Normally when you allow a team 16 shots all game you should win. With a team as loaded as Wilkes-Barre is, allowing an opponent 16 shots on goal is a sure recipe for success Normally when you put 47 shots up on the board on a team the odds are high that you win the game right?

Not tonight. If you would have told me that the shots would be 47-16 in favor of WBS and the Pens would lose 4-1 I would have never in a million years believed you. It’s true.

This may be some post game knee jerk react from me but Barry Brust, with a better Binghamton team in front of him (the B-Sens have been decimated by call ups also) can outright in my opinion win a Calder Cup for the City of Binghamton. The man is just simply phenomenal. Wilkes-Barre is now 3-4 against this Binghamton team with one more game left to play. The Penguins are 0-3 in the Southern Tier of New York.

Barry Brust vs. Brad Thiessen. Earlier in the day Andrew Orpik was shipped back to the Wheelhouse.

First Period: Fifteen minutes in David Dziurzynski digs a puck off of the wall in the Pens offensive zone to the stick of B-Sens captain Ryan Keller who roofs it on Thiessen to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. When Bingo scores first it is 23-3-2-2. Shots on goal this period 9-7 for WBS. For what it’s worth, it was a feeling out period for both teams for the first half of the period for as weird as it sounds this many games into the season.

Second Period: Corey Locke would sit for hooking then Kaspars Daugavins for the same thing setting up an extended power play for the Pens, Bryan Lerg would score when Corey Locke attempted a steal leaving Lerg all alone to snipe one on Brust to tie the score at 1. Then the wheels would come off. Erik Gryba would score while a screen was set on Thiessen. The turning point of the game was later though when the Pens had a power play. The puck would get dumped in on Brust, he went out of his net to play it but it took a weird bounce and popped right in front of a wide open net. Instead of scoring, the Penss would take a hooking penalty, Ryan Craig to even it up at 4 on 4 for a brief period. After the original penalty on a David Hale rough call would expire Joey Mormina would get nabbed for interference and the top ranked in the AHL Binghamton Senators power play and top ranked at home Binghamton Senators power play unit would take the ice for :42 of 5 on 3. Soon, Kaspars Daugavins would make it 3-1. Then right after that, Corey Cowick would throw a shot at Thiessen’s pads which would deflect to the stick of Andrew Sweetland who jammed home the puck to make it 4-1. Shots on goal this period were 15-6 in favor of WBS and 24-13 overall.

Third Period: Pens would throw everything they could muster and more at Brust but the man from Swan River, Manitoba stood tall denying chance after chance. Chants of “Bar-ry, Bar-ry” were heard all night. The Pens would get two power plays but not convert. They put 24 shots on net in the third and only allowed Binghamton 3 shots at new goaltender John Curry, who relieved Thiessen to start the third.

Three Stars were Corey Cowick (2 assists, +2), Ryan Keller (goal, assist, +1) and Barry Brust (47 saves on 48 shots)

Bombulie said in his postgamer that the shots on goal number was skewed a bit and Senators coach Kurt Kleinendorst was furious at the off-ice officials for their liberal shot count. (It’s always like that in Binghamton)

It is the same old song and dance with Binghamton. Brust steals the show all the time. Nothing about Binghamton really impresses me that much. Corey Locke is an animal but outside of that it comes down to, at least for me, the yeoman-like effort of Barry Brust in net.

Around the Division: Hershey wins in a shootout 4-3 over the Toronto Marlies.

Standings: Hershey is back within 8 points. 84-76. The bigger concern is the Binghamton Senators who need to be reckoned with at this point, clearly in my opinion the best team in the division right now. They have won 7 straight and have points in their last 9 games. Just unreal hockey they are playing. Idle Charlotte has 71 points, Binghamton now has 68 points for fourth, Norfolk has 66 points in fifth. Albany, Syracuse and Adirondack have 48, 46, 45 points respectively.

Tomorrow and Friday: Hershey is in Lake Erie to take on the Lake Erie Monsters. Seems that every other division has a tight points race for first but ours. The Monsters are third in the North and sit two points out of first. I believe that game is televised on Fox Sports Ohio. I will be watching. Charlotte hosts the Connecticut Whale. Friday the Pens are off, but Charlotte and Norfolk do battle and Binghamton travels to Syracuse.

Go Pens.

Cardiac kids tonight. Pens take a 0-0 game into the 55th minute, then Corey Potter drives the net hard and Ben Street cleans up the mess to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Who else other than Street, right? Later, Norfolk would full court press the Pens and with three seconds left Mike Angelidis would score off of a really bad David Marshall turnover.

Pens would win it in the shootout, with Keven Veilleux and Andrew Hutchinson scoring for the Pens and Brad Thiessen denying all Norfolk callers.

The above summarizes this hard fought, playoff atmosphere-like game really. Guys really clamped down on this one. Defense wins, I suppose.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski. New guy Tyler Murovich was in the lineup because Geoff Walker cut his leg yesterday and Tim Wallace is on recall (again) to Pittsburgh.

First Period: Lots of talk about a fight off of the faceoff but no dice. No fights all game. Norfolk brought it tonight but Thiessen was steady. Shots were 10-5 Norfolk after 1.

Second Period: Pens outshot Norfolk 13-2 this period. May I remind you this is without our top seven scorers. Tokarski held the fort this period for the Admirals.

Third period: See above. Potter drives the net. Street cleans up the mess, Pens lead. Then with three seconds left, David Marshall does not clear the puck out of the Norfolk end and the Admirals pounce and score. I know Tom Grace on radio really ripped the kid hard in the heat of the moment, but you have to remember that you have an ECHL kid playing in a high pressure AHL situation and mistakes no matter how huge will happen.

Overtime: Uneventful. Terry Koharksi really swallowed his whistle this series which is uncharacteristic of #10 in the orange arm bands but I have seen the officiating this year improve a ton. I would rather “let the boys play” rather than going 8/9 on a penalty kill any day of the week.

Shootout: Veilleux, the Pens most accomplished player in the shootout, now 3 for 3, scored as did Andrew Hutchinson, who had no prior shootout experience. Thiessen would deny Troy Milam, Mattias Ritola, Stefano Giliati and Mark Barberio.

Three Stars: Mark Barberio (assist), Dustin Tokarski (34 of 35 saves) and Brad Thiessen (26 of 27 saves)

Around the Division: Braden Holtby is back for the Bears and won tonight 6-4 over Bridgeport. Charlotte beat Adirondack 3-2 in a shootout. Binghamton pulls into a tie for fourth tonight after defeating Albany 4-3. Syracuse defeated Rochester 7-1 tonight. Razor with the win for the Crunch in goal. Seven different Crunch found the back of the net.

Standings: Wilkes-Barre 84, Hershey 74. Division lead is still 10. Hershey loses all of its games in hand when they take on Charlotte tomorrow in Hershey. Checkers sit in third with 68 points. Binghamton actually pulls into fourth in the division due to the fact that the Senators have won 30 games to Norfolk’s 27 despit being tied for points with 66. Albany has 46 points good for sixth while Syracuse and Adirondack are tied for last in the division with 44 points.

Tomorrow: Only game of interest is the Hershey / Charlotte game at 5 p.m. from GIANT Center. I will tweet intermission scores and probably blog a quick recap here.

You should be proud of your hockey team. I am. Let’s Go Pens!!!