Division rivals Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hershey faced off a whopping 12 times in the AHL's regular season.
The Bears had the Penguins' number early on in the regular season, winning the first seven of those contests. The Penguins had the edge as the regular-season series went on, going 4-1 against Hershey in the last five meetings between the two teams.
These are two teams that are very familiar with each other, entering a first-round playoff matchup with a heightened level of urgency given the best-of-three format.
Friday's Game 1 wasn't quite the nail-biter that was expected, given the circumstances.
The Penguins were dominant from the onset and shut out the Bears 3-0 in the opening game in Wilkes-Barre, putting Hershey on the brink of elimination.
You couldn't have asked for much more from the start Wilkes-Barre had in this game, and they'll look to carry that into Game 2.
Wilkes-Barre outshot Hershey 15-3 in the opening frame, spending most of those first 20 minutes in the Bears' end. Wilkes-Bare went to the locker room at first intermission holding onto a 2-0 lead after goals 31 seconds apart from defenseman Will Reilly and forward Alex Nylander.
With there being nearly a full week between Wilkes-Barre's last regular-season game and tonight's playoff opener, P.O Joseph said that the buildup of excitement contributed to the hot start.
"We've been waiting for that for a long time," he said. "We know these guys pretty well. So I think the adrenaline kicked in and we kept pushing after that one."
Coach J.D. Forrest said that a start like that one was what they had hoped to accomplish to open this series.
"Whether it was in the offensive zone or the D zone, I thought we just played smart hockey," Forrest said. "We picked our spots, we didn't give up really much of anything. And I thought that was as good of a start as we really could have had. It's exactly what we're looking for. The team did a great job coming out with a lot of energy, and a lot of purpose."
With Louis Domingue and Alex D'Orio serving as Pittsburgh's tandem in net in the playoffs, the starting job in Wilkes-Barre belongs to AHL-contracted Tommy Nappier, a second-year pro out of Ohio State. Nappier spent much of the year in Wilkes-Barre and appeared in 25 games throughout the year, posting a .897 save percentage and a 2.87 goals-against average. He posted his first professional shutout in one of his final starts of the regular season, stopping all 24 shots faced against Hershey on April 19.
After not being tested much in the first period, Nappier stopped 20 shots over the final two frames for a 23-save shutout, the second of his career.
"It's not always easy to have a period where you're not looking at a ton of rubber there," Forrest said. "He's got a pretty calm demeanor about him. When he was faced with a few challenging shots there, he was up to the task. Throughout the whole game, I thought our team did a really solid job in front of him, whether it was getting sticks on things or preventing things through the middle or some big blocks from from various guys. He definitely had good support from the team. Whenever he was called upon when he had a couple of difficult saves there, he was right on it."
That calmness from Nappier and the confidence he has during a performance like this one is something the team can feed off of.
"He's been a key piece for us this year," Joseph said. "He showed tonight that he's a really solid goalie. When you have a solid goalie behind you it gives us a lot of confidence by making plays and stuff like that. We love his mojo. We love the confidence he has in net."
Wilkes-Barre will look to close out the best-of-three series on the road in Hershey on Sunday. Hershey has been a difficult building for the Penguins to play in this year, with the Bears going 5-1 at home against the Penguin in the regular season.
"We've just got to even be better than tonight," Joseph said of Game 2. "I think it's fun to celebrate. But it has a time limit. We want to make sure that tomorrow is a new day and just erase everything that happened. We just want to be better than tonight, especially in a tough place to play like Hershey.
Forrest said that the team will hit the "reset button" tonight and look forward to the next game.
"We've got to have that mindset where it's nice to win a game, it's good to win that first one at home, but reset. It doesn't matter after that. We're just going to try to have that mentality and approach everything day-by-day, and not try to rest on our laurels. We're going to learn from the game, reset, and move forward."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Reilly's opening goal was just his second goal all year after scoring only one in the regular season.
