Admirals sink Penguins' hopes of division title

After racing out to an early 2-0 lead against the Norfolk Admirals, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins appeared to be on the fast track to clinching home ice advantage in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

But Norfolk's responded to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's early surge, scoring four goals in a span of 20:09 to skate away with a 4-3 victory at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza on Saturday night.

The loss, combined with victories by both the Hershey Bears and Bridgeport Sound Tigers, means that the Penguins are locked in third place in the American Hockey League's East Division. They will conclude the regular season with a meaningless game against the Hershey Bears on Sunday afternoon at Giant Center.

"They're a team that has nothing to lose," Penguins' interim head coach Todd Reirden said of Norfolk. "It's difficult to play against these teams… these guys are trying to get one last goal or one last assist because their season is over."

The Hershey Bears will win the East Division regardless of Sunday's outcome. They hold the tiebreaker on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, who will finish in second place and have home ice advantage in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs. The Penguins can amass no more than 104 standings points, which means that they will open their playoff series against Bridgeport on Friday and Saturday in Long Island.

"Good thing we're not playing Norfolk," Reirden joked after his team lost twice in a span of four days to the Admirals. "Joking aside, that's disappointing – something that was addressed during the game and before the game. Certainly didn't go without notice amongst our team. "

The Penguins will host game three of their playoff matchup on Sunday, April 19 at 5:05 PM. They'll then head to Bridgeport, Connecticut for game four on Wednesday, April 22. If necessary, the Penguins will host games five and six on April 24-25 at 7:05 PM before heading to Bridgeport for game seven on Sunday, April 26.

"They've had a phenomenal year. They've done really well and they've had a bunch of guys that have gotten called up," Reirden said of the Sound Tigers. "It's an opponent that I respect a lot and they've got a real good group of players that add a ton of depth. Their goaltending is solid. It's going to be a very tough challenge for us."

With captain Connor James out of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's line-up due to a lower-body injury, the oft-scratched Adam Henrich took his place on a line with Dustin Jeffrey and Tim Wallace. In his first game since March 21, Henrich opened the scoring when his pass to Wallace deflected in off of Norfolk defenseman Mike Lundin.

The red-hot line of Paul Bissonnette, Jean-Michel Daoust, and Joe Vitale gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead just 37 seconds later, with Bissonnette one-timing Daoust's centering feed home.

The Admirals responded to Bissonnette's goal by scoring four times on their first 10 shots of the game to take a 4-2 lead by the 10:56 mark of the second period. Former Penguin Mike Sgroi got the ball rolling for Norfolk, while Radek Smolenak, Brandon Buck, and Blair Jones also scored.

"They're big, strong guys throwing pucks at the net. That's what gave us success and it worked for them," said defenseman Deryk Engelland. "We've got to definitely tweak our defensive zone a little bit, but I think we'll be all right."

Joe Vitale netted his second goal in as many games to pull the Penguins within a goal in the third period, but it was too little too late. Though the play of Vitale's line has clearly impressed Reirden, as the trio was used prominently throughout the game and scored twice. The Penguins' top six forwards were nowhere near as effective as the fourth line.

"It says a lot about urgency and desperation and playing hard to earn a spot," Reirden said. "It was well noted before the last five or six games that it was going to be a competitive situation going into our first playoff game. Some guys reached out for the challenge and took the opportunity and some guys didn't. We'll continue to assess that after the weekend and put together the best possible line-up we can have to play playoff hockey come next Friday."

NOTES

The Admirals were without defenseman Mike Knight, who was handed a one-game suspension by the American Hockey League. Knight was issued an instigator penalty with less than five minutes remaining in Norfolk's win at Binghamton on Friday, which carries an automatic single-game suspension.

Norfolk winger Steve Downie returned to the line-up after serving a 20-game AHL suspension for deliberately hitting an on-ice official with his stick during a game against Hershey on February 28.

Along with James, Brad Thiessen, J.P. Cote, Bill Thomas, Joey Mormina, Dave Gove, and Aaron Boogaard were also scratched from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's line-up. Reirden said to expect to see Thomas in the line-up at Hershey tomorrow and Mormina was given the night off to rest.

BOXSCORE

Norfolk Admirals 2 2 0 – 4

W-B/Scranton      2 0 1 –3

First Period: 1, WBS, Henrich 3 (Wallace) 7:53. 2, WBS, Bissonnette 9 (Daoust, Vitale) 8:30. 3, Nor, Sgroi 2 (Buck, Simek) 10:46. 4, Nor, Smolenak 24 (unassisted) 15:59. Penalties: WBS, Daoust (holding) 20:00.

Second Period: 5, Nor, Buck 6 (Swanson, Hooton) 6:13. 6, Nor, Jones 20 (Lundin, Segal) 10:56. Penalties: Nor, Lundin (hooking) 0:50; Nor, Wishart (hooking) 7:54; Nor, Sgroi (fighting) 10:57; WBS, Bissonnette (fighting) 10:57; WBS, Wozniewski (high sticking) 13:56; WBS, Caffaro (cross checking) 18:18.

Third Period: 7, WBS, Vitale 2 (Bissonnette, Lovejoy) 16:52. Penalties: Nor, Smolenak (holding) 8:42; Nor, Segal (slashing) 9:12.