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If the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are growing weary of playing three games in a weekend, they’re not letting it show.
The Penguins will embark on their third straight three-game weekend, but this time all three games will be on the road, beginning with Friday’s contest against the Grand Rapids Griffins in Michigan. Over the last two weekends the Penguins are 2-3-1-0 while playing three games in three days, and if they are getting a bit tired head coach Clark Donatelli doesn’t want to hear it.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re tired. You have to figure out a way to get it done,” he said. “It’s all a mindset and you make yourself tired. Figure it out and let’s play a good game.”
Granted, the Penguins aren’t the only team that has to deal with a three-in-three, and even after the latest stretch is over they’ll have three more weekends with a trio of games before the end of the season. Still, while Donatelli admitted it makes for a tough grind, he pointed to the play of other teams to show a three-game weekend isn’t insurmountable.
When the Penguins played two games in Providence on Feb. 9 and 11, he said, they had a day off between games while the Bruins were in a three-in-three. The Penguins had the day off before the Sunday game on Feb. 11, while the Bruins were playing the finale of a three-in-three. Despite the grind, the Bruins pushed the Penguins to a shootout before losing, 3-2.
“You couldn’t tell that Providence was in its third game,” Donatelli said. “It’s just something you have to get through.”
The Penguins will have to get through this weekend without the services of goaltender Casey DeSmith, who was recalled to Pittsburgh on Monday. Donatelli said Anthony Peters will see the bulk of the action, while Michael Leighton is nearing a return from an injury and will travel with the team. In case Leighton isn’t ready, the Penguins signed Etienne Marcoux to a professional tryout agreement. The 24-year-old Marcoux had been manning the net for the Indy Fuel in the ECHL in his first pro season.
Donatelli intends on playing Peters for two of the three games this weekend, and if Leighton isn’t ready that means Marcoux might get his first AHL game.
“(Peters) has given us a chance to win pretty much every game he’s played,” Donatelli said. “We’re very confident with him.”
Peters only played two games in February but assured the coaching staff he will be ready for a heavy workload this weekend.
As far as having another weekend with three games, Peters acknowledged that it does get tiring but it helped having a week off between games.
Anyhow, he said, the Penguins have logged enough three-in-threes that everyone is used to it.
“Sometimes you try and get a little robotic about it. It becomes a routine,” he said. “But sometimes you do get tired. You might have to change the game plan a little bit, but you find a way.”
NOTES
– The Penguins this week assigned forward Reid Gardiner to Wheeling. The 22-year-old forward has appeared in 10 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the 2017-18 campaign, putting up one goal and two assists for three points in that time. His first goal of the season came on Feb. 23 against the Rockford IceHogs.
