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PENGUINS POWER PAST MOOSE, 4-2

  

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins entered Wednesday night’s game against the Manitoba Moose with the top-ranked power play in the league at 22.7%. Two weeks ago, though, that number was 24.4%.

Two power play goals in the past six games helped to drop that percentage down, but it took only one tally in seven chances Wednesday to turn the tide.

Jonathan Filewich notched a power play goal five minutes into the third period to snap a 2-2 tie, and the Penguins went on to post a 4-2 victory against the North Division outfit at Wachovia Arena.

With the score deadlocked early in the final frame, and the Penguins working on killing off a penalty of their own, Jason Jaffrey and Lee Goren took back-to-back penalties, resulting in a two-man advantage for the Penguins.

“Two-two, you just didn’t know,” said head coach Todd Richards. “It was a bounce here, a bounce there. Fortunately for us they took a couple of penalties and put us on a five-on-three advantage. Our power play recently hasn’t been that great. But [Marc-Antoine] Poulitot makes a great pass to Filewich.”

Pouliot held the puck on the near post while Filewich posted up at the top of the crease. When the two Moose defenders made a move for the puck, Pouliot slid it to Filewich who flipped it over

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SHOTS BY PERIOD
TEAM
1st
2nd
3rd
OT
Total
MTB
4
4
14
--
22
WBS
14
3
5
--
22

GOALS BY PERIOD
TEAM
1st
2nd
3rd
OT
Total
MTB
1
0
1
--
2
WBS
2
0
2
--
4
 
THREE STARS
1. Pouliot - WBS
2. Filewich - WBS
3. Ellis - Manitoba
 
GOALTENDER STATS
TEAM GOALIE
GA
SV
W-L
MTB Ellis
3
18
L
WBS Penner
2
20
W

goaltender Julien Ellis’ left should for what would turn out to be the game-winning goal.

The goal was Filewich’s team-leading 19th of the season, and his second game-deciding tally in the past three contests.

“That’s where he scores his goals,” said Richards. “He goes to that area. He knows to put his stick in certain areas.”

The Penguins opened the contest with guns blazing, firing 14 shots on Manitoba’s third-string goalie in the first period alone. Two of those shots, one off the stick of Jean-Francois Jacques, the other off a great individual effort by Daniel Carcillo, gave Wilkes-Barre a 2-1 lead at the end of 20 minutes.

“We had some energy in the first, came out hard, kind of established our games,” Richards said. “Penalties in the second period kind of backed us off a little bit, kind of took the flow out of it for us. But we were able to find a way to score goals.”

It was hard going for the Pens after the opening frame, as they mustered just eight total shots during the last two periods.

“Both teams were able to generate some chances,” said Richards. “They do a really good job in their own end of shutting down shooting lanes. That’s one of the reasons we were able to generate only eight shots or so during the final 40 minutes. But we found a way.”

Brandon Reid and Prestin Ryan scored the Moose goals, and Connor James added an empty netter to finish off the scoring.

Pouliot finished the night with three assists, while Penner picked up his ninth win in his past 11 appearances.