Off the hop, Nick Johnson suffered an “upper body” injury in Pens practice today. You would think that recent demotion Tim Wallace would get sent back right? Well, no. He was a scratch tonight with “flu like” symptoms. The only two guys left in Wilkes-Barre on NHL deals are Keven Veilleux and Joey Haddad. Veilleux, if needed, will likely get the call tomorrow to join the parent Penguins in Chicago for the Sunday game. Meanwhile, WBS acquired a guy by the name of Tyler Murovich from Springfield and assigned him to the Nail today. Gotta think that if Johnson cannot play Sunday and Wallace is still sick and Veilleux gets the call that this Murovich kid will be dressed tomorrow for the Pens in the rematch vs. the Admirals.

Anyway, the Pens defeated the Norfolk Admirals tonight 3-0. Brad Thiessen got his sixth shutout of the season and now boasts an insane 5-1 record with a .978 SV% with three shutouts. He is 23-5 on the season. Astronomical numbers. Also, he kept the Pens in the game tonight stopping all 35 shots seen.

Thiessen vs. Mike Smith. No M-A Pouliot or Johan Harju for Norfolk. Pouliot injured and Harju on recall to parent Tampa Bay.

First Period: Geoff Walker and Chris Durno would fight right off of the opening faceoff. The good news is that Walker would win the fight but the bad news is that he would not return from the fight. Radio said he cut his hand but @CxJamesx9 tweeted that Walker’s leg was cut. Keven Veilleux would sit for a ten minute misconduct. Then, Ben Street would score on WBS’ first shot of the game. How Street was in Wheeling all this season baffles me. He will probably not return. From the very beginning, Thiessen would keep the Pens in the game with a pad stop on a deft Mathieu Roy offering. Later, Veilleux centered a puck to Zach Sill and Sill tucked it under Smith’s pad to make it 2-0. The rest of the period would see Smith and Thiessen trading ten bell saves. Ben Street by rights should have had a hat trick in the first period alone. Got to think that if it is anyone other than an NHL goaltender down on recall he gets at least another goal.

Second Period: Pens would have to kill off 1:57 of carryover Jesse Boulerice delay of game. But the period wouldn’t senter around penalties, but more on the fact that Wilkes-Barre was getting killed in the faceoff dot. I think they maybe won only two faceoffs all period. This is in large part due to the fact that you don’t have your best centers manning the draws. You basically have ECHLers facing off against decent AHL centers. Keven Veilleux would have a goal waved off due to a high stick. The second period would end with the Pens leading on the scoreboard 2-0 but trailing in shots, 26-17.

Third Period: AHL Live would cut out for me at about the halfway mark. The only thing you need to take from this period is that Thiessen would make 9 saves this period. Norfolk would ring a few off of the post as well. Wilkes-Barre would only muster 4 shots, but one would be on an empty net with Ben Street doing the damage.

Street would end the game with two goals but would not get a star of the game. They went to Keven Veilleux (1 assist, +2), Zach Sill (goal, +1) and Brad Thiessen (35 saves, shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey lost to Rochester 4-3. The Bears now are 10 points behind us and have lost two in a row and have one game in hand. Binghamton defeated Charlotte 6-2. Jim O’Brien had a hat trick in that one. Albany trails Worcester 4-3 with a minute to go in the third period and gets goals from Adam Henrique and Steven Zalewski to win 5-4. Connecticut nips Adirondack in a shootout 2-1. Ray Emery returns to pro hockey and loses 4-2 as the Crunch are now in last place overall in the AHL having been defeated by the San Antonio Rampage.

Standings: WBS clinches yet another winning season in just 56 games and enjoy 82 points to Hershey’s 72 points. Charlotte does not make any ground up on Hershey and has 66 points good for third. Norfolk now feels the heat from the Binghamton Senators, as the Admirals have 65 points to Binghamton’s 64. Albany has 45 points in sixth, Adirondack pulls itself out of last place with 43 points and Syracuse is at the bottom with 42 points.

Tomorrow: Every team in the league is skating tomorrow. Hershey hosts the last place in the Atlantic Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Charlotte goes to Adirondack, Syracuse hosts Rochester, Albany travels to Binghamton and WBS and Norfolk rematch.

Stay with me on Twitter for any call-up news. Let’s Go Pens!

Face it. No one expected Wilkes-Barre to win today. Nobody. I go on a lot of AHL boards, a lot of beat writers comment sections and follow a lot of fans on Twitter. No one had this Wilkes-Barre this afternoon.

Except me.

About two hours before puck drop…

http://twitter.com/#!/nafsnep/status/36829920189624320

Prior to that, I read this commentary in Sunday’s Citizens Voice from beat writer Jonathan Bombulie.

Penguins blitzkrieged the Bears today, winning 7-1. Now I will say that I did not expect a 7-1 whooping that the Penguins put on the Bears today. I expected a much tighter game.

Brad Thiessen vs. Todd Ford.

First Period: Corey Potter hook at 1:05 in. Bears have the 2nd ranked power play in the AHL. Here we go right? Nope. Zach Sill is no Dustin Jeffrey, but he scored a shorthanded goal and the floodgates opened. Later, Hutchinson came down the slot and chipped in a Ben Street feed from behind the net to make it 2-0. Later, Brian Strait would fire a puck from the blueline Ford could not see to make it 3-0. I love when Strait scores. They are postage stamp goals and boy are they pretty. The Bears would pressure the last third of the period but would not score. I though had they did, all the momentum would go out the window.

Second Period: Andrew Orpik would feed David Marshall to make it 4-0 and chase Ford. Have you driven a Ford lately? Jared DeMichiel would come in relief of Ford. Pens would have to kill off :56 of a 5 on 3 but would end up killing it and getting a power play. Ben Street would make it 5-0. Veilleux again would fire a shot at DeMichiel which Street cleaned up on the rebound. Pens didn’t stop there, Robert Bortuzzo came down the slot and received a Chris Collins centering bid to make it 6-0. He just picked a corner and it went in.

Third Period: Not much here in this period. The defense would not allow Hershey many chances, only allowing 4 shots all period. One of those however was a Brian Willsie rebound goal from a Sheldon Souray shot from the blueline. But later, Ryan Schnell would pick up his first AHL goal on a nice feed from David Marshall.

Bombulie had a nice postgamer himself. In it, Pens got a mountain of offense from a bunch of guys who you have never heard of. Seven different Penguins scored goals. More role players than anything, as Veilleux and Haddad and your more purer scorers did not find the score sheet. I could not be more proud of this organization and that group of guys that played today.

Around the Division: Charlotte beat Albany 3-2. Bingo beat Adirondack 4-3 in overtime and swept the weekend. The Senators are for real.

Standings: If we manufacture this kind of offense yesterday, we have a 12 point division lead. Instead we only have a 10 point division lead. 80-70 right now over Hershey. Charlotte sits third with 66 points. Idle Norfolk (who plays Hershey Tuesday at Scope) has 65 points for fourth. Binghanton has 62 points in fifth. Syracuse is sixth with 42 points. Albany seventh with 41. Adirondack gets the loser point and has 40 points.

This week: Hershey is in Norfolk Tuesday, and Albany plays a third game in a row in Charlotte. I’ll probably update periodically on Tuesday night on Twitter and will probably have something here on the blog then.

Proud of this team. You should be too. 80 points! WOO! Let’s Go Pens!