January when you are slogging with half of your offense either hurt or on recall and defenders coming in on PTO’s and a bus load of Wheeling guys playing on a Wednesday night in Wilkes-Barre.
Penguins win this one 6-2. All of the players you come to expect to have big games did. Jake Guentzel had a four point night (1-3-4) but Oskar Sundqvist stole the show. Easily the best player on the ice by far tonight, Sundqvist was making all the plays you would expect of someone that spent the late part of last season in the NHL and in playoffs.
It was what appeared to be a knee on knee hit by Tanner Glass that took Sundqvist out of the game in the second period. He returned for the start of the third but went back to the room and was not seen the rest of the night when the game was already well decided for the Penguins. Penguins head coach Clark Donatelli on Sundqvist’s status…
Donatelli gives an update on Oskar Sundqvist. "He should be fine." Considers him day-to-day right now.
Penguins are back in action next Friday when they host the Springfield Falcons Thunderbirds.
Tristan Jarry opposed Mackenzie Skapski.
Lines were…
Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – J-S Dea
Scott Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Patrick McGrath – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty
Cameron Gaunce – Chad Ruhwedel
Stuart Percy – Steve Oleksy
David Warsofsky – Tim Erixon
Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith
First Period: Relentless pressure to open by the Penguins. Josh Archibald scored the first goal of the season for the Penguins with a nifty backhand after he snuck past the Hartford defenders who were out of whack the whole night by their own right.
There were a lot of unsung heroes in this game and Tristan Jarry was one of them. He won’t garner much attention because of the offensive explosion put on by the Penguins tonight but his saves kept his team in the game when they needed him to. Example: After the Penguins scored, Hartford broke in on a 3-on-1 and Jarry closed the door on them and made the save. What could have been a back and forth offensive affair just wasn’t because of the key saves made by Jarry throughout the night.
Penguins were skating the Wolf Pack in circles. It was really refreshing and fun to see.
Jarry was needed again when he stopped a Marek Hrivik breakaway after a giveaway by Dominik Simon.
Later, after a successful Penguins penalty kill, Nicolas Jensen put home an excellent turnaround shot that beat Jarry that tied the game at one.
The period ended tied, but don’t let the scoreline fool you, the Penguins dominated the period but were beat by a great shot by Jensen that made it look closer than it appeared heading into the…
Second Period: Pens stepped on the gas and accelerated away from the Wolf Pack and put the game away.
Carter Rowney on the power play. Perfect screen by Ryan Haggerty and great shot by Carter putting the puck where the goalie can’t see it. 2-1 Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.
Oskar Sundqvist with an excellent power move that made it 3-1. Stuart Percy spinned off of a Hartford defender, fed Sundqvist who went straight to the crease and backhanded one in past Skapski for a 3-1 lead. Sundqvist went to the dirty area and cashed.
Sundqvist would later leave the game after a nasty collision with Tanner Glass. Here is slow motion video I took of the hit on Sundqvist by Glass off of AHL Live Sunday morning…
VIDEO: Slow motion replay of the Tanner Glass hit on Oskar Sundqvist 10-15 vs. Hartford. pic.twitter.com/u4f7HkyYNi
Pens could have responded with another fight, hung their heads or started making errors. Guentzel literally takes the puck off of the face off, skates in, its tripped, shoots in mid-air and while tumbling to the ice and scores to make it 4-1 Penguins and essentially ices the game away right there.
Third Period: Oskar Sundqvist returned to the game and played a bit in the third period before being taken off the ice when the game was already decided.
Period started with another big save by Jarry. He makes the initial save, leaves a rebound and gets over in time to deny the Wolf Pack a goal.
J-S Dea would find the back of the net on a defection of a Tim Erixon shot that made it 5-1 Penguins.
Patrick McGrath fought Tanner Glass for the hit earlier on Sundqvist:
That was McGrath’s second fight of the game and in today’s AHL that gets you ejected. McGrath has 8 more fights now before he is suspended.
I don’t like this rule. It totally allows for stuff like what happened to Sundqvist to go unanswered. You want to make the game safer? Call a penalty on Glass for the hit on Sundqvist (there wasn’t) and get Glass out of the game as soon as the hit happens. Fine and suspend for dangerous play. But no, police the game the wrong way by telling Patrick McGrath that he can no longer defend the valor of his teammates because he has fought twice in the game.
And if you are going to tell me that McGrath has no place in the game, I will tell you that Patrick himself had a hell of a showing for himself. He forechecked, caused turnovers and was generally raising (legal) hell out there tonight.
McGrath on his night and whether he knows about the 10 fight rule…
McGrath had 2 fights and 22PMs, and yes, he's aware of the 10 fight rule:"A little shotgun start there. I know the rule so it will be good."
David Warsofsky scored on a power play that made it 6-1 Penguins. Wilkes-Barre was perfect on the penalty kill tonight (6/6) and perfect on the power play (2/2)
Tristan Jarry let in a late one on a lucky sequence featuring Matt Carey. Carey had a breakaway, Jarry made the initial stop. The puck hit the post back to Carey who banked the puck off of Jarry and in to make it a 6-2 game.
The 6-2 win tonight was the #WBSPenguins' greatest margin of victory in a season opener since 2005 when they beat Bridgeport, 8-1, at home.
Three Stars: 3) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, assist, +2) 2) Carter Rowney (goal, assist, even) and 1) Jake Guentzel (goal, three assists, +3)
Around the Division: Bridgeport beat Providence 2-1 in their home opener. The P-Bruins are a surprising 0-2 to start the season…Binghamton shuts out Hershey 3-0 in their home opener. The Bears are an even more surprising 0-2….Lehigh Valley beats Springfield 4-2 in game that featured 15 power plays.
Standings: Pens / Wolf Pack and Phantoms will all lead the division with two points a piece. Everyone else is sitting on a big zero.
Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost in their home opener 3-2 in overtime to the Brampton Beast. I will link the box once the ECHL gremlins work their way out.
Video Highlights:
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Pens are in action next Friday. I will have the Week 1 AHL Power Rankings on the blog Monday at 4, a new feature called the “Wheeling Wrap” on Tuesday at noon and any newsworthy bits on the blog during the week.
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WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 