Pens with their eight game on the road today, tying a record they themselves set earlier this year. They score two power play goals and two shorthanded goals and win this game against Syracuse by the score of 4-3.

Alex Grant continued his hot hand. Two assists on the two power play goals. This give Grant a sum total of eight points this weekend. The AHL usually puts out who the Player of the Week is around noontime Monday on it’s PR feed, so watch for that or just follow me on Twitter for reactions around lunchtime tomorrow.

Brad Thiessen vs. Iiro Tarkki. Kyle Palmieri returned for Syracuse and Jason Williams was re-assigned by Pittsburgh today and both skated.

First Period: A Luca Caputi hook on the aforementioned Jason Williams gave the Pens a power play a little over seven minutes in. The Pens must have worked on power play in practice because it looks like a completely different unit out there. They scored when Colin McDonald scored his 11th goal of the season. Then, the Crunch got one back when Bryan Rodney scored from the high slot on a shot that Thiessen never saw. Ben Street would get whistled for holding late and Zach Sill picked off a pass in the neutral zone and scored a shorthanded goal with 4.3 seconds left to put the Pens up 2-1 heading into the…

Second Period: Penguin killer Kyle Palmieri scores for the Crunch from the high dot to even things at two. Later, J-F Jacques hooks Cody Wild and the Pens headed back to the power play again. The Pens would work with four forwards and one defenseman. The one defenseman? Alex Grant. He passed to Williams at the point who rifled it home to put the Pens up 3-2. At the end of the period, the Pens would find themselves defending a 5-on-3 with Brian Strait and Joey Mormina in the box. The Pens would kill the Strait penalty and as he broke from the box, Ryan Craig hit him in stride and he would score on a breakaway. Huge goal at the time.

Third Period: About five minutes into the game and the Pesky Crunch came guns blazing. A failed clear by the Pens found its way to, who else? Kyle Palmieri and the Crunch had life at 4-3. The Pens held off the charge however and the Pens skated off with the two points.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Grant (two assists, even) 2) Kyle Palmieri (two goals, even) and 1) Jason Williams (goal, -2)

Around the Division: Manchester comes to Hershey and sweeps the Bears in a two game series and wins 4-2. The Bears have lost three straight and for the first time under the Washington Capitals affiliation, have gone winless in three-in-three weekend. With the loss, that moves the Penguins into the top spot in the Conference. In the other division game, Binghamton beat Adirondack 4-3.

Standings: Penguins at the top of the division with 55 points. Bears have 55 but the Pens own the tiebreaker (overall wins) Norfolk has 53 points in third.  Crunch have 41 points, Senators have 38 points.

Conference: 1-WBS (55) 2-HER (54) 3-CT (46) 4-HER (55) 5-NOR (53) 6-WOR (48) 7-MCH (48) 8-POR (47)

Pens have off tomorrow, practice Tuesday and host the Providence Bruins Wednesday night in Wilkes-Barre.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins score five power play goals and defenseman Alex Grant has a hand in all five as Wilkes-Barre beats Syracuse tonight before a sold out crowd 6-2.

For Grant, he was 2-3-5 for the game. His five points is a season high for a Penguin and ties him with Hershey’s Chris Bourque twice, Syracuse’s Dan Sexton and Portland’s Andy Miele for league highs in points in a single game this season.

Scott Munroe vs. Marco Cousineau – Peter Merth was scratched for Philip Samuelsson.

First Period: Alex Grant would open things up at 11:46 of the first on a bomb from the point to put the Pens up 1-0. However, :24 later ex-WBS Penguin Luca Caputi would score to tie things at 1. The Pens outshot the Crunch 14-5 but despite this, the Crunch were everywhere. This is a really pesky hockey team.

Second Period: Patrick Maroon would score and the Crunch would be up 2-1. This was the point of the game which I felt things could get weird quick. However, the Crunch just continued the parade to the penalty box and Bryan Lerg would score on a 5×3 to tie things. Then, Ben Street would score on the back end of the second power play after slipping by the Syracuse defense to make it 3-2.

At this point the period ended with the shots 30-14 in favor of the Penguins. Despite this, these pesky Crunch were still in this game.

Third Period: More than nine minutes in and the Penguins did not have a shot on goal. I remember in my head that Syracuse to that point had six to our none. Somehow, Syracuse took two penalties to open the period with the 5’11, 185 pound Brandon MacMillan boarding the 6’6, 230 pound Joey Mormina. The second penalty was a Rick Schofield trip which Geoff Walker scored on. Then, while on yet another 5-on-3, Alex Grant would rip a howitzer from the point past Cousineau to put the Pens up 5-2.

