Throughout the first 40 minutes of Game 5 between the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS) Penguins and the Toronto Marlies, the Penguins were generating their fair share of scoring chances and giving themselves a good opportunity to win the hockey game.
Unfortunately, the last 20 minutes did them in.
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The WBS Penguins were defeated by the Toronto Marlies, 5-1, in Game 5 to go down in the best-of-seven AHL Eastern Conference Final series, 3-2. They head back home Sunday for Game 6, and Game 7 will also take place in WBS should the game be necessary.
“I thought, in the first two, we were getting a lot of looks,” said forward Tanner Howe. “We were shooting the puck, we were getting a lot of second chances. In the third, they just outplayed us, and that’s it.”
The first period was a tightly contested one, perhaps with the very slight edge going to Toronto. However, WBS came alive in the second period. They were the first to get on the board with their lone goal that came courtesy of Mikhail Ilyin on the power play, and it was a snipe from the top of the left circle off a feed from Emil Pieniniemi – playing in his first career Calder Cup Playoff game – to give WBS the 1-0 lead.
However, Landon Sim tied things up for the Marlies less than a minute later, and Benoit-Olivier Groulx added one on later in the period to put Toronto on top, 2-1.
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Then, the third is when things got dicey.
After two goals within a minute and 15 seconds by Easton Cowan and Logan Shaw – the former of which featured a ridiculous toe-drag move – WBS started to lose their cool a bit. A little more than 11 minutes into the final frame, Avery Hayes earned himself a roughing penalty and a 10-minute misconduct, and the PIMs just piled on from there.
In fact, the WBS Penguins had a combined total of 50 penalty minutes in the third period alone, and they all came before Marshall Rifai‘s empty-net goal to put the nail in the coffin.
Despite the loss – and the messy way it ended – Howe was optimistic about the overall result of the three-game swing in Toronto, of which the Penguins won two.
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“We knew coming here, we needed to get two. We did that, and that’s why we’ve got home ice advantage. We’re going back home, and there’s nowhere else we’d want to play these last two games. So, we’re excited.”
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Here are three takeaways from the 5-1 Game 5 loss:
1. Not Murashov’s best
Sergei Murashov has been lights-out for the WBS Penguins throughout the entirety of their Calder Cup playoff run.
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That said, he didn’t have his best stuff on Friday.
WBS head coach Kirk MacDonald said that he thinks Murashov would probably want the Cowan goal back, and I think he would want Shaw’s goal back, too, as it trickled underneath him after a nice save initially.
Honestly, it’s fair to wonder whether or not fatigue might be setting in a bit for the 21-year-old Murashov, who has played in every Calder Cup Playoff game – which includes 14 of them – and has managed to post a .930 save percentage. He needs to find a way to bounce back in Game 6, though, as he has done throughout the playoffs.
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2. Emotions gone wild
It’s pretty apparent that WBS completely lost control of the game in the third period, and they did resort to trying to get under the skins of a veteran-heavy Toronto team.
There is a balance that needs to be struck between letting emotions run in playoff atmospheres and not allowing that emotion to dictate the highs and lows of the game. MacDonald acknowledged that the emotional component is sometimes unavoidable in the playoffs – especially when the opposing team’s defense is frustrating players – but he is confident his team will find their way back from the way the game ended.
“I mean, obviously, the game got out of hand,” MacDonald said. “It’s an intense series. It’s emotional. You know, we’ll move forward. You can tell the momentum doesn’t really roll from game to game, in the playoffs.”
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He added: “It got a bit sideways, but we’ll regroup.”
This team has shown that it can and will regroup throughout the course of these playoffs. I would expect to see that again on Sunday.
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3. Tip of the cap to the blue line
After the game, I asked MacDonald about the play of the blue line in this series, especially given the injury situation. Alexander Alexeyev is out. Sebastian Aho is out. So is Phil Kemp. And Finn Harding. Owen Pickering missed some time, too, even if he slotted back in the lineup and was on the top pairing next to Harrison Brunicke, who has been logging very heavy minutes.
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It’s safe to say MacDonald is happy with the play of his backend, and he lauded their ability to limit opposing scoring chances.
“I think they’ve done a damn good job under the circumstances,” MacDonald said. “We basically played four ‘D’ for the last two periods in Game 4, and they did an outstanding job. Guys are battling. Like, you go back and look, both ways, there’s not a ton of scoring chances, when you actually go back and watch the video. It’s this time of year where you’ve got to battle. It’s the next-man-up mentality. We’ve been like that the whole year. And I think the guys are doing an outstanding job.
“There’s mistakes that happen, but at the end of the day, look at, especially, the first two goals. I wouldn’t blame the ‘D’ by any means. I think we’ve done a really good job defending, and I don’t doubt that we’ll continue to do so on Sunday night.”
It’s hard for any team to play four defensemen down. What this unit is doing in the absence of four regulars is commendable, and that’s especially true for Pickering and Brunicke, who are shouldering a heavy load.
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David Breazale – in addition to Pieniniemi – also made his Calder Cup Playoff debut, and he was rock solid in this one. They’re going to need all of these guys to continue to outperform if they’re going to take the last two games of this series.
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