vs.          

1                                              8

–

Tonight’s game was an evisceration of the Hartford Wolf Pack by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, plain and simple.

8-1 the final tonight and exactly what the doctor ordered for a team which was floundering a bit in the wake of the yearly injuries to Pittsburgh and the drones of early Spring, where the Penguins always go cold.

Eight different goals scored by eight different goal scorers. Five players with multiple point games. It’s probably easier to lost the players who didn’t record a point tonight than it is who didn’t, but I will do it anyway.

No points for Tim Erixon, Josh Archibald, Teddy Blueger, Frank Corrado, Christian Hilbrich, Tom DiPauli and Ryan Haggerty. Hell, even starting goaltender Casey DeSmith picked up an assist in this game.

For Hartford, Every single player on the team was a minus, except for the line of Marek Hrivik, Taylor Beck and Michael Joly, who scored on DeSmith to break up his shutout bid in the second period. No Wolf Pack players was an even.

But you can’t play Hartford every night and the real test to see if the Penguins are indeed back to shredding teams will come tomorrow when a rested Providence Bruins team comes in hungry to get at it with the division leading Penguins.

The aforementioned Casey DeSmith opposed Mackenzie Skapski, who allowed all eight goals tonight. God love him.

Lines were…

Thomas DiPauli – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Adam Krause
Christian Hilbrich – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty

David Warsofsky – Frank Corrado
Derrick Pouliot – Barry Goers
Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Oskar Sundqvist was recalled earlier in the day to Pittsburgh. It’s his first callup of the season. Sundqvist has 9 points in his last 25 games. Regardless, the lines were all shook up for the Penguins.

Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period with goals by Derrick Pouliot (from the blueline with Skapski screