It’s not going to be a race, really. The teams are going to charter back to Newfoundland on Thursday, but it’s past my bedtime. I don’t care, the Penguins are still alive in the playoffs! Simon Despres ended it in double overtime on a backhander of a rebound he created and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are still alive and well after a thrilling double overtime 3-2 victory.

You will hear me beat this drum from now until the series is over: These two teams are evenly matched. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out when you have three consecutive games go into overtime. The games have been decided on bounces. The Penguins finally found one that went their way for once.

Game 6 is Friday.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes for WBS. For St. John’s, Jason DeSantis was in for the injured Arturs Kulda.

First Period: That thing I said earlier about bounces? St. John’s got the biggest bounce in the history of bounces when a routine Jason King clear from the top of the left circle in the St. John’s zone was cleared by King along the wall. The puck travels down as if it were intermission and you have a “shoot from center ice into the clowns mouth” contests. The puck hops Thiessens stick at the top of the crease and into the net to give the St. John’s IceCaps the softest, slowest goal you will ever see at this level of professional hockey. Later, St. John’s appears to have scored again but they kicked the puck in and it was disallowed. This first period was all IceCaps.

Second Period: Mr. Moe Mentum changed his address to a Wilkes-Barre one as this period was all Penguins. When the sides were four on four, Paul Thompson picked off a St. John’s clearing bid and roofed one over Pasquale to knot the score at one. St. John’s would get a power play but never get a single shot in on Thiessen. The Pens dominated this period, allowing just three IceCaps shots.

I tweeted this at the end of the period. Using it here because sometimes I admire tweets:

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Third Period: Jason Williams feeds Alex Grant at the high slot and Grant lasered it past Pasquale to put the Pens out ahead 2-1. Eleven seconds later, Geoff Walker took a holding call. Paul Postma shot from the blue line and scored, even though I thought I heard a tip in front and the IceCaps evened it at two. Penguins then looked to not go to over time. Alex Grant buzzed a post, Paul Thompson was stopped in the slot, Ben Street had a good chance. Then, Brad Thiessen got bloodied by Simon Despres’ stick. Trainer Patrick Steidle could not stop the bleeding so enter Scott Munroe. Munroe made two shaky saves before Thiessen re-entered. Observers said that Thiessen looked possessed after that. Ben Street nearly ended it late but it was off to…

Overtime: IceCaps came in on a two on one but did not score. Chances back and forth but it was headed to…

Second Overtime: Longest AHL playoff game of the season, third longest WBS playoff game in team history, at 12:08 of the second overtime, Simon Despres fired a shot from the left circle then chased his own rebound and backhanded it past Pasquale to send the Penguins back to Newfoundland on Friday.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Grant (goal, +1) 2) Paul Thompson (goal, +1) and 1) Simon Despres (game winning double overtime goal, +2)

Notes: Dogged Ben Street on Twitter and here. He had two assists tonight. Philip Samuelsson did not see overtime ice.

Penguins will charter a flight to St. John’s with the IceCaps Thursday.

If you are on Twitter, do the following: Use #WBSPensIn7 as a hashtag and follow me if you aren’t already. We can do this. Still miles to go. St. John’s is going to come out full of vim and vigor looking to end it on Friday at home in front of a sold out crowd. Penguins are out to play world beaters. As far as content goes between then and now, I have no idea what I am running or could run. I think I may have some fun with numbers like I said I would after Game 4. So why don’t we do that. I’ll dive into the numbers and put up a post probably tomorrow or Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!

Today’s game could be summed up by the following: The Penguins were great in the first period, off to a 2-0 start before the period was 7:00 old. The IceCaps were great in the second period, bringing things level at 2-2 when the period ended. Both teams were great in the third period which forced overtime, which didn’t take long. Ben Maxwell scored just :27 in and the IceCaps have a 3-2 win and a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Game 5 will be Tuesday night in Wilkes-Barre. If the Pens want to live to see Wednesday, they will need to win. The IceCaps will want to finish it and rest bodies. They say the toughest game to win is the put away game. You all saw what happened to Hershey when they were down 0-2 in the best of five. They won the next two and lost in a decisive Game Five. The Penguins need to win three straight or it’s another year and no Cup. Can they do it? Absolutely. Will they? Remains to be seen.

These two teams are so evenly matched. It could easily be 3-1 Penguins or dead even and now a best of three.

In reality, it isn’t. The Penguins need to dig deep. Real deep. Deeper than they have ever dug, deep if they want to advance.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes either way.

First Period: Colin McDonald shuffled around a man and went high glove on Pasquale and scored on the first shot of the game. Then, Geoff Walker and Eric Tangradi worked a give and go and Tangradi was able to slip it past Pasquale while diving to lunge for the puck on the second shot of the game. Some push back from the IceCaps. The Penguins got a power play they couldn’t score on. Late, a Paul Postma shot struck Thiessen squarely in the mask.

