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When this headline hits the social media feeds I have, I wonder if it will get flagged for spam.

Nothing processed about this one though, a 6-2 win in Binghamton tonight capping off the Penguins franchise best month of hockey improving to 12-2 in the month of January. Tom Kostopoulos scores his 500th AHL point in the third period making him the 91st player in the American Hockey League to achieve this milestone.

The Pens are rolling now with their best forward (Jake Guentzel) and defenseman (Chad Ruhewedel) up in Pittsburgh. They are winning with guys like Teddy Blueger and David Warsofsky. It was built in the offseason to be a deep team. I was looking back at some old stuff from a few years ago, when injuries hit Pittsburgh necessitating call ups from Wilkes-Barre, Pens were playing and winning with guys like Ty Loney and John McCarron. They made sure that if injuries hit the NHL team again, that the farm would be stacked with talent that could carry the flag.

Tristan Jarry vs. Chris Driedger.

Lines were the same as they were the night before in Utica…

Garrett Wilson – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Ryan Haggerty – Sahir Gill – Danny Kristo

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Same lineup as before for the Penguins was noted, Steve Oleksy isn’t believed to be actually with the team as Pittsburgh is apparently giving him a few days off. This per Seth’s speculation pregame.

First Period: Penguins opened and were carrying the momentum and it felt like the dam was going to break at any minute.

In the span of eight minutes, the Penguins scored four times and allowed one. The first goal was coming out of a break when Ryan Haggerty raced out of the zone and fired a puck past Driedger and gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead. It was Haggerty’s fourth goal in five games.

Dominik Simon scored to make it 2-0 when Teddy Blueger literally kicked a puck over to him in a pile in front of the B-Sens net and Simon scored on the wide open cage to double the lead. David Warsofsky collected an assist in this goal giving the all-star defenseman his tenth multipoint game trailing none other than Jake Guentzel.

Binghamton looked to have made it a game when Jason Akeson dangled through the defense, and shot it where Nick Paul was there to put the rebound in.

That goal seemed to enrage the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

J-S Dea scored 1:05 later when Teddy Blueger hit him with a perfect cross ice pass that Dea put in on the back door that re-established the Penguins two goal lead.

:20 later, Blueger scored his own goal that made it 4-1 Penguins.

So to recap, just in the first period alone, Teddy Blueger and Dominik Simon had there points. Blueger’s first three point game. First four goal period for the Penguins since 11-5 against Bridgeport.

Second Period: Matt O’Connor relieved Chris Driedger in goal. It worked in the short term in lighting a fire under the B-Sens as Chad Nehring tipped a Alex Krushelnyski shot from the blue line that made it 4-2.

But then a great individual effort by Derrick Pouliot, snaking through pretty much everyone on the ice in a Binghamton sweater, to feed a pass over to Danny Kristo to put he Penguins back ahead by three goals. Danny Kristo has four goals for the Penguins ice the trade, three of them have come against the Binghamton Senators.

Ben Harpur and Tom Sestito fought after Harpur hit Danny Kristo into the boards in an earlier sequence. Sestito was given an instigator penalty giving the Senators a power play that they would not score on.

Third Period: Both teams had a chance on the opera play but it was better kills by the side down a man. Then Tom Kostopoulos scored for his 500th point in the AHL on a nice backdoor feed tat made it 6-2 Penguins. Penguins made sure that the Senators didn’t get any closer.

Three Stars: 3) Danny Kristo (goal, assist, +2) 2) Teddy Blueger (goal, two assists, +3) and 1) Dominik Simon (goal, two assists, +3)

Around the Division: Bridgeport hits the break winners of seven straight taking down the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at home tonight 3-2….Hartford cools off Providence 4-3 and Hershey beats Springfield 4-2.

Standings: Penguins (.767 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.698) — Providence (.644) — Bridgeport (.619) — Hershey (.591) — Springfield (.465) — Hartford (.411)

Wheeling Update: Sean Maguire with a 25 save shutout as the Wheeling Nailers defeat the Brampton Beast at home by a score of 4-0.

