It\u2019s been a frustrating season for Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins defenseman Jack St. Ivany.<\/p>\n
A lower body injury during the NHL preseason delayed the start of his season, with St. Ivany rehabbing the injury on a conditioning loan in Wilkes-Barre that lasted from Nov.\u00a0 26 to Dec. 6.<\/p>\n
Upon returning to Pittsburgh, St. Ivany was getting into a rhythm at the NHL level with\u00a0seven assists in 17 games before sustaining a broken hand in Vancouver on Jan. 25 \u2013 an injury that required surgery and an eight-week recovery timetable.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to control what you can control. I mean, you can\u2019t control injuries, but\u00a0you can control your attitude and off the ice (work for) getting back,\u201d St. Ivany said. \u201cI feel like this time around, the first week or so is tough mentally, but I was ready to attack rehab, and I\u2019m excited to get back to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being injured means being away from the team and staying home when they are on the road.<\/p>\n
Ice time usually consists of skating first thing in the morning before the team\u2019s practice,\u00a0and while it can be challenging mentally to be disconnected from the team, St. Ivany credits his teammates and the organization\u2019s staff for making him feel\u00a0engrained throughout his time on the team\u2019s injured list.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though you may not be out there with them, everyone makes sure that you feel\u00a0part of the team,\u201d St. Ivany said, explaining he was still sitting in on team meetings and\u00a0doing anything he could to keep himself mentally sharp and in tune with what the team\u00a0is going through. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s no fun just skating by yourself. But thankfully we have,\u00a0development coaches there, a skating coach, a skills coach, there wasn\u2019t a shortage of\u00a0any sort of resources there for me to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Ivany is back with Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton on another AHL conditioning loan, aiming to repeat what he\u2019s already done earlier this season in returning to form and getting back to the NHL.<\/p>\n
Last time, St. Ivany made the most of his AHL conditioning loan. He recorded a\u00a0point in all five games (one goal, four assists) he played, standing out in a positive way\u00a0in all three zones of the ice.<\/p>\n
All five of those games were played against a combination of Hershey and Lehigh Valley, which oddly enough sets the stage for St. Ivany\u2019s return for this weekend\u2019s three games against their in-state rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast time I was here, played five games against Lehigh and Hershey in all five. So I\u2019m\u00a0definitely familiar with the teams and over the last however many years, I think I\u2019ve\u00a0played them 30 times each.\u201d St. Ivany said. \u201cWe don\u2019t like those teams in here,\u00a0and they don\u2019t like us. It\u2019s just that rivalry, and it\u2019s the best hockey you can play. I mean\u00a0that\u2019s kind of why you play the game for high intensity games like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins head coach Kirk MacDonald acknowledged the difficult season St. Ivany has had with injuries, but knows the player is as\u00a0determined as one can be to return to game action and get back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese aren\u2019t injuries for not being in good enough shape or what have you, like, he just plays so freaking hard,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cHe\u2019s willing to eat pucks, and it just happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Ivany\u2019s arrival comes at a good time as defenseman Alex Alexeyev was called up to\u00a0Pittsburgh Thursday and joined the NHL club in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Matt Dumba has been away from the team with his availability to play in the immediate future uncertain. Dumba returned home to be with his wife as they entered the weekend soon awaiting the arrival of their first child.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been here all week practicing. He\u2019s done a great job as he always does, with his\u00a0habits and how he practices,\u201d MacDonald said of St. Ivany. \u201cHe just fits right into the\u00a0group. We\u2019re looking forward to helping him get back up and running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hershey 4, Penguins 2: The Bears scored three goals in a 5:37 span of the second period, and then held on to win Friday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.<\/p>\n
Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton (36-15-5-2) nearly staged an electrifying rally in the third period, but came up short. After pulling within striking distance, a handful of close scoring chances didn\u2019t fall for the Penguins, leading to their fourth-straight loss.<\/p>\n
Andrew Cristall, Sonny Milano and Ryan Chesley scored in the second-period outburst for the Bears.<\/p>\n
Aidan McDonough\u2019s shot to the short-side top corner two-and-a-half minutes into the third period cut the deficit to 3-1.<\/p>\n
Then, Rafa\u00ebl Harvey-Pinard scored on a power play at 8:43 of the third and the Bears lead was 3-2.<\/p>\n
The Penguins proceeded to outshoot the Bears, 14-4, in the third period, but a tying goal never materialized.<\/p>\n
An empty-netter by Bogdan Trineyev sealed the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a frustrating season for Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins defenseman Jack St. Ivany. A lower body injury during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1902,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-138407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-penguins","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}