Second Period: Derek Meech scored from the blue line when Brian Gibbons was in the box for a slash call to cut the lead in half. Maxime Macenauer redirected a Paul Postma slap pass past Thiessen when the iceCaps were really pressuring late to even things at two. This was probably the worst period of hockey the Penguins played because they seemed overmatched and tentative. IceCaps took advantage and evened the score.

Third Period: Really back and forth, thrill a minute hockey. Few whistles, lots of hitting, every puck chipped in was earned for. No scoring or penalties and it was off to…

Overtime: I heard Tom Grace in the post game say that the Penguins lost two face-offs, and the latter ultimately costing them in a scrum in front of Thiessen in which Ben Maxwell was able to shoot past Thiessen.

Three Stars: 3) Derek Meech (goal, -1) 2) Maxime Macenauer (goal, +1) 1) Ben Maxwell (overtime game winning goal, assist, -1)

St. John’s outshot the Penguins 29-16.

Not going to recap or mention what Connecticut or Norfolk are doing in Game 3 of that series, which is tied 1-1. If you want, here is the box score.

No idea on content for Monday. Check out Jonathan Bombulie’s blog for updates on that side and me on Twitter, regurgitating what he may have to say about personnel.

Game 5 is Tuesday. Get ready.

Let’s Go Pens!

vs. 

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Eastern Conference Semifinal – Game 4

AHL Game: J4

Who: St. John’s IceCaps

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 4:05 p.m.

Series: STJ leads 2-1 (best of seven)

Media Kit

Last Game: Last night at home, the Pens lost in overtime 2-1. Brock Trotter scored both goals for the IceCaps and Eric Tangradi scored with 1:02 left in the third to force overtime.

What to Watch For: More of the same for the Penguins, just hopefully this time with more offense. I documented last night the slow starts to both Bryan Lerg and Ben Street’s postseason campaigns (1-2-3 between the both of them) – so if the Penguins should happen to win this game and even the series, one or both could play a part in doing so.

Referees: Graham Skilliter / Darcy Burchell

Linesmen: Scott Pomento / Tom George

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @IceCapsAHL

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie / @telybrendan

Broadcasters: WBS: Tom Grace @TGracePens and Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / STJ: Brain Rogers

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep

Radio: For WBS: 102.3 The Mountain / For St. John’s: CJYQ 930

Television: AHL Live

When is Game 5?: Tuesday night in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05 p.m.

Brock Trotter is becoming a pest to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. He has four goals in the series. A series which has a total of 8 goals for the IceCaps and 7 goals for the Penguins. He scored the overtime game winner to put the IceCaps out ahead of the Penguins 2-1 and giving St. John’s a 2-1 lead in the series.

Penguins only held St. John’s to 18 shots on goal all game, including zero in the second period. Goaltender Eddie Pasquale was in a word, astonishing for the IceCaps this evening.

Pasquale vs. Brad Thiessen – no lineup changes for the Penguins. For the IceCaps Marco Rosa and Jason DeSantis were out and Maxime Macenauer and Zach Redmond were in.

First Period: Thiessen has to make some saves early, as the IceCaps came out with a bit of a jump in their step. Penguins had a few chances on Pasquale but he held them out. Late, a Zach Redmond slap pass to Brock Trotter beat Thiessen to put St. John’s on the board 1-0.

Second Period: You already know that the IceCaps did not have a single registered shot on goal on Thiessen. But this is not where the game was won for the Penguins. The IceCaps took three consecutive penalties, including two which put the Penguins on two separate 5-on-3’s. Cal O’Reilly had a sure goal which Pasquale somehow made a save on. Eric Tangradi and Geoff Walker got blown down on an offsides where they were attacking 2-on-1.

Third Period: Eric Tangradi was robbed by Eddie Pasquale when Pasquale somehow got a leg out across of where Tangradi was going to put the puck in the net. But, with 1:02 left in the game and with Thiessen on the bench, he would finally tuck one past Pasquale to even the score at one heading into…

Overtime: Penguins got the better of the chances. But, St. John’s would come in on a two on one crash and score. Guess who? Brock Trotter again.

The eventual St. John’s game winner was set up by the pinching of Philip Samuelsson. He let a man get by him and then the Penguins chased the length of the ice and got scored on. Need to be more disciplined than that, especially in overtime.

Three Stars: 3) Brad Thiessen (16 saves on 18 shots) 2) Eddie Pasquale 28 saves on 29 shots and 1) Brock Trotter (two goals, +2)

St. John’s has a 2-1 series lead in the best of seven with Game 4 coming tomorrow afternoon in Wilkes-Barre at 4:05.

I’ll end this recap with a game I just made up called “Pessimist / Optimist”

Pessimist: Anytime that Ben Street (8 GP, 1-0-1, -1) and Bryan Lerg (8 GP, 0-2-2, -2) want to show up in these Calder Cup Playoffs would be fine by this writer. They have pretty much been offensively invisible this postseason.

Optimist: Hold a team to 18 shots on goal, with none in the second period, and you will wear them down. One question which begs answering is whether or not Eddie Pasquale played his best game of the series tonight or not?

We find out I guess tomorrow at 4:05 p.m. Gameday up here on the blog at 12:05 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!