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Thought jumped into my head when the Penguins had just gotten scored on late in the third period of tonights game, a 2-1 Penguins win in Game 3, that these games are never easy.

For the Penguins, who were for the most part the better side tonight, the better team. A goal by David Van der Gulick on a breakaway late in the third, and it wasn’t easy for the Penguins.

You easily could say the same thing from a Manchester perspective tonight. The Monarchs dominated the Penguins in Game 2. Why the struggles? It’s isn’t easy.

A welcome addition tonight with Bryan Rust and a goal from him in the high slot in the first period, a Tom Kostopoulos power play goal in the second period and steady goaltending and defense from Matt Murray and the Penguins as a whole, and all of a sudden it’s a series again. Game 4 goes Monday in Wilkes-Barre.

Matt Murray vs. J-F Berube.

Lines were…

Tom Kostopoulos – Andrew Ebbett – Carter Rowney
Conor Sheary – Jayson Megna – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – Nick Drazenovic – Kasperi Kapanen
Dominik Uher – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Scott Harrington – Barry Goers
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot

Matt Murray – Jeff Zatkoff

Oskar Sundqvist, Josh Archibald and Scott Wilson were out for Kasperi Kapanen, Nick Drazenovic (first AHL game since February11 ) and Bryan Rust (first AHL game since April 12). Sundqvist and Wilson are day to day with injuries and Josh Archibald, per what John Hynes told Tom Venesky post game, is done for the year.

First Period: Bryan Rust connects on a goal at the high slot for a 1-0 Wilkes-Barre lead and the first lead of the series for the Penguins. He was left alone for a split second and took advantage of it and scored for a 1-0 Penguin lead.

Wilkes-Barre had to kill two penalties in the period and did so.

Second Period: Manchester killed off three of four penalties in the second and took a cumulative five straight going back to the first. Tom Kostopoulos connected with Andrew Ebbett for a give and go goal to put the Penguins ahead 2-0.

Manchester came in waves in this period and Matt Murray was up to task every time and was the difference maker.

Third Period: More Murray. But the Monarchs would not be denied David Van der Gulick scored on a breakaway when Nic Dowd found him all alone at the blue line. Van der Gulick skated in and scored on Murray to cut the Manchester deficit to one with 6:59 left to play.

Penguins respond by having a long, two minute offensive shift in the Manchester end but don’t score out of it.

Berube was pulled around the 1:20 mark and Manchester turned on the pressure but never found the equalizer. Key saves from Murray and shot blocks from men in front, notably Tom Kostopoulos in the final ten seconds.

Three Stars: 3) Matt Murray (29 saves on 30 shots) 2) Conor Sheary (two assists) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal)

Big game out of Jayson Megna. Pittsburgh brass was in town, notably head coach Mike Johnston, so Megna played with a burr up his you know where.

The Penguins and Monarchs were the only game in town in the AHL tonight. Just a quick reset of other series: Grand Rapids leads Rockford 2-0 in their series, Utica and Oklahoma City are 1-1 and so is Hershey and Hartford.

I will have a chart refresh on the blog sometime late Sunday. Have a nice Mother’s Day!

Let’s Go Pens!

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  2                                        5

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Throw everything that you know or you think you know about the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins for a second and let me hit you with some statistics:

– The Penguins have been outshot 90-63 in these two games.
– AHL MVP Brian O’Neill and his line mate Jordan Weal are 2-3-5 and 3-1-4 respectively in the series.
– First team AHL AHL All-Star, Rookie and Goaltender of the Year Matt Murray has a 3.35 GAA and a 0.899 SV% while J-F Berube has a 1.83 GAA and a 0.921 SV%.
– The Kuhnhackl / Rowney / Ebbett line is 1-1-2 through two games.

We often laugh off other teams in other divisions in this Conference because of the wars we wage with the Binghamton’s, Hershey’s, Lehigh Valley’s and Norfolk’s of the East Division, but the Manchester Monarchs of the Atlantic Division are as good if not better than advertised in this playoff series and are every bit as good as advertised as the AHL’s regular season champions. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, through two games can’t stop and haven’t contained the regular season champions yet in this series and haven’t had a lead in the series yet and now trail the Monarchs 0-2 after a 5-2 loss tonight. The series shifts to Wilkes-Barre for Game 3 Saturday.

One of the things that I am struggling with in comprehending is how the Monarchs were taken to five games in the first round by the eighth seeded Portland Pirates. The Penguins are a class level above the Pirates as far as skill level top to bottom, but you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between that if you have watched this series so far.

Matt Murray vs. J-F Berube.

Lines were…

Conor Sheary – Andrew Ebbett – Tom Kostopoulos
Scott Wilson – Jayson Megna – Josh Archibald
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Uher
Bobby Farnham – J-S Dea – Oskar Sundqvist

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Barry Goers
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot

Matt Murray – Jeff Zatkoff

Lineup Changes: Kasperi Kapanen was out for Josh Archibald on the second line, Oskar Sundqvist made his pro debut on the fourth line for Pierre Leblond. Matia Marcantuoni took warmups but was scratched, J-S Dea took his spot.

First Period: The Monarchs showed no ill effects of the three overtime thriller from the night before, turning on the offensive pressure like you would a lightbulb switch in your favorite room in your house. Just when you think the Penguins were going to set the offensive tone, they got no shots, and were back in their own end trying to stifle the endless pressure of the Monarchs offensive forwards. Finally about halfway though, Brian O’Neill digs a puck out of a corner, cuts to the net, avoids the sweeping poke checks from the Penguin defenders and roofs the shot over Murray for a 1-0 Manchester lead.

I don’t think a first period that saw the Penguins trailing in shots 7-2 and 12-3 at points in the period was due to fatigue as much as it was the Monarchs just opening up an imaginary beach umbrella in front of Berube’s net and managed to block or deflect aside any shot headed in their goaltenders direction.

Second Period: Penguins best period of the series so far. Not much in the way of shots to the net, but the offensive zone time was there. Penguins scored on a power play goal on this goal by Conor Sheary that went to review…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/596469755919339521]

:09 later, Justin Auger found himself room and scored to make it 2-1. Big time response by the Monarchs and bad coverage by the Penguins who watched Auger walk in and before they realized his actions were too late to do anything to stop it.

But Wilkes-Barre answered right back off of the face-off on this finish by Dominik Uher…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/596470452337385472]

Three goals in :23. The Penguins would have been absolutely crushed if they played as well as they did to have the momentum snatched away from them as quickly as they built it.

But wait, the period wasn’t over yet.

Brian O’Neill found Jordan Weal all alone on the near dot on a nice cross ice pass that Weal one timed over Murray’s shoulder for a 3-2 lead. I noticed after the Uher goal, the Penguins didn’t have any offensive setup at all and the Monarchs continued their relentless pressure and finally got the goal from Weal that put them ahead heading into the…

Third Period: Penguins had a nice jump to open but took a penalty and who else but Jordan Weal scored on it to extend the lead for the Monarchs to 4-2. Murray couldn’t freeze it and the puck was shuffled over to Weal who poked it across for the first multi-goal lead in the series and the first power play goal allowed by the Penguins in the post season.

The Monarchs iced the game away with two key penalty kills on the Penguins. Brian O’Neill hit an open net with Murray vacated that made it 5-2. Despite the fact that the Penguins had a better start and looked improved compared to the other periods, even with the benefit of two power plays and an extra man with the goaltender pulled, the Monarchs still outshout the Penguins 10-8 in the third.

Three Stars: 3) Brian O’Neill (two goals, assist, +2) 2) Michael Mersch (three assists, +1) and 1) Jordan Weal (two goals, assist, +1)

No other action in the Eastern Conference tonight. Hartford and Hershey play their Game 2 Friday in Chocolatetown.

So the Penguins are down 0-2 with the series shifting to Wilkes-Barre for an important Game 3 Saturday. Silver lining is the fact that the Monarchs have not won a game on the road yet this postseason and the Penguins have the next three at home (provided they win Saturday or Monday) so the series is far from over yet, but the Penguins must come up with some way to slow down the hectic offensive pace that the Monarchs are setting.

One note before we wrap it up, Josh Archibald left the game with an apparent injury and did not return and I didn’t hear Barry Goers name much in the second half of the game but he was on very late. Got to wonder if a defensive move is made in favor of Nick D’Agostino, Ryan Parent or Danny Syvret for Game 3 Saturday.

I’ll update the postseason charts and may individualize the charts exclusive to this series sometime Friday and will tweet a link. Look for the Game 3 setup Saturday at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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  3                                        4

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Nick Shore scored at somewhere around 7:01 Wilkes-Barre time.

