1) Tom Kostopoulos scored his 500th professional point tonight.
2) The Pens rode “D”efense to another victory, this time a 5-3 win over the Hershey Bears.
3) The Bears are back to .500.
D is the Roman numeral for the number 500.
Get it?
Anyway, a thriller tonight in Wilkes-Barre. After going up 3-0 in the first period on three power play goals (yes, I wrote “three” then “power plays” and mean in all one period) the Penguins slowed a bit in the second then played a pretty even third, got some puck luck and won the game and sit in sole possession of first place in the East Division.
Eric Hartzell vs. David Leggio. Michal Neuvirth, sent to Hershey for conditioning yesterday, did not make the trip.
Penguins signed Barry Goers from Wheeling to a PTO before the game. He’s a defenseman. With the recall of Brian Dumoulin to Pittsburgh and now apparently Peter Merth injured again, Goers got the call. Other scratches were CJ Severyn, healthy.
First Period: Pens get a quick power play and cash even quicker, a Scott Harrington shot from the point that Toim Kostopoulos deflects for a 1-0 Pens lead. Then the Pens go on a power play, don’t score, then a fight between Harrison Ruopp and Dane Byers after Byers boarded Harry Zolnierczyk. Paul Thompson at the net front receives a nice pass from Anton Zlobin cutting to the net to Thompson for the virtual empty netter. Then, Penguins headed right to the power play again and Brian Gibbons would finish off a nice back door pass to make it 3-0.
I mixed in something shortly thereafter that mentioned the Penguins not letting off because they were in a trap at this stage of the game. Turns out, I was almost right….
Second Period: Penguins get outshot 11-3 in the period and 2-0 on the score sheet. Much back and forth to open the period, then finally the Bears got on a bit of a run: Ryan Stoa from the slot, a laser that goes in. 3-1. :55 later, Nic Deschamps deflects a lazy Peter Leblanc shot from the blue line and in. 3-2. If the Bears would have come all the way back to tie and then win the game, the tweet above would have lead and the headline would have been, “Nafstradamus – Pens LOSE….”
Thankfully, we didn’t have to go there.
Third Period: Pens would kill an early penalty. Then Tom Kostopoulos benefits from a Derek Whitmore turnover to score his 500th professional point.
Then the Pens get a power play. Time to pile on, right? No, you’re wrong!
Nic Deschamps scores on a breakaway. Hartzell stopped the initial shot, lost the rebound, Deschamps found it and he stuffed it past and cut the deficit to one again.
Pens kill a bonehead Bobby Farnham goalie interference call then Nick Drazenovic scores in a pile to extend the lead to 5-3 for the Penguins. It was too much, too late for the Bears.
Three Stars: 3) Scott Harrington (two assists, -1) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, assist, -3) 1) Tom Kostopoulos (two goals, -1)
I should note that Gibbons is three points back (27) of the active leaders (30) for the AHL scoring lead. Depending on call-ups, production and such, I may start mentioning it on the blog from time to time.
SendToNews Highlights: Better than a link to the SendToNews package, the YouTube highlights!
There’s snow in the forecast tomorrow. 4-6 inches. Hershey is already saying that they will make a determination on their game (home, vs. Binghamton) by mid-afternoon. Utica, in case you were wondering, is about an hour north of Binghamton. Basically, if you get the opposing team in, with the officials (Ryan Fraser scheduled to work the game, he’s a Central PA resident if I remember right, linesmen are local guys) it’s game on. If the roads are treacherous, the team may, for the safety of the fans, cancel the game. Anyway, check the Pens website or stick with me on Twitter if you are planning on going tomorrow but use your judgement. Push come to shove, watch it on TV. It’ll be on MyNetwork TV.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 