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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Taylor Chorney said there were three intangibles that contributed to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins winning 11 of their last 14 games – commitment, energy and compete level.
And when those things are missing – especially down the stretch, it leaves a team exposed, he said.
One night after wrapping up their second straight win over division-leading Hershey, the Penguins stumbled mightily against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Sunday. They gave up 40 shots, managed only 13, took a couple bad penalties and ended up losing, 5-2.
While Hartford played flawlessly, the Penguins hurt themselves with a lackluster effort.
“It’s a wake up call,” Chorney said. “All those intangibles we’ve been bringing on most nights, tonight shows if you don’t bring that type of play this time of year it’s going to leave you exposed. If you’re not prepared to play and compete hard, like you need to, you’re not going to win this time of year.”
Head coach John Hynes said he knew his team didn’t look so hot three shifts into the game. Not long after, Hartford connected just five seconds into their first power play of the night and didn’t look back.
The Wolf Pack dominated the first two periods, outshooting the Penguins 31-10 and gaining a 4-0 lead at one point.
The Penguins spent the first half of the second period killing penalties, including a high-sticking double minor to Scott Wilson that they killed off but quickly erased any momentum when Josh Archibald was called for slashing 37 seconds later.
That penalty, and another on Adam Payerl in the third period just nine seconds after the Penguins made it 4-2, were hard to recover from, according to Hynes.
“Of the penalties we took tonight, there were two that were really ill-advised,” he said. “If you take those two penalties, you’re not giving yourself a chance.”
With less than three minutes in the period, Archibald converted a pass from Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond down low to make it 4-1.
Jayson Megna scored on the power play five minutes into the third period with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 4-2. The goal was Megna’s third in the last three games and put the Penguins back in the contest.
The Penguins were unable to generate any momentum from the goal however, squandering a power-play opportunity minutes later and allowing an empty net goal by Hartford to make it 5-2.
“There were a few different times where you felt we were maybe going to make a push, but they always had a push of their own,” Chorney said. “We just couldn’t sustain anything.”
All week Hynes stressed that Sunday’s game was just as important as those the Penguins played against Hershey, and the loss is just as big.
“This is a great lesson right now. You’re on top of the world (Saturday) night because you beat one particular team, then you can’t find a way to bring it the next night,” Hynes said.
NOTES
– D Reid McNeill (injury), C Nick Drazenovic (injury), RW Bryan Rust (injury), LW Anton Zlobin (injury), D Harrison Ruopp, D Alex Boak, F Jean-Sebastien Dea and D Derrick Pouliot were scratched for the Penguins.
– The Penguins allowed 40 shots for just the third time this season.