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If the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had gone on to lose this game, the optimist would have said, “eh, we only play them six times this year, maybe it’s a matchup problem. styles make fights, you know!” while the pessimist would have said that the Penguins are a great team that struggle with bad ones and that way to give the AHL a nice blueprint on how to beat the Penguins.

Thankfully, none of that will happen as the Penguins beat the Binghamton Senators by a score of 4-3 in overtime with Derrick Pouliot scoring the game winning goal 3:55 into overtime.

Here’s how this one started. The Penguins were facing a kid by the name of Matt O’Connor, a rookie out of Boston University who is looking for his first AHL win of his career. Wilkes-Barre rolled out Matt Murray who has won every goaltending award imaginable in the AHL in the past year or so. So it was a matchup that heavily favored the Penguins.

4:23 into the game and the Penguins are up 2-0 from goals by Carter Rowney on his own rebound and Kael Mouillierat, his 300th pro point in just a span of 1:10. It was all falling apart for O’Connor, who couldn’t stop a nose bleed if he wanted to.

But then the Penguins just stopped attacking. Travis Ewanyk fights Reid McNeill to fire his side up, later Will O’Neill slashes Cole Schneider on a breakaway and the Binghamton Senators league worst power play strikes when Eric O’Dell one times a puck in past Murray and the Senators have life.

In the second period, the Penguins get some momentum going, but it’s halted on a transition play when Scott Wilson is whistled for holding the stick. Binghamton goes back to the power play and, you guessed it, scores again to tie the game at two a piece. It was Cole Schneider redirecting a Pat Mullen shot from the point past Murray and in for a tie game.

Shots in the second period were 20-3 Wilkes-Barre. It was an exact copy of last Friday where the Penguins were controlling the play and all the chances but could not get anything past the goaltender of the Binghamton Senators. All of a sudden O’Connor, who couldn’t stop a beach ball in the games first five minutes, was into a groove and stopping everything.

The Penguins had a 5-on-3 for :26 that I called a turning point of the game in the second period with the score tied. Binghamton and O’Connor kept the Penguins power play from striking the entire game.

I said before the third period started that it was a game that to this point would look like was being decided on special teams but really shouldn’t be with the way the Penguins were getting the chances but O’Connor just denying chance after chance but the Senators power play did strike twice to make it a 2-2 game.

Interesting sidenote, the Penguins have allowed a grand sum total of nine power play goals this season. The Binghamton Senators account for five of them.

In the third, Dominik Uher couldn’t get all of a perfect Tom Kostopoulos setup that would have made it 3-2. Instead it would be the Senators making it 3-2 when Ryan Dzingel stripped a Penguin and scored on Murray to make it 3-2.

The Penguins would get a power play but not register a single shot on goal. While the face-offs looked improved from last weekend, some were lost in key moments.

Dominik Simon finally cracked O’Connor and the game was tied. Carter Rowney was providing a screen in front and the puck went in.

Wilkes-Barre outshot Binghamton 29-6 in the last to periods. It wasn’t for a lack of effort or offensive chances, O’Connor got into a groove that he didn’t get out of.

In overtime, Matt Murray made three huge saves, two in succession, and Derrick Pouliot ended it a few minutes later:

[tweet https://twitter.com/TheAHL/status/669709487373201408]

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Three stars were Cole Schneider with a goal, assist and a -1, Dominik Simon with a goal, assist and a +2 and Derrick Pouliot with the game winning goal and a +2 in that order.

Good teams find ways to win. I guess that’s the moral of the story.

Around the Division: Hershey beats Providence 2-1 in overtime…Lehigh Valley gets smoked in Utica 7-1…Albany beat Bridgeport 3-1. Hartford, Portland and Springfield were off.

Standings: Penguins (.875 percentage points) — Bridgeport (.675) — Hershey — (.639) — Springfield (.531) — Hartford (.474) — Portland (.467) — Lehigh Valley (.447) — Providence (.361)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers shutout the Reading Royals at home 1-0. Franky Palazzese had a 28 save shutout and Zack Torquato had the only goal of the game. The Nailers lead the North Division at the Thanksgiving break with 21 points over second place Toledo with 17. The Walleye have two games in hand, though.

Here are highlights of tonight’s game from the B-Sens…

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Providence is in on Friday. Gameday for that will hit the blog Friday at 3 p.m.

Have a nice Thanksgiving everyone!

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The worst thing about losing last night to the Binghamton Senators last night was not only did it snap a history making 11-game winning streak for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins but that the Penguins played okay against an overly bad Binghamton team that played extremely well against the AHL’s best team.

If you would have asked me on Thursday of this week which team this weekend posed the biggest threat to the Penguins winning streak, it would have been Albany. Here is why:

– The Devils were on an 8 game point streak coming into tonight.
– The Devils were second in the AHL in both penalty killing and power play.
– It’s a much, much improved Devils team that has veteran netminder Yann Danis anchoring the nets with speedy forwards.

So an extremely good, “measuring stick” game for both teams and one that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins get a passing grade after a 5-3 win tonight.

Tristan Jarry vs. Yann Danis.

The only lineup change was on the fourth line with Tom Sestito returning from injury and taking the place of Tyler Biggs.

First Period: The Devils had some early odd man looks but Jarry closed the door. None finer than this save on Corey Tropp with the Devils bearing down on a 2-on-1:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/668190267195981825]

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The Devils were really bottling up the Penguins in the neutral zone, so much so that the Penguins just could not establish anything that resembled an offensive zone chance. But the Pens adjusted and received two straight power plays that they could not convert on. The looks were there but nothing got past Danis.

Second Period: The Penguins used their most productive period to take a 3-1 lead. Josh Archibald started a two one one, dished to J-S Dea who finished this play to put the Penguins on the board first:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/668201709446037504]

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Off the ensuing face-off, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond fought Tom Sestito in a spirited bout between the two heavyweights.

Penguins would kill the first Albany power play but not the second as Mike Sislo scored a power play goal for Albany with Blake Pietila providing the screen in front. The face-off dot has been none too kind to the Penguins these past few days.

Scott Wilson scored on a power play for Wilkes-Barre as this puck kicked right to him and he knew exactly what to do:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/668206026819260416]

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Penguins tacked on their third goal of the period when Carter Rowney singled to right field…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/668207149693169664]

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Nice hand / eye coordination by Rowney there.

Wilkes-Barre has outscored their opponents 32-7 in the second period.

Third Period: The Penguins woes on the face-off circle continued as Reid Boucher scored off of one to bring the Devils to within one. Then the Devils would get back on even footing when Tim Erixon turned a puck over to Boucher who was off to the races with ex-Penguin Paul Thompson. Jarry made the stop on the Boucher offering but could not stop the Thompson rebound and the Penguins were reeling a bit.

Penguins couldn’t get anything by Danis. They tried and tried but he continued to close the door. It was going to take a freaky gaol to beat him. It happened.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/668220456810504192]

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Through the blur there, that is Conor Sheary with the shot. The Devils showed a different angle that showed Joe Faust in front trying to knock down the puck with his glove. Instead, it caromed off of it and changed the angle on Danis and went in the net.

Time started to become the enemy of the Devils, with Danis pulled Tom Kostopoulos dished to Oskar Sundqvist who scored on the empty net to seal it for the Penguins.

I guess the moral of the last two days is that the Penguins play really well against great teams and against bad ones like Binghamton, they struggle. Once they get over that hump, and I have every reason to believe that they will, they may be unstoppable and the win streak set just last week may be in jeopardy again.

Hey, who do the Penguins play next? That’s right! Binghamton! In Binghamton on Thanksgiving Eve! We won’t have to wait long to see if the Penguins can get over that hump.

Three Stars: 3) Reid Boucher (goal, assist. -1) 2) Conor Sheary (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Scott Wilson (goal, assist, +1)

Derrick Pouliot chipped in two assists. Tristan Jarry improves to 5-0. It will be interesting to see who jumps out of that tunnel Wednesday evening in Binghamton.

Here’s video highlights courtesy of the Devils:

[youtube https://youtu.be/gQqLhjcpU8c]

Around the Division: Hershey wins 4-2 to sweep Portland this weekend….Bridgeport beats Utica 4-2. If the AHL didn’t rank teams by percentage this year, the Sound Tigers would be leading the Atlantic Division and not the Penguins…Hartford beats Lehigh Valley 3-1. The Wolf Pack have all of a sudden won two in a row….Providence beats Springfield 4-1. The win snaps a seven game losing streak for the P-Bruins.

Standings: Penguins (.867 points percentage) — Bridgeport (.750) — Hershey (.618) — Hartford (.500) — Springfield (.500) — Portland (.467) — Lehigh Valley (.441) — Providence (.375)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers tried to sweep the Florida Everblades but were unsuccessful tonight, losing 5-2. Anton Zlobin left the first period win an apparent injury. The Nailers take two of three wins back with them back to West Virginia when they host the Reading Royals Wednesday night.

My Week 7 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!