Penguins fall apart in third, lose in OT

For the second time in as many nights, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Bridgeport Sound Tigers needed overtime to decide a winner, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

In a trend that dates back to 2004, the two teams have played eleven consecutive playoff games against each other that have been decided by a single goal. All told, 15 of the 17 postseason contests between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Bridgeport have been decided by one tally, and ten of those matches have gone to overtime.

On Sunday afternoon, the Penguins were eight minutes away from taking a three-games-to-none stranglehold on the playoff series. But the Sound Tigers woke up in the final ten minutes of the third period, rallying from a 4-2 deficit to eventually win 5-4 at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza on an overtime goal by Sean Bentivoglio.

“We made some mistakes down the line and I think we got outbattled in the third,” said Penguins’ goaltender John Curry. “They’re a team that, for a lot of the series has outplayed us…  Even though we’re up 2-1, we need to recognize that we need to play better. I don’t think we played well.”

Trailing 1-0 after one period of play thanks to a goal by Bridgeport’s Jon Sim, the Penguins offense erupted with four tallies in a span of 8:51 during the middle stanza. The first three strikes came on the power play, and Jean-Michel Daoust factored in on all four of the goals, establishing a new team record for points in a single playoff period.

Daoust converted a pass from Mark Letestu to knot the score at 1, then set up team mates Jeff Taffe and Chris Minard to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead. He then banged a loose puck past Bridgeport goaltender Peter Mannino to give the Penguins a three-goal advantage.

With less than three minutes to play in the second period, Bridgeport defenseman Andrew MacDonald’s shot from the point deflected off of a Penguins defenseman and trickled past Curry and into the net. While the power play goal seemed harmless at the time, it was actually the beginning of a downward spiral for the Penguins.

“Going back in the room with (a lead of) three goals, it’s different than with two goals,” Daoust said. “You always say that a lead of two goals is the worst lead you can have. They came very hard, they knew that they had good momentum. They came hard in the third.”

Sim scored his second goal of the evening at the 11:51 mark , with Joe Callahan netting the equalizer on a point shot through traffic with just 4:14 to play.

“Traffic in front, that’s how you score in the playoffs,” said defenseman Joey Mormina, who added he was supposed to be covering Callahan. “They responded. We didn’t have an answer for them in the third.”

“It is about execution. It’s about making plays when the puck is on your stick or when you’re defending,” Penguins head coach Todd Reirden said. “They were better than us in the third period at that tonight. They were able to take advantage of their situations to score goals. We were not able to take advantage of the situations when we had pucks on our stick to get them out of our defensive zone. They started to gain momentum from situations like that.”

The Penguins will look to put the third period collapse behind them on Wednesday, when they travel to Bridgeport, Conn. for Game 4 with a 2-1 series lead.

“I think we’re in a good spot. We stole two in Long Island, we’re going back to Bridgeport. We’ve obviously had success in that rink, we’ve had success on the road all year,” Mormina. “We’re a very confident group here. We know if we play the right way, we can beat these guys. It showed in the second, we were up 4-1, we just have to learn from that. If we have the same kind of second on Wednesday, I’m confident we can hold on.”

NOTES

The Penguins were without Tim Wallace, who was serving a one-game American Hockey League suspension for a hit during Game 2 on Bridgeport’s Mike Iggulden that was not penalized. Along with Wallace the Penguins also scratched Brad Thiessen, Andy Wozniewski, Connor James, Dave Gove, and Janne Pesonen.

With 7:20 remaining in the second period, Mormina and Sim were involved in an exchange in front of Curry’s net. Referee Chris Ciamaga gave Mormina four minutes for roughing and Sim two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, which Mormina was not pleased with.

“(Sim) cross-checked me in the face,” Mormina said. “My nose started to bleed a little bit… the ref obviously missed it. He missed a lot of calls tonight.”

BOXSCORE

Bridgeport        1 1 2 1 – 5

W-B/Scranton 0 4 0 0 – 4

First Period: 1, Bri, Sim 1 (Smith) 15:04. Penalties: WBS, Mormina (interference) 9:59; Bri, Packard (roughing) 16:34; WBS, Cote (roughing) 16:34; WBS, Goligoski (hooking) 17:48.

Second Period: 2, WBS, Daoust 1 (Letestu, Goligoski) 4:03 (PP). 3, WBS, Taffe 1 (Daoust, Letestu) 5:55 (PP). 4, WBS, Minard 3 (Daoust, Letestu) 11:15 (PP). 5, WBS, Daoust 2 (Taffe, Engelland) 12:54. 6, Bri, MacDonald 1 (Lee, Sim) 17:13 (PP). Penalties: Bri, Callahan (interference) 3:56; Bri, Packard (hooking) 5:42; Bri, Sim (unsportsmanlike conduct) 7:20; WBS, Mormina (roughing double minor) 7:20; Bri, Bench minor – served by MacDonald (too many men) 10:28; WBS, Minard (goaltender interference) 16:43. Bri, Lee (holding) 17:35; Bri, Haley (ten-minute misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct) 17:35.