BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has now allowed the game's first goal in 14 straight games.
The last time the Penguins scored the first goal in a game was way back on March 3, a lead they only held for 21 minutes before losing in a shootout. You'd have to go back a little further to Feb. 27 to find the last time the Penguins scored first in a game and were able to pull out a win.
With this recent run of 14 games, it's not even that the Penguins are necessarily getting off to slow starts. They often outshoot their opponent, like in Saturday's game against the Crunch in Syracuse when they led in shots, 10-6, at first intermission.
They just have a knack for the occasional defensive breakdown that leaves their goaltender hanging out to dry, and end up forcing themselves to play from behind early on in the game.
That was the case on Saturday, and they were unable to climb back out of that hole in Syracuse, falling to the Crunch 4-1.
It's hard to fault goaltender Alex D'Orio at all for any of the three goals he allowed on the 16 shot he faced.
"I thought he was solid," head coach J.D. Forrest told me after the game. "Even on those goals, it's like he made one or two saves and they get a third whack at it. It's just not acceptable from a defensive standpoint to allow that to happen when your goalie makes big saves. I thought Alex did a fine job. He was good in net, we weren't good in front of him. They didn't have a lot of shots, they just had a few really, really good chances and they capitalized. It was no fault to Alex at all."
The first came midway through the first period, where the Crunch were able to get off three shots in quick succession without facing any real pressure from the Penguins' defense. D'Orio stopped the first two, but Syracuse's Taylor Raddysh whacked the third past him as D'Orio was falling to the ice:
"Alex made a nice save and we just didn't help him out there," Forrest said. "It's certainly a trend that -- like I spoke about yesterday -- we just have to find a way to make sure that doesn't happen. It's not easy to watch it again."
On the second goal a few minutes later, Syracuse's Gabriel Fortier got a breakaway attempt, which D'Orio stopped. He was able to recover the puck behind the net, pass it back to Henry Bowlby, who then sent it over to Otto Somppi, and Somppi was able to put it in without facing any real challenge other than D'Orio in net:
Syracuse's third goal came when Boris Katchouk got a breakaway during a bad line change and faked like he was about to shoot while in close, forcing D'Orio to react, then tucked the puck past D'Orio's pad:
As always is the case in these games, there are several bright spots, but they weren't enough to negate that early hole. Other than D'Orio's play, one of the bright spots was the second-period goal from Tim Schaller, who forced a turnover in Syracuse's zone then had a nice move for the goal:
It was Schaller's eighth goal of the season and 14th point, tying him for the team lead in both categories. The 30-year-old forward with 276 games of NHL experience under his belt has become such a key player on a team with a lot of young forwards.
"He's been great," Forrest said. "He's got a lot of good habits. He's a really good pro, at practice and in games. Just the way that he carries himself, the way he sets examples for the guys, he's been great to have. It's a nice player for our young guys to look up to and try to emulate."
Another encouraging sign was the Penguins' work in the third period when fighting to come back. The Crunch didn't record a single shot on goal in the third period until Somppi's empty net goal with just under three minutes remaining, and they only recorded one additional shot on D'Orio after that.
"We've never doubted the work ethic," Forrest said. "We always have that. We usually are working hard for the whole 60 minutes. It's just a matter of a few decisions here and there, a few game reads here and there, some execution. I figured we would have a push in the third, we typically do. But we just can't play one period of a hockey game. Or you can't play 50 minutes of a 60-minute game. That's not how it works. As good as that is to have, one period is not enough."
Luckily for the Penguins, it was their last meeting of the season with Syracuse, a team that has given them a lot of trouble this season. Wilkes-Barre went 1-4-0-1 in the season series with Syracuse and they were outscored 24-12.
"They're a hard-working team," Forrest said. "They're a well-coached team, they work really hard. They've been getting some really good goaltending, their goalie played well against us tonight. We did have a few 2-on-1s, and a 3-on-1. We had our opportunities, we weren't able to cash in on them. They have been getting good goaltending. I don't think it's anything in particular as far as a style of play or anything like that, they just seem to have our number."
The Penguins won't play again until next Saturday in Hershey, giving them almost a full week of practices, some much-needed time to try to eliminate some of the reasons for these defensive breakdowns before next game.
"Oh, there's plenty we can do in practice," Forrest said. "There won't be a shortage of areas we can work on in the next week here."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Over a quarter of Wilkes-Barre's 25 shots came from Drew O'Connor, who had a season-high seven shots.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Upstate Medical Arena at The Oncenter War Memorial:
1. Otto Somppi, Crunch
2. Boris Katchouk, Crunch
3. Taylor Raddysh, Crunch
THE INJURIES
• Defenseman Jesper Lindgren left the first preseason game after sliding into the boards and underwent successful shoulder surgery. He's out for the rest of the season.
• Defenseman Zach Trotman left last Saturday's game with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day.
THE LINEUPS
Forrest’s lines and pairings:
Drew O'Connor-Josh Currie-Nick Schilkey
Tim Schaller-Jordy Bellerive-Felix Robert
Sam Miletic-Jonathan Gruden-Kyle Olson
Luke Stevens-Chase Berger-Jan Drozh
P.O Joseph-Jon Lizotte
Cam Lee-Will Reilly
Kevin Czuczman-Billy Sweezey
And for Benoit Groulx's Crunch:
Boris Katchouk-Otto Somppi-Taylor Raddysh
Jimmy Huntington-Antoine Morand-Grigori Denisenko
Henry Bowlby-Ryan Lohin-Peter Abbandonato
Gabe Fortier-Declan McDonnell
Andreas Borgman-Alex Green
Devante Stephens-Ben Thomas
Sean Day-Vlad Kolyachonok
Alex Rauhauser
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will play the Bears next Saturday afternoon in Hershey. It's the home stretch of the season here, only 10 games left.
THE CONTENT
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