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NASCAR sputters toward checkered flag on troubled season

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Bear hunters have banner day

WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; Coaches preach relentlessly about the importance of playing well for a full 60 minutes.The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins played outstanding for half the game against the Charlotte Checkers on Saturday, but it was those precious few minutes out of the 60 when they came unraveled, and that led to a 6-5 defeat in overtime.Adam Johnson scored twice as the Penguins dropped both games this weekend to the AHL&#8217;s top team, losing each by one goal.On Saturday, the Penguins squandered a 4-1 lead early in the second period that resulted in the loss.&#8220;You can&#8217;t let them up. At 4-1 I thought we left off the gas pedal. We made some mental mistakes and they&#8217;re just too good,&#8221; Penguins head coach Clark Donatelli said. &#8220;Our guys have to be more consistent. They can&#8217;t extend shifts. We made some mental mistakes.&#8221;The game opened with a fight between Joseph Cramarossa and Charlotte&#8217;s Dan Renouf, and the Penguins offense kept throwing punches for the rest of the first period.Despite an early goal from Charlotte, the Penguins quickly erased the lead with Johnson&#8217;s first of the night &#8212; a shot from the slot during a power play &#8212; to make it 1-1.Less than a minute later Stefan Elliott scored his first of the year when he beat Alex Nedeljkovic with a shot from the wall.Thomas Di Pauli pounced on a loose puck in front to make it 3-1 and bring an end to Nedeljkovic&#8217;s night, who was replaced by Callum Booth.Johnson went back to work to open the second period, putting home a rebound to make it 4-1 for his second goal.Charlotte wasn&#8217;t done, however, as they scored twice in a two-minute span to cut the Penguins&#8217; lead to 4-3.&#8220;We got away from the things that got us that lead,&#8221; said center Sam Lafferty. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think we were consistent enough and it showed.&#8221;The third period saw the Penguins squander the lead as Charlotte scored twice in 59 seconds &#8212; including a power play tally to go up 5-4.But as was the theme of the night, the lead didn&#8217;t last long as, minutes later, Anthony Angello reached up to grab an airborne puck, placed it on the ice and tapped it in for a 5-5 tie.The Checkers put the Penguins away when they scored just over a minute into the overtime period.Donatelli said the game should never have reached that point.&#8220;When you&#8217;re up 4-1 at home, you have to win your game,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We have to get stronger and buckle down.&#8221;Notes- Joseph Cramarossa appeared in his first two games of the season this weekend after being sidelined with an injury he suffered in training camp. He registered an assist, a fight and nine penalty minutes along with a plus-1 rating in both games combined.- When asked about Tristan Jarry&#8217;s goal, Donatelli said it was the first time he ever witnessed a goaltender score during his playing days and time as a coach. Donatelli pointed out that Jarry has a good shot, but the netminder admitted it&#8217;s not necessarily an element of his game he practices.&#8220;It&#8217;s something that comes a little natural,&#8221; Jarry said.After Jarry scored he skated to the bench for a congratulatory fist bump at the behest of his teammates - another first for the netminder. &#8220;It was pretty neat. I didn&#8217;t want to do it at first then they all pushed me to do it. One of those things you don&#8217;t get to do often,&#8221; Jarry said.- Thomas Di Pauli leads the Penguins in shots but struggled to score for most of the season. Lately, Di Pauli has corrected things and has three goals and seven points in the last five games. On the season, Di Pauli has three goals and nine points in 17 games.- Adam Johnson has four goals on the season and they all came during a pair of two-goal games.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Johnson </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_Adam-Johnson-mug.jpg</photo0><caption0>Johnson </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom Veneskytvenesky@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>Penguins 5 Charlotte 6 overtimeCharlotte`1`2`2 `1 &#8212; `6Penguins`3`1`1 `0 &#8212;`5First PeriodScoring &#8211; 1. CHA, Aleksi Saarela 3 (Carrick, Gauthier) 5:35. 2. WBS, Adam Johnson 3 (Prow, Lafferty) power play 6:30. 3. WBS, Stefan Elliott 1 (Cramarossa, Czuczman) 14:17. Penalties - CHA, Renouf (fighting, misconduct) :26; WBS, Cramarossa (fighting) :26; CHA, Stortini (elbowing) 5:37; CHA, Saarela (unsportsmanlike conduct) 9:28; WBS, Taylor (hooking) 15:08; CHA, Stortini (boarding, roughing) 17:52; WBS, Czuczman (roughing) 17:52.Second PeriodScoring &#8211; 5. WBS, Adam Johnson 4 (Lafferty, Haggerty) 2:57. 6. CHA, Cliff Pu 1 (McKeown, Lorentz) 11:30. 7. CHA, Martin Necas 2 (Kuokkanen, Bean) 13:26. Penalties - WBS, Cramarossa (slashing) 14:27.Third PeriodScoring &#8211; 8. CHA, Dan Renouf 1 (Schilkey) 11:02. 9. CHA, Greg McKegg 2 (Kuokkanen, Carrick) power play 12:01. 10. WBS, Anthony Angello 7 (Czuczman, Lindberg) 15:43. Penalties - WBS, Lindberg (holding) 11:55.OvertimeScoring - 11. CHA, Aleksi Saarela 4 (Poturalski) 1:26. Penalties - None. Shots on goalCharlotte &#8211; 8-10-14-1-33Penguins &#8211; 11-15-7-0-33Power-play OpportunitiesCharlotte &#8211; 1 of 3Penguins &#8211; 1 of 2GoaltendersCharlotte &#8211; Alex Nedeljkovic (7 saves &#8211; 10 shots); Callum Booth - 14:17 of the first period 2-1-0 (21-23)Penguins &#8211; Anthony Peters 4-1-1 (27-33)StartersCharlotte &#8211; G Alex Nedeljkovic, D Trevor Carrick, D Dan Renouf, LW Saku Maenalanen, C Greg McKegg, RW Andrew PoturalskiPenguins &#8211; G Anthony Peters, D Kevin Czuczman, D Stefan Elliott, LW Joseph Cramarossa, C Teddy Blueger, RW Jimmy HayesThree Stars1. CHA, Aleksi Saarela (two goals) 2. WBS, Adam Johnson (two goals) 3. WBS, Anthony Angello (goal)Referees &#8211; Mitch Dunning, Terry Koharski. Linesmen - Matt McNulty, Jason Mandroc.</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</shirttailMeta></div>

WBS Pens lose to Charlotte in overtime