I’m no math major, but some numbers for you:

-> The Penguins are 1-12 all time in playoff games at Giant Center
-> The Penguins power play went 0-for-9 tonight.
-> The Bears power play went 3-for-4 tonight.

In minor league hockey, there are franchise defining moments. In some fly by night two-season-and-done teams its attendance, unsustainablility and / or an inept front office.

For the Penguins, for which none of the above applies and a team which has made the AHL playoffs for ten consecutive seasons, the time is now.

Up two games to none against a Bears team without Christian Hanson, Keith Aucoin, Braden Holtby or Dmitry Orlov and with NHLers Eric Tangradi, Simon Despres and the injured Brian Strait layed an absolute goose egg tonight and lost 4-1. The Penguins were never in it tonight at all and now, face elimination tomorrow on home ice, at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night.

If the Penguins do not win tomorrow for whatever reason, the season could then be best described with the following two words:

Choking Dogs.

You have to win three games in the first round. The entire season and depending on if your are a pessimist or optimist, franchise defining moment, comes down to tomorrow night.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin. Matt Rust was in for Nick Petersen, attending to a family matter. Philip Samuelsson was in for Brian Strait. Radio said that if this was Game 5 he would be in.

First Period: Could best be described as a preseason game. Bears forechecked. Penguins looked lost. Penguins got two power plays they did not score on. Jason Williams hit a post on a four on two. While the teams were four on four, Alex Picard fanned on an open net, Bears come back in the other way and Cam Schilling scores to make it 1-0.

Second Period: Penguins get another power play and do nothing with it. Bears get a power play and Chris Bourque blasts a puck Thiessen mishandles that Boyd Kane blindly shoots into the Penguins net to make it 2-0. Off the faceoff Penguins get another power play and don’t score. Late, Jason Williams scores off of a perfect feed from Alex Grant to make it 2-1 going into the…

Third Period: Penguins had a carryover power play they would not score on. Brandon DeFazio would get bloodied on a high stick but no call would be made. DeFazio would go to the locker room then the bench but I didn’t hear his name called the rest of the night. Penguins would get another power play and not score (sense a trend?) then Eric Tangradi would take an unnecessary unsportsmanlike penalty and Ryan Potulny would rip a shot from the point that Boyd Kane would tip home to make it 3-1 Bears. Pens would get another power play and wait for it….would not score. The Pens would pull Thiessen late and Chris Bourque would score from center ice to seal it for the Bears making it 4-1 and forcing a deciding Game 5 tomorrow.

Three Stars: 3) Cameron Shilling (goal, even) 2) Dany Sabourin (22 saves on 23 shots) 1) Boyd Kane (two goals, +1)

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: St. John’s and Norfolk are onto the next round. Both needed overtime to do so. Both won 4-3. Norfolk’s boxscore here. St. John’s boxscore here.

Winner of the game tomorrow gets the St. John’s IceCaps. The Norfolk Admirals will faceoff against the Connecticut Whale next week.

I’ve lived by the mantra of, “if you don’t believe, you don’t belong” in playoffs. Only problem that I absolutely fear, is that there are twenty men boarding a bus back to Wilkes-Barre that may not share that same idea.

Whatever happens, Gameday will be here for you at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and I will have the live tweets for you.

To the end…

Let’s Go Pens!

Well, at least I predicted this last Thursday.

Pens lost this game pretty much in the first period against the Bears fourth line. They chased it the remainder of the way and lost in overtime 4-3 in overtime off a Ryan Potulny shot on a Bears power play.

Game 4 is Friday in Hershey.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin – Simon Despres, Brian Strait and Eric Tangradi were in for Cody Wild, Philip Samuelsson and Matt Rust.

First Period: Penguins open the game with puck possession for the first eight minutes and Thiessen gets burned on what can best be described as a fluke goal by DJ King, who hasn’t scored a goal since 2007-08. Penguins were unable to chip pucks deep as the Bears did a fine job in taking the wall away. After the King goal the Pens really looked shattered. Then Colin McDonald was robbed point blank by Sabourin on his doorstep on a power play. Then, Cameron Schilling scored from the blue line to push the Bears ahead 2-0.

Second Period: Cal O’Reilly would score on a carryover power play from the first period which would be the first playoff goal scored by WBS in Hershey since 2009 (Alex Goligoski) – then both teams would trade power plays and kill them. Brian Strait was checked hard into the boards behind Sabourin’s net and did not return the rest of the game.

Third Period: Eric Tangradi scored to even things after a Bears clear hit a referee’s skate. Paul Thompson received it and fed Tangradi who scored it. Then, Kyle Greentree would get open and push the Bears ahead 3-2. Right after, Boyd Kane slashed Ben Street and the Pens headed to the power play which Alex Grant scored on to even things at three a piece.

Overtime: Nick Petersen high sticks Boyd Kane digging a puck off the wall and Ryan Potulny, no stranger to overtime playoff goals, extended the series to a Game 4 on Friday.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Grant (goal, even) 2) Kyle Greentree (goal, +1) and 1) Ryan Potulny (game winning overtime power play goal, assist, +1)

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: All Game 3’s where series were tied 1-1. The Syracuse Crunch are on the brink losing to the St. John’s IceCaps 5-1 with Game 4 Friday. The Norfolk Admirals have the Manchester Monarchs on the brink also after a 5-2 win in New Hampshire with that series going to Game 4 Friday as well.

