The last time Wilkes-Barre/Scranton played on Dec. 18, the Penguins suffered their worst loss of the season to date.
It was an 8-3 loss to the Bears in Hershey. The Penguins were playing shorthanded due to various players injured or in COVID protocols, and dressed 10 forwards and eight defensemen.
Even given the circumstances, head coach J.D. Forrest wasn't thrilled with his team's effort.
"We really hope that it did sting everybody," he said of that game. "As a staff, it stung. I think the players weren't happy with it."
With two postponed games and the holiday break following that game, the Penguins had over a week to sit and think about that loss.
Wilkes-Barre returned to play on Monday night against the Bears. And while the effort in this game was an improvement from the last meeting between the two teams, the Penguins suffered a 4-1 loss to the Bears.
"I can't say I'm thrilled about this one, either," Forrest told me after Monday's loss. "Some of the effort was there, and the first period was really good. And then we kind of went a little bit downhill, and (Hershey) is able to capitalize on some power play opportunities, that was difference in the game there. Pretty evenly matched teams, they won the special teams battle. There you go."
Wilkes-Barre entered this game with the league's worst power play, having scored just nine goals on 97 opportunities this season for a 9.28% success rate. After killing two penalties of their own in the first period, the Penguins went on the power play after Hershey's Riley Sutter got called for tripping. Just over a minute into the power play, they capitalized.
Valtteri Puustinen faked a shot and passed to Jan Drozg, opening up space in the slot in the process. Drozg held onto the puck patiently from below the goal line until Sam Poulin got open, then set up Poulin's fourth goal of the year:
Wilkes-Barre got two more power plays throughout the game, but the first one was the only one they were able to take advantage of.
"It's good to get that one," Forrest said. "But you feel like you could have made a little bit more of a difference with those other two opportunities, especially the one in the third."
Hershey got the first power play of the middle frame, after Cam Lee was called for roughing. Hershey's Ryan Dmowski scored on the man advantage to even the score:
At the 12 minute mark of the second period, Hershey's Jake Massie boarded Jordy Bellerive in the Bears' zone. Poulin made a beeline to Massie and dropped the gloves at nearly the same moment Josh Maniscalco appeared to score for the Penguins, but the goal didn't count because the play had been blown dead a second prior because of Poulin's fight:
Poulin got a 10-minute misconduct for instigating, forcing him to sit for the last eight minutes of the second period and the first two minutes of the third. Still, Forrest didn't really have a problem with Poulin stepping in for the fight there.
"The fact that he's sticking up for a teammate, for sure," Forrest said. "You know, I'd like to have him on the ice as well. But he felt that he wanted to stand up for one of his guys, one of his teammates, and I'm never opposed to that if you feel like someone's been taken advantage of. You know, a hit that you didn't like, and you want to step in and stick up for a teammate. I think that usually shows you that there's a pretty good locker room there and that our guys care for each other. I think it's anytime someone does that, it's not easy to do."
Hershey extended its lead in the third period with two more power play goals, one from Matt Moulson -- yes, that Matt Moulson -- and another from Dmowski again. For a penalty kill that was strong earlier in the season, Forrest said that the problem tonight was "bigger than any type of game plan."
"At the end of the day, we had pucks on our sticks earlier in the kills and chances to get clears, and we didn't," he said. "So you can talk about game plan, execution, all that. But when you do have a chance to get it out and put it all the way down to the other team's end and you don't, whether they keep it in the zone or you only get it just past the blue line, if they're able to come right back at you then you can't get fresh guys out there."
The Penguins have now played the Bears four times this season, and are 0-3-1 in the season series.
"I think the locker room's getting a bit sick of coming out on the losing end of things here against these guys."
With eight more games this season against the Bears, including Wednesday in Hershey, the Penguins have the opportunity to turn this season series around.
"We're gonna see them again here quickly," Forrest said. "So you just want the whole locker room to just be extremely frustrated with not being able to finish it out. Because I do think we had really good moments there. And we have had times where we've sustained pressure against them. We were carrying the play for a while, but you let your foot off the gas for a little bit, or you stray from what's working. You're going to pay a price. And we've got to learn that lesson sooner rather than later."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Wilkes-Barre is now 9-11-1-2 on the season and ranks sixth in the Atlantic Division by points percentage.
• Kasper Bjorkqvist, P.O Joseph, Juuso Riikola, and Louis Domingue were recalled to Pittsburgh after the game.
• This was Bjorkqvist's first game since being cut by a skate on Nov. 24, and Domingue's first game since being injured in practice on Dec. 2 and later catching COVID. Domingue recorded 30 saves on 34 shots.
