PREVIEW: Penguins/Pirates

The Penguins are back in Portland for another Saturday night game.  Though there's one more game left on the road trip after tonight (Wednesday in Syracuse), the team returns home after being away from Wilkes-Barre for 10 days.

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Expected Starting Goalies

Jeff Zatkoff (WBS): 19-18-0, 2.04 GAA, .917 SV%, 3 SO

Chad Johnson (POR): 16-12-1, 2.86 GAA, .909 SV%, 2 SO

Breaking Down the Matchup

PENGUINS (6th - EAST): 3rd Place East Division, 33-26-2-1 = 69 points

Portland (5th - EAST): 2nd Place Atlantic Division, 34-21-3-2 = 73 points

Leading Scorers

PENGUINS: Chad Kolarik (23G, 29A), Trevor Smith (17G, 22A), Riley Holzapfel (17G, 21A)

Portland: Alexandre Bolduc (22G, 24A), Andy Miele (12G, 25A), Chris Brown (23G, 12A)

Finishing Strong

After nine days and six games, the road trip is nearing an end. But not without an important match up between the 5th and 6th seeds in the Eastern Conference. A win tonight can bring the Penguins two points from 5th place Portland, while a loss causes the proverbial four point swing and gives the Pirates a six point cushion for fifth best in the conference.

For the Pirates, they're coming off a big 6-3 home win over Adirondack on Wednesday. Former Penguin forward Nick Johnson cleared waivers and has been re-assigned to Portland. Johnson is set to return to Portland's lineup for just his third AHL game since wearing a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins jersey back in the 2010-11 season. Another old-time WBS connection comes on the Portland bench as former AHL Penguins captain John Slaney is an assistant coach with the Pirates.

For the Penguins, the injured list has just two names on it. Steve MacIntyre made his return to the lineup Wednesday night. Phil Dupuis has been out of the lineup since missing the game against Norfolk on January 15th and it's looking more and more like a season ending injury. Tom Kuhnhackl is out for the season as he had shoulder surgery awhile back.

After the benches cleared in Portland last Saturday, don't be surprised to see MacIntyre dressed tonight. 

Injured list: Tom Kuhnhackl (upper body) and Phil Dupuis

Healthy Scratches: Cody Wild, Christian Minella and Dominik Uher

Expected lineup:

Holzapfel - Smith - Kolarik

Megna - Gibbons - Collins

Payerl - Peters - Thompson

Farnham - Sill - MacIntyre

Reese - Dumoulin

Grant - Mormina

Samuelsson - Morrow