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WILKES-BARRE TWP. – The American Hockey League schedule is filled with weekend games on back-to-back days.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have developed the habit of taking care of the front end of those pairs of games, but struggling with the follow-up effort.
Saturday was no different as the Penguins fell to the Charlotte Checkers, 6-2, as Patrick Giles and Zac Dalpe scored two goals each.
One of the Giles goals came shorthanded. Dalpe scored twice on the power play.
The Penguins have already faced a dozen instances of back-to-back games. They have swept the games twice and split them 10 times.
Friday’s 4-1 victory the Checkers created the latest chance to make up ground in the standings in a limited amount of time.
The Penguins are 10-2 in the opening game of back-to-back sets, but are just 2-8 the night after those wins.
“We’ve tried a few different and we’ve had success certain ways,” Penguins coach J.D. Forrest said of the approach to playing on back-to-back nights. “Then, we haven’t had success the same ways. It seems to be something we have to keep on chipping away it, looking for a consistent formula.
“We have won back-to-backs, like on the road up in Providence.”
The Penguins started out fine Saturday, but could not cash in on an 11-3 shot advantage.
Instead, it was Charlotte that scored first halfway through the game’s first power play.
With Jack Rathbone off for slashing, Dalpe sent a one-timer from the top of the slot past a partially screen Taylor Gauthier in goal for the Penguins at 15:44.
“The first period was fine,” Forrest said. “I don’t know. We fell apart.”
More Charlotte traffic in front helped contribute to a difficult night in goal for Gauthier in his first start since returning from Wheeling where he posted the ECHL’s best goals against average while excelling for the Nailers.
The Checkers scored twice in 53 seconds midway through the second period for a 3-0 lead.
Brendan Perlini scored on the move after receiving a drop pass as he was entering the offensive zone.
Defenseman Mark Kierstad sent a wrist shot through a crowd for the next score.
Charlotte struck again with 55.2 seconds left in the first period, just four seconds after a faceoff. Giles scored his first goal to make it 4-0.
Giles added the short-handed goal 23 seconds into the third period.
Penguins defenseman Dmitri Samorukov broke the shutout on a shot from the left point. Austin Ruesschhoff and Jack St. Ivany had the assists.
Charlotte nearly restored its five-goal lead. Justin Sourdif hit the crossbar from point-blank range on a power play with 12:10 left.
The Penguins not another goal from a defenseman, the first in Jack St. Ivany’s AHL career.
One night after making the game’s biggest defensive play in victory, St. Ivany scored for the first time in 91 games – 63 last season and 28 this season.
Dalpe scored with 1:39 remaining, making Charlotte 2-for-4 on the power play while the Penguins were 0-for-3.
NOTES: The game drew a crowd of 4,669 to Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. … Giles was the game’s first star, Dalpe was the second star and St. Ivany was the third. … Charlotte had 18 shots on goal in the third period to finish with a 39-28 advantage. … The Penguins (16-12-3-0) play three games in less than 48 hours next weekend. They are in Springfield Friday night at 7:05, home against Lehigh Valley Saturday at 6:05 and then have their first Sunday home game of the season Jan. 7 at 3:05 against Hartford. … Defenseman Ryan Shea was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by the parent Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday. Shea is scoreless in four games here.