Norfolk skates away with a perfect six point weekend after defeating the Binghamton Senators on Friday, the Hershey Bears on Saturday and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins today by a score of 3-2. The Admirals now open up a four point East Division lead over the Penguins.

Patrick Killeen vs. Dustin Tokarski. Pens brought in Brad Fogal on a PTO this afternoon, an undrafted goalie out of Division-III Adrian College in Michigan. Steve MacIntrye was scratched as was Bryan Lerg who had an “undisclosed illness” as described by radio. In was Cody Chupp and Nick Petersen.

First Period: Off the opening face-off, Jason Williams was spring and nearly scored on Tokarski. The Penguins had the best opening shifts I think all year. Every pass was with purpose. They really came out flying. Teams would trade power plays but no scoring this period.

Second Period: Penguins appeared to score but referee Matt Kirk called an interference on the goaltender penalty on Ryan Craig. Later, with Radko Gudas in the box for crosschecking, Ben Street would receive an Alex Grant blue line pass he would fire past Tokarski to put the Pens up 1-0. Then, with Jason Williams in the box for a hook, Mark Barberio would score in the slot to tie the game on his own power play goal. During the process, Barberio was pushed from behind by Zach Sill. Sill would get a penalty for roughing, but the Pens would kill it.

Then I tweeted this about the Norfolk Admirals third period goal differential:

Norfolk knows how to put teams away in the third period. Their +29 third period goal differential is best in the league by a lot.

—
Jason Iacona (@nafsnep) February 26, 2012

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Third Period: Former Penguin J-P Cote scored to put the Admirals ahead 2-1 on a shot from the blue line off an Admirals face-off win. Later, Alex Picard (the good Picard, not the one who plays for the Admirals) fired a shot from the blue line which beat Tokarski to even things at two. Pens would have to kill a 5-on-3 for :38. Then the Pens would get a power play late with P-C Labrie in the box for delay of game for clearing the puck out of his defensive zone. Then, Alex Grant gets whistled for a very minute hook on Tyler Johnson, who admittedly was everywhere tonight, and the Adimirals got a power play on the back end of 4-on-4 they cashed on when Carter Ashton scored a back door play through a mass of bodies. The play was away from me and I didn’t exactly see just what happened, other than the puck going in the net behind Killeen. Pens would pull Killeen late but never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) J-P Cote (goal, +1) 2) WBS’ Alex Picard (goal, even) 1) Carter Ashton (game winning goal, even)

Thoughts: 1) Cal O’Reilly is really good in the face-off dot. For what I noticed, I don’t think he lost a single face-off. 2) Patrick Killeen will be fine at this level. I thought he played a fair game. Teams have a book on him that you shoot high on him apparently, because the Barberio and Cote goals were both up on him. 3) Norfolk is a really, really good team. Quick forwards and stout goaltending. They are not going to be easy to knock off the top spot in the East.

Around the Division: Syracuse lost to Adirondack 4-3 after being down 4-0 in the only other East Division action.

Standings: Admirals 75 — Penguins 71 — Bears 67 — Crunch 52 — Senators 46

Conference: 1-NOR (75) 2-StJ (73) 3-BRI (66) 4-WBS (71) 5-HER (67) 6-CT (64) 7-MCH (61) 8-ALB (60)

Looking ahead to the trade dealing tomorrow I would anticipate that Brad Thiessen and Eric Tangradi will be assigned here. They will need to be in order to be on the AHL’s Clear Day list the following Monday.

As for trades, if anything affects Wilkes-Barre, I will have a blog on it Monday evening and reactions on Twitter as it happens.

Penguins are off until next Sunday. In the meantime, the Admirals and Bears tangle again in Virginia on Wednesday. That should be a good game.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pesky Crunch get us again. This time, 2-1 in front of a sold out crowd.

Bigger news which could potentially be a huge blow is the loss of Scott Munroe tonight due to injury. Something in the lower body and a tweak of something. I have no idea what and I would anticipate that the Pens won’t say. Which means that Patrick Killeen is almost certain to get the nod tomorrow against the absolute white hot Norfolk Admirals.

Brad Thiessen is still up in Pittsburgh and may start tomorrow vs. Columbus. Wilkes-Barre may have to sign a goalie in the ECHL to a PTO. If I had time, I would take looks at goalies on ECHL only deals in the nearby ECHL towns.

Scott Munroe vs. Antero Niittymaki – Cal O’Reilly saw his first action in Wilkes-Barre. Nick Petersen was scratched.

First Period: O’Reilly had an early chance in on Niittymaki but did not score. So too Ryan Craig. The teams traded penalties but there was no score heading into the…

Second Period: O’Reilly is a playmaker, and he setup Geoff Walker for a chance Walker fired wide on. Then Munroe was injured. From what people told me he was injured during play then had to remain in goal until a stoppage. Patrick Killeen replaced him. Alex Grant boarded Dan Sexton and in the ensuing power play, he came back and scored on a beautiful cross ice pass that no goaltender in this league could have stopped. Then ex-WBS defenseman Nate Guenin took an elbowing call and the Pens scored on the power play. This time Ryan Craig from his stomach. Things would pick up, then with under ten seconds left (7.5 exactly) Patrick Maroon lasered a shot over Killeen and in to put the Crunch ahead going into the second intermission.

Huge goal for the Crunch, as they were undefeated (17-0-3-3) leading after two periods.

Third Period: Crunch would continue to jam the Pens and looked to play defense all period and just jam up the Pens whenever they tried to get offense going. Scary moment when Killeen was crashed into by the Crunch but he would stay in the game. Robert Bortuzzo had a chance on a one time opportunity but could not convert. Matt Smaby would get whistled for tripping late, lip off to referee Ryan Fraser and get tossed. The Pens would pull Killeen but would never find the equalizing goal with time expiring.