To this point, five power play goals. Unheard of with the anemic power play that existed prior to his. Alex Grant figures in on all five. New power play quarterback? I would like to think so

Zach Sill would score the sixth and final goal after getting a nice pass from Brian Gibbons who cycled around the net and passed to him. This was an even strength goal Alex Grant was not on the ice for.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, even) 2) Geoff Walker (goal, assist, even) and 1) Alex Grant (two goals, three assists, even)

Thoughts: What atmosphere tonight with 8,172 in the house tonight and a TV game. If you frequent the blog and aren’t a season ticket holder, come out to a game. It’s really a fun time for all. Syracuse plays on an edge that either makes them wildly successful or horribly not.

Around the Division: Hershey loses to Manchester on home ice 5-4 which ended the Monarchs 7 game losing streak. Those two go at it again tomorrow. Norfolk goaltender Dustin Tokarski gives up goals on the first three shots he sees, yet the Admirals skate away with two points anyway winning 5-4 after relief goaltender Jaroslav Janus stops 9-of-10 Whale shooters in the shootout.

Standings: Bears have 55 points, Wilkes-Barre and Norfolk creep up with 53 points. Syracuse and Binghamton have 41 and 36 respectively.

Conference: 1-HER (55) 2-StJ (52) 3-CT (46) 4-WBS (53) 5-NOR- (53) 6-WOR (47) 7-POR (47) 8-MCH (46)

Wow, looking at Conference Standings now the Atlantic Division would send four teams if the playoffs started now. The Northeast Division, the tightest division in all of the AHL, would only send one.

Tomorrow the Crunch and Pens rematch at 3 p.m. The Pens bussed up tonight. Gameday will be right here on the blog for you at 11 a.m. Sunday morning.

Let’s Go Pens!

Note: The “rickroll” part of the subject line was part of a  joke that I have running with the team. The Pens allow you to tweet your favorite song to them to play in second intermission. I have tried since the season started to get them to play Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” to no avail. Whenever you hear that being played anywhere it’s commonly referred to as a “Rickroll.” Well, I finally got my wish tonight!

Pens win in their 1,000th regular season game in team history by a score of 4-1. In the existence of the team, only the Providence Bruins have never changed their name or affiliate. What stability.

Some roster moves were made before the game with Ryan Schnell reassigned to Wheeling and Jason Williams called up to Pittsburgh (where he was a scratch tonight vs. Montreal) Here, Philip Samuelsson and Nick Petersen were scratched. Only Samuelsson took warmups.

Brad Thiessen vs. Jeff Zatkoff

First Period: Pens with the patented give up a goal in the first minute, this time Patrick Mullen through a screen to put the Monarchs up 1-0. But then, the very next shift, Ben Street scores to tie things on a goal Zatkoff would have loved to have back. Then, Paul Thompson sets up Colin McDonald with a drop pass off of the board that McDonald rifled home to put the Pens up 2-1. Later, Steve MacIntyre would blindside J.D. Watt. Watt would be fine and do the same thing to Cody Wild the next shift. Referee Graham Skilliter would rule interference on Watt and the Pens would get a power play. In the ensuing power play, Alex Grant would ferret a pass to Colin McDonald from the low circle McDonald would snipe home. Really a postage stamp goal as there was little space. This would chase Zatkoff and Martin Jones would come in and settle things a bit. Manchester would pressure the remainder of the period but Thiessen held strong. Finally Robert Bortuzzo would fire a shot from the point which would rebound to Zach Sill which Sill would put in to put the score at 4-1 Penguins. Despite being outshot this period 15-12 by the Monarchs, the Pens would get four goals and Thiessen looked strong.

Second Period: Teams would trade power plays and both goalies would make good saves on chances from both sides.

Third Period: Thiessen made a diving save on a Linden Vey rebound bid from a point shot by a Manchester defenseman. Not to be out done, Martin Jones would deny Colin McDonald the hat trick bid with a pad save. Bryan Lerg had a goal disallowed by deflecting it i on a high stick. Ryan Craig went town to block a shot and took the full force of one. He seemed fine but honestly I don’t remember if he took a shift after or not. Ben Street was hauled down on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. He did not score.

Three Stars: 3) Brad Thiessen (29 saves on 30 shots) 2) Bryan Lerg (goal, +1) and 1) Colin McDonald (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Great night for the Pens with Hershey losing 4-3 in Binghamton and Syracuse beating Norfolk 6-3 in Central New York.

Standings: Bears with 55 points. Penguins and Admirals tied with 51 points. Crunch have 41 and the Senators have 36 points.

Conference: 1-HER (55) 2-StJ (52) 3-CT (45) 4-WBS (51) 5-NOR (51) 6-WOR (45) 7-POR (45) 8-ADK (44)

The pesky Crunch are now the opponents for tomorrow at home and Sunday in Syracuse. The Crunch are simply on fire right now playing great hockey. The Pens are 0-for in televised games locally. Tomorrow night is a sellout as well. Would be a tremendous statement if the Pens could not only beat the Crunch tomorrow, but beat them handily. Gameday up at 3 p.m. here on the blog Saturday afternoon.

Here is to 1,000 more games with a Calder Cup somewhere in between!

Let’s Go Pens!