Depending on what happens with Washington / Boston, a tipping point in this Hershey / Wilkes-Barre series. The Bears power play, dormant all series long, comes alive at the point to win them a game to keep them alive. Look for an edit here and a tweet from me on Twitter on the final outcome of that game.

EDIT: Washington wins in Game 7 in overtime via Joel Ward. Caps are on to next round. Braden Holtby, Keith Aucoin and Dmitry Orlov remain in Washington for at least one more series.

Game 4 Friday. See you there.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens ride a four goal first period to roll the Hershey Bears 7-2 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Colin McDonald scored two more goals upping his Calder Cup Playoff goal total to four. The St. Gregory’s Academy men were in attendance tonight again, firing up the crowd. Just a perfect night, altogether.

Celebrate tonight, but do not look past an important Game 3 Wednesday vs. the Bears at Giant Center. You need to win three games in a best of five. The Pens have dominated the first two games, yes, but Hershey is a proud franchise and will not go down without a fight.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin – Cameron Schilling and DJ King were out for Hershey. Barry Almieda and Julien Brouillette were in for them. Brian Gibbons was out for Matt Rust the Penguins way.

First Period: Colin McDonald bats down a Bears clearing attempt and scores to put the Pens up 1-0 early on. Brad Thiessen misplayed a puck that Boyd Kane nearly scored on. Then, a goal for the highlight reel. Zach Sill, falling down, roofs a shot over Sabourin to put the Pens up 2-0. The goals would keep coming. A Wilkes-Barre rush would see Cody Wild pot a rebound to make it 3-0. Head Coach Mark French would call a time out to settle his troops. Last time he did this in Wilkes-Barre, Kyle Greentree scored two bang bang goals. Not this time. A routine offside call would spoil into a scrum and Bears captain Boyd Kane in the box for a roughing call. Jason Williams would blast a shot from the point that Geoff Walker would tip home to put the score at 4-0.

Second Period: Bears came out and dominated this period. It started with Patrick McNeill scoring on a shot that Thiessen bobbled. You could sense the Bears ready to break the dam. Shift after shift, the Bears were coming. Then, Matt Rust breaks in and backhands one past Sabourin. Big goal. Big, big goal at the time. The Penguins weren’t going to cough up a lead on home ice again. Garrett Mitchell scored on a deflection to make it 5-2 going into the…

Third Period: Pens had to kill a carryover Bryan Lerg high stick. They would. They would have to kill an Alex Grant high stick. They would. They would have to kill a Robert Bortuzzo hook. During the kill, Ben Street jumps around Chris Bourque. Bourque hooks him, and referee Francis Charron called a penalty shot. Street would score on the first ever postseason penalty shot goal in team history. At this point it was 6-2 with about five minutes left. Then Patrick Wellar came unglued. Paul Thompson jostles with Dany Sabourin while play goes on. Patrick Wellar takes offense. He cross checked Thompson, then while linesmen are trying to break up the scrum, Wellar takes three whacks at Thompson. Out of all this, Wellar would get 2:00 for roughing and 5:00 for slashing putting the Pens on a 7:00 power play. He would also get a game misconduct. As would Kyle Greentree (also two for elbowing) and Philip Samuelsson (two for roughing) – then Kevin Marshall would put the Pens on a 5-on-3 for a slash. Pens couldn’t score on that, but did when Alex Grant shot a puck from the blue line Colin McDonald deflected home for his second of the night to make it 7-2.

Three Stars: 3) Matt Rust (goal, +3) 2) Jason Williams (three assists, +3) and 1) Colin McDonald (two goals, assist, +3)

As noted by Bears beat writer Tim Leone, the Penguins have held the Hershey Bears top two lines pointless. Also, final shots on goals this game were 27-16 Penguins. Wilkes-Barre holds Hershey to an 0-fer on the power play this weekend. The Penguins scored four times on the man advantage so far in the series.

The Penguins can finish things Wednesday.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: Ding dong, the winning streak is dead. The Manchester Monarchs do what twenty-nine teams could not do, and that is defeat the Norfolk Admirals tonight 5-2 evening that series at 1-1 with the series shifting to New Hampshire for Game 3 on Wednesday. Goaltender Cameron Talbot shuts out the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 3-0 tonight to put the Sound Tigers on the brink with Game 3 tomorrow. Talbot has not allowed a single goal in the series, as Bridgeport lost by the same 3-0 score on Thursday. And it is all even between Syracuse and St. John’s, as the Crunch beat the IceCaps 4-3 with Game 3 of that series on Wednesday in Newfoundland.

Content will be scarce I think the next few days. Penguins will probably be off tomorrow. They may practice Monday, if not, Tuesday. Depending on content I may have things, I don’t know. Washington is guaranteed a seventh game, as they lead their series with defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins 3-2. Game 6 is Sunday, Game 7 if necessary Wednesday. Pittsburgh needs to win tomorrow in Philly in Game 6 or else their season is over. Those are things to watch for.

Let’s Go Pens!