A Sunday update from the minor leagues:
Wheeling is out of the Kelly Cup playoffs. Pittsburgh’s ECHL affiliate bowed out in five games to the Florida Everblades. The Nailers had two players in this playoff run on NHL contracts, Emil Pieniniemi played first pair minutes and produced eight points (1G+7A) in the 15 games, goalie Taylor Gauthier ran out of gas this round but acquitted himself well with a 9-6-2 record, .922 save percentage and 2.23 GAA. Gauthier was signed late in the year to an NHL contract, he’s scheduled to be a free agent again after playing parts of the last four seasons in the Wheel. The Penguins might have some upward mobility next year for an AHL goalie spot if one of those goalies goes up and Maxim Pavelenko becomes a free agent. Rookie Gabriel D’Aigle is in the picture too, with his entry level contract starting next season that will likely see him get a heavy workload in the ECHL.
Up one rung on the ladder, it wasn’t good news for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL Calder Cup playoffs. The Toronto Marlies took a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven with a Friday night Game 2 OT win. The game-winning goal wasn’t without controversy.
It took a post-play review, where AHL officials cannot make goaltender interference determinations, to end up crediting former Penguin Marc Johnstone with the goal. Weird play for Sergei Murashov to lunge for the puck and come up empty. The odd notion was Johnstone was credited with the goal from in front, and how it was determined that he didn’t contact the puck above the crossbar is probably an even bigger question.
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The next three games in the series shift to Toronto, putting WBS in a big hole.
The Penguins have been dealing with difficulties, Owen Pickering has missed the last few games with injury (and isn’t expected back any time soon) and now Alex Alexeyev was out for Game 2, dropping the two most important left shot defenseman from the lineup.
The offensive output has struggled so far, Wilkes only scored one goal on 34 shots in Game 2 – after scoring only twice on goalie Artur Akhtyamov in Game 1. The Marlies are a veteran team, 28-year olds Alex Nylander and Michael Pezzetta were the goal scorers in Game 2 for Toronto, WBS will have to dig deep starting in Monday’s Game 3 to overcome their biggest challenge so far in the playoffs.
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