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The definitions may not match up entirely to the headline, but the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are doing more with less…

Top scorers Jayson Megna and Andrew Ebbett on recall to Pittsburgh? Not a problem.

Top defenseman Taylor Chorney out with an injury? Next man up, we got this.

A third period power play goal by Jean-Sebastien Dea was enough for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins to defeat the St. John’s IceCaps by a score of 1-0 tonight. Matt Murray, making his first start in nearly three weeks, had a 22 save shutout and was at times, spectacular.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Conor Sheary – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – JS Dea – Josh Archibald
Tom Kostopoulos – Carter Rowney – Adam Payerl
Pierre Leblond – Dom Uher – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Philip Samuelsson
Scott Harrington – Barry Goers
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot

Matt Murray – Jeff Zatkoff

Nick D’Agostino took warmups for the Pens. With Taylor Chorney injured, Barry Goers slotted in for him and Pierre Leblond was back from his one game suspension and was essentially in for Andrew Ebbett.

First Period: Pens bottled up the IceCaps, not allowing a St. John’s shot until 7:04 left in the first. That was the highlight of the period.

Second Period: Bobby Farnham was caught for diving while he was interfered with. Jonathan said this after the second…

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It was that kind of game. Think Portland from a few weeks ago but slightly more exciting.

Third Period: J-S Dea fired a shot from the blue line that appeared to have been tipped by Tom Kostopoulos. This is what John Hynes said to Tom after the game…

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Looked to me that Dea found space and just let her rip. Whatever it takes.

Matt Murray came up big late on a St. John’s power play, with a save through traffic. St. John’s pulled Connor Hellebuyck with just over a minute but never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Connor Hellebuyck (24 saves on 25 shots) 2) J-S Dea (game winning power play goal) 1) Matt Murray (22 save shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey lost to Syracuse 4-1. The offensive woes for the Bears continue. If the St. John’s IceCaps beat the Bears tomorrow in regulation, it takes the games in hand situation out of the equation as the Bears will just have one game in hand on the Pens trailing by four points….Lehigh Valley beat Norfolk 4-3 and Binghamton beat Rochester 4-3 also.

Standings: Penguins 26 — Hershey 22 — Binghamton 21 — Lehigh Valley 20 — Norfolk 16

Conference: 1) SPR (31) 2) MCH (27) 3) WBS (26) 4) SYR (25) 5) ALB (25) 6) HFD (24) 7) BRI (23) 8) STJ (23)

Wheeling Update: Eric Hartzell was impressive tonight against a high powered Florida Everblades team that had only lost two games in regulation coming into the night. The Nailers win 3-2 and Hartzell was named third star of the game.

SendToNews Highlights: Here’s the post game infographic and the Penguins YouTube package for your enjoyment:

[youtube http://youtu.be/8VHlS_p2pak?list=PLjK7Vm3sJ6fqh994BYWb0PnoATJw1z0lf]

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My Week 8 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog at 4 p.m. Monday. Enjoy what’s left of the Thanksgiving weekend!

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The Hershey Bears motto for the season is, “Defend the Den.”

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins get the message.

The Penguins lost 2-1 in a shootout, making it eight straight losses at Giant Center for the Penguins.

The game featured a goaltending clinic and many players looking up into the rafters of the Giant Center, with a lot of posts hit and near misses. Starting goaltenders Philipp Grubauer and Jeff Zatkoff were sharp this night.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Conor Sheary – Carter Rowney – Josh Archibald
Tom Kostopoulos – JS Dea – Adam Payerl
Tom Kuhnhackl – Dominik Uher – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Philip Samuelsson
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Barry Goers took warmups but was the scratch. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond served his one game suspension for his unpenalized antics last Friday in Albany.

You knew that Jayson Megna was called up to Pittsburgh. News out of Pittsburgh today was that Brittle Beau Bennett is out (again) with a lower body injury. He can’t stay healthy. It’s not a matter of if he gets healthy, it’s when. It’s unfortunate. Obviously, there wasn’t a call up today, but I’d expect one fairly soon. Andrew Ebbett is a name if you just want to call up a guy to scratch him. J-S Dea or Bryan Rust are two names that if Pittsburgh wants to call them up to see if they can play, I wouldn’t be surprised go up.

Third Period: If you are a regular reader to this blog and these game recaps, you know that I recap the First, Second and Third Periods. The only problem is that nothing of memory happened in the first and second periods except for…

— This Jeff Zatkoff save on a Caleb Herbert breakaway.
— This hit by Connor Carrick on Taylor Chorney which would knock Chorney out of the game.
— This fight between Josh Archibald and Nathan Walker, a TKO for Archibald.

In the third period of a tightly contested game, Philip Samuelsson put a puck over the glass which resulted in the automatic delay of game call. On the ensuing power play for Hershey, Stan Galiev one timed a puck home for the Bears that would put them in front 1-0 and end a 152:15 goalless drought for them after the offense for the Chocolate and White sputtered this past weekend.

Brian Dumoulin, with Jeff Zatkoff pulled in the last minute of regulation, fired this goal home to tie the game at one a piece.

