PHN photo essay: Killeen’s strong third period helps Penguins come from behind

WILKES-BARRE TWP. – For two periods Sunday afternoon, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins rookie Patrick Killeen  faced a grand total of 9 shots and had given up 3 goals. His team was down 3-2 going into the final period.
 
Shots were and far between going sometimes over 5 minutes without touching the puck so he couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm, they were usually at the end of an odd-man rush or backdoor passing play for the shots he finally saw.
 
the third period was completely the opposite as  he turned in his best period of goaltending thus far since his call up from the Wheeling Nailers, stopping all 17 shots he faced the as the Penguins rallied to a 5-3 win over the Springfield Falcons.
 
Trailing 3-2 after two periods, the Penguins scored twice in the first eight minutes of the third to take the lead for good.
 
At 2:11, Ryan Craig made a thread the needle pass from the corner corner to Brian Gibbons at the far post to tie the score 3-3.
 
At 7:39, Zach Sill stole a puck on the forecheck and made a pass to the blue line to a streaking Alex Grant  and scored on a slap shot from the blue line past screens set by Paul Thompson and Steve MacIntyre. for the game winning goal.
 
Earlier, Jason Williams and Bryan Lerg had a goal and an assist apiece to break the scoring drought that plagued the Penguins in the previous two games and keep the Falcons from running away with things.
 
In the first two periods, Springfield scored when Matt Calvert finished off a three-on-two, Alexandre Giroux got behind the Penguins defense and set up  Dane Byers who buried the puck and finished  a three-on-one.
 
If there was lingering bad blood after the last meeting between the teams – MacIntyre punched goalie Paul Dainton after defenseman Greg Amadio declined to fight him March 11- it was settled on the oping faceoff.
 
Geoff Walker called Amadio over to the red line in warm-ups challenging him, then the pair fought off the opening faceoff. That seemed to settle  any issues the Falcons had, as no Falcons players appeared to have any interest in getting near MacIntyre, who played an effective game around the net in the offensive zone, to seek retribution.

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Contact Rob.Neyhard@prohockeynews.com