Penguins Fall to Admirals 5-2

Nick Petersen was the best WBS Penguin tonight. He tallied assists on both Penguins goals.

The lack of depth on defense showed tonight. With Robert Bortuzzo and Alexandre Picard called up late this afternoon, the defense was paper thin.

I actually thought Cody Wild played a good game tonight, but the Admirals offense was too much for the Pens tonight. Admirals win 5-2 and are now tied with the Penguins for first place in the East Division. At least Hershey lost in regulation and didn't gain ground on the Pens in the division race.

That was the last game of November and I will start the monthly grades on all of the WBS Penguins players and have November's grades posted very soon. Stay tuned for that!

It was Scott Munroe vs. Dustin Tokarski in net. Ryan Schnell and Matt Rust were the healthy scratches along with Zach Sill, who missed his second straight game with an undisclosed upper body injury.

Recap after the jump.



A bit of a slow start for the Penguins as they were having trouble clearing the puck out of their own zone early on.

The Penguins were able to kill off two Norfolk power plays in the first half of the period and scored on their first power play chance when ex-Penguin J.P. Cote was tagged with a crosschecking minor at the 13:49 mark of the period.

Nick Petersen skated down the wing and entered the offensive zone and found a wide open Niko Dimitrakos at the center point and fed a one time pass that Dimitrakos buried past Tokarski for his 6th of the season, giving the Pens a 1-0 lead.

Ryan Craig and Cory Conacher took matching minors late in the period and just six seconds into the 4-on-4 Mike Angelidis beat Munroe to tie the game at one with 1:21 left in the period. Norfolk out shot the Penguins 11-9 in the first frame.

The second period was filled with penalties and questionable calls from referee T.J. Luxmore. Scott Munroe was knocked into by an Admiral before Blair Jones tapped a rebound into an empty net and the goal counted. Replay showed that Bryan Lerg might've had some contact with the man who crashed into Munroe but questionable nonetheless.

Just 22 seconds after that goal, the hockey gods saw to it that the Penguins would tie it up. Nick Petersen's shot was tipped in by Ben Street on a goal that Tokarski would love to have back. Cody Wild got the second assist, his first point of the season.

Then three straight minors to the WBS Penguins and 1:39 of 5-on-3 hockey for Norfolk and the league's 4th best power play would make the best of it with a backdoor pass to Cory Conacher for an easy tap in goal to give the Admirals a 3-2 lead. The Admirals out shot the Penguins 12-7 in the second period.

The third period was much like the second period. No lack of effort by the Penguins tonight but a better effort by the Admirals. Conacher scored another power play goal 8:25 into the final period and the two goal lead was enough for the Admirals. Trevor Smith smacked a puck into the empty net in the final minute for the 5-2 win.