Fourth line pushes Penguins past Albany

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins took to the ice on Friday night without their leading goal scorer and a talented offensive defenseman, but interim head coach Todd Reirden had faith that his team would do just fine without them.

With his team playing their final three-games-in-three-days stretch of the regular season, Reirden rested sniper Chris Minard and backliner Alex Goligoski, even though the Penguins are in the midst of a highly contested race for home ice advantage.

"I was not worried about not having those two guys in the line-up," Reirden said. "I felt that someone would step up."

In fact, three players rose to the occasion on Friday night – and they all played on the same line.

Joe Vitale and Jean-Michel Daoust posted two-point evenings and line mate Paul Bissonnette scored a monumental first period goal as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Albany River Rats 4-2 at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.

Reirden utilized the trio in virtually all situations. They were in the game's starting line-up, were sent out at the start of every period, and were on the ice after every goal that was scored.

"Their game has been trending in the right direction," Reirden said. "I talked about them our prior game, being our best line. They definitely picked up right where they left off… they were outstanding together tonight."

"We're clicking together," Bissonnette said, "I think that we just keep it simple, we wear down teams. Even if we don't end up on the scoreboard, we're doing things positive – wearing down ‘d' and chipping away."

After Albany's Nick Dodge opened the scoring with a first period power play goal, Bissonnette responded for the Penguins almost immediately. He one-timed Daoust's centering feed past Albany goaltender Justin Peters to tie the game only 35 seconds after Dodge's goal.

"We had a lot of desperation tonight. We knew we had to win it," said Bissonnette. "Two losses in a row isn't going to cut it, especially going into the playoffs. They scored the first one and we just rallied back, my line mates and (I) had a big shift. We came back and scored and got the ball rolling."

Bissonnette's goal was the first of three that the Penguins would score in the first period. Connor James made it 2-1 when he converted Tim Wallace's cross-ice feed less than three minutes after the equalizer, and Mark Letestu gave the Penguins a 3-1 advantage in the period's final minute.

Vitale, who also assisted on Bissonnette's goal, recorded his first professional goal midway through the second period. He and Daoust capitalized off of a defensive miscue by Albany defenseman Benn Olson to give the Penguins a 4-1 advantage they carried into the second intermission.

"It was great to get the first goal under my belt," Vitale said. "It was a great play by J.M. and Biss, the forecheck, and the puck just kind of came to me. (I) just kind of threw it at the net and luckily it went in."

Ryan Weston rounded out the scoring with a third period goal that eluded Penguins' goaltender John Curry.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's victory, coupled with Philadelphia's defeat of the Hershey Bears, means that the Penguins now control their own playoff destiny. If they win their final two games of the regular season in regulation, they will clinch the East Division and home ice advantage throughout the first two rounds of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

"It is all up to us," Reirden said. "We just continue to try and improve on our overall game and try to set ourselves up for a long playoff run here. This arena has been very kind to us this year and we're going to do everything we can to try to secure that home ice advantage for ourselves."

NOTES

Adam Berkhoel will start in goal on Saturday when the Penguins host the Norfolk Admirals, Reirden said after the game.

Bill Thomas, Luca Caputi, Jon D'Aversa, and Andy Wozniewski all returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's line-up.

Brad Thiessen, J.P. Cote, Alex Goligoski, Chris Minard, Dave Gove, Aaron Boogaard, and Adam Henrich were scratched from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's line-up.

Miroslav Satan was called up to Pittsburgh before the game.

BOXSCORE

Albany            1 0 1 – 2
W-B/Scranton 3 1 0 – 4

First Period: 1, Alb, Dodge 12 (Rodney, Petruzalek) 6:17 (PP). 2, WBS, Bissonnette 8 (Daoust, Vitale) 6:53. 3, WBS, James 19 (Wallace, Lovejoy) 9:28. 4, WBS, Letestu 24 (Pesonen, Johnson) 19:16. Penalties: WBS, Pesonen (boarding) 5:23; Alb, Weston (unsportsmanlike conduct) 9:28; WBS, Bissonnette (unsportsmanlike conduct) 9:28; WBS, Caputi (hooking) 11:34; Alb, Dodge (unsportsmanlike conduct & diving) 12:23.

Second Period: 5, WBS, Vitale 1 (Daoust) 17:22. Penalties: Alb, Weston (hooking) 2:45; WBS, D'Aversa (interference) 12:51.

Third Period: 6, Alb, Weston 9 (Boychuk, Sutter) 8:21. Penalties: WBS, Caputi (hooking) 1:14; WBS, James (holding the stick) 13:07; Alb, Tifu (slashing, ten minute misconduct) 19:53.

Shots on Goal: Albany 9-6-9--24. W-B/Scranton 12-14-7--32.

Power-play opportunities: Albany 1 of 5; W-B/Scranton 0 of 4.

Goalies: Albany, Peters (32 shots, 28 saves). W-B/Scranton, Curry (24 shots, 22 saves).

Three Stars: 3, WBS, Daoust (two assists). 2, WBS, Bissonnette (goal). 1, WBS, Vitale (goal, assist).

Attendance: 7,338. Time: 2:14.

Referee: Kyle Rehman. Linesmen: Jameel Chaudry, Mike McDevitt.