The Penguins fall to Portland 3-2 in a shootout, despite out shooting and for the most part outplaying the Pirates tonight.
Colin McDonald was the lone scorer in the shootout for the Penguins, Ryan Duncan and Brett MacLean lit the lamp for the Pirates. The loss ends the Penguins perfect road record, which is now at 8-0-0-1.
The Penguins are back in action tomorrow night when they take on the Manchester Monarchs in New England. Full recap of tonight's game after the jump.
The Penguins trailed the Pirates 1-0 despite out shooting them 14-3 in the first period. After failing to convert on a power play earlier in the period, Maxim Goncharov got the Pirates on the board 15:31 into the opening frame. Assists went to Jordan Szwarz and Colin Long.
Just 28 seconds later the Penguins began their march to the penalty box, with Eric Tangradi sitting for tripping. The Penguins looked good on their first penalty kill of the night as Colin McDonald and Bryan Lerg couldn't connect on a shorthanded rush early on in the kill. Zach Sill was also whistled for tripping at the tail end of the period, giving the Pirates 1:58 of power play time to start the 2nd period with.
The teams traded power plays early in the period and it wasn't until after Carl Sneep's holding minor had ended that the Penguins would tie up the game. Ryan Craig fed Sneep as he came out of the box and the puck came back to Craig. His backhander was saved by McElhinney but a Portland defenseman smacked a clearing attempt off of Brian Gibbons' leg and into the net. A lucky bounce to get the Penguins on the board near the halfway point of the hockey game.
But the Pirates struck back on a nice back door feed from Andy Meile to Michael Stone made it a 2-1 Portland lead with 4:46 remaining in the middle frame. Good vision from the rookie Meile on the power play led to a goal where Munroe wasn't quick enough on a post to post slide.
The Penguins were still out shooting and getting better chances than the Pirates through 40 minutes, but trailed 2-1. After two periods WBS had a 26-11 advantage in shots on goal. Another period ended with a carry over power play. This time it was the Pirates' Marc Antoine Pouliot with a high-sticking minor at 19:19.
The Penguins were unable to capitalize on the power play to begin the period but cashed in on the man advantage later, after Pouliot went to the box for cross-checking 5:59 into the 3rd. Ben Street got his third of the season on a nice set up from Simon Despres and Jason Williams just 12 seconds later to tie the game at 2.
Regulation would end with that same score and Munroe needed to make a few nice saves to get the Penguins to the shootout, but they were unable to come away with two points.
News and Lineup Notes
- Here's what tonight's lineup looked like:
Eric Tangradi - Brian Gibbons - Geoff Walker
Ryan Craig - Ben Street - Nick Petersen
Brandon DeFazio - Zach Sill - Niko Dimitrakos
Robert Bortuzzo - Joey Mormina
Carl Sneep - Simon Despres
Cody Wild - Philip Samuelsson
Scott Munroe
- Geoff Walker returned to the lineup tonight, after missing the last six games with an upper body injury. Walker was active tonight, crashing the net and whacking at loose pucks. He was also physical on the forecheck.
- Eric Tangradi also made his return to the WBS lineup tonight, after being re-assigned from Pittsburgh. Tangradi had a few turnovers in his own zone tonight and took a foolish penalty in the first period.
- Scott Munroe got the start for the Penguins. He stopped 21 of the 23 shots he faced.
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