The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins kept on rolling last week, lining up and knocking down three more wins to push their record to a perfect 7-0-0-0. Nick Hart at WBS Penguins with the succinct recap:
Wednesday,
Oct. 22 – PENGUINS 4 vs. Lehigh Valley 1 In their second meeting of the season, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earned its second 4-1 triumph over its turnpike rival. The Penguins scored a pair of power-play goals on their two man-advantage opportunities, then put the game to bed with a penalty shot conversion by Ville Koivunen.
Friday, Oct. 24 – PENGUINS 4 at Charlotte 0
Danton Heinen and Koivunen both posted three-point games in front of a 25-save shutout for Sergei Murashov. The win improved Murashov to 5-0-0 on the year and marked the second shutout of his AHL career.Saturday, Oct. 25 – PENGUINS 3 at Charlotte 2 (OT)
The Penguins survived a spirited bout with the Checkers thanks to Owen Pickering setting up Koivunen for a beautiful OT winner. Tristan Broz and Heinen buried the Pens’ goals in regulation, and Filip Larsson made 32 saves for the win.
Goalie Sergei Murashov’s big week earned him the honor of being named the AHL Player of the Week.
Everything has been about perfect in every way, but the minors leagues being the minor leagues, nothing lasts forever. Change is the only constant in this world, the only guarantee being the knowledge that pieces and parts will be switching out at the drop of a hat. Pittsburgh has recalled arguably WBS’s best forward (Ville Koivunen) and defenseman (Owen Pickering) in recent days and neither might be back in the minor leagues any time soon. WBS is still well-stocked but it never takes long before the parent club starts rewarding the minor league team’s best performers and shaking up the mix down a level for the team to have to regroup and press forward in a different manner.
Pensburgh alum Tony Androckitis had a nice feature on Pickering and the finer points of his game.
For Pickering, it’s not necessarily a game predicated on offense from the blue line, but one that kills plays in the defensive zone and transitions the puck up ice in a hurry — also allowing the defenders to join the rush.
“It’s continuing to defend really well, being a guy that we can put out in different situations — kill penalties, kill the rush, move pucks north quickly, making a really good first pass,” Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Kirk MacDonald quickly listed, referring to the finer points of Pickering’s game. “The way we want to play, I think offense is going to come from our(defensemen) just because we want them active in everything that they do.”
That sentiment was evidenced on the Penguins’ game-winning goal last Saturday, with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton shutting things down defensively in the third period and a defenseman, Pickering, ending up the beneficiary of sustained offensive zone pressure and puck possession after forward Raivis Ansons won a puck battle and got the puck up to Pickering at the blue line.
Pickering’s opening-night goal came after beginning last season without goals in his first 11 games.
“Yeah, I mean, it was nice. Obviously fun to score and to get a big one like that and have it hold up as a game-winner,” Pickering said. “It’s fun. I mean, Raivis (Ansons) makes an unbelievable play to win that battle, and then boys get to the net front and it was kind of a seeing-eye shot. So it wasn’t just me, but it’s nice to put one in.”
As MacDonald puts it, playing defense well allows for more opportunities in the offensive end of the rink.
“That’s the thing. People are like, well, it’s a good defensive team. In my opinion, if you are good defensively, you end up with puck more,” MacDonald said. “So, I think the better (Pickering) defends, the more offensive chances he’s going to get.”
The week ahead should be a doozy, Wilkes gets Providence at home tonight in a matchup of unbeaten teams. As WBSPenguins.com pointed out, it’ll be a strength on strength matchup with the PBruins’ offense generating 4.76 goals/game going up against the Pens top AHL defense in goals against/game at 1.43. From there, the weekend schedule lightens up with a home game against Bridgeport (a team WBS has found a ton of success against recently) and then a trip to Utica on Saturday night for a game against the 0-5-1 Comets.
