Comments Off on RAPID RECAP Pens LOSE 5-2
Posted by nafsnep on May 7, 2016
The Hershey Bears re-claim home ice in the best of seven series with a 5-2 win tonight here in Wilkes-Barre Saturday night. Hershey takes a 2-1 series lead with Game 4 set for Monday in Wilkes-Barre.
Casey DeSmith was pulled after allowing five goals. While the first two weren’t his fault and maybe the third, big saves needed by the goaltender were not had when the game was still within striking distance.
Penguins scored twice in the third period after the game was well out of reach for them.
Questions remains as to who starts Game 4. The Penguins are not out of the series by any stretch of the imagination, but the my cannot afford another showing like this if they want to get this to a Game 6 or beyond.
Last Game: Last night in Hershey in Game 2 the Pens lost 2-0. Justin Peters had a 27 save shutout. Sean Collins scored shorthanded and then Carter Camper scored on the next shot of the game that made it 2-0.
What to watch for: First goal wins tonight, right? Both teams have been shutout so far in this series. The Pens still have home ice in this series and must take advantage tonight in Game 3. You can argue that the Penguins have been the better team in the series and not be wrong.
Comments Off on Whitewashed — Pens LOSE 2-0
Posted by nafsnep on May 6, 2016
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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…
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…
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.
Last Game: Wednesday in Game 1 at Hershey the Penguins won 4-0. It was their 1o0th postseason win and the shut out of the Bears was the first time they ever blanked the Bears in the postseason in franchise history. It was only the second time that the Penguins had ever won at Giant Center in the playoffs. Daniel Sprong scored twice, Casey DeSmith made 33 saves.
What to watch for: Adjustments for the Bears. Will we see Dan Ellis in net tonight for Hershey? How many lineup changes to they make? The Bears, with home ice and the Division Champions, will be playing as the more desperate team because they do not want to fall in an 0-2 hole as the series shifts to Wilkes-Barre Saturday at Monday for Games 4 and 5.
For what it’s worth, Simon did not practice Thursday in Hershey for what Clark Donatelli told the WBS media an, “upper body injury.” Simon’s status for Friday is unknown.
I’m now editorializing, so take the following as simply that.
This isn’t O’Brien’s first suspension. He has been suspended a couple of times this season and last season. He has a history. You can’t do this and you can’t put your team in a bind like this.
Personally, I hate to see this on both sides. I don’t want to see Simon hurt or O’Brien suspended. Let the players decide who wins the series on the ice and don’t let this series be married by injuries and suspensions.
Out the door, the League did not suspend Carter Rowney for a check earlier in the game on Carter Camper. I had a Vine of that in my Game 1 recap.
Gameday setup for Game 2 hits the blog at 3 p.m. later on.
Comments Off on No Rust for the Wicked — Pens WIN 4-0
Posted by nafsnep on May 4, 2016
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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have not played a meaningful hockey game for 11 days.
You normally hear all the cheap cliches or excuses for a team that has all of this time off that drops Game 1 of a series in their next game.
Not this group, led by this coach, Clark Donatelli.
The Penguins, led by Donatelli’s astute acumen behind the bench and a stellar, dazzling, insert your own adjective set here performance by Casey DeSmith take home ice away from the Atlantic Division Champion Hershey Bears with a 4-0 win tonight in Game 1. DeSmith had 33 saves.
The Penguins offense? No cheap goals here. They scored at :45 of the first period and :15 of the second. They jumped Hershey from the drop and locked down and never let go.
Wilkes-Barre would have took a split coming back to Wilkes-Barre for a Game 3 Saturday. Now they are probably forcing Hershey into personnel changes and maybe a swap in goal heading into Game 2 Friday. If the Pens take that one? Could be all over soon. Who knows.
The aforementioned DeSmith opposed Round 1 hero for the Bears Justin Peters.
Plenty of video highlights included in this recap, jump through below if you didn’t link in direct.
Season Series: Nov. 13: HER 0 @ WBS 7 — Nov. 28: HER 2 @ WBS 3 — Dec. 6: WBS 1 @ HER 4 — Dec. 26: WBS 0 @ HER 5 — Feb. 23: HER 4 @ WBS 1 — Mar. 5: WBS 2 @ HER 6 — Mar. 6: HER 4 @ WBS 5 — Mar 19: HER 1 @ WBS 4 — Mar. 20: WBS 5 @ HER 5 (OT) — Apr. 9: WBS 4 @ HER 3 — Apr. 10: HER 5 @ WBS 3 — Apr. 17: WBS 1 @ HER 2 (SO)
Top four scorers for the Penguins vs. the Bears: 1. Dustin Jeffrey* (11 GP, 6-8-14, +4) — 2. Carter Rowney (12 GP, 6-6-12, +7) — 3. Tom Kostopoulos (11 GP, 2-7-9, +6) — 4. Dominik Simon (12 GP, 5-2-7, +7)
To four scorers for the Bears vs. the Penguins: 1. Chris Bourque (10 GP, 3-8-11, +3) — 2. Carter Camper (12 GP, 2-6-8, -6) — 3. Zach Sill (11 GP, 2-6-8, +3) — 4. Sean Collins (12 GP, 1-7-8, -1)
How the Bears got here: The defeated the Portland Pirates in five games.
How the Penguins got here: They swept the Providence Bruins in three games.
What to watch for: A quick start for the rested Penguins. Jump all over the Bears, go up two or more goals after the first period and grind Hershey down and steal home ice in the first game of the series. Wilkes-Barre will need to accomplish this without Steve Oleksy and Tom Sestito, who were recalled to Pittsburgh Tuesday afternoon.
* – Dustin Jeffrey only played 7 for WBS against Hershey this season and 4 with his old team Springfield. With Wilkes-Barre against Hershey Jeffrey recorded 5-5-10 and a +3
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WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 