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Teddy Blueger had a ho-hum regulation. No points and really uncharacteristic of the Penguins center and All-Star snub Penguins leading scorer.

But then overtime began and Blueger made his presence felt.

Blueger’s overtime game winner gives the Penguins a hard earned win on the Southern Tier of New York as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeat the Binghamton Senators 5-4 in overtime.

It’s a game that the Penguins should have won easily, but Binghamton kept getting off the mat.

Normally when weaker teams play teams that never say die they curl up and wither away. You’ll often read me state that there are great, good and bad teams at this level. The Penguins aren’t a bad team, the Penguins aren’t a great team (this year) but they are a good team and in a division loaded with teams that are way too inconsistent (besides Charlotte) it’s performances like these that the Penguins are going to need in their push toward playoffs.

Tristan Jarry opposed Cory Schneider.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: No changes personnel wise. Sam Miletic and Anthony Angello swapped spots up top, that’s all.

The Penguins released Will O’Neill Friday. It was a mutual release. O’Neill became a defensive liability and it didn’t help that he took up a veteran spot. There were better options. I think he’s probably done at this level but I could be wrong. We’ll see.

First Period: Starts where one team didn’t play the night before can be a bit of a trick, but any ill will concerns of a poor start by the Penguins were snuffed out in the first minute when Joseph Blandisi did this:

Binghamton turnover and Blandisi was off to the races, had Angello as a trailer and probably looked him off and wired a shot past Schneider for the early goal just :46 in.

Penguins killed two penalties in the period. In one, Linus Ölund had a blind, spin-o-rama drop pass set up for Anthony Angello who skated in unabated and…

…Cory Schneider made the save.

Penguins would get a late crack on the power play and All-Star Ethan Prow would waste no time in doubling the Penguins lead.

That is points in eight straight games for Ethan Prow and the six power play goals by him puts him in a tie with Teddy Blueger for tops on the team.

Second Period: Frankly, the Penguins were lucky to get out of this period with the lead. After going up 4-1, Binghamton storms back to score two and pull within one. Wilkes-Barre was outshot 15-11 in the period and were getting steamrolled. Apropos of nothing, Binghamton just kept getting off the mat and coming. The Penguins added two goals in the period but it was like Binghamton was unfazed here and scored three.

Here they are, starting off with Ryan Haggerty with a seeing eye shot that Schneider was screened on that made it 3-0 Wilkes-Barre.

Tariq Hammond with the unintentional screen of his goaltender there.

Ryan Schmelzer scored a power play goal on nice tic tac toe passing setup to bring the Devils on the board.

Adam Johnson would score a few minutes later on a pin balling puck that Cory Schneider was unable to smother entirely and it was 4-1 Penguins.

J-S Dea with an assist on the goal here, he quietly has 18 points in 18 games.

But Binghamton kept swinging, and got two more goals before the horn. Another power play goal, this time by John Quenneville, sweeping in a rebound of a Nick Lappin shot that made it 4-2.

Then Blake Pietila scored a goal similar to the Haggerty goal to open the period when his shot was not stopped by Tristan Jarry with Kevin Czuczman getting tangled up with Quenneville down low and setting a partial screen on his net minder that brought the Devils to within one.

Third Period: Blake Pietila added his second of the game on a goal that you could see coming like a bad car crash. Pietila waited out Jarry for an hour before he scored to bring the Devils even at four a piece.

Penguins had to sweat out a penalty and were successful on the kill and it was off to…

Overtime: I Periscoped it. It’s not long.

Teddy Blueger scored :41 in. Ballgame.

The Good: Three game win streak for the Penguins and 8-0-0-0 all time against the Binghamton Devils. Binghamton didn’t go away all night and the Penguins built up enough of a lead to get them to OT and the Blueger heroics.

The Bad: Two more power play goals agains gave Binghamton life and if it wasn’t for a player of such high caliber of Blueger on OT who knows how this one would shake out.

Three Stars:

Around the Division: Hershey beats Laval 4-2…Bridgeport beats Lehigh Valley 4-1 to stop the bleeding for the Sound Tigers…Charlotte gets back in the win column with a 5-2 win in Hartford and Providence beats Springfield 3-2.

