Pens Fall 3-1 in Regular Season Finale

The Penguins fall 3-1 tonight to a desperate Manchester Monarchs team that needed to win to clinch a playoff berth of their own. While the Penguins end the regular season on a sour note, every team entering the playoffs starts 0-0 on Monday.

"If you won the two games, you still have to re-focus for the playoffs," Hynes said. "It's a new season starting now."

The Penguins and Monarchs were scoreless through two periods before David Kolomatis found the back of the net for the visitors 31 seconds into the final frame. AHL rookie of the year Tyler Toffoli got the lone assist on the game's first goal.

The Monarchs added to their lead midway through the third period with a power play goal from Andre Andreoff as he came barreling down the left wing and beat Brad Thiessen with a sneaky wrist shot. 

The Penguins, despite already having clinched a playoff spot, didn't pack it in after trailing in the third. 

They racked up 17 shots in the final frame and broke Martin Jones' shutout bid when Paul Thompson netted his 20th of the season on a rebound chance. The goal by Thompson made him the 5th WBS player with 20 or more goals this season (Chad Kolarik, Derek Nesbitt, Trevor Smith and Riley Holzapfel being the other four). 

The Monarchs added an empty net goal to cap the scoring at 3-1, but the real story for the Monarchs was the play of their goaltender.

"We're happy we are in the playoffs," Smith said. "Our goal for the start of the year was playoffs and we're there."

Alex Grant had a few good chances in the final minutes and like Smith, he isn't worried about what seed the Penguins are after tomorrow's end to the regular season for the rest of the league.

"You got to go through every team if you want to win the cup," Grant said. "We're not in this for one or two rounds, we're in this to win everything."

Regardless of the outcomes of tomorrow's games, most notably Portland vs. Bridgeport and Binghamton vs. Syracuse, the Penguins know that Game 1 of the first round best-of-five series will begin for them on Saturday night on the road. 

The Penguins will practice during the week to prepare for the playoffs, so after tomorrow's games check back for the first round opponent and expect the next update to come after the team's first practice next week

ROSTER NOTES

Brad Thiessen got the start in net, stopping 17 of the 19 shots he faced.

Healthy Scratches: Scott Darling, Peter Merth, Chris Barton, Reid McNeill, Christiaan Minella, Derek Nesbitt, Anton Zlobin, Harrison Ruopp and Matia Marcantuoni.

Lines

Holzapfel - Smith - Kolarik

Megna - Gibbons - Thompson

Payerl - Peters - Collins

Farnham - Sill - Uher

Reese - Dumoulin

Mormina - Samuelsson

Grant - Wild