Smolenak performs victory dance

WILKES-BARRE TWP. — It wasn’t the normal action one sees when a visiting player is announced as the game’s first star in the Wachovia Arena.

When Norfolk Admirals forward Radek Smolenak skated out of the tunnel in recognition of being named the first star after Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, he did more than raise his hand and exit the ice.

Smolenak, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime, made a wide lap around half of the rink, performing a little dance before leaving the ice.

With his team in last place and out of playoff contention, Smolenak had a little fun while his team has nothing to lose.

Norfolk put the Penguins in a hole early with two first period goals and scored the winner in overtime to end their hopes of a comeback.

Yes, little old Norfolk, who coming into Wednesday’s game had a measly 69 points--the third lowest total in the league. Still, they were a team that could be as dangerous as the Hershey Bears.

“This was a dangerous game and a dangerous team for us,” said coach Todd Reirden. “Every game the other team is playing for jobs, chances to stay in this league. These are very desperate players.”

After Norfolk’s Brendon Segal and Pete Zingoni scored in the first period to put Norfolk ahead 2-0, it was the Penguins who were feeling desperate.

Miroslav Satan provided some hope when he scored a power play goal in the second period, but Norfolk answered back eight minutes later with a man-advantage tally for a 3-1 lead with half the game left.

A two-goal deficit wasn’t the situation the Penguins wanted to be in with a period-and-a-half to go.

“Obviously not the start we were looking for,” said defenseman Alex Goligoski. “We always put ourselves in that situation it seems. It’s just a matter of us being a little more focused coming in and starting games the way we finish them.”

With the midway point of the third period rapidly approaching, Janne Pesonen backhanded the puck into the net during a jam-up in front for a power play goal.

Five minutes later, during another power play opportunity, Jeff Taffe made a pinpoint shot from the left faceoff circle that went behind Admirals goaltender Riku Helenius to tie things up at 3-3.

When the dust settled at the end of regulation, the tie remained and the Penguins had limited Norfolk to only seven shots over the last two periods.

But the Admirals, with nothing to lose, came out in the overtime period shooting at will. It was on their fifth shot of the period that Smolenak found an open net to give the Admirals the 4-3 overtime win.

For Reirden, his team’s third period effort was admirable, but it shouldn’t have come down to that in the first place.

“In playoff hockey it’s extremely tough to come from behind,” he said. “We need to have the urgency and desperation at the beginning of the game. We continue to, unfortunately, have to learn lessons the hard way.”

The overtime loss drops the Penguins (100) to four points behind first-place Hershey (104) and two points behind Bridgeport (102).

“We have to continue to work on getting ourselves ready for playoff hockey. We didn’t do that for the first two periods tonight and this is the result we get,” Reirden said.