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Atlantic Division Final — Game 4

AHL Game: I4

Who: Hershey Bears

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 7:05 p.m.

Series: Series tied 1-1 (Best of Seven)

Media Kit

Last Game: Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins lost to Hershey in Game 3 by a score of 5-2. Jake Guentzel continued his torrid pace for the Pens in the postseason with a power play goal. Casey DeSmith was pulled after allowing the Bears fifth goal. Chris Bourque finally caught fire, scoring twice.

What to watch for: First goalie on the ice for warmups for Wilkes-Barre. That’s either Tristan Jarry or Casey DeSmith. With the Penguins in a virtual must win game, this is going to be an important piece to the puzzle as to how Game 4 goes.

Referee(s): Jake Brenk / Jon McIsaac

Linesmen: Francois Dussureault / Brandon Gawryletz

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @WBSGameDay / @TheHersheyBears

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /TheHersheyBears

Instagram: wbspenguins / thehersheybears

Beat Writers: @CVSethLakso and @TLTomVenesky

Broadcasters: WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / HER: Scott Stuccio @ScottStuccio

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep / @ChocHockey

Radio: For WBS: WILK News Radio / For Hershey: 1460 The Ticket 

Television: AHL Live

When is Game 5?: Wednesday in Hershey at 7 p.m.

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So far in this series, there has been one turning point. That was when Liam O’Brien charged Dominik Simon in Game 1 earning O’Brien a game suspension and concussing Simon to a point to where he has yet to play in a game since.

The Penguins offense has not been the same. Shutout in a close Game 2 Friday then blown away Saturday night in Game 3 by a score of 5-2.

There could be another turning point. The luster of Casey DeSmith got smudged up a bit in this game and he was pulled in favor of Tristan Jarry in the third period after the Bears had just scored their fifth goal. I tweeted this at the time…

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It remains to be seen who comes out of the tunnel first for the Penguin in Game 4, but you’d be hard pressed if you are Clark Donatelli to turn back to Casey DeSmith when you are trailing in a series down by a game when the opposition has all the momentum with the next game in their house where you haven’t performed well in the postseason. Jarry got this ship to the playoffs, DeSmith got the Penguins this far but Jarry is rested and ready to go. You have to go with Tristan Jarry as your Game 4 starter.

The only lineup changes for the Penguins tonight were Tyler Biggs for Sahir Gill and Niclas Anderson for Ryan Parent.

First Period: Penguins got out of the gate hot, but didn’t score. Pens controlled much of the penalty filled period, but it was the Bears going on the board first when the Penguins couldn’t clear the puck out of the zone. Dustin Gazley scored on the backhand and it was 1-0 Bears.

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Seth with a different perspective on my, “turning point of the series” angle so far.

Second Period: Turning point of this game was a power play that the Penguins had where the puck never cleared the zone and Wilkes-Barre spent the whole 2:00 in with Garrett Mitchell skating without a stick. Bears killed it all.

Then the Pens took a penalty. A face-off win back to the wrong man, Chris Bourque, and it was 2-0 Bears.

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1:36 later, Jakub Varna scored to make it 3-0 Bears. Easy tap in for a goal. Wilkes-Barre got careless after the Bourque goal and it cost them big.

Said this at the time…

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Some intermission points and analysis. If you have the answer, leave it in the comments.

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Third Period: Chris Bourque fired a changeup at DeSmith on a rush and it went in for a 4-0 Bears lead. Then Nic Andersen finally broke the curse of another team not being able to score in the same game in this series and the Pens were on the board…

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But the air that was slowly filling in the Penguins balloon was quickly charged out by Liam O’Brien who scored that made it 5-1. Soft goal to allow by DeSmith and that was all for him. Enter Tristan Jarry who didn’t allow another Bears goal. Jake Guentzel scored this goal on a five-on-three power play that made it 5-2 but the Penguins didn’t get closer…

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Had friend of mine tweet me on Twitter and comment that perhaps Justin Peters’ NHL experience is starting to wear through. Hard to disagree with him. But for the last half of this game, the Penguins have played like the better team in the series but just have been snuffed out by Peters in big moments.

