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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — It is the nature of overtime playoff hockey. The game-winning goal isn’t always pretty.
Case in point: Game 2 of the AHL Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final on Friday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.
Michael Pezzetta was credited with a fluky goal at 14:53 of sudden death to give the Toronto Marlies a 2-1 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
From just inside the blue line at the left point in the Penguins zone, Pezzetta lofted the puck high in the air. With the Marlies’ Marc Johnstone in front of the crease, both he and Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov jumped for the puck. It deflected off the stick and blocker of Murashov’s left arm and into the net.
The referee behind the goal line initially waved off the goal, thinking that Johnstone knocked in the puck with his hand. But after going to the video review, it showed the puck went in off Murashov and the call was reversed to a good goal, much to the delight of the Marlies players and to the dismay of the Penguins and the 5,265 fans in attendance.
Johnstone originally was announced as the goal scorer, but it was later changed to Pezzetta. It is his second game-winner in the series — and third of the playoffs and puts the Penguins in a huge deficit heading to Toronto next week for Games 3, 4 and if necessary 5. According to the AHL, only eight teams in league history came back to win a best-of-7 series after losing the first two games on home ice.
Obviously, Penguins coach Kirk MacDonald was not happy, feeling Johnstone interfered with Murashov. He had a lengthy meeting with AHL president and CEO Scott Howson before coming to the postgame press conference.
“We’re not allowed to review goalie interference,” MacDonald said. “It was reviewing whether Stoney knocked it in with his hand or not. (The explanation was) it went off Sergei’s blocker and went in. It did clearly, but, yeah. … I didn’t agree with it, but it doesn’t matter. Can’t change it. Nothing we can do about it now.”
It is the second time in the postseason that a bad bounce cost the Penguins in overtime. In Game 2 against Springfield, the winning goal came when Akil Thomas’ shot caromed off the back boards, struck the back of Murashov’s arm and bounced into the net.
Pezzetta’s goal spoiled a third-period comeback by the Penguins.
“I thought the third period and overtime, we controlled the play,” MacDonald said. “We got going, pushed the pace and had plenty of opportunities to win the game. It just didn’t go in.”
Trailing, 1-0, after two periods, the Penguins pushed for the tying goal and it came at 8:01. Chase Pietila fired a shot from along the right-wing boards that Toronto goalie Artur Akhtyamov stopped. But Tanner Howe, out of a crowd of bodies in front, gathered the rebound, spun around and scored to tie the game at 1.
“I just wanted to get to the net,” Howe said. “Pietila got a good shot off. It bounced out to me nice. I spun around and luckily it went in.
“We didn’t have the best start, but we found our legs. I like the way we played in the third and overtime. We’ll look to carry that to Toronto.”
Murashov helped send the game into overtime, stopping all 10 Marlies shots in the third period, including a breakaway by Ryan Tverberg with 2:22 left in regulation.
“Once they scored in the third period, I thought we played really good,” Toronto coach John Gruden said. “We just didn’t sit back. I thought their goalie made some really big saves, but they definitely had a push and got some momentum there. But I thought we did a good job bending and not breaking and not giving them any breakaways. Then we got our game back. The last five or six minutes before the goal went in, we started to get to our game again. We were evening it out. It was a good hockey game.”
At the start of overtime, the Penguins had the better of the play, taking seven of the first eight shots, but Akhtyamov turned them aside. He finished with 33 saves.
Toronto struck first on the power play late in the first period on some pretty give-and-go passing.
With Rafael Harvey-Pinard in the box for high-sticking, Alex Nylander skated from the left point to the top of the right faceoff circle. He passed to Luke Haymes at the left faceoff dot. Haymes fed it right back to Nylander, who fired it into the net before Murashov could slide over in time to make the save at 18:21.
Nylander played 142 games with the Penguins from 2021-24 and totaled 112 points (56 goals, 56 assists).
To open the second period, Toronto hemmed the Penguins in their zone for much of the first five minutes. The Marlies took the first nine shots of the period, but Murashov stood his ground to keep it a 1-0 game.
As the period wore on, the Penguins picked up the pressure, looking for the tying goal. After Toronto’s 9-0 shot start, the Penguins took 10 of the next 11, but could not get anything past Ahktyamov and it remained 1-0 headed to the third period.
“If you’re playing at this time of year, every game is going to be like this,” MacDonald said. “It’s the four best teams. We played well, they played well. Whether we agree with it or not, it was a crazy, deflected goal, up in the air. Stuff happens. We’ll regroup, get on the road, get to Toronto and get back to work. I have the utmost confidence in the guys.”
