Penguins Weren't "Hoeffel" But Lose 2-1

Valabik got into his first fight as a Penguin tonight, though it wasn't much of one.

The Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins head into their holiday break on a sour note, a 2-1 loss tonight to the Albany Devils.

For those who didn't understand (or like?) the word play in tonight's headline, Albany's Mike Hoeffel scored both goals for the Devils tonight. Hoeffel actually made his pro debut against the WBS Penguins in Mohegan Sun Arena last season on March 23rd. He has plenty of good memories of Wilkes-Barre already.

It was Scott Munroe vs. Jeff Frazee in net tonight. Carl Sneep and Brian Strait made their return to the WBS lineup and both started the game. They replaced ECHL call-ups Dan Henningson and Peter Merth, who I expect will not be back with the team when the team returns from their week off. Paul Thompson was also back, replacing Ryan Schnell as the 12th forward.

Lines: Gibbons/Walker-Lerg-McDonald
           Gibbons/Walker-Street-Petersen
           Thompson-Rust-Craig
           Barton-Sill-DeFazio
           Sneep-Strait
           Valabik-Samuelsson
           Grant-Wild

The team is now off until December 27th. The players get to spend the holidays with their families and friends, before returning to Wilkes-Barre for a home-and-home with their arch rival Hershey Bears.  Stay tuned, however, because I will be putting together some interesting posts throughout the week highlighting some of the players.

Recap after the jump.

The Penguins were outplayed in a scoreless first period tonight, being out shot 12-5. It didn't help that the Pens had to kill off three penalties in the opening 20 minutes of play.

Hoeffel put the Devils on the board 7:49 into the middle frame on a nice shot on a rush. Alex Grant has been playing well as of late but it seemed he gave Hoeffel a little too much space in the middle of the WBS defensive zone.

Ben Street tied the game at one just 2:18 into the third period, finishing off a 2-on-1 chance with Colin McDonald. A great saucer pass from McDonald, who got the lone assist on Street's 11th goal of the season.

Hoeffel got his second goal of the night, the game winner, right off a face-off after the Penguins iced the puck. His shot deflected off of Boris Valabik's stick and found a way past Munroe. 

The Penguins dominated play in the third period out shooting the Devils 13-6, but come up short tonight.  Valabik ate a high stick and got the Pens a power play with 1:54 left, but they couldn't get the equalizer as time ran out on them.