Williams Makes it Nine Straight Road Wins

Friday, January 27, 2012


Jason Williams scored with 53 seconds left in overtime to give the Pens their ninth straight road win, a 3-2 decision over his former team the Connecticut Whale. The Whale are now 0-5-3-2 in their last ten games.

The Penguins did all of their damage on the power play tonight, going 3-for-7 with the man advantage.

The Pens took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Ryan Craig tapped home a puck past Johnson after a great pass from Eric Tangradi. Bryan Lerg also got an assist on the power play goal at the 8:16 mark.

The Whale tied the game up early in the second period on a miscue by Carl Sneep, who fell down and left Sean Avery alone on a breakaway. Joey Mormina tried to skate down to catch up but Avery beat Brad Thiessen.

Avery wasn't done there, he attacked Mormina and started a big scrum right after his goal, resulting in four minutes for roughing and a ten minute misconduct. He didn't see the ice for another shift after that play and didn't even move from his spot at the end of the bench next to back up goalie Cameron Talbot the entire third period.

The Whale took a 2-1 lead early in the third period when Jonathan Audy-Marchessault slammed a rebound into an empty corner, but Robert Bortuzzo tied it up with a power play slap shot from the point 58 seconds later. Jason Williams and Eric Tangradi got the assists.

Steve MacIntyre and Pavel Valentenko would collide along the side boards of the Whale bench and MacIntyre would get a major for boarding and was tossed from the game. The hit happened literally right in front of me and it was clearly a shoulder to shoulder hit. The referee did not see the play, but saw Valentenko laying on the ice bleeding. MacIntyre got two minutes for a legal check and three more and a game misconduct for being the enforcer on the ice.

Subsequently, Andre Deveaux suddenly grew the courage to take shots at Penguin players after whistles and got caught for a roughing minor 12 seconds after MacIntyre's exit.

Tough third period for the Penguins who had to kill off a 5-on-3 for 1:44 to keep the game tied at 2. But they managed to escape unscathed and Carl Sneep redeemed himself by drawing a tripping call on Ryan Bourque in the overtime session. It was Bourque's first penalty of the season, but a bad time to take a penalty.

It was Brad Thiessen vs. Chad Johnson in net. Carl Sneep returned to the lineup after missing time with an upper body injury and replaced Philip Samuelsson (healthy). Brian Gibbons was a healthy scratch at the forward position for the second game in a row.

The team left immediately after the game for Binghamton where they will battle the Senators tomorrow night. Guess what? Highland Park Hockey will be in Binghamton tomorrow night for more live coverage of your favorite team, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.

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