I don’t think goaltenders would have mattered in this game. The game was tight to begin the game and stayed that way all game long. This loss is not to be pinned on Patrick Killeen in my opinion. When you do not score, you lose. It matters not who is in goal.

Three Stars: 3) Dan Sexton (game winning goal, even) 2) Ryan Craig (power play goal, even) 1) Antero Niittymaki (35 saves on 36 shots)

Around the Division: The Norfolk Admirals are the hottest team in the American Hockey League right now. Hands down. They win a crazy back and forth game against the Hershey Bears in Hershey by the score of 4-3. Newly acquired Brandon Segal had two goals for the Admirals in the win. Jaroslav Janus stopped 25 of 28 shots almost guaranteeing that the Penguins see Dustin Tokarski tomorrow. Adirondack beat Binghamton in a shootout, 2-1.

Standings: Norfolk has 73 points now to the Penguins 71. The Bears are stuck on 67 points. The Crunch have 52 and the B-Sens, 46.

Conference: 1-StJ (73) 2-NOR (73) 3-BRI (64) 4-WBS (71) 5-HER (67) 6-CT (64) 7-ALB (60) 8-MCH (59)

Check me out on Twitter regarding who, if anyone, the Pens bring in on a likely PTO. I won’t have time to put up a blog.

Norfolk is in for a 3 p.m. start Sunday afternoon. Gameday will be up at 11 am.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens up late 6-3 then cough up three unanswered Manchester goals and visions of Game 6 vs. Charlotte last year start dancing in my head. Pens take it to shootout and win, 7-6. They are now in sole possession of first in the East, two up on idle Norfolk, who plays in Binghamton tomorrow.

News o’ the day, which seemed to catch everyone off guard, was that Cal O’Reilly was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre from Pittsburgh. Here’s Jonathan Bombulie’s take from earlier, which I will cosign on. O’Reilly did not play tonight for Wilkes-Barre. Cody Chupp was recalled from Wheeling.

Scott Munroe vs. Jeff Zatkoff – scratches were Philip Samuelsson, Cody Wild, Matt Rust and Steve MacIntyre.

First Period: All Penguins. Forechecking had shots at 8-2 at the half way point.  Brian Strait turns the puck over to Justin Azevedo who scores on the third shot on goal for the Monarchs. Later, Stefan Legein scored a fluky goal to make it 2-0 on the Monarchs’ fifth shot on goal.

I tweeted at the end of the first that the score was not indicative of the effort, shots were 15-5 Pens and the Monarchs were 0/2 on the power play with no shot on goal during either man advantage.

Second Period: The jump wasn’t there to start for the Pens as Manchester had the first three shots on goal this frame and all good ones. Then Brandon DeFazio would score through a screen to put the Pens on the board. As a Penguins power play expired, Brian Gibbons would score to even things on a goal mouth scrum. Later, Jason Williams received a gorgeous pass from Colin McDonald which had like three Manchester players admiring it which Williams broke in on and backhanded it past Zatkoff to push the Pens ahead 3-2. Penguins, while on the power play, would be awarded a penalty shot when a Monarchs player covered the puck in the goal crease. Jason Williams took it and missed. Afterwards, Cody Chupp would get his first of the year from a nice centering pass from Brian Gibbons.

The period would end 4-2, and this would be the most productive second period of the season for the Pens. They scored three goals four separate times before this.

Third Period: Linden Vey would get a centering pass from Robert Czarnik he tapped in to bring Manchester to 4-3. Immediately thereafter, Jason Williams answers back to put the Pens out ahead by two goals. Almost right after that, Zach Sill would pick off a Zatkoff clearing attempt and scored to make it 6-3.

That goal chased Zatkoff. Martin Jones replaced him. That seemed to settle the Monarchs down some. Six minutes later, Robert Czarnik scored when the puck went in and out quickly. Referee Darcy Burchell immediately signaled goal, then went over to consult with the goal judge who confirmed it.

I had a strange feeling that this goal would be a tipping point of sorts for the Monarchs. Sometimes I hate when I am right. Linden Vey scored with 3:09 left to make it 6-5, then with Jones pulled Trent Hunter scored to tie it with less than a minute to go.

Overtime: Solved nothing. Hunter tried to end it, couldn’t. Then Street tried to do the same but it was off to the…

Shootout: Vey scored in the first round for the Monarchs. That was all for them. Lerg scored on his patented 650 deke move and Geoff Walker, who is perfect this season in shootouts, also scored and the Pens got the extra point.

Go back a second to the Williams penalty shot. I tweeted pre-game that the Pens have been involved in three of the last five penalty shots one way or another. Make it four for six now.

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (two assists, even) 2) Linden Vey (two goals, one assist, +5) 1) Jason Williams (two goals, +1)

Miscellany note: From the game sheet, looks like Manchester played a man down all night.

Around the Division: Hershey and Lake Erie squared off in the only other AHL game tonight. The Bears lost 4-3.

Standings: Pens outright number one for tonight at least with 71 points to Norfolk’s 69. Bears stuck at 67 points in third. Then it’s Syracuse 50, Binghamton 45.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-WBS (71) 3-CT (62) 4-NOR (69) 5-HER (67) 6-BRI (61) 7-MCH (59) 8-WOR (57)

Pens off tomorrow then Syracuse is in for a Saturday night game in front of a sold out crowd. Should be a fun one.

Let’s Go Pens!