Playoff Stuff

Penguins - Islanders

-Tomas Vokoun. Starting playoff goaltender.

-"I would say they're well aware of what my situation is." - Sidney Crosby on the Islanders potentially targeting his jaw.

-The Penguins have plenty of options when it comes to the power play.

-Crosby was named a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award along with Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis.

-Dan Bylsma speaks:

-Sidney Crosby speaks:

-Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz speak:

-Paul Martin and Jarome Iginla speak:

-"We're hoping they're a little rattled, a little worried about us. because we think we have every opportunity to win this series. The more frustrated they get, the better it is for us." - Islanders defenseman Matt Carkner.

-Saturday's game 6 will start either at 4:30 or 7 p.m. depending on how Game 5 of tonight's Canadiens-Senators series goes. Basically, if Montreal wins tonight, the Penguins-Islanders will start at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Calder Cup playoffs

-The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will face the Providence Bruins in an Eastern Conference semfinal round of the Calder Cup playoffs. (PG+) The schedule:

-Game 1 - Friday., May 10 - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 p.m.
Game 2 - Saturday, May 11 - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 p.m.
Game 3 - Wednesday, May 15-Providence vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 7:05 p.m.
Game 4 - Friday, May 17-Providence vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 7:05 p.m.
*-Game 5 - Saturday, May 18 - Providence vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 7:05 p.m.
*-Game 6 - Monday, May 20 - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 p.m.
*-Game 7 - Wednesday, May 22 - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 p.m.

*-If necessary.

-After the Jump: Just your average night in the NHL with three overtime playoff games.

Hampton twin brothers Ryan and Collin Luther have let it be known they are not a package deal for colleges. The Hampton juniors don't necessarily have to go to the same college.

But if they wanted to play together in college, the opportunity is there.

Duquesne had offered a scholarship to Ryan Luther a while ago. But the Dukes also recently offered Collin Luther.

That makes three Division I colleges that have now offered both Luthers. The others are George Washington and New Hampshire.

Ryan Luther, a 6-8 forward and member of the Post-Gazette Fabulous 5, also has offers from Virginia Tech, Dayton and Holy Cross. Dayton coach Archie Miller would really like Ryan (pictured in the WPIAL final against New Castle). Davidson also is showing interest. Collin is a 6-6 guard-forward.

Does Duquesne have a shot at the Luthers? Well, their father, "Big" Bill Luther, is a Duquesne grad. (He reportedly was an intramural phenom). One of the Luthers' uncle is Brian Shanahan, a former Hampton star who scored more than 1,000 points at Duquesne.

Duquesne would like to get some local players, if they are good enough to play at that level. And it would be nice to see some local players on the roster. Duquesne will have Highlands graduate Micah Mason, who is transferring from Drake. Duquesne also has showed interest in Beaver Falls guard Elijah Cottrill.

Lastly, speaking of Drake. Coaches from Drake are now showing interest in Bethel Park senior Wyatt Haggerty, a 6-11 center. He was going to attend a prep school, possibly IMG Academy in Floria. But he might look at Drake. The Drake staff is different than the one that recruited Mason. Drake's staff was let go after this past season.

"Twenty Years Later" is a segment with a highly unimaginative name which will appear on Empty Netters throughout the 2012-13 season. We will examine the Penguins' 1992-93 season which led to the only President's Trophy in franchise history. The 1992-93 squad is commonly regarded as the most talented in the history of the Penguins. We will look back on games on the date they happened.

Today, we look at the Penguins' 6-5 loss against the New York Islanders in Game 4 of the Patrick Division final series, May 8, 1993.

The Islanders tied the series, 2-2, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. After a scoreless first period, The Penguins took a 1-0 lead 13:12 into the second period with an unassisted goal by right winger Jaromir Jagr against goaltender Glenn Healy.

New York responed at 15:44 when center Ray Ferraro scored on a power play against goaltender Tom Barrasso. Assists went to left winger Derek King and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov.

Late in the period at the 19:43 mark, an unassisted short-handed goal by center Tom Fitzgerald put the Islanders up, 2-1.

Fitzgerald scored again just 25 seconds into the third period with another short-handed goal. Defenseman Darius Kasparaitis collected the only assist.

At 2:32, an unassisted goal by left winger Troy Loney made it a 3-2 game.

Shortly after that, at the 2:53 mark, the Penguins tied the contest again, 3-3, when right winger Rick Tocchet scored off assists from defenseman Mike Ramsey and Loney.