"He was good, solid," Forrest said of Domingue. "I think he was a little adventurous with the puck, to his own admittance, just because he so used to playing it. That's such a strong part of his game. But he was good for us. Made some big saves. It's tough coming back from (injury, COVID) for anybody. I think he handled it well."
• Domingue got a little physical himself during the Poulin fight
• Wilkes-Barre has a ton of players either still in COVID protocol for positive tests or close contacts, or players who are out of isolation but not yet ready to return to the lineup: Taylor Fedun, Chris Bigras, Mitch Reinke, Will Reilly, Radim Zohorna, Jamie Devane, Niclas Almari, Nathan Legare, Felix Robert, Filip Hallander, Anthony Angello
• Forward Sam Houde left the game in the first period with what Forrest called "a laceration in a weird spot." He wasn't sure of the severity of it yet after the game.
• Joseph played on the top pairing with Riikola, a new development given that they're both lefties. While Riikola has extensive experience playing on the right side, Joseph had never played on the right side before. But Riikola started on the left side, and Joseph made his debut on the right. There were moments when they were on the ice and switched sides, but Forrest thought that Joseph handled the move well.
"I thought he had a pretty strong game with him and Juuso playing together," Forrest said of Joseph. "It's a different look for him (on the right). Usually it takes a little bit of getting used to, I think it might be a good skill for him to develop there. We've been playing kind of a left-handed-heavy back end there for a little bit. So it's good to have some versatility for these guys. To find somebody that can play their off side would be helpful for us."
• I loved this move from Joseph to force a turnover, then use his speed to jump up in the rush and get a scoring chance:
• Assistant coach Kevin Porter, who works with the penalty kill and forwards, is also in COVID protocol. Forrest said that he was still able to communicate with Porter through Zoom, and was receiving texts from him during the game.
"I know he's not thrilled with the penalty kill results tonight," Forrest said.
• With Porter being Wilkes-Barre's only assistant coach, Pittsburgh Penguins pro scout Kerry Huffman filled in as an assistant. Huffman, 53, is a former defenseman first-round pick of the Flyers, and played 401 NHL games with the Flyers, Nordiques, and Senators. He spent the last five years as an assistant coach for the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the Flyers' system before being hired by the Penguins this offseason.
"Kerry was great," Forrest said. "I really appreciate him coming in for a couple of days here and helping us out in practice and the game. He's been around it for a long time. It's nice to have somebody with that book of knowledge to just ask different questions to and see what he's done in the past, and, what he might notice here and what he saw from the bench. So we really appreciate him coming in. We're lucky to have somebody like that in the organization that's close by that can hop in when we need somebody."
• The power play went 1-for-3.
• The penalty kill went 3-for-6.
• Bonus free video of Jordy Bellerive hitting guys during warmups:
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza:
1. Ryan Dmowski, Bears
2. Matt Moulson, Bears
3. Sam Poulin, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES, ILLNESSES
• Goaltender Filip Lindberg is day-to-day with a lower-body injury sustained during the game on Nov. 12.
• Forward Michael Chaput is week-to-week with an lower-body injury.
• Defensemen Taylor Fedun, Chris Bigras, Mitch Reinke, Will Reilly, Niclas Almari, forwards Radim Zohorna, Jamie Devane, Nathan Legare, Felix Robert, Filip Hallander, Anthony Angello are either in COVID protocol for a positive test or close contact, or out of isolation and working toward a return.
THE LINEUPS
Forrest's lines and pairings:
Justin Almeida - Kyle Olson - Valtteri Puustinen
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Sam Houde - Jan Drozg
Sam Poulin - Jonathan Gruden - Jordy Bellerive
Nick Hutchinson - Matt Alfaro - Patrick Watling
Juuso Riikola - P.O Joseph
Cam Lee - Matt Bartkowski
Adam Smith - Josh Maniscalco
And for Scott Allen's Bears
Joe Snively - Rymsha - Ryan Dmowski
Mason Morelli - Will Graber - Matt Moulson
Beck Malenstyn - Riley Sutter - Christopher Brown
Kale Kessy - Marcus Vela - Jordan Subban
Bobby Nardella - Dylan McIlrath
Jake Massie - Cody Franson
Tobias Geisser - Macoy Erkamps
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins' last game of 2021 will be in Hershey on Wednesday. The games on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 against Cleveland have been postponed due to COVID protocols affecting the Monsters. After Wednesday, their next game on the schedule isn't until Jan. 7 in Utica.
THE CONTENT
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