Penguins Finish October With 2-1 Loss to Admirals

Coming into tonight, the Penguins had outscored their opponents 17-4 in the third period. So with the score tied at 1-1 through 40 minutes of regulation, I'm sure Pens fans at the Mohegan Sun Arena weren't too worried headed into the third period tied tonight. Unfortunately for the fans, and players alike, it was the Norfolk Admirals with a third period goal and the 2-1 win.

The Penguins loss, the first regulation defeat of the year, ends the first month of the season with a 6-1-0-1 record. A tight-checking, low-scoring, hard-hitting game tonight. In other words, another AHL East Division match up.

The Penguins jumped out to a 1-0 lead courtesy a Brian Gibbons breakaway goal. Gibbons snuck behind the Admirals defenders in the neutral zone and caught a long breakout pass from Simon Despres en route to a five-hole goal on Admirals goaltender John Gibson.

The Admirals got off to a slow start after a lengthy overnight bus trip from Glens Falls. But they got it together midway through the first frame and tied the game at 1-1 with a late first period power play goal.

From there, things got physical. Bobby Farnham dropped the gloves late in the first period, Pierre-Luc Leblond fought twice in the second period and Dominik Uher finished off the night's fight card in the third period. Like I said, just another East Division grudge match.

The Admirals go-ahead goal in the third period came after the Penguins were unable to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. The sustained Admirals pressure was too much and Maxime Sauve sticked home a puck past Peter Mannino down low and in-tight to give the Admirals the 2-1 lead.

The Penguins had their chance with 2:38 left in regulation when Rickard Rakell was assessed a double-minor for high sticking, but a too many men on the ice call on the Penguins 48 seconds into the man advantage stymied any chance the Pens had of tying it.

Roster Notes

Peter Mannino got the start in net tonight, after Jeff Deslauriers played in Binghamton last night. Forward Tom Kostopoulos (lower body) missed his third straight game. On the blue line, Reid McNeill was in for Nick D'Agostino.

Lines:

Uher - Gibbons - Zolnierczyk
Kuhnhackl - Ebbett - Thompson
Payerl - Drazenovic - Conner
Leblond - Sill - Farnham

Despres - Samuelsson
Harrington - Mikkelson
Dumoulin - McNeill