The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins had a successful last weekend, going to first-place Charlotte and winning two games on the road. Here’s WBSPenguins.com recap of the week:
Friday, Nov. 6 – PENGUINS 4 at Charlotte 3 (OT) Down 3-0 past the mid-point of the third period, Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton stormed back with four unanswered goals to shock the Checkers. Daniel Russell, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Rutger McGroarty all scored in under four minutes to pull the Penguins even. After a successful penalty
kill in OT, Jake Livanavage completed the comeback with the extra-time winner.
Saturday, Nov. 7 – PENGUINS 4 at Charlotte 1
Once again, the Penguins toppled the division-leading Checkers with four-straight goals. Ryan Johnson’s first goal in Black and Gold started the surge in the second period, swiftly followed by strikes from Finn Harding and Avery Hayes. Hugh McGing rounded out the offense with a scorching release in the third.
That winning roll would grind to a halt. In the rare AHL mid-week game, WBS lost 4-0 at home to Utica on Tuesday night. Utica has now won five straight games and just had too much going for them according to head coach Kirk MacDonald who had to admit his team just wasn’t the better side on that night.
The busy times continue coming up with three games in three days over the weekend. WBS will be in Hershey tomorrow night before returning home to play Hamilton on Saturday. Then on Sunday the Pens host Lehigh Valley for the first of 12 (count ‘em, 12!) meetings this season against a cross-state and division rival.
The game to circle back and focus on was last Friday’s big comeback against Charlotte. WBS was down 3-0 before mounting a furious comeback. Rutger McGroarty scored the tying goal and then Jake Livanavage, freshly back from a stint of NHL healthy scratches, notched the overtime winner.
Here was the lineup on that night.
The lineup, as always is the case at any level but especially in the AHL, has been fluctuating. Owen Pickering got injured during the Saturday night game and missed the Utica match on Tuesday, but it’s believed his injury is somewhat minor. Harrison Brunicke missed both the weekend games with the injury he suffered in the end of October but was able to return for Tuesday night’s game. As mentioned above, Livanavage has bounced back and forth from the NHL, as has McGroarty.
For recent goaltender outcomes, Taylor Gauthier picked up the Friday night win in the comeback game, stopping 29/32 shots. Joel Blomqvist played the other two games, having one of his best games to only allow one goal on 18 shots in the Saturday win over Charlotte. Blomqvist also played in the overmatched game against Utica, stopping 32 of 35 shots before an empty net goal was chipped in.
Wilkes sits fourth in the standings for total points, though they’re third in points percentage since Hartford has played four more games than the Penguins to this point. The division looks like it’s starting to separate between a top 3-4 teams (Charlotte, Hershey, WBS and maybe Hartford) before dropping away to a bottom three teams with under a .500 points% (Providence, Lehigh Valley, Springfield).
The good news for the Pens is they’re scoring more than most and allowing fewer goals on the season, take out those pesky pair of losses to Utica and WBS’s place would be even better. Teams that do well against the division are usually going to be alright by the end of the season, making the upcoming weekend games against Hershey and LV very critical in the big scheme of things.
The top six teams in the division make the playoffs in the unorthodox AHL playoff setup, so the Pens should be in really good shape for clearing the low bar of at least making the postseason. As usual, their goal should be trying to finish in the top-two of their division and avoid the opening round best-of-three quick playoff series where a bad couple of days could bring the curtain down on their season.
For now, the playoffs are a long way off and the grind of the minor league season will be in full view with the dreaded three-in-three weekend.