Remainder of the game devolved into a fight fest. If you want to see who got into what, look at the boxscore. I was too in awe at the time of the news of this…

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Three Stars: 3) Jake Guentzel (goal, assist, -1) 2) Chandler Stephenson (three assists, +2) and 1) Chris Bourque (two goals, +1)

So the Penguins are down 2-1 in the best of seven series with Game 4 going Monday. It’s an understatement in saying that the Penguins need to win that game to get it to a Game 6 Friday back in Wilkes-Barre. One team was due for a game like this in a series where the teams are so evenly matched and are bitter rivals in the process. The first team that got caught on the bad end was the Penguins. Whether it happens to the Bears remains to be seen, if it even gets to that point. With each game meaning more, it probably won’t, so who knows.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were pushed to the brink of elimination in Game 5 of the Kelly Cup Eastern Conference Semifinals with a 3-1 loss in Reading to the Royals. Clark Seymour scored the only goal for the Nailers in the loss as the series shifts back to West Virginia for Game 6 on Monday.

If the Pens run a video package I’ll edit those highlights in.

I’ll have an update to my charts sometime Sunday. Happy Mother’s Day to any moms that read the blog, including my own, from her basement.

Let’s Go Pens!

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So the theme of this series so far is, “first team to score, wins.”

Penguins won Game 1 4-0, the Bears win tonight in Game 2 by a score of 2-0. Justin Peters had a 27 save shutout.

Bears did all of their scoring in the second period on easily correctable plays. They got scored on shorthanded (just be better or more conservative) and then Carter Camper scored on a low angle shot that Casey DeSmith didn’t’ seal completely off on.

A goalie makes a mistake at the minor league level. It happens. If DeSmith makes that save, it’s still a 1-0 game and win for the Bears I think. I guess what I am saying is that this series has seven written all over it. These teams are so evenly matched.

Lines were…

Kael Mouillierat – Dustin Jeffrey – Daniel Sprong
Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Mattias Plachta – J-S Dea – Adam Krause
Sahir Gill – Teddy Blueger – Josh Archibald

Ryan Parent – Barry Goers
Tim Erixon – Harrison Ruopp
Will O’Neill – Steve Oleksy

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Sahir Gill was in for the injured Dominik Simon, making his return from injury since February 23. Adam Krause took Simon’s place on the third line and Gill played on the fourth…Niclas Anderson had a baby boy (his wife did all the work) so he was out of the lineup and Steve Oleksy, back from assignment from Pittsburgh, took his place.

First Period: Pens played the Bears to an even first ten minutes then saw the Bears score twice on back to back shots.

Daniel Sprong turned a puck over in his own end on a power play, Dustin Gazley, in for the suspended Liam O’Brien, raced a puck up the ice on a two on one and passed to Sean Collins who danced around DeSmith and scored to make it 1-0 Bears…

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DeSmith’s shutout streak ends at 104:34. He had stopped 58 straight shots. The Penguins have now given up three shorthanded goals in the postseason, tops amongst all teams.

Carter Camper doubled the Bears lead on a far side low angle shot that DeSmith didn’t seal completely off on. A goal that DeSmith wanted back, but it counted nonetheless.

Hershey would find its way onto the power play, but the Penguins killed it, with Tom Kostopoulos playing without a stick for much of the kill.

Shots were 10-5 Bears heading into the…

Second Period: Pens killed an early penalty then Dustin Jeffrey was stopped on a breakaway by Justin Peters…

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Clerk Donatelli was shuffling the lines this period and even at the start of the game, with Gill moving up to the third line and the lines shuffling at every stoppage.

Pens had a power play but did little with it.

Then the Penguins started to come to life at even strength forcing Hershey into an icing call and Troy Mann to use his time out.

But the game can turn on an instant, ad after a too many men on the ice call against Wilkes-Barre, :05 later Steve Oleksy hooked Travis Boyd.

But the Penguins were able to kill off the entire five on three only allowing Hershey just two shots on the long two man advantage. Hershey was looking for the perfect shot and making too many passes.

Ryan Parent went to the room with an apparent lower body injury. The Penguins had a power play that carried over into the…

Third Period: Parent tested out the lower body injury before the teams started the third period but didn’t record a shift. Pens couldn’t score on the carry over power play and did not register a shot on goal. The Bears didn’t register a shot on goal util around the eight minute mark of the period but it was clear that they were content with sitting on the lead and not giving the penguins any chances.

Dustin Jeffrey was snakebitten tonight. He hit a post. But Peters was seeing everything tonight and was stopping deflected pucks, pucks shot through traffic and pucks in a pile of bodies.

Penguins inexperience was starting to show through as Jake Guentzel passed a shot at the top of the offensive zone that was nearly picked off by Sean Collins.

The Penguins, with DeSmith pulled. were never able to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Sean Collins (goal, +1) 2) Carter Camper (goal, +1) 1) Justin Peters (27 save shutout)

Video highlights…

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Game 3 goes off Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre. Gameday setup here on the blog at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!