Standings: Charlotte 66 — Bridgeport 54 — Lehigh Valley 53 — Providence 51 — Springfield 50 — Penguins 49 — Hershey 45 — Hartford 43

Wheeling Update: Nailers and Royals went to a shootout and the Royals won 6-5 the box is here.

Video Highlights: Are here.

Pens are off until next Friday as the AHL in whole hits the All-Star break. Skills Competition is Sunday with the game on Monday. If anything interesting happens there I may drop in here with a blog piece. Otherwise but for big time news, check out the Power Rankings on Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I don’t want to say that we have reached the swan song of Teddy Blueger, but we are getting close.

A pair of goals and an assist for the Penguins centerman and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins obliterate the stone cold Bridgeport Sound Tigers 5-2 Wednesday morning in Connecticut.

There isn’t any room for Teddy Blueger at his natural center position right now in Pittsburgh. The one thing that is a strength of both the NHL team and AHL team is down the middle. All Blueger can do is take the assignments as they come. If he continues to light it up down here in Wilkes-Barre, Jim Rutherford and Company may have no choice but to call him up and make room for him.

Remains to be seen. Enjoy him while you still can, is what I am saying.

Tristan Jarry opposed Christopher Gibson.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Joseph Blandisi made his Penguins debut and went top line with Teddy Blueger and Anthony Angello. Cam Brown took warmups but was the scratch. Ryan Scarfo dropped to the third line, Ryan Haggerty moved up to that line also and Joseph Cramarossa was back in with Ölund and Hayes. Macoy Erkamps was back in for Tim Erixon who was the veteran removed to allow Cramarossa to get in today.

First Period: Penguins got out to a quick start with Joseph Blandisi getting a goal in his first game as a Penguin.

He initially put a shot on, which was blocked and stayed in the slot and collected his rebound and scored.

Tristan Jarry had to stop a Jeff Kubiak penalty shot when Kubiak was hooked shorthanded when the Penguins were on a power play.

Later, Teddy Blueger steals a puck in the neutral zone, skates in and scored to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead.

Decent first period for the Penguins who outshot the Sound Tigers 8-3.

Second Period: Tons of goals and momentum swings.

Ryan Haggerty made it 3-0 after he wheeled around the face-off dot and unleashed a shot that made it 3-0.

That ended Chris Gibson’s day, enter Jeremy Smith.

Wilkes-Barre then scores :11 apart when Ethan Prow puts a shot on goal that Teddy Blueger pounces on, he wheels around Gibson and scores to make it 4-0 on a power play. Then, off of the ensuing face-off Ryan Scarfo intercepts a pass up the ice on the far wall and finds a cutting Ryan Haggerty in front to make it 5-0 before the Sound Tigers knew what hit them.

Here are the goals:

The Penguins at this point had more goals (5) then the Sound Tigers had shots (4)

Bridgeport Head Coach Brent Thompson used his time out and out of that on the very next shift, Chris Casto scored to break up the Tristan Jarry would-be shutout bid.

(Taylor didn’t GIF any goals this morning)

Tanner Fritz connected on a Sound Tigers power play that made it 5-2. Momentum was sliding on the Sound Tigers side, quickly.

Turning point of the game was when the Penguins killed a Zach Trotman penalty at the games halfway point. If the Sound Tigers scored here to cut the goal to two, it would have completely changed the complexion of the game.

Third Period: In hindsight, that power play that the Sound Tigers had at the midway point seemed like their final push because they took two penalties late in the second and the third period was ultimately benign. Ryan Haggerty was denied a few chances at his hat trick and Tristan Jarry had a few key late saves to preserve the win.

The Good: These morning starts are tricky, but the Penguins jumped out to a 5-0 start and withstood a small pushback from Bridgeport. Having Chris Summers and Zach Trotman on the blue line back is really important.

The Bad: Kind of hard to nitpick on this, but the Sound Tigers were getting flattened, called time out, and were a few breaks and bounces from turning this into a much closer game. Wilkes-Barre is going to need to start stringing a full 60 minute effort together if they want success more often than not.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Springfield beat Hartford 7-4 in a game which was bonkers. Ex-Penguins Paul Thompson had four goals. Ex-Penguin Harry Zolnierczyk scored his 100th AHL goal…Lehigh Valley beat Hershey in a shootout, 2-1.

