Penguins come out in the first period and storm the IceCaps and were pretty relentless all game long and played, to me, their best game of the Calder Cup Playoffs and won in decisive fashion 3-1 tonight evening the best of seven series 1-1 with Game 3 Saturday night.

In sum, the Penguins looked like the IceCaps did last night. They skated the IceCaps in circles tonight and played a really strong sixty minutes of hockey.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes either way. The regulars in the lineup did not take a morning skate. Jonathan Bombulie caught up with Jason Williams and Joey Mormina and they both diagnosed last night’s performance to a case of tired legs.

First Period: Penguins came out and stormed the IceCaps. They took the games first nine shots. One of them was an Eric Tangradi goal over a sprawling Pasquale. Then, the momentum the Penguins had shifted to the St. John’s side as Alex Grant took offense to a Garth Murray hit on Brian Gibbons. Grant dropped his gloves as Murray skated away. The IceCaps scored on the power play when Ben Maxwell deflected a Derek Meech shot from the point.

Second Period: Thiessen made a big save on a John Albert breakaway when Philip Samuelsson cheated up on a play. Penguins would then get two consecutive penalties. The first power play was all Penguins buzzing but no scoring. The second power play was no buzzing. Penguins killed a late Samuelsson penalty.

Third Period: Eric Tangradi in the box for a hook, Cal O’Reilly and Joey Mormina come in on a 2 on 1 shorthanded. O’Reilly waited out a man and dished to Mormina who slammed it home to put the Penguins up 2-1. Then, the Penguins would get a power play and Jason Williams would score on the power play which for Williams, is a point in every single WBS playoff game so far. It would be all the Penguins would need to stymie the IceCaps attempts. Wilkes-Barre would kill two penalties late.

Final shots on goal were 38 for the Penguins and 23 for the IceCaps. Really a dominating performance by the Penguins.

First road win for the Pens this postseason, first shorthanded goal and the Penguins have the next three at home which is home ice advantage.

Three Stars: 3) Eddie Pasquale (35 saves on 38 shots) 2) Eric Tangradi (goal, +1) and 1) Joey Mormina (shorthanded game winning goal, +1)

Game Three is Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre. A note from play-by-play man Tom Grace revealed that the clubs will be on the same flight back to Northeastern Pennsylvania tomorrow. Should be an interesting flight!

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: Connecticut wins in overtime off of an Andreas Thuresson shot and the Whale take Game 1 3-2 and a 1-0 series lead. Connecticut got two bang-gang goals :12 apart in the first and held on. Game 2 is Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!

Brock Trotter continues his playoff tear, scoring two goals tonight on breakaways and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins drop Game 1 by a score of 3-1.

Kind of expected this, with the IceCaps off since Friday and the Penguins gutting out a Game 5 victory on home ice vs. the Hershey Bears Saturday night. How the Penguins respond in the first ten minutes tomorrow in Game 2 will be crucial if they want to send this back to Wilkes-Barre even at a game a piece in the series.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – Brian Strait was out and Philip Samuelsson was in for him. No other lineup changes.

First Period: Thiessen had to make two saves off of neutral zone turnovers early, and this theme would carry to the end of the period as the IceCaps would blitzkrieg the Wilkes-Barre netminder with 20 shots this period. Cal O’Reilly would score on the power play, but this period was all Thiessen making saves on IceCaps shooters. Penguins would kill two penalties in the period sandwiched by a penalty shot awarded to Jason King which Thiessen made a glove save on. Final tally on shots would be 20-4 for St. John’s.

Did some mining during intermission to learn that the 4 shots the Penguins took was tied for the fewest all season. They took four shots three other times; Nov. 25 vs. Hershey (a 3-2 SO loss), Dec. 13 vs. Binghamton (a 4-2 Penguins win) and March 14 vs. Norfolk (a 4-2 loss). The 20 shots taken by St. John’s was the most taken by them all season. It would also be the most shots the Penguins would allow in a single period. The most allowed was 17 back on Oct. 22, a 3-1 Penguins win.

Why is this important? Could have been the St. John’s game plan to jump on the Penguins and get up early. It worked to a point that Thiessen was true to form and kept them out of his net.

Second Period: Things would settle down a bit. Penguins would be a bit more physical. Brian Gibbons would turn a puck over in the neutral zone and Brock Trotter would come in unabated to Thiessen and score. Penguins would answer with extended time in their offensive zone, but not score. Gibbons would break away from a man but Pasquale made the save.

Third Period: Brock Trotter again. Busted defensive zone play and he would score to push the IceCaps ahead 2-1. Penguins would get a power play but could not get established. Late, Thiessen comes to between the circles to play a puck, misplays it and Garth Murray would pick his pocket and get a feed from John Albert to make the IceCaps lead insurmountable late. Head Coach John Hynes would pull Thiessen but the Penguins could not score.

Three Stars: 3) Jason King (six shots, even) 2) Brad Thiessen (34 saves on 37 shots) and 1) Brock Trotter (two goals, +2)

Game Two is tomorrow at 6 p.m. Wilkes-Barre time.

Overall, I thought the Penguins played decent given the circumstances. But for defensive gaffes, Thiessen was sharp. Have to respond and rebound and even this tomorrow.

Gameday will be up at 2 p.m. here on the blog Wednesday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

The Penguins advance on to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs on probably the most well played game on the season. They will face the Atlantic Division Champion St. John’s IceCaps in the second round.

The Penguins won the game in virtually seven seconds in the second period tonight and held on to win 2-1.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin – Pens Beat Writer Jonathan Bombulie had the lines that head coach John Hynes shook up:

First Period: Both goaltenders had to make ten bell saves. Hits were flying all over the place. Lots of back and forth, high flying, physical hockey. No scoring, no penalties. Shots were 9-6 WBS heading into the…

Second Period: Bryan Lerg had a wide open net that Dany Sabourin somehow got over and made a save on. Teams would trade overlapping penalties and both would get killed. Then, the following:

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Turns out, it was. Cal O’Reilly would get a centering pass from Colin McDonald he would beat Sabourin blocker side on on the back end of the power play. Then, as I was sitting down, ready to tweet the goal, Zach Sill scored :07 later. I didn’t see it, but it sounded like the goal that David Dziurzynski scored on us in the 3-1 loss to Binghamton on the last weekend of the season. Geoff Walker rimmed a puck on the zamboni door side, it kicked out and right to Sill’s stick and past Sabourin. Just a horrible series of events for the Bears there.

Third Period: With visions of Game 6 in the East Division Finals vs. the Charlotte Checkers last year, the Pens took a lead into the third period in an elimination game. Ryan Potulny scored :23 into the period. More back and forth, tension mounting with every shift. Jason Williams takes an interference call just south of 8:00 left to go in the third. The Bears weren’t able to materialize much and killed it. Head Coach Mark French called time out with under two minutes. Dany Sabourin came to the bench for the extra man but the Bears never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Cal O’Reilly (goal, even) 2) Brad Thiessen (18 saves on 19 shots) 1) Zach Sill (game winning goal, +1)

Thiessen’s finest hour to date. He was sharp when he needed to be and it could be argued won us the hockey game.

The St. John’s IceCaps await. Game 1 is Tuesday. Here is the entire schedule. Games Saturday and Sunday next weekend in Wilkes-Barre.

As far as content goes, I will have the series preview on Monday at noon. With no idea where to start in breaking it down, I now know what I am doing Sunday afternoon.

Stick with me on Twitter for the most up to date stuff and retweets of stuff from the St. John’s side.

One round down, three more to go. Celebrate!

Let’s Go Pens!