WILKES-BARRE — For the second straight spring it was an early exit in the Calder Cup Playoffs for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. And for the second straight year, the Penguins’ demise came at the hands of bitter in-state rival Lehigh Valley.

After dominating the regular season series and going 8-2-2 against the Phantoms, Lehigh Valley once again swept Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the best-of-three, opening-round series last weekend.

At the Penguins’ final media availability of the season, the sourness and disappointment was still clearly present.

“We thought we were poised for a deep run,” Penguins rookie defenseman Owen Pickering said. “It was a quick three-game series and things didn’t go our way. And that’s very disappointing.”

The shortened series under the AHL’s 23-team expanded playoff format leaves a near-zero margin for error, and the Penguins put forth what they called an “embarrassing” performance in their 5-2 Game 1 loss on home ice last Wednesday.

Facing elimination last Friday, the Penguins were arguably the better team in Game 2, but a bouncing puck with two minutes left in the third period ended up in the back of their net and ultimately ended their playoff run before it really got started.

“We gave it everything we had, and I thought we controlled the game,” Penguins forward Avery Hayes said of the team’s Game 2 performance. “I thought we played well, but, I mean, in playoffs, all that matters is winning so not the result we wanted.”

For Hayes, who by all accounts had a tremendous second season of pro hockey and turned his AHL contract into a two-year NHL contract beginning next season, the back-to-back years of opening-round setbacks to a rival team simply doesn’t sit well with him.

“Yeah, it sucks. I mean, especially this year, I feel like we had such a great group and close team, and I mean the exact same result as last year, which hurts,” Hayes said. “Nothing to do about it now except use this fuel for next season and take it into this summer, work on all the things we need to work on and come back next year ready to go.”

Perhaps no one took the Penguins’ elimination harder than first-year head coach Kirk MacDonald, who was visibly and audibly upset following Friday’s Game 2 loss.

After taking extra time after the game to cool off, he answered questions with the same blunt sense of honesty he had all season long.

“That’s playoffs, right,” MacDonald asked rhetorically. “We didn’t play well in Game 1 and we gave the game away, and then we put ourselves in this position. But right to the end, I felt like we were going to win the game. It’s disappointing. I’m most disappointed for the guys.”

MacDonald explained that sometimes teams get into the playoffs and the guys in the locker room aren’t fully invested, before reassuring that that was simply not the case for thisteam.

“You can get groups where, you know, guys don’t really want to be here and they’re not that invested in playing in the playoffs. And trust me, when I say that they wanted to be here,”MacDonald said. “I know they’re crushed right now, and it’s too bad. You get to these best-of-threes and get one off night, all of a sudden now you’re leaving it up to the hockey gods a little bit.”

While the end result will sting heading into the offseason, as the disappointment fades and the focus turns to next season, there are several positives to be taken away.

“They were a pleasure to coach,” MacDonald said. “The buy-in from day one was outstanding. They worked hard every day. Great group of guys, fun to be around. I think you want to win, you’re a competitor. But what I think I’m most disappointed in is we don’t get to come to work together anymore. You’re never going to have the same group again, especially at the minor league level. You’re never going to be together again as that same group.”

While players will come and go in free agency this summer, the WBS Penguins have a solid core of young talent pushing toward a rebuilding parent club that missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third straight year and will have a new coach next season.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton fans got to see some future NHL stars this season, an that should continue next season with a large group of prospects on their way.