AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

Pens fall in OT, 5-4, again

April 18, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins News Release


Bridgeport, CT (Saturday, April 17, 2004) - Brandon Smith scored 1:27 into overtime to lift the Bridgeport Sound Tigers a 5-4 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins before a crowd of 3,084 at the Arena at Harbor Yard.

With the win, the Sound Tigers now lead the best-of-seven series, two games to none. The series now shifts to Wilkes-Barre for Games three and four tomorrow (5:05 p.m. start) and Tuesday (7:05 p.m.), respectively, at Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.

"In the playoffs, you need breaks," said Penguins coach Michel Therrien. "We're not getting any breaks right now. They're getting all the breaks. But this is a seven-game series. When the breaks change, the team could do some damage. They got the breaks for the first two games, but it's a seven-game series."

For the second straight game, the Sound Tigers won in overtime and scored again on their only shot of overtime as Smith took a pass from Martin Kariya and rang the game-winning goal of the post and past rookie goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who didn't see the shot as Graham Belak was in front of him and screened him on the play.

Rob Collins recorded a goal and two assists, while Smith notched a goal and an assist in the win for the Sound Tigers.

The Penguins' top line of Tomas Surovy, Kris Beech and Tom Kostopoulos accounted for the team's four goals. Surovy led the Penguins with two goals and two assists, Beech recorded two goals and an assist and Kostopoulos added two assists in the loss.

The game started off well for the Penguins, who led 2-1 after 20 minutes of play. After killing off Ross Lupaschuk's tripping penalty, the Penguins took their first lead of the series when Kris Beech scored his first goal of the playoffs to give the Penguins an early 1-0 lead. Tomas Surovy fired a shot from the circle that goaltender Wade Dubielewicz blocked, but the rebound came to Beech in the slot. He got the rebound on his stick and slipped a back-hander through Dubielewicz's pads for the goal at 8:45.

But the Sound Tigers came back a few minutes later and tied the game on Cail MacLean's first of the playoffs at the 11:27 mark. MacLean got the puck in the neutral zone and skated in all alone on Fleury on breakaway. He skated down between the circles and slipped home the shot just past the outstretched right pad of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury for the goal.

The Penguins regained the lead late in the period on a power play goal by Tomas Surovy at 18:22. With Alan Letang off for high-sticking, the Penguins needed less than a minute to score on the man-advantage as Surovy took a pass from Toby Petersen and snapped a wrist shot from the top of the right circle high to Dubielewicz's glove hand for the goal.

In the second period, the Sound Tigers tied the game on Sean Bergenheim's first goal of the playoffs at the nine-minute mark. Fleury made a pad save on Rob Collins' shot, but Bergenheim was right there in the crease to knock home the rebound to even the game at 2-2.

Early in the third period, Bridgeport took their first lead of the game when Collins notched his first goal of the playoffs with eight seconds left on Shane Endicott's hooking penalty. As the penalty was winding down, the Sound Tigers' Derek Bekar had his shot blocked, but Fleury couldn't get a hold of the rebound. But Collins was there to put back the shot for his first goal of the playoffs 2:27 into the period.

But a little over a minute later, the Penguins answered back as Kris Beech scored his second goal of the game to tie then game at 2-2. Dubielewicz made a pad save on Tom Surovy's shot from the bottom of the circle, but Beech got the rebound in front and swiped it in past Dubielewicz for the goal at 3:16.

However, a few minutes later, Bridgeport regained the lead on a 3-on-2 break when Bergenheim threw a cross-ice pass to Pettinen trailing on the play and he blasted a slap shot from the top of the circle that beat Fleury through the pads for the goal at the 4:46 mark.

Late in the game, the Penguins tied game at 4-4 on Tomas Surovy's second goal of the game with 6:12 left in the third period. The goal was set-up by rookie Ryan Whitney, who made a good play to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Just inside the blue line, Whitney got the Sound Tigers' failed clearing attempt and kept it in. He made a quick cross-ice pass to Ross Lupaschuk, who was all-alone at top of the right circle. Instead of taking the shot, Lupaschuk found Surovy in the slot. Despite having a Bridgeport defenseman all over him, Surovy was able flip a wrist shot over Dubielewicz for the game-tying goal.

Goaltender Wade Dubielewicz made 37 saves, while Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 16 of 21 shots in his first career AHL game and postseason game.

"He didn't get any breaks," commented Therrien on Fleury's performance. "I believe the way that we play, we deserved more. We were the aggressor. We tried to create a lot offensively because we know this is a team that plays very well defensively.

"We didn't give up a lot," he added. "If you look at the scoring chances, if you look at the shots, it's not a matter that we're poor defensively. We got over 40 shots and gave up close to 20. What else can you do?"

GAME NOTES Scratches for the Penguins were David Koci (suspension), Pauli Levokari (injury), Ondrej Nemec (injury), Reid Simpson (healthy scratch) and Andy Chiodo (healthy scratch) ... Tonight was the third time in team history and first on the road that the Penguins played in back-to-back overtime games ... The Penguins are now 5-4 in overtime games in the postseason ... Tonight was the sixth time in the playoffs and the first since May 1, 2001 (at Philadelphia) that the Penguins recorded 40 or more shots in a playoff game ... The Penguins are 4-2 in the playoffs when recording 40 or more shots in a game ... Tomas Surovy recorded his second postseason multiple-point game with two goals and two assists ... The team record for points in a playoff game is five ... Chris Kelleher recorded five points (1g, 4a) in Game Two vs. Syracuse on April 13, 2001 ... Rookie defenseman Ryan Whitney made his pro debut and recorded his first career point (assist) in the third period and finished with a plus-one rating ... The Penguins are 10-5 at home in the playoffs ... The Penguins have never lost three consecutive postseason games.

Check out the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from April 18, 2004


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