Video highlights…

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The Week 16 AHL Power Rankings will get dome sometime Sunday afternoon by me and I will have them Monday at noon in advance of the All-Star Classic Monday at 7. The Wheeling Wrap will hit the blog Tuesday at noon. So check for all that stuff later this week. I may drop a blog on anything newsworthy coming out of the AHL All-Star Classic in Allentown this weekend also.

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Let me explain this lede here in the opening paragraph: The Penguins scored all three of their goals tonight from long distance and used most of their shots tonight from around the face-off dot back at Comets starting goaltender Richard Bachman. You will see that in the GIFs that the Penguins were nice enough to post on Twitter.

A 3-2 Penguins win tonight against an all of a sudden good Utica side that had come into tonight’s game on a long point streak and 8-1-1-0 in their last ten games.

Wilkes-Barre improves to 11-2 in the month of January and 32-9-3-0 overall.

Casey DeSmith opposed the aforementioned Richard Bachman.

Lines were…

Garrett Wilson – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Ryan Haggerty – Sahir Gill – Danny Kristo

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Carter Rowney was re-assigned to the Penguins minutes before the teams took warmups in Utica. Also, as Seth reported yesterday, Tim Erixon was back in the lineup. Steve Oleksy, having cleared waivers Thursday, was listed as a healthy scratch.

First Period: Utica stayed step for step with the Penguins for the most part in the period but it was Wilkes-Barre that found the back of the net twice. Josh Archibald on this slapshot…

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…and then Tim Erixon on this slapper from the blueline that beat Bachman.

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The Penguins hemmed Utica in their zone for over a minute forcing the gassed Comets to ice the puck. Off the face off, Tom Sestito, the local native of nearby Rome, NY, makes a behind the back pass to Erixon who buried it from long range.

Second assist of the night for Kevin Porter who is heating up.

Second Period: About a minute in, Casey DeSmith made this save that kept it a 2-0 Penguins lead…

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That was Alex Grenier the unlucky man there unable to finish a Utica 2-on-1.

That was it from the highlight end of the period. Utica heavily dominated the period but trailed on the scoreboard. It was the Penguins defense and some nice saves by Casey DeSmith that preserved the Penguins 2-0 lead.

Game really opened up in the last minute and a half with Tim Erixon hitting a post followed up by Danny Kristo.

Third Period: :07 into a Utica power play with Stuart Percy in the box for a delay of game, Alex Grenier exacts his revenge on that save DeSmith made on him in the second period with a blast from the point that put the Comets on the board via a power play goal.

Utica came into tonight 2 for their last 38 on the power play.

Derrick Pouliot scored to re-establish the two goal lead as a power play expired for Wilkes-Barre…

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Utica had been building a crescendo towards a goal in the games final minutes but Casey DeSmith made a nice glove save that stopped any momentum that the Comets were building.

Bachman was pulled for an extra attacker and Evan McEneny scored to bring the Comets to within one.

Wilkes-Barre would ice the puck seven times an ran the clock out.

Three Stars: 3) Cameron Gaunce (two assists, +2) 2) Alexandre Grenier (goal, assist, -1) and 1) Derrick Pouliot (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley clips Binghamton on the Southern Tier by a 2-1 score to stay within arms distance of the Penguins for the top spot in the Atlantic….Providence takes down Hershey 3-2 in a shootout….Bridgeport wins its sixth straight, beating Hartford in a shootout 3-2, and is now even with points and regulation or overtime wins with Hershey and has two games in hand on the Bears for the fourth spot in the Atlantic….Syracuse deflects as late Springfield charge and hangs on to beat the Thunderbirds 4-3.

Standings: Penguins (.761 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.714) — Providence (.659) — Bridgeport (.610) — Hershey (.581) — Springfield (.476) — Hartford (.398)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the Quad City Mallards tonight by a score of 5-2. Cody Wydo scored a pair of goals and Sean Maguire picked up the win in net for Wheeling.

