ICECAPS
St. John’s

2-6

PENGUINS
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings: 

[one_half]Farnham – de la Rose – Friberg
Terry – Audette – Matteau
Andrighetto – Eisenschmid – Scherbak
Broll – MacMillan – Gregoire[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Hanley – Brouillette
Lernout – Racine
Didier – Parisi[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders:

Lindgren
Danis

Scratches: Philip Samuelsson, Ryan Johnston, Connor Crisp, Yannick Veilleux, Michael McCarron (undisclosed)

Injured Reserve: Martin Reway

Game Report

It was a promising start for the IceCaps in the first of two between them and the Eastern Conference leading Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Looking as though they had built off the momentum gained in the game Wednesday night against Syracuse, St. John’s came out with a lot of energy and almost opened the scoring on multiple occasions. Sven Andrighetto had the best chance of the period for the IceCaps, going in on a two-on-one with Nikita Scherbak but firing it just wide of the open cage.

Their missed chances, and a bad roughing penalty taken by Jonathan Racine, would come back to bite the IceCaps. Danny Kristo scored his first goal of the season on the power play, beating Charlie Lindgren and giving the Penguins the lead. St. John’s headed to the break facing a one goal deficit.

The second period would not get off to as promising a start. After having an unsuccessful early man advantage, Mark MacMillan got called for a tripping penalty. Just 34 seconds into the penalty kill, Jacob de la Rose was sent to the box after a questionable goaltender interference call. The Penguins made the IceCaps pay with two goals in less than 20 seconds – the first by Kevin Porter and the second by Dominik Simon.

St. John’s would get one back following three straight Wilkes-Barre/Scranton penalties. Just 32 seconds after Tim Erixon stepped into the box, Chris Terry fired one past Tristan Jarry off a pass from Andrighetto to bring the ‘Caps back within two. However, with just 42 seconds remaining in the frame, Jean-Sebastien Dea redirected a Simon slapper past Lindgren to restore the Penguins three-goal lead heading into the intermission.

The third period would bring more of the same. Erixon added to the Penguins lead, making it 5-1 on an odd-man rush and beating a helpless Lindgren in the process. Though the IceCaps made it interesting with a Daniel Audette goal to bring the score to 5-2, Josh Archibald sealed the deal off the rush restoring the Penguins four goal lead with just over five minutes left to play.

Scherbak left the game at the end of the first period after taking a hit along the boards and did not return. Michael McCarron sat out of this game with an undisclosed injury.  After the game, head coach Sylvain Lefebvre could not provide an update on Scherbak’s status for tomorrow afternoon’s rematch, but did confirm that McCarron will not be ready to return to the lineup.

(Game Report written by Joseph Whalen, Staff Writer for AHL Report)

▲     Brett Lernout, Sven Andrighetto, Chris Terry, Josiah Didier

▼     Jonathan Racine, Julien Brouillette, Jeremy Gregoire

1. Tristan Jarry  WBS
2. Kevin Porter  WBS
3. Sven Andrighetto  STJ

Post-game interview with Sylvain Lefebvre

Audio from interviews provided by Joseph Whalen for AHL Report | Rocket Sports Media.

Quotes courtesy of AHL Report

Sometimes you just need to drop the gloves to rally your team(photo from Nov30th) @danaudette28 #RocketSports #TheAHLReport #IceCapsAHL pic.twitter.com/zrpsOdrv1W

— NL PHOTOGUY (@NL_Photoguy) December 3, 2016

Per Coach Lefebvre postgame, McCarron will not be back in the lineup tomorrow; no update on Scherbak yet. #IceCaps@TheAHLReport

— Amy (@FlyersRule) December 3, 2016

Michael McNiven, Playing Best Hockey of His Young Career by @mikeries44 https://t.co/Z27410oWtU #Habs @McNivenMichael @AttackOHL #gohabsgo pic.twitter.com/Md65QXpQwi

— AHL Report (@TheAHLReport) December 3, 2016

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