x.

That is what everyone will see when they read the Sports Section all across America tomorrow morning when they look at the AHL Standings. That “x” signifies that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have clinched a playoff spot for the ninth year in a row with a 5-3 win over the Worcester Sharks this evening.

Brad Thiessen vs. Harri Sateri. There was chatter pregame as to whether Wilkes-Barre sent back Patrick Killeen. They did not. This picture tells the story.

First Period: A Wagner defensive zone turnover led to a Cam MacIntyre goal about 10 minutes in. Later, Wagner’s point shot from the blue line would rebound over to Zach Sill to tie the game. Sill has really stepped up in the absence of Johnson, Tangradi and Jeffrey. Later, Tim Wallace would get called for tripping then Dan DaSilva scored while Brad Thiessen was screened on the power play to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead.

Second Period: John McCarthy would sit for roughing and right after more rebound plague Sateri as they did all night to the stick of Brett Sterling to even the score at 2 a piece. Later, with Jon Landry and Frazer Mc:aren in the box and the Pens on a 5 on 3, Pens would win the faceoff and Corey Potter would score to make it 3-2.

Third Period: Sharks had worked a faceoff play out before the puck dropped to open the third and in doing so Sean Sullivan to the net while Robert Bortuzzo hooked him to give the Sharks a power play. The Pens would kill it but as soon as they did Keven Veilleux would get whistled for roughing and they would score to even it at 3 a piece with Tommy Wingles hack and whack. Pens would then have to kill off a 5 on 3 of their own before Veilleux took a puck off of a Shark player in the Worcester offensive zone, passed to Wallace who score to make it 4-3. Late, Worcester would pull Sateri and Wallace would score again as time would expire.

Three Stars: Corey Potter (goal, +1), Keven Veilleux (two assists, 2) and Tim Wallace (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: Portland fights back from a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 in overtime tonight in Hershey in Braden Holtby’s return to the Bears from parent Washington. Binghamton shuts out Springfield 2-0. Barry Brust with his seventh shutout of the season for the B-Sens. The Falcons have lost 10 in a row. Ow. Albany beat Norfolk 6-5 in a shootout after being up 3-0. Syracuse beat tomorrow’s opponent the Charlotte Checkers 6-2. Justin Pogge gave up all 6 goals and was yanked in favor of Mike Murphy to start the third. Adirondack beat Toronto 3-1.

Standings: Wilkes clinches and pushes it’s lead up to 8 over Hershey 99-91. It’s a three way tie for second overall between the Bears, Pirates and Monarchs all who have 91 points a piece. The rest of the division goes, NOR 84, CHA 84, BNG 77, ALB 64, SYR 59 and ADK 58.

Tomorrow: Tonight’s opponents, the Worcester Sharks, are in Manchester. Portland is in Providence, Hershey hosts Syracuse, Binghamton is in Bridgeport.

This is what it is all about from here on in. Go Pens.

Hate to use this comparison, because the team I am comparing to was unreal last year and has 11 Calder Cups, but tonight’s performance by Wilkes-Barre, a 4-1 win sparked by a third period comeback, harkens me back to the Hershey Bears of last year.

Think about it. You’d have the Bears right where you want them, then BOOM! next thing you know they have a two goal lead then add a third goal just to rub it in and you lose. Thanks for playing.

The Bears were unreal with absolute scoring terrors with Alexandre Giroux, Chris Bourque and Keith Aucion up front and had John Carlson on defense and Braden Holtby in goal. Chris Collins, Bryan Lerg and Ryan Craig aren’t those three up front, but anyway….

John Curry vs. Eddie Lack again. David Marshall and Alex Grant were the scratches with Steve Wagner and Corey Potter back from recall to Pittsburgh.

First Period: Pens looked good for about 4 minutes then the Moose turned it on. John Curry made some 10-bell saves early. Keven Veilleux buzzed around Eddie Lack’s goal but passed instead of shot. Then the Moose turned it on with the benefit of three straight penalties. They would score on the second penalty, a Boulerice slash, when Cody Hodgson dug a puck off of the far wall to the stick of Joel Perrault who sniped on Curry over his right shoulder. Shots would be 11-5 in favor of the Moose. Basically, the Pens won the first half of the period and the the Moose the second.

Second Period: In a surprising move, Brad Thiessen replaced John Curry in goal. I tweeted both patrick Williams (@AHLReport) and Moose beat guy Ken Wiebe (@WiebeSunSports) to see if they could shed some light on why Curry was pulled. Wiebe tweeted back and said that Curry was on the bench and looked fine. We’ll find out tomorrow I guess, because if it’s a long term thing, Patrick Killeen will get the call from the Wheelhose. Anyway, Joe Vitale crashed a net and knocked the net off of the moorings. Wilkes-Barre would throw everything at Lack this period but could not crack him. Eddie Lack is parent Vancouver’s future in net. Shots through two periods would end up 25-19 for the Pens.

Third Period: Nick Petersen and Jesse Boulerice had a great chance early in the period but were not able to score. Pens and Moose would overlap penalties which led to one minutes worth of four on four, then Bryan Lerg scored on a backhander to tie the game. Then about a minute and a half later, Steve Wagner would bank a puck in off of Zach Sill’s skate to make it 2-1. This rattled the Moose because :30 later, Corey Potter would fire a puck through traffic to make it 3-1. Then right after that happened, Ryan Parent boarded Joe Vitale hard. Vitale went down and went to the bench with help. Initially, Parent was given 2:00 for boarding but after examining the situation, referee Zac Wiebe assessed a 5:00 major and a game misconduct to Parent. Vitale went to the bench first, then went to the dressing room with help from trainer Patrick Steidle and he was favoring his left arm / shoulder. He did not return. Tim Wallace scored on the extended power play to put the game truly out of reach and made the score 4-1.

Pens received 7 out of a possible 8 points out of the longest road trip of the year and put the division lead back to 9 points over the Hershey Bears. Also, the magic number to clinch playoffs is three. I am no math major. The AHL tweeted it, so it has to be true.

Three Stars: Garth Murray (-2), Corey Potter (goal, assist, +2) and Bryan Lerg (goal, +2)

Around the Division: Binghamton lost 5-2 to Adirondack. Charlotte beat Bridgeport in a shootout, 2-1. Bobby Sanguinetti is back from a hip injury and bolsters that blue line with the loss of Brett Carson to a waiver claim to Calgary. Albany, getting hot (and that’s not because they are the Devils) win 6-1 to the hapless Syracuse Crunch. The Devils could make noise and make a run.

Manchester beat Springfield 4-2 to draw to 7 points behind WBS for the overall league lead. Manch has played 70 games to WBS’ 67. In the NHL, Carolina lost to Toronto 3-1. The loss has the Hurricanes two points out of the last guaranteed playoff spot. We want Carolina to make the playoffs so as not to load up the Charlotte Checkers.

Standings: WBS 97, HER 88, CHA 82, NOR 81, BNG 75, ALB 62, ADK 56, SYR 55.

Friday: Wilkes-Barre is off. Hershey travels to Springfield. Charlotte and Bridgeport have a rematch. Bingo hosts Portland. Manchester does the same with Connecticut. Albany travels to Norfolk. We’ll have something here on the blog Friday night after the dust settles.

Let’s Go Pens!