Fast forward four and a half hours later, Zach O’Brien scored in triple overtime to give the Manchester Monarchs a 4-3 win in triple overtime and a 1-0 series lead.

The second longest game in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins history.

Instant classic doesn’t even begin to describe this one. You don’t win a series in the first game nor do you lose one. But yeah, the team that wins the first game only needs to win three more to advance. The Penguins played the game from behind the whole game and probably needed this cold slap in the face to get them pointed in the right direction.

We hope.

Not much long to wait for retribution, Game 2 goes off at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Matt Murray vs. J-F Berube.

Lines were…

Conor Sheary – Andrew Ebbett – Tom Kostopoulos
Scott Wilson – Jayson Megna – Kasperi Kapanen
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Uher
Pierre Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Barry Goers
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot

Matt Murray – Jeff Zatkoff

Josh Archibald took warmups but was scratched in favor of Matia Marcantuoni from Game 3 vs. Syracuse. We are still waiting for the debut of Oskar Sundqvist and the returns of Nick Drazenovic and Bryan Rust.

First Period: Monarchs got the jump on the Penguins eighteen seconds in with Nick Shore scoring off of a turnover in front of Murray that put the Monarchs on the board giving them their fastest goal scored in their playoff history and Wilkes-Barre’s first deficit in the post season. The Pens never trailed once in the three game sweep of Syracuse.

Taylor Chorney answered a little over three minutes later. An offensive zone face-off win by Jayson Megna found its way to Chorney who scored.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/596090055980130304]

Manchester continued to press. Quick through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone. Wave after wave after wave. Finally, Manchester edged ahead again when Brian O’Neill pushed a puck past an out of position Murray after the Penguins netminder failed to control a rebound.

Penguins scored on a power play in the final minute after Bobby Farnham drew a hook on Jeff Schultz. Six seconds into the power play, Scott Wilson from the high right slot one timed a puck in for a tie game.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/596097254039093248]

So the AHL’s top defensive units all season long score a pair of goals on each other heading into the….

Second Period: Penguins started to edge ahead of the Monarchs in chances to open, outshooting the home team 4-1 in the first ten minutes, but Jordan Weal continued to dominate the face-off dot. He won one back to Colin Miller who rifled it home for a 3-2 Monarchs lead. Shots were an even 7 a side for both teams as the Monarchs turned up the offensive pressure in the final seven minutes.

Third Period: Penguins came back in the period and it was all set up by this Matt Murray ten bell save on Michael Mersch…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/596116234128732161]

Conor Sheary tied it a few minutes later when he played a puck off a wall and backhanded it past Berube.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/596117500707905536]

Penguins needed to balance offensive pressure while not maintaining anything dangerous for the high power Manchester Monarchs team.

Notable: Kasperi Kapanen was placed on the ‘KRU’ line with Dominik Uher up with Scott Wilson and Jayson Megna as John Hynes was looking to shake up lines looking for offense. nothing doing heading to…

First Overtime: Kapanen was placed back with Wilson and Megna to open. Both goaltenders came up big with saves. Manchester was coming in waves…Tom Kostopoulos past the half way point of the period nearly ended it but Berube came up big.

Berube made a save in a pile of bodies that went to review but the refs took a look at it and ruled no goal.

Close call for Wilkes-Barre late as the Penguins were playing late with two players without sticks.

Pens had a late power play to close out the first overtime but allowed Manchester a few looks shorthanded, but did not score and the teams headed into the…

Second Overtime: Scott Wilson took one shift but was missing on the top line for the Penguins for most of the second overtime. Lines were jumbled for the Penguins. Both teams had chances to end it but didn’t. Monarchs had a 12-3 shot advantage in the second overtime.

Third Overtime: Zach O’Brien ended it at 4:13 of the third overtime on a busted coverage of who had who by the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Jordan Weal (two assists, +1) 2) Conor Sheary (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Zach O’Brien game winning third overtime goal, +1)

Like I said from the open, the Penguins played from behind in this one from the open and just could not recover enough from a standpoint to take a lead in regulation. That they took Manchester to the third overtime means that you are looking at a knock down, drag out battle to the end between the two sides.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: Hershey and Hartford went into overtime in their first game and ex-Bear Chris Bourque ended it in the first OT at 16:47 to give the Wolf Pack a 2-1 overtime win and a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 is Friday in Hershey.

Game 2 of this best of seven will be Thursday at 7. Gameday for that goes up at 3 p.m. Rest up.

Let’s Go Pens!