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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins clinched a return to the Calder Cup Playoffs Friday night, but immediately pointed to the work still to be done in the final two-plus weeks of the regular season.
“Now, with seven games left, we need to be in the best position for the playoffs,” Radim Zohorna said after his goal 35 seconds into overtime lifted the Penguins over the Cleveland Monsters 3-2 in Friday night’s game before a crowd of 4,887 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The playoff berth is officially clinched, one year after the Penguins missed out by finishing last in their division.
Home-ice advantage in the first round is the next goal, and the Penguins (34-22-8-1) are making significant progress on that. Friday’s win gave them a seven-point lead over the fifth-place Hartford Wolf Pack.
At the same time, the Penguins also improved their chances of taking another step and avoiding the Hershey Bears in the first two rounds. The Bears are not only defending Calder Cup champions and this season’s Atlantic Division champions, they are at least 10 points up on every other team in the league.
Friday’s win allowed the Penguins to tie the Charlotte Checkers for third place. Securing third place would mean avoiding the Bears in the Atlantic semifinals.
“It’s nice to grab it rather than back (our way) in,” Penguins coach J.D. Forrest said. “We battled for it all season long.
“We haven’t had a lot of success in overtime. We’ll be happy about this one for about two hours until midnight, I guess. Then, we’ve got a lot of work on as a team.”
A wild ending, involving controversial goals to force overtime and then decide it, determined the final outcome of Friday’s game, but the Penguins had technically secured the playoff berth minutes earlier. They had already earned a point in the standings when they forced overtime and seventh-place Springfield, the team the Penguins needed to finish off in the race for six spots, had lost 3-0 to Belleville.
The Penguins were up 2-1 late in regulation just as a power play ended.
Cleveland’s Samuel Knazko fell on Penguins goalie Joel Blomqvist’s left leg a second or two before Stanislav Szovil ripped a slap shot into the net.
The nearest referee, positioned along the goal line, immediately pointed toward the crease and signaled no goal. After a lengthy discussion, however, the officials ruled the goal counted and the game was tied.
“I didn’t think it was a penalty on them,” Forrest said. “I just thought it shouldn’t have been a goal.
“The guy falls on Joel in the crease and that was the only reason Joel couldn’t get there.”
Zohorna weaved his way all around the offensive zone, starting with what appeared to be possible interference by the Penguins to get him free from one Monster. Zohorna did the rest as he maneuvered past Luca Del Bel Belluz and Jake Christiansen to get to the front of the net.
Cleveland coach Trent Vogelhuber remained on his bench well after the game finished, waiting for the officials to leave the ice through the same exit as his team.
Evan Vierling, playing in just his second AHL game, scored the first Penguins goal and assisted on another for a 2-1 lead.
Lukas Svejkovsky set up the first goal.
Svejkovsky stole the puck just inside the blue line. He skated over to the left circle, shook off Corson Cuelemans with a hesitation there, opening space for himself before sending the puck into a crowd in front. Jagger Joshua was first to get a stick on it for the Penguins, then Vierling knocked it in at 11:16 of the first period.
Cleveland took five of the first six shots of the second period and made the Penguins pay with Rohman Ahcan’s goal off an offensive zone faceoff.
Second after being stopped on a partial breakaway, Avery Hayes set up about 15 feet farther away and scored off a Vierling pass for a 2-1 lead at 6:09 of the second. Jagger got his second assist of the game on the play.
NOTES
• Zohorna, Vierling and Jagger were the game’s first, second and third stars.
• The Penguins led 32-30 in shots with Blomqvist making 28 saves.
• The Penguins bussed right out to Bridgeport following the game. After playing in Connecticut Saturday night, they are home Sunday afternoon at 3:05 to face the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
• The Penguins have three home and four road games left. They meet first-place Hershey twice, last-place Bridgeport twice, Lehigh Valley twice and Hartford once. Lehigh Valley and Hartford are the most likely first-round playoff opponents.
• The Penguins are 11-3-0-1 in games with Svejkovsky in the lineup.