Overtime: Would be firsts for both teams. The first overtime for the Bears on Giant Center ice and the first time the Penguins played under the 3-on-3 format, because Kris Newbury and Bobby Farnham were in the penalty boxes for infractions. Connor Carrick hit a crossbar. That was it. It was onto the…

Shootout: Stan Galiev and Scott Wilson both missed in Round 1. Dustin Gazley and J-S Dea connected in Round 2. Connor Carrick and Bryan Rust missed in Round 3. Chris Brown beat Zatkoff in Round 4 and Andrew Ebbett missed his chance and the Bears skated away with the extra point.

Three Stars: 3) Brian Dumoulin (goal, +1) 2) Philipp Grubauer (24 saves on 25 shots) and 1) Stan Galiev (goal, even)

Around the Division: The St. John’s IceCaps beat the Binghamton Senators in a shootout also, the score was 4-3….Norfolk got reinforcements back from Anaheim and beat Charlotte 4-1….Lehigh Valley lost to Springfield 3-2.

Standings: Penguins 24 — Hershey 22 — Lehigh Valley 18 — Binghamton 19 — Norfolk 14

Conference: 1) SPR (27) 2) MCH (25) 3) WBS (24) 4) SYR (23) 5) BRI (22) 6) HER (22) 7) HFD (22) 8) ALB (21)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the Greenville Road Warriors at home 4-2. Zack Torquato earned first star honors with a goal and two assists.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Penguins are off until Saturday. For as many games in hand that the Bears have on the Penguins (two) they do not play Friday night. So have a nice Thanksgiving and check back here for the next blog update for Saturday’s setup against St. John’s.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Monarchs beat the Penguins by a score of 3-2 tonight in a tightly contested, 50 minute affair.

Wait, what? Aren’t hockey games 60 minutes? Well, yes, dear reader, they are in fact 60 minutes. The Penguins just forgot to put it in drive the first 10 minutes of the game and fell behind 2-0. They scrapped and clawed their way back to a tie score in the second period, but :31 later the Monarchs scored the go ahead goal to lead for good. Wilkes-Barre got close, but not close enough to a point to where there were any more goals scored.

Full credit goes to the Manchester Monarchs for hanging in and either protecting the lead or not allowing the Penguins to score the tying goal. They lead the Eastern Conference for a reason and anyone who attended the game tonight saw why.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. J-F Berube

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – JS Dea – Tom Kostopoulos
Conor Sheary – Carter Rowney – Josh Archibald
Pierre Leblond – Dominik Uher – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Philip Samuelsson
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot

Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Dea was back in the lineup for Jayson Megna, who was recalled to Pittsburgh earlier today.

First Period: Manchester used speed and muscle to push the Penguins around. They did so on a power play for a 1-0 lead and then made it 2-0 on a two on one. A key penalty kill halfway through was the first positive thing that happened for the Penguins in the period. I felt at the time that if Manchester did score, things would spiral out of hand.

J-S Dea scored on a five on three for the Pens and Manchester nearly scored shorthanded on the left over penalty kill.

Second Period: Conor Sheary with a great individual effort dancing around Manchester defenders made it a tie game at two on the power play. But :31 later, Jordan Weal scored on a rebound that Zatkoff left to make it 3-2 Manchester. You didn’t know it at the time, but it would end up as a deflating goal which stood as the game winner.

Jeff Zatkoff had two saves that will end up on his highlight reel. Manchester just killed a penalty. As the player was exiting the box, a two on one developed. Zatkoff got over and made a tremendous toe save that kept the game a one goal deficit for the Penguins.

Third Period: Zatkoff made his second big save of the game on another cross ice pass that he got a pad on, although the replay showed that Nick Shore of Manchester kind of shot it right into his pad.

Time just ran out on the Penguins in the period. Manchester did a good job of bending but not breaking. The shots in the period were an even 10-10. The Penguins with a late power play and an extra attacker with Zatkoff pulled, never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) JS Dea (goal) 2) Conor Sheary (goal, -1) and 1) Jordan Weal (goal)

Around the Division: Binghamton throttles Albany 7-0…Hershey nips Worcester 1-0 in another stellar performance by G Philipp Grubauer…St. John’s beats Lehigh Valley in overtime 2-1 and Portland destroys Norfolk 7-1.

Standings: Penguins 23 — Hershey 20 — Lehigh Valley 18 — Binghamton 16 — Norfolk 12

Conference: 1) MCH (25) 2) SYR (23) 3) WBS (23) 4) SPR (23) 5) BRI (22) 6) HER (20) 7) HFD (20) 8) PRO (19)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost 6-3 to the Elmira Jackals in New York. Zack Torquato and Nick D’Agostino had goals for the Nailers in the loss.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens get some time off now and play again in Hershey on Wednesday. But the blog will be active. Monday I will have the Week 7 AHL Power Rankings. Tuesday I will have the First Quarter Grades and Wednesday is the game against Hershey. So check back then for all of this.

Let’s Go Pens!