"That was great to see," Forrest said of Reilly getting the opening goal. "It got the team really pumped up there. He's got a really good shot, he can find himself in some offensive positions. When he does, he's pretty dangerous. We're asking him to play a little bit different game, and he's been doing a great job being very consistent over the last month and a half here, taking some real steps in this game. When you do that and play with that consistency, sometimes you end up finding those chances without forcing it. That's what happened. And (Jonathan Gruden) made a heck of a play stealing the puck and finding him there on the weak side. We see him bury those in practice quite a bit, he's got a good shot."
• Nylander's tally 31 seconds later was a redirect of a shot from Zohorna:
• Zohorna sealed the win with an empty-net tally on a power play
• 6-foot-5, 240-pound Jamie Devane fought fellow 6-foot-3, 212-pound Kale Kessy late in the second period. It was the second time this season and the fourth time in their careers that the two have fought:
Beyond just the fight, 31-year-old Devane has a big impact on the team, especially in games like these. Players and coaches have spoken about the calming presence the veteran forward has on the bench and in the locker room, and that was the case in this game.
"The guys really look up to him," Forrest said. "He's a good player, aside from the toughness element that he brings. You don't hesitate to put him out there on the ice at all. He can play, he's a good player. His demeanor on the bench, that way he talks to the players on our team, I think his leadership is what's most valuable to our team. The other things everybody notices, but behind the scenes and how he is on the bench, and his interaction with the staff that everybody doesn't see, that's where the real value lies with with Jamie. Our guys, they think extremely highly of him, as they should."
Joseph backed that up.
"He's an unbelievable guy in the locker room," Joseph told me of Devane."On the ice, he's always always, always positive. You need guys like that to win in the season, and especially in the postseason. I think Devo is a really, really big piece for us, and we really appreciate everything he does for us."
• The Penguins went 1-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
• Wilkes-Barre wasn't able to call up a goaltender from Wheeling. Wheeling's starting goaltender's rights are owned by another AHL team. Wilkes-Barre instead signed goaltender Sam Harvey to a professional tryout contact. Harvey, 24, is a second-year pro out of the QMJHL and Canadian University hockey. He was playing for the ECHL's Fort Wayne Komets this season, and was signed by Wilkes-Barre after Wheeling eliminated Fort Wayne in the first round.
• This was the first time since 2013 that Wilkes-Barre played a playoff game without Tom Kostopoulos on the ice. Kostopoulos, who is a player development coach for the Penguins, was behind the bench in this game as an assistant coach. So they still weren't really without him yet.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza:
1. Tommy Nappier, Penguins G
2. Will Reilly, Penguins D
3. P.O Joseph, Penguins D
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Goaltender Filip Lindberg is out "longer-term" with an ankle injury sustained during the game on Nov. 12. Director of player development Scott Young told me that they don't expect Lindberg to play again this season.
• Defenseman Taylor Fedun is "week-to-week" with a lower-body injury. He has resumed skating.
• Forward Michael Chaput suffered a lower-body injury in Wilkes-Barre's penultimate game of the regular season. He's week-to-week.
THE LINEUPS
Forrest's lines and pairings:
Filip Hallander - Sam Poulin - Valtteri Puustinen
Felix Robert - Radim Zohorna - Alex Nylander
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Jordy Bellerive - Anthony Angello
Jamie Devane - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson
Juuso Riikola - Mitch Reinke
P.O Joseph - Will Reilly
Cam Lee - Matt Bartkowski
And for Scott Allen's Bears:
Joe Snively - Mike Sgarbossa - Garrett Pilon
Mason Morelli - Mike Vecchione - Kody Clark
Beck Malenstyn - Alexei Protas - Marcus Vela
Eddie Wittchow - Drake Rymsha - Kale Kessy
Alex Alexeyev - Bobby Nardella
Tobias Geisser - Dylan McIlrath
Lucas Johansen - Cody Franson
THE SCHEDULE
Game 2 of the series is Sunday in Hershey at 5 p.m. Game 3, if needed, will be Monday in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05 p.m.
THE CONTENT
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