Standings: Charlotte 64 — Bridgeport 52 — Lehigh Valley 51 — Springfield 50 — Providence 47 — Penguins 47 — Hershey 43 — Hartford 42

Penguins are off Friday, Providence hosts Charlotte, Lehigh Valley hosts Hartford and Springfield is in Syracuse.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Doesn’t look like there are any video highlights for this one, sorry.

Week 16 AHL Power Rankings are out Thursday morning, check them out then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Gritty win for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, who defeat the understaffed Lehigh Valley Phantoms in overtime, 2-1.

Anthony Stolarz stopped 44 of 46 shots on his conditioning stint from the Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins shot 70% of their shots at Stolarz directly into the Phantoms logo on Stolarz’s chest. I don’t think that he had many high risk saves that he had to make today. Penguins shooters made it pretty easy for him though the first forty minutes, putting 32 shots on Stolarz.

But it was the Phantoms scoring first, Mike Huntebrinker scored his first of the season with this goal in the opening stages of the third period.

That’s Kevin Czuczman there in front going for the half block. Huntebrinker put it past him and then off the post, Jarry and then in.

The Penguins had two power play opportunities but couldn’t muster anything close to a dangerous look that Stolarz would have had a chance to turn away.

One second after power play expired, Adam Johnson scored his fourth goal in three games that tied the game at one and the Penguins had life again.

Diving block by the Phantoms defender may have taken something off of the shot that changed up on Stolarz.

The teams skated even the rest of the way in the third period and went off to overtime.

After a herky jerky start to overtime whee it looked like a shootout was inevitable, Ethan Prow ended it.

Teddy Blueger drove the net, put a shot on that Stolarz denied but didn’t cover, and Ethan Prow was there to sweep it home. Ball game.

Kind of writing the game story backwards from here. Nothing really happened offensively in the first two periods. The Phantoms has 17 shots through two periods and the Penguins had 17 shots in the second period alone. It was a dominating performance from the Penguins offensively, but all offerings laid at the feet at Anthony Stolarz were easily turned away.

Two rivals on the ice in a game that had importance for both, the Phantoms and Penguins have been reeling of late, so you would think that they would be ornery for a 1 p.m. Monday start. No. They played good, legal hockey for much of the game. Referees Terry Koharski and Ryan Jenken had long leashes today and only called what needed to be.

Tristan Jarry got the start for the Penguins. Here is how they lined up.

Joseph Blandisi was sent down by Pittsburgh on Sunday and is expected to arrive tonight and practice with the team Tuesday before they get on a bus and head to Bridgeport for a 10:30 a.m. start on Wednesday.

Zach Trotman and Chris Summers were both back from their injuries and had big impacts on the ice today, erasing any high chances that any Phantoms players tried to produce. As a result, Joseph Cramarossa had to sit as the extra veteran. Other lineup notes were Ryan Scarfo up with Teddy Blueger and Anthony Angello top line. Cam Brown to third line. Jimmy Hayes up from, Ryan Haggerty down to, fourth line. Patrick McGrath went in for Cramarossa. Macoy Erkamps and Danny Fick (who skated as the extra in warmups) yielded to Summers ands Trotman.

The Good: I like the amount of shots that the Penguins put up today. They ran into a goaltender who was very, very good today in Stolarz, who deserved a better result today.

The Bad: Flipping that, at what point do the shooters try a different angle or release point when Stolarz is getting hit in the chest time after time after time? That may be be nitpicking, though.

Around the Division: Hershey beat the suddenly reeling Bridgeport Sound Tigers 4-1. Providence beat Hartford 5-2 and the Bruins collect 5 of 6 points this weekend. Springfield hosted Laval Monday night and lost in overtime 4-3.

Standings: Charlotte 64 — Bridgeport 52 — Lehigh Valley 49 — Springfield 48 — Providence 47 — Penguins 45 — Hershey 42 — Hartford 42

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are off this week.

Video Highlights: 

Pens are practicing Tuesday, will then get on a bus and then head to Bridgeport for a 10:30 morning start against the Sound Tigers. I will have the Gameday setup with your morning coffee bright and early at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Let’s Go Pens!