Washington-Pittsburgh: Penguins in Six in NHL and Seven in AHL

The Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL and their affiliate team in the AHL, the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton Penguins, have had eerily identical playoff records recently.

The Pens and the Baby Pens, as they are known, both lost their first two games and then won three in a row.

The Baby Pens lost Game Six of their Calder Cup playoff elimination series to the Hershey Bears. Pittsburgh plays the Washington Capitals at home for Game Six tomorrow.

Wilkes-Barre won Game Three, 3-2 in overtime, just as the Penguins won against the Capitals, and won Game Four, 6-3, while the Penguins beat the Capitals, 5-3.

If the strange symmetry continues, the Caps could win it and force Game Seven, just like the Bears.

The Hershey Bears are the Caps' AHL affiliate.

Hershey has a rookie goaltender named Michal Neuvirth who has been a big problem for the Baby Pens to solve. Washington has a rookie goaltender named Simeon Varlamov who has been a big problem for the Penguins to solve.

Neuvirth is Czech and Varlamov is Russian.

The Bears and Baby Pens series is down to just one game. The NHL's Penguins plan to wrap up their series at home in Game Six so their series doesn't come to that.

The Pittsburgh Penguins called up Alex Goligoski from the Baby Pens when Sergei Gonchar was injured by Alex Ovechkin. Goligoski stepped right in and Pittsburgh won the game.
 
Goligoski had 20 points on six goals and 14 assists in 45 games with Pittsburgh in the regular season. He was paired with veteran Brooks Oprik, Gonchar’s regular defense partner, for Game Five of the playoffs.

Goligoski played on the power play, had close to ten minutes of ice time, had two hits, and was even in the plus/minus category.