Loss deals blow to WBS playoff hopes
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WILKES-BARRE, — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins playoff hopes took hit Sunday with a 3-0 loss to the Binghamton Devils.
“We’re not out of it, so we’ve got to win,” Penguins coach Mike Vellucci said. “Springfield and Charlotte aren’t winning either. That’s who we’re chasing, and we just need to keep trying to find a way to get wins.”
The Penguins have 14 games remaining in the season and sit five points behind the Charlotte Checkers who have three games in hand.
“It’s the same as it has been. We just have to keep battling ,and we can’t mail it in now,” Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith said. “There’s still time if we make a good run here. We’re not out of time yet, so we just have to stick with it, not get too frustrated, not getting down on each other and work hard.”
The Penguins came into the game without a loss at home to Binghamton, going 7-0-0 against the Devils at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
Zane McIntyre, one of the newest members of the Binghamton squad did everything in his power to change that, picking up his second shutout in his first three starts with his new club. He has only allowed one goal throughout those three starts.
“I thought he made some nice saves. We had breakaways, and he made a couple of saves on those,” Vellucci said. “We’re not a high-scoring team so goals are hard to come by.”
McIntyre finished with a 27-save shutout for the Devils.
DeSmith also turned in a pretty good game, stopping 26 of 28 shots faced. He kept his team within striking range with timely saves throughout all three periods. Unfortunately, the Penguins offense couldn’t solve McIntyre and failed to put a goal on the board.
“It’s obviously frustrating losing, no matter if it’s 7-6 or 2-0,” DeSmith said. “A loss is a loss, and it’s frustrating either way.”
Jesper Boqvist and Brett Seney, both players with NHL experience, were the two goal scorers to beat DeSmith. Boqvist’s goal was the first of the game and came when he scooped up a puck in the neutral zone. He followed that up with a nice move to slip by the defense and took a shot that beat DeSmith’s glove to the top corner.
Seney’s goal came 12 seconds into the third period and was set up by Ben Street, who used a power move to get by the Penguins’ defense and get a shot on goal. DeSmith stopped his attempt but Seney knocked the rebound past him to give the Devils a 2-0 lead.
The final goal came in the final minutes, an empty net goal for Brandon Baddock.
The Penguins did have some positives in the game as they had some high-quality scoring chances and had another game were the penalty killers were perfect.
The best scoring chance of the game for the Penguins came on the power play in the second period. Good puck movement gave the Penguins a chance with a wide-open net, but McIntyre made a highlight reel save to keep the shutout intact.
The Penguins were also perfect on the penalty kill again. The unit was very successful in the month of February, killing 92 percent of power plays. The unit went 5-for-5 against the Devils on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of work at it because we’re taking some penalties,” Vellucci said. “But I liked that we were aggressive. I don’t like sitting back, and I thought we were physical early in the game and when you’re physical sometimes you take some penalties, but the penalty kill has been a lot better.”
The Penguins are not out of the playoff race yet, but they have quite a bit of ground they will need to cover in order to claim that fourth and final playoff spot.
Wednesday will be the Penguins next game, as they head down to Lehigh Valley for a pair of games before taking on Hershey on Saturday at the Giant Center.