New York reclaimed the lead, 4-3, whe King scored at 3:31. Defenseman Dennis Vaske and right winger Patrick Flatley were credited with assists.

A power-play goal by left winger Kevin Stevens tied the game yet again, 4-4 at the 6:24 mark. Center Mario Lemieux and defenseman Larry Murphy had assists.

A goal by Malakhov regained a 5-4 lead for the Islanders at 9:11. Right winger Brian Mullen netted the lone assist.

The Penguins forced another tie, 5-5, when center Ron Francis scored off an assist from defenseman Paul Stanton.

At 12:11, King scored the eventual game-winning goal off assists from Ferraro and defenseman Jeff Norton.

Notes:

-Barrasso made 29 saves in the loss.

-The three stars were: 1.) King 2.) Fitzgerald 3.) Malakhov.

-Fitzgerald became the seventh player in NHL history to score two short-handed goals in the same game.

Statistics:

Also in the news that day:

-An overtime goal by left winger Kirk Muller gave the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres in Game 4 of the Adams Division final at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. The Canadiens swept the series, 4-0.

-Right fielder Orlando Merced went 2 for 4 with a home run and three RBIs and helped the Pirates defeat the Montreal Expos, 10-9, at Three Rivers Stadium.

(Photo: Penguins Hockey Cards)

It seems pretty bizarre to think that when people started looking forward to Robert Morris' 2013-14 season, stability was one of the first things that came to mind. After all, the team was losing just two contributing players in Velton Jones and Russell Johnson, and had a strong recruiting class coming in. How things have changed over the last two weeks.

This is one of those moments where sportswriters generally trip over themselves to dub this a 'musical chairs' situation, but I'd probably say it's nothing more than shuffling -- just trying to fit the right pieces in the right places all under the working limits of the NCAA.

Over the last 24 hours, reports have come in that junior college guards DesJuan Newton and Charles Oliver have committed to the Colonials. Since they have yet to sign their National Letters of Intent, Andy Toole cannot comment on the situation. As new players have been added, it was first reported to the Post-Gazette today that forward Keith Armstrong will transfer.

Newton, who was on campus the day of the press conference announcing Toole's contract extension, just finished up his sophomore season at Central Arizona College, where he averaged 17.4 points per game while shooting 50.6 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from 3-point range. At 6-2 and 185 pounds, he's been described to me as a tough, defensively-savvy player, both of which were qualities that impressed the coaches and players when he participated in workouts on his visit. Think of him as being in a Velton Jones sort of mold, though I've never seen him play in person, so I don't want to throw that kind of a direct comparison out.

A highlight video of his sophomore season, complete with some Meek Mill in the background, can be found here

Oliver, who spent his freshman season at Rider, averaged 19.3 points per game and made 44.9 percent of his 3-pointers for Lakeland Community College in Ohio en route to being named an NJCAA first team all-American. As his shooting numbers indicate, the 6-3 guard is a pretty natural replacement for Coron Williams.

(Photo: nj.com)

Since both players are coming from the junior college ranks, they are eligible to suit up next year and will likely be counted on to produce. While it might be a tad unrealistic to expect them to match what Karvel Anderson, another JuCo transfer, did last season, junior college players are generally more apt to contribute right away than their freshmen counterparts.

With all of these additions, the reality of another Robert Morris player transferring out became increasingly likely, with that player turning out to be Armstrong. The news isn't entirely surprising, as things weren't really able to click for Armstrong after he missed much of the early part of the season with an injury. He only played about nine mintues per game, averaging less than one point per game to go along with 1.3 rebounds per game. If one thing ever really stood out to me, it was that his touch around the basket never really seemed to develop coming off that injury, something which is pretty important if you're a big man.

So where does this story move forward from here? For those of you keeping score at home, Robert Morris is slated to have 14 scholarship players next season (seven returning players, four freshmen and three JuCo players), one more than the NCAA limit of 13.

The most solution that has been bandied around the most is for one of the four freshmen to spend a year in prep school, which is what will almost certainly happen. It's not likely that either of the school's three-star recruits (guard Kavon Stewart and forward Jeremiah Worthem) will be the one to do so, largely because of their sheer talent. Based on conversations I've had, it looks like that player will ultimately be forward Emmanuel Omogbo from Princeton Day Academy in Maryland.

The signing deadline is just a few weeks away, so this is still a fluid situation, with just one major decision looming regarding the freshmen. But, rest assured, it's a much more manageable dilemma right now than it was even 24 hours ago.