Minard makes it happen in third for Penguins

Chris Minard rewrote the history books again, but the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins can’t punch their ticket to the playoffs just yet.

Minard recorded the first four-point game of his American Hockey League career, breaking or tying three team records in the process, to lead the Penguins to a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Marlies. But a Philadelphia Phantoms victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins prevented the Penguins from clinching a berth in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Still, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton interim head coach Todd Reirden was happy to see his number one goal-scorer score twice in the third period after going through a recent slump.

“I love when Minny gets going,” said Reirden. “He’s obviously a very dangerous player in this league. He went through a little bit of a funk there, for whatever reason, had some chances and just wasn’t able to score goals there. But a couple great goals tonight, two power play goals, that pushed us over the hump.”

Minard gave the Penguins the lead for good early in the third when he one-timed Jeff Taffe’s centering feed past Toronto goaltender James Reimer. He scored the insurance goal during a 4-on-3 advantage less than six minutes later, converting a pass from Alex Goligoski.

The goals were Minard’s 33rd and 34th of the season, 33rd and 34th career power play goals, and the tie-breaking goal was his 8th game-winner of the campaign. The former two are Wilkes-Barre/Scranton records, while the latter ties the mark set by Kurtis McLean last season.

Connor James sealed the victory with an empty net goal at the 19:22 mark, with Minard registering the primary assist.

“I put him (Minard) on the ice because I wanted him to get a hat trick, plus he’s done a nice job defensively,” Reirden said. “He made a very unselfish play, he could have easily tried to score that goal himself, but that’s Chris Minard for you.”

The three-goal outburst in the final frame erased any potential harm caused by a second period that saw the Marlies overcome two one-goal deficits.

“We turned the puck over way too much, we didn’t get behind their ‘D’ and play in their zone,” Minard said of the Penguins’ second period. “We got away from our style of game and knew we had to do that in the third period.”

The Penguins dominated the game’s opening 20 minutes of play, outshooting Toronto by a 18-5 margin and taking a 1-0 lead to the locker room. Miroslav Satan collected a loose puck during a goalmouth scramble and backhanded it past Toronto goaltender James Reimer to open the scoring at 13:34.

“Coach told everyone before the game, ‘Go in front of the net. That’s where the goals are scored’,” Satan said. “It worked out.”

The lead was erased when Toronto forward Stefano Giliati corralled a home run pass from Andrew Martens and ripped a slap shot past Penguins’ goaltender John Curry at 8:12 of the middle stanza.

Nick Johnson restored Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s lead just over six minutes later after Mark Letestu sprung the winger on a breakaway. Johnson outhustled two Toronto defensemen and fired a shot past Reimer’s glove hand.

That lead lasted less than five minutes, as Bates Battaglia’s centering feed took a fortuitous bounce off Jeremy Williams and deflected into the net behind Curry with just 51 seconds remaining in the frame.

“We lost the lead twice. We just said ‘We’ve got to start again from the beginning.’ From what I’ve heard, this team has had success in the third period this season,” Satan said. “It was great to see that everybody showed up in the third and we had a great effort from everybody. Penalty killers, goalies, forwards, defense, everybody was doing was something right. That’s how we win the games.”

NOTES

Luca Caputi left the game with an upper-body injury.

J.P. Cote, Dustin Jeffrey, and Bill Thomas were all scratched from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s line-up due to lower-body injuries. Dave Gove remains sidelined with a back injury. The Penguins also scratched Adam Henrich, Nathan Moon, Robert Bortuzzo, and Lane Caffaro.

The Penguins went 4/4 on the penalty kill, nullifying Toronto’s power play that entered the game with the third best unit in the American Hockey League.

BOXSCORE

Toronto           0 2 0 – 2

W-B/Scranton 1 1 3 – 5

First Period: 1, WBS, Satan 2 (Minard, Taffe) 13:34. Penalties: Tor, Perry (hooking) 8:35.

Second Period: 2, Tor, Giliati 6 (Martens, Reimer) 8:12. 3, Johnson 13 (Letestu, Mormina) 14:35. 4. Tor, Williams 25 (Battaglia, Ryan) 19:09. Penalties: Tor, Martens (holding) 3:04; WBS, Bench minor, served by Minard (too many men) 4:13; WBS, Engelland (roughing) 6:08.

Third Period: 5, WBS, Minard 33 (Taffe, Letestu) 2:09 (PP). 6, WBS, Minard 34 (Goligoski, Satan) 8:22 (PP). 7, WBS, James 18 (Minard) 19:22 (EN). Penalties: Tor, Boyce (slashing) 1:19; Tor, Martens (tripping) 3:36; WBS, Mormina (interference) 6:34; Tor, Battaglia (hooking) 7:24; Tor, Rome (boarding) 7:50; WBS, D’Aversa (hooking) 12:31.

Shots on Goal: Toronto 5-15-8--28. W-B/Scranton 18-12-10--40.

Power-play opportunities: Toronto 0 of 4; W-B/Scranton 2 of 6.

Goalies: Toronto, Reimer (39 shots, 35 saves). W-B/Scranton, Curry (28 shots, 26 saves).