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Continuing my theme this week of what exactly makes a great team, I’ll offer another courtesy of play-by-play man Mike O’Brien…

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Penguins win 3-1 in Syracuse, scoring three goals in the third period and finally breaking open a game that was gummed up by two division leaders not allowing the others an inch of space to make play.

It should be a heck of a rematch Monday afternoon. The Pens are staying in Syracuse tonight and Sunday and will play there again Monday afternoon.

It was a battle of the AHL’s best road team in Wilkes-Barre (.750) vs. the AHL’s best home team in the Syracuse Crunch who have a .806 points percentage at home.

Casey DeSmith opposed Kristers Gudlevskis.

Lines were…

Sahir Gill – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Dominik Simon
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Stuart Percy – Chad Ruhwedel
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Sahir Gill was back in the lineup for Danny Kristo. Head Coach Clark Donatelli put him on the top line. Ryan Haggerty took warmups but was scratched. On defense, Barry Goers yielded to Chad Ruhwedel.

First Period: Jake Guentzel doesn’t miss a lot when he shoots the puck, but when Dominik Simon and Carter Rowney set up Guentzel with some nice passing plays that drew Kristers Gudlevskis out of position leaving Guentzel with an open net, the Penguins rookie hit the post and the puck dribbled wide.

That near miss gave Gudlevskis some confidence as he went and stopped Tom Kostopoulos not once, not twice, but three times in one sequence.

Tom Sestito and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond fought in a old school heavyweight fight you don’t see that often anymore. Leblond got the takedown on Sestito after Tom switched hands.

Teams traded penalties. Josh Archibald was poked checked away by Gudlevskis after he got a step on a man.

Later, Jake Dotchin pounced on a puck left in the slot and fired it home past DeSmith that gave the Crunch a 1-0 lead.

First Period Highlights: I, for one, love that a team offers up something like this because it has in visual form what I just described above…

Second Period: It was a chippy, choppy period for both division leaders. Daniel Walcott lowered the boom on a legal hit on Ethan Prow that put Prow in the locker room for a while (Prow did return) which prompted a Sahir Gill cross checking penalty.

I don’t like the fact that they are phasing out fighting because of things like this. Guy takes a run at your guy, but because you don’t know how to fight because no one taught you to, you can’t do anything other than just take runs at the guy that hit your guy or runs at anyone else on the ice not wearing your jersey. That’s where injuries happen. Sahir Gill was so mad that it forced him to cross check someone. What if he cross checks him down hard onto the ice and that causes an injury that causes an injury? It’s just silly that they are totally trying to take fighting out of the game entirely because it’s going to breed idiotic retaliation penalties like this one.

And get a blogger off topic by dedicating a long paragraph editorializing a position on a game in general versus recapping a hockey game.

For the rest of the period, it seemed like that whenever one team went on the power play, they would take a penalty and the majority of the period was played four on four.

Second Period Highlights: 

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Third Period: Carter Rowney scored his second goal in as many night with a slow developing play with Dominik Simon as a trailer. Rowney banks a shot off Gudlevskis and into the net that tied the game…

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Pens would edge ahead as a puck deflects off of Cory Conacher and into his own net. With Dominik Simon the last Penguin touching the puck, he gets credit…

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That goal snapped an 18 game scoring drought for Simon.

Casey DeSmith remained sharp throughout the game that kept it a one goal game and kept Syracuse from responding after going down one in the third period in stunning fashion.

Through some more, ‘why I oughtta’s’ from players on the ice that don’t know how to fight, Jake Guentzel hits an empty net on a power play for his side that makes it 3-1 Wilkes-Barre. Tom Kostopoulos assisted here and that gave him 300 assists in his AHL career.

Three Stars: 3) Casey DeSmith (22 saves on 22 shots) 2) Jake Dotchin (goal, -1) 1) Dominik Simon (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey with the big assist tonight for the Penguins in beating the Lehigh Valley Phantoms by a score of 6-4…St. John’s beats Hartford on the Rock 4-2…Utica beats Bridgeport 3-1…Providence shuts out Springfield 1-0.

Standings: Penguins (.776 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.694) — Providence (.671) — Hershey (.635) — Bridgeport (.543) — Springfield (.514) — Hartford (.410)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were beaten on home ice by the Kalamazoo Wings by a score of 5-1. Brett Stern scored for Wheeling, Doug Carr took the loss for the Nailers in goal.

Video highlights in a tweet:

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Second Period Grades are due, and with the Week 14 AHL Power Rankings, coupled with the Penguins game Monday at 1 and the Wheeling Wrap Tuesday I may just drop the Second Quarter Grades as soon as I finish them Sunday afternoon, run the Week 14 AHL Power Rankings later on in the day, mention both on the social media sides and link in the Monday postgame story.

Lots of stuff for me to write and you guys to read.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Going back to the narrative I led with after the Penguins beat the Toronto Marlies Wednesday night about great teams winning games, add one more category which I forgot.

Great teams win games they have no business winning.

The Rochester Americans should have won this game tonight going away. They outshot the Penguins 23-13 after two period, had seven power plays and scored first. They should have won the game tonight.

But Carter Rowney and Tom Kostopoulos had other ideas.

Rowney, making his first appearance returning from injury, scores a goal and assists on another as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins get a key player back into the mix and beat the Americans 3-2 in Western New York Friday night.

That’s the sixth win in a row for the Penguins, who remain unbeaten in 2017.

Tristan Jarry opposed John Muse.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Danny Kristo
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
Stuart Percy – Barry Goers

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Carter Rowney returned from injury, his first action since November 25. Rowney missed 18 games. The Penguins went 14-3-1-0 without Rowney’s services. Chad Ruhwedel was still recovering from illness and was a healthy scratch. Other healthy scratches included Patrick McGrath, Sahir Gill, Lukas Bengtsson and Ryan Haggerty.

First Period: Rochester owned the period and jumped all over the Penguins to start, earning themselves a 1-0 lead quickly, but two power play goals put the Penguins ahead 2-1 at the end of the first.

Seconds into their first power play, Carter Rowney made up for lost time with this goal…

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Mind the Penguins tweet there, that was indeed Carter Rowney’s goal.

Five seconds into another power play, Tim Erixon unleashes a shot from the blue line that Tom Kostopoulos gets a stick on to put the Penguins ahead 2-1…

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Rochester was putting a lot of pucks on Jarry from all angles, firing him into awkward, nonchalant type saves. Rochester outshot the Penguins 14-6 in this first period.

Second Period: Penguins were outshot 23-13 at the end of the period, no scoring here and it was the Wilkes-Barre penalty kill that was better than the Rochester power play as it seemed like this period was largely dominated by special teams.The Amerks had three consecutive chances on the man advantage in the second period but the Penguins penalty kill really limited Rochester’s chances. Teddy Blueger will be getting some money or some free meals from Garrett Wilson at some point soon as Blueger was really good at killing penalties in this game. Wilson, to this point, took three penalties which were all hooking penalties.

Third Period: Penguins take their fourth straight penalty and Rochester finally makes them pay when ex-Penguin Cal O’Reilly picks a corner and ties the game for the Amerks.

Garrett Wilson took his fourth penalty of the game, but Josh Archibald drew his second penalty of the game and Stuart Percy scored at even strength off of this change up of a shot that put the Penguins ahead for good….

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It looked like it went off of Tyson Strachan’s skate and in past Muse.

Rochester, with Muse pulled for the extra attacker, was later never able to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Daniel Muzito-Bagenda (goal, +1) 2) Carter Rowney (goal, assist, even) 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, assist, -1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley strikes four times on twelve power plays and crush the Hershey Bears 6-2 in Allentown. Five straight losses for the Bears….Binghamton beats Bridgeport at home 3-2 in overtime…Hartford clips St. John’s in Newfoundland in overtime 2-1 also and so does Springfield to Albany in the Capital District 3-2. Utica beat Providence 2-1 in regulation in Rhode Island.

Standings: Penguins (.770 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.714) — Providence (.662) — Hershey (.625) — Bridgeport (.559) — Springfield (.529) — Hartford (.421)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lose 4-3 in Toledo to the Walleye. Sean Maguire took the loss, Doug Carr backed up. Christian Hilbrich, Andrew Ammon and Brett Stern scored for Wheeling.

Video highlights…

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Pens will bus east on Interstate 90 to Syracuse for a 7 o’clock start Saturday against the Crunch. Gameday setup for that will be on the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The thing about great teams is that they always, no matter the circumstances, find ways to win.

They can blow out an opponent, like the Penguins did last Friday at home against the Hershey Bears.

They can go up early, lose the lead in the middle, rally and win like they did Saturday at home against Binghamton.

They can win firefights, with multiple lead changes in the third period at the tail end of a three in three and win in overtime like they did Sunday in Hershey.

They can win a goaltenders duel, like they did tonight in Toronto by a score of 2-1.

A Marlies skater playing in his fourth AHL game this season scores on a lucky shot late in the second period to open the scoring of a game largely dominated by the goaltenders. Any average AHL team starts to pack it in and take risks. Not the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Jake Guentzel is the first player in the AHL to 20 goals when he pounces on a turnover and scores to tie the game at one a piece.

Later, and with only minutes left, Tom Sestito, of all people, scores again to put the Penguins ahead for good and they hold on and win.

Five wins in a row for Wilkes-Barre, unbeaten in 2017. It seems that whatever you throw at this team, fastball, curveball, changeup, screwball, slurve, eephus, knuckleball, spitter, whatever, they are parking it 20 rows deep in center field.

Tristan Jarry opposed Garret Sparks.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea – Danny Kristo
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Ryan Haggerty

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
Stuart Percy – Barry Goers

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Tristan Jarry was reassigned from Pittsburgh today and David Warsofsky was recalled to Pittsburgh because the flu is going through the room up top. Jarrett Burton was sent to Wheeling earlier this week.

First Period: It was a very quick, crisp period by both teams. No penalties. Shots were 11-9 Penguins and it was Wilkes-Barre that dominated stretches of play. Garrett Sparks denied Dominik Simon twice in one shift then Tristan Jarry denied a Colin Greening shot on a three on two a few minutes later. The one thing I picked up the most in this overly uneventful period was Nick Hart on color describing the Penguins / Marlies shot chart. He described the Penguins shot chart looking like a bees nest and the Marlies shot chart looking like an umbrella.

Second Period:  First half of the game was a goaltending duel between Tristan Jarry and Garrett Sparks. Sparks denied Ethan Prow in the slot, a Sundqvist one timer, then Jake Guentzel hit a post followed up by Dominik Simon.

Later, Tony Cameranesi scored his first goal of the season on a low angle turn around shot on Jarry that game then Marlies a 1-0 lead…

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Third Period: Jake Guentzel strikes on a Marlies turnover.

Another angle….

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As mentioned in the open, Jake Guentzel is the first player in the AHL to 20 goals. It’s Guentzel’s 32nd game.

Tristan Jarry stoned Cameranesi shorthanded to keep the game at 1-1. Kevin Porter made a horrible exit pass in his own end.

Teddy Blueger was the latest Penguin to hit a post for Wilkes-Barre. The posts must be bigger in Canada.

Tom Sestito then scored this goal top shelf off a nice feed by Derrick Pouliot that put the Penguins ahead 2-1….

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Four goals in the last four games for Sestito. Even me, the math idiot, can tell you that is a goal a game for a player known more for his fists than his goal scoring prowess.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Sestito (goal, +1) 2) Garrett Sparks (32 saves on 34 shots) 1) Tristan Jarry 27 saves on 28 shots)

Around the Division: Hartford beats Rochester in Western New York by a score of 3-1. Springfield loses in overtime to Albany at home 3-2. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Penguins (.764 points percentage) — Lehigh Valley (.706) — Providence (.681) — Hershey (.643) — Bridgeport (.561) — Springfield (.500) — Hartford (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers remain to be the stone in the shoe for the ECHL’s best Toledo Walleye. Nailers win 5-2. Sean Maguire named third star with 31 saves on 33 shots.

Video highlights…

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Pens will bus to Rochester and practice there in advance of Friday’s game with the Americans. If there is anything blog-worthy I will have something here Thursday. If not, look for the next update for the blog at 3 Friday for the Rochester Gameday setup.

Let’s Go Pens!