WBS Penguins, Top Pens Prospects Learn Hard Lessons (+)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. –– Growing pains can hurt.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins were served some hard lessons on playoff hockey Wednesday night.

Every puck was contested. Every stride was in tandem with a defender. And the WBS Penguins were not prepared for their hungrier opponents, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Penguins lost Game 1 of their first-round series Wednesday, 5-2, at Mohegan Arena.

“I think we were just, honestly–(we) could feel a little bit of the nerves early. You know, (LVP) came up with a good push. But I think we were just a little tentative,” WBS coach Kirk MacDonald said. “I thought after the first goal, we took over the rest of the period … I thought we pushed the pace. And then we got six minutes of power plays with a five-on-three in there, and we didn’t execute. So, we killed our own momentum right there, not scoring.

“And then they got one right after we went to even strength. And that was kind of the ball game.”

Game 2 is Friday at Lehigh Valley (Allentown).

For a second straight year, a superlative regular season hangs by a thread because of the AHL’s hasty playoff format, which pits good teams in a first-round best-of-three series. And for a second straight year, despite a dominant regular season record in the head-to-head matchup, WBS will face elimination on the road in Game 2 of their series against Lehigh Valley.

Best of three in the first round?!

To his credit, center Tristan Broz, who will quite possibly make his NHL debut in October, was spitting nails after the game. He didn’t waste time ripping their performance.

His words were drenched in the anger of a competitive fire, not sulking, “That was f***ing embarrassing.”

You can see the video below.

Sometimes, you can learn more from a bad loss than you can from a good win. And to that end, there was a good bit for us to digest, as well. As a matter of analysis, we closely dissected the games of Broz, Owen Pickering, Harrison Brunicke, Vasily Ponomarev, with one eye on Avery Hayes and Joel Blomqvist.