WBS Pens lose game 1; Smith's tying goal waved off

Eric Politowski | WBS "Baby" Penguins

May 31, 12:43 PM | Hype this story!

1 2 3 Tot.
3 1 1 5
 
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4 0 3 1
 

Series: Penguins (0) – Wolves (1)
 
Summary

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Baby Penguins lose game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals to the Chicago Wolves by a final score of 5-4.  

The Baby Pens started off the game trailing 3-0 in the 1st period. It’s been a broken record these playoffs, but the defense hasn’t been showing up early.

Whatever was said in the locker room between periods helped. Only 1:11 in to the 2nd period, D Alex Goligoski scored from the slot to start the comeback attempt.

About a minute later, F Kurtis McLean put the garbage in front of the net home on the power play, making it 3-2 Wolves.

The Wolves answered back when former-Penguin D Joel “The Answer” Kwiatkowski put a soft goal home past G John Curry, putting the Wolves back up 4-2.

LW Ryan Stone would score his 5th of the season on the power play in the late 2nd period.

The Wolves would put in their 5th goal in the 3rd period, but the Pens were still battling back.

With 6 minutes remaining in the 3rd period, Kurtis McLean scored his 2nd of the game after a nice tic-tac-toe passing play occured from F Tim Brent and Alex Goligoski. Goligoski had 1 goal and 3 assists in the game. He is 2nd in the league with 24 points in 18 games. Only the Wolves’ F Jason Krog has more points. Goligoski is ready for the NHL.

The Pens thought that they had it all tied up with 2 minutes remaining, but the referee ruled that C Nathan Smith kicked the puck into the net, thus making it no goal. Borderline call.

The Pens will play game 2 on Sunday at 4:00 pm.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE:

2008 Calder Cup Finals (best-of-seven)

Game 2 – Sun., June 1 – W-B/Scranton at Chicago, 4:00

Game 3 – Wed., June 4 – Chicago at W-B/Scranton, 7:05

Game 4 – Fri., June 6 – Chicago at W-B/Scranton, 7:05

*Game 5 – Sat., June 7 – Chicago at W-B/Scranton, 7:05

*Game 6 – Tue., June 10 – W-B/Scranton at Chicago, 8:00

*Game 7 – Thu., June 12 – W-B/Scranton at Chicago, 8:00

*if necessary… All times Eastern

Comments

  1. Eric

    May 31, 03:01 PM

    The Baby Pens showed a lot of character coming back, as they have done before. But have to play better defense if they want a shot at winning here.

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