Video highlights….

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The Pens will bus down I-81 to Binghamton for Saturday’s meeting with the Senators on the Southern Tier Saturday at 7. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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One of the more exciting games I have witnessed from my seat at the Mohegan Sun Arena tonight. Two top quality teams just left it all out there and slugged away at one another.

Penguins win in overtime 3-2 on a David Warsofsky game winning goal with 1.2 seconds left. Vindication for Warsofsky who was left off of the initial all star roster when they were announced a few weeks ago but named as a replacement earlier this week.

Lazy legging lines again because I hate work night home games.

Tristan Jarry opposed Kristers Gudlevskis and was backed up by Casey DeSmith.

If you notice a certain name missing, it’s Carter Rowney’s. With news out of Pittsburgh today that Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist are both out for Thursday’s game against Boston, Malkin out till after all-stars and Hornqvist day to day after taking a puck off the knee Tuesday against St. Louis (a game he finished) Rowney was held out as a precaution in case he needs to be recalled Thursday. Of note, Pittsburgh only re-assigned Cameron Gaunce Tuesday and put Steve Oleksy on waivers Wednesday.

Other news, as mentioned in the lede, David Warsofsky is a snub no more. On Tuesday the AHL announced that he will replace Jake Guentzel at AHL All-Stars this weekend in Allentown.

First Period: Syracuse played like the better team and made the most of their shot opportunities, out shooting the Pens 17-8 and taking a 1-0 lead when Joel Vermin connected on a far dot shot after the Crunch cycled in the offensive zone coming out of a promo timeout. Neither team connected on the power play in the period.

Here’s the Vermin goal:

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Second Period: Pens scored twice in span of 2:15 when they came out of the locker room and started skating circles around the Crunch. First, Teddy Blueger got an outlet pass, entered the zone and waited for reinforcements. Tom Kostopoulos arrived and Blueger shot it at Gudlevskis and Kostopoulos was there to sweep the rebound in to tie it at one.

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Later, Crunch killer Kevin Porter collected a long pass from David Warsofsky and found himself behind the defense and scored to give the Pens a 2-1 lead.

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But it felt like a false lead with the way the last period went for the Penguins and the way that the Crunch dominated the Penguins while shorthanded. Wilkes-Barre iced the puck twice on two separate power plays.

Tristan Jarry is unable to control a rebound and the Crunch tie it at two when Adam Comrie whacked in the loose puck.

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Shots were 28-16 Syracuse heading into the…

Third Period: Back and forth period which felt like a playoff game with the intense play. Pens found themselves on the wrong end of a two man disadvantage for :47 but the Penguins killed it. Teams raced up and down the ice with neither team finding the back of the net forcing…

Overtime: Back and forth they went three on three. Pens get away with what looked like, at least to me, a tripping penalty. David Warsofsky races in with time dwindling down and wins it:

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Three Stars: 3) Tristan Jarry (39 saves on 41 shots) 2) Kevin Porter (goal, +1) 1) David Warsofsky (overtime game winning goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey is back to their winning ways in a game they had to have against last place Hartford and won 5-4…Springfield beats Utica 2-1 in overtime…Bridgeport beats Providence 1-0 in overtime also and Lehigh Valley pounded Binghamton 7-2.

Standings: Penguins (.756 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.707) — Providence (.651) — Bridgeport (.600) — Hershey (.583) — Springfield (.488) — Hartford (.395)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers hosted the Toledo Walleye tonight and beat the Walleye 7-6 in overtime. First overtime loss for the Walleye this season. Christian Hilbrich had two goals. Gage Quinney had a goal and three assists.

Video highlights….

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Pens are on the road in Utica Friday. Comets came into tonight winners of 6 in a row and are a vastly different team than they were a month ago, when they were just a point machine for opponents. But for breaking Thursday news, I’ll have the Gameday setup for the tilt with the Comets up on the blog Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!