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Case in point: Game 2 of the AHL Calder Cup Eastern Conference Final on Friday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.
Michael Pezzetta was credited with a fluky goal at 14:53 of sudden death to give the Toronto Marlies a 2-1 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
From just inside the blue line at the left point in the Penguins zone, Pezzetta lofted the puck high in the air. With the Marlies’ Marc Johnstone in front of the crease, both he and Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov jumped for the puck. It deflected off the stick and blocker of Murashov’s left arm and into the net.
The referee behind the goal line initially waved off the goal, thinking that Johnstone knocked in the puck with his hand. But after going to the video review, it showed the puck went in off Murashov and the call was reversed to a good goal, much to the delight of the Marlies players and to the dismay of the Penguins and the 5,265 fans in attendance.
Johnstone originally was announced as the goal scorer, but it was later changed to Pezzetta. It is his second game-winner in the series — and third of the playoffs and puts the Penguins in a huge deficit heading to Toronto next week for Games 3, 4 and if necessary 5. According to the AHL, only eight teams in league history came back to win a best-of-7 series after losing the first two games on home ice.
Obviously, Penguins coach Kirk MacDonald was not happy, feeling Johnstone interfered with Murashov. He had a lengthy meeting with AHL president and CEO Scott Howson before coming to the postgame press conference.
“We’re not allowed to review goalie interference,” MacDonald said. “It was reviewing whether Stoney knocked it in with his hand or not. (The explanation was) it went off Sergei’s blocker and went in. It did clearly, but, yeah. … I didn’t agree with it, but it doesn’t matter. Can’t change it. Nothing we can do about it now.”
It is the second time in the postseason that a bad bounce cost the Penguins in overtime. In Game 2 against Springfield, the winning goal came when Akil Thomas’ shot caromed off the back boards, struck the back of Murashov’s arm and bounced into the net.
Pezzetta’s goal spoiled a third-period comeback by the Penguins.
“I thought the third period and overtime, we controlled the play,” MacDonald said. “We got going, pushed the pace and had plenty of opportunities to win the game. It just didn’t go in.”
Trailing, 1-0, after two periods, the Penguins pushed for the tying goal and it came at 8:01. Chase Pietila fired a shot from along the right-wing boards that Toronto goalie Artur Akhtyamov stopped. But Tanner Howe, out of a crowd of bodies in front, gathered the rebound, spun around and scored to tie the game at 1.
“I just wanted to get to the net,” Howe said. “Pietila got a good shot off. It bounced out to me nice. I spun around and luckily it went in.
“We didn’t have the best start, but we found our legs. I like the way we played in the third and overtime. We’ll look to carry that to Toronto.”
Murashov helped send the game into overtime, stopping all 10 Marlies shots in the third period, including a breakaway by Ryan Tverberg with 2:22 left in regulation.
“Once they scored in the third period, I thought we played really good,” Toronto coach John Gruden said. “We just didn’t sit back. I thought their goalie made some really big saves, but they definitely had a push and got some momentum there. But I thought we did a good job bending and not breaking and not giving them any breakaways. Then we got our game back. The last five or six minutes before the goal went in, we started to get to our game again. We were evening it out. It was a good hockey game.”
At the start of overtime, the Penguins had the better of the play, taking seven of the first eight shots, but Akhtyamov turned them aside. He finished with 33 saves.
Toronto struck first on the power play late in the first period on some pretty give-and-go passing.
With Rafael Harvey-Pinard in the box for high-sticking, Alex Nylander skated from the left point to the top of the right faceoff circle. He passed to Luke Haymes at the left faceoff dot. Haymes fed it right back to Nylander, who fired it into the net before Murashov could slide over in time to make the save at 18:21.
Nylander played 142 games with the Penguins from 2021-24 and totaled 112 points (56 goals, 56 assists).
To open the second period, Toronto hemmed the Penguins in their zone for much of the first five minutes. The Marlies took the first nine shots of the period, but Murashov stood his ground to keep it a 1-0 game.
As the period wore on, the Penguins picked up the pressure, looking for the tying goal. After Toronto’s 9-0 shot start, the Penguins took 10 of the next 11, but could not get anything past Ahktyamov and it remained 1-0 headed to the third period.
“If you’re playing at this time of year, every game is going to be like this,” MacDonald said. “It’s the four best teams. We played well, they played well. Whether we agree with it or not, it was a crazy, deflected goal, up in the air. Stuff happens. We’ll regroup, get on the road, get to Toronto and get back to work. I have the utmost confidence in the guys.”
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