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Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton\u2019s Rutger McGroarty (COURTESY OF WBS PENGUINS<\/p>\nWilkes-Barre\/Scranton\u2019s Rutger McGroarty (COURTESY OF WBS PENGUINS<\/p>\n
The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins face the Springfield Thunderbirds in the Atlantic Division Finals, beginning with Tuesday night\u2019s Game 1 at Mohegan Arena. And with just eight teams left in the American Hockey League\u2019s Calder Cup Playoffs the intensity will only continue to build.<\/p>\n
The Penguins earned a first-round bye by finishing in second place in the Atlantic Division, and took down the Hershey Bears in the Atlantic Division semifinals in four games to advance to the division finals round.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Springfield battled its way into the postseason, clinching the sixth and final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division on the final weekend of the regular season.<\/p>\n
After dropping Game 1 of their best-of-three opening round series, 8-1, to the Charlotte Checkers, the Thunderbirds rallied to defeat the Checkers in three games before completing the largest upset in AHL playoffs history in the divisional semifinal round, taking down the 54-win Providence Bruins in four games to advance to face the Penguins for the Atlantic Division title.<\/p>\n
The Thunderbirds are a completely different team than the one that began the regular season. They fired their head coach midseason, traded key forwards prior to the trade deadline \u2014 such as captain Matthew Peca and all-star forward Matt Luff \u2014 and made a turnaround for the ages with interim head coach Steve Ott pushing all the right buttons.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who\u2019s watched them since (Ott) has taken over isn\u2019t that surprised by the results, I think, of the previous two series,\u201d WBS Penguins head coach Kirk MacDonald said.<\/p>\n
The Penguins are well-aware of the Thunderbirds\u2019 recent success and underdog mentality. When it gets deeper into the playoffs, there are no easy matchups and Springfield certainly has Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton\u2019s full attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t take anyone lightly at this point in the season. If you\u2019re still playing, you\u2019re still playing for a reason. They obviously beat two really good teams to get to this point,\u201d Penguins forward Aidan McDonough said. \u201cTheir goaltender looks like he\u2019s playing really well. They obviously seem to be playing well as a group. They seem\u00a0to have bought in. So, it\u2019s going tobe our toughest test yet, but we\u2019re looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keys to the series<\/p>\n
1. Keep the game 5-on-5: The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins want to play the game at five-on-five, push the pace, roll four lines and three defense pairings and wear down their opponent over the long haul.<\/p>\n
The Penguins ranked highly in all metrics related to five-on-five production in the regular season, and while Springfield has seen quite a turnaround from the disastrous five-on-five play they had to show for the first half of the season, the Penguins are clearly the stronger team at even strength coming into the series.<\/p>\n
2. Make life difficult for Georgii Romanov: A hot goaltender can be the equalizer in playoff hockey, and that\u2019s exactly what the Springfield Thunderbirds have in Georgii Romanov.<\/p>\n
Since taking over after their 8-1 loss to Charlotte, Romanov has been lightning in a bottle for the Thunderbirds, allowing two or fewer goals in all six of his starts this postseason capped by a 37-save shutout in Springfield\u2019s series-clinching win over Providence.<\/p>\n
Springfield has been able to keep their opponents mostly to the perimeter while in their defensive zone, allowing their goaltender a clear lane to see the pucks coming his way. Suffice to say, the Penguins need to get into the interior of the offensive zone when on the attack and get pucks through traffic on Romanov to make his job more difficult than it has been to this point in the postseason.<\/p>\n
3. \u2018Even-keeled\u201d: It\u2019s a term used by MacDonald and several players this postseason, but it\u2019s something that becomes more important as the stakes get higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur group was very, I felt, very nervous the first few games. Like, you could feel the pressure the guys put on themselves,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cOne thing I will say, they care a lot. They want to\u00a0win, and at times it was almost too much. \u201cI felt (in Game 4 against Hershey) we played much more freely and to our identity where we were willing to hang on to pucks and\u00a0 push the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are going to be highs, and there are going to be lows. The teams that weather the storm and don\u2019t get too high or too low are usually the teams best equipped to make a serious run in the postseason.<\/p>\n
Prediction<\/p>\n
The Thunderbirds might appear to be a Cinderella story to those on the outside, but for those who\u2019ve paid close attention around the Atlantic Division they\u2019re an entirely different team than the one that began the season in October. A team that caught fire at the right time, the Thunderbirds enter the Atlantic Division Finals riding the high of taking down the AHL\u2019s top team in the regular season in the previous round. It will be up to the Penguins to halt Springfield\u2019s momentum and bring them back down to Earth, especially their goaltender. The Penguins have shown all year that they\u2019re capable of making a serious run deep into the postseason, and there\u2019s no reason to believe they won\u2019t continue grinding their way forward now. Penguins in 4.<\/p>\n
Series schedule<\/p>\n
Game 1: Tuesday: Springfield at Penguins, 7:05<\/p>\n
Game 2: Thursday: Springfield at Penguins, 7:05<\/p>\n
Game 3: Tuesday, May 19: Penguins at Springfield, 7:05<\/p>\n
*Game 4: Thursday, May 21: Penguins at Springfield, 7:05<\/p>\n
*Game 5: Saturday, May 23: Springfield at Penguins, 6:05 p.m.<\/p>\n
* if necessary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton\u2019s Rutger McGroarty (COURTESY OF WBS PENGUINS The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins face the Springfield Thunderbirds in the Atlantic Division…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1902,178,180,179,726,729],"class_list":["post-189496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-penguins","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189496","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=189496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}