Penguins continue to pile the points in the month of November, now points in twelve contests after a 4-2 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Wednesday night.
Small statement game for Wilkes-Barre here. Division leaders taking on the second place team at home go up early then get slapped down and trail after one period and are heavily outshot. But some adjustments made in the second period on and the Penguins mount a comeback and win and collect a point again in their twelfth straight contest.
Lineup Notes: Corrado was re-assigned from Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Freddie Tiffels was recalled from Wheeling Wednesday morning as the Penguins quietly have found themselves in a bind up front somewhat. From Tom, a couple days ago…
Injury update from WBS practice today: TK still week to week, Sestito ruled out through this weekend, as is Garrett Wilson, who is tending to a family matter and will return Monday. Di Pauli wore the red no contact jersey today, but Donatelli said he'll be alright.
But the Phantoms responded quickly with goals 1:26 apart when Corban Knight scored the first even strength goal allowed by the Penguins in eight periods. Later, a shot from the point was stopped by DeSmith but then cue balled in by Greg Carey that made it 2-1 Lehigh Valley. Here they are for you:
Corban Knight tied the game up for the #LVPhantoms with this goal.
(Phantoms didn’t tweet a GIF of their second goal, so I asked them to nicely and they obliged)
The Phantoms didn’t tuck their tails in and hide after getting scored on :31 in, they responded with a ton of shots and a boatload of offensive zone time to take a 16-5 lead heading into the…
Second Period: Penguins had three power plays in this period but didn’t score on them. That offensive momentum though flowed into an 18-7 shot advantage in the period and two goals from J-S Dea and Colin Smith. First Dea’s, after some nice passing from Ryan Haggerty:
Third Period: Teams traded power plays, neither able to score. Penguins looked like they wanted the final slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and desperately tried to get the fourth goal.
Ryan Haggerty got that fourth goal, his second of the night, into the empty net with Lyon pulled with no time left to make it 4-2.
Nice stat from Hart postgame…
The #WBSPenguins' line of Haggerty/Dea/Aston-Reese had quite a night. Haggerty 2G-1A, Dea 1G-2A, ZAR 0G-3A.
Standings: Penguins (.821 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.647) — Providence (.600) — Charlotte (.579) — Bridgeport (.563) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.472) — Springfield (.342)
Wheeling Update: Nailers win in a shootout 4-3 against Worcester in a game that saw the Railers on a 5-on-3 power play in overtime. Sean Maguire picked up the win. Garrett Meurs had a goal and an assist.
Video Highlights:
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Tom had some injury updates postgame…
Early injury report for Friday and Saturday against Syracuse: Wilson, Kostopoulos and Sestito remain out; Prow also likely out; Di Pauli could return; Donatelli doesn't foresee any additional call-ups from Wheeling
And Hart with some late night nuggets on Casey DeSmith creating milestones…
I also have a hunch that DeSmith is the fastest goalie to reach 30 career wins in team history (42 GP). He has Matt Murray beat (46 GP). I'll double check this tomorrow, but I can't imagine there's stiffer competition in #WBSPenguins history than Murray.
Pens are off Thursday for Thanksgiving then back at it Friday in Syracuse. Happy Thanksgiving too everyone who reads here. Gasmeday setup for the Friday game at Syracuse will hit the blog Friday at 3.