The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins just put together one of those weekends that can change the mood around a team fast. They walked into first-place Charlotte and came away with two road wins, then had their streak snapped Tuesday night at home by Utica.
The weekend started with a wild one on Friday, Nov. 6, when WBS erased a 3-0 deficit late in the third period and stunned the Checkers 4-3 in overtime. Daniel Russell, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Rutger McGroarty each scored in a span of less than four minutes to drag the Penguins level, and after a successful penalty kill in OT, Jake Livanavage finished the comeback with the winner.
They backed it up on Saturday, Nov. 7, with another four-goal outburst against Charlotte, this time winning 4-1. Ryan Johnson opened the surge with his first goal in Black and Gold in the second period, then Finn Harding and Avery Hayes followed quickly. Hugh McGing added the final punch in the third with a scorching release.
That momentum didn’t carry into the middle of the week. In a rare AHL Tuesday game, WBS fell 4-0 to Utica at home. Utica has now won five straight, and head coach Kirk MacDonald said his team simply wasn’t the better side that night.
The Penguins now head into a demanding stretch with three games in three days. They travel to Hershey on Friday night, return home to face Hamilton on Saturday, then host Lehigh Valley on Sunday in the first of 12 meetings this season with a cross-state and division rival.
Friday’s comeback in Charlotte was the headline result of the week, and it came after WBS stared at a 3-0 hole before turning the game upside down. McGroarty scored the tying goal, and Livanavage, back after a stretch of NHL healthy scratches, delivered the overtime finish.
The lineup has been in constant motion, which is nothing unusual at this level. Owen Pickering was injured during Saturday’s game and missed Tuesday’s matchup with Utica, though the injury is believed to be somewhat minor.
Harrison Brunicke sat out both weekend games because of the injury he suffered at the end of October, but he returned for Tuesday night. Livanavage has been moving back and forth from the NHL, as has McGroarty.
In net, Taylor Gauthier earned the Friday win with 29 saves on 32 shots. Joel Blomqvist handled the other two games, turning aside 18 of 19 shots in Saturday’s win over Charlotte and stopping 32 of 35 in the loss to Utica before an empty-net goal was added.
Even with Tuesday’s setback, Wilkes sits fourth in the division in total points and third in points percentage, since Hartford has played four more games than the Penguins so far. The division is starting to split into a top group of Charlotte, Hershey, WBS and maybe Hartford, with Providence, Lehigh Valley and Springfield trailing behind with under a .500 points percentage.
The encouraging part for the Penguins is that they’ve been scoring more than most teams while also giving up fewer goals on the season. If you remove those two losses to Utica, their standing would look even stronger. Success inside the division usually matters over the long haul, which makes the coming games against Hershey and Lehigh Valley especially important.
With the AHL’s top six teams in each division making the playoffs, the Penguins should be in solid shape to clear that bar. The bigger target is finishing in the top two and avoiding the opening-round best-of-three series, where a bad couple of days can end everything in a hurry.
For now, though, the postseason is still far off. The grind is here, and so is the three-in-three weekend.
In Other News...
Hurricanes Linked To A Major Trade Target They May Not Control
The Penguins blue line has become part of a larger trade conversation as teams around the league look for help, and Erik Karlsson keeps surfacing as one of the more intriguing names. Toronto would like to add a defenseman but is boxed in by the salary cap, which makes any move complicated unless it can clear money first. For Pittsburgh, that keeps Karlsson in the middle of a market that is still trying to sort out who can actually afford to do business.
Among the clubs kicking tires, Carolina has been tied most closely to Karlsson, which is enough to keep the rumor mill humming in Pittsburgh. But any path forward is not as simple as a team deciding it wants him and calling it a day, because the veteran defenseman still has say in where he goes. Until that part of the equation is settled, the interest around him remains just that - interest. [Read more 🡒]
WBS Penguins Let Rivalry Milestone Slip Away In Brutal Collapse
The 300th regular-season meeting between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hershey had all the markings of another hard-nosed chapter in a long rivalry, and for most of the night the Penguins looked ready to make it their own. They carried a 3-1 lead into the third period and had the game in hand before the Bears started clawing back, turning what should have been a landmark win into a tense finish.
Hershey finished the rally in overtime to steal a 4-3 victory, leaving the Penguins to sort through a collapse that will sting for a while. Taylor Gauthier was busy throughout the night, and Cal Petersen held up his end for the Bears as they found a way to turn a milestone game into a memorable comeback, one Wilkes-Barre/Scranton would have liked to close out much differently. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Practice Sent A Clear Message About A Roster Shakeup
Dan Muse used practice to reshuffle the Penguins lines, and the message from the morning skate was hard to miss. Rookie Sergei Murashov was being singled out as having secured a roster spot, giving the club a little clarity at a time when the lineup has been in flux and every adjustment feels like it carries a little extra weight.
Elsewhere on the ice, Bryan Rust and Elmer Soderblom were both on injured ice before practice, with Rust skating but not at full intensity. The broader picture around the Penguins is still changing too, with trade chatter continuing to swirl around Erik Karlsson and other names around the league, leaving the roster conversation very much alive even as one young player appears to have carved out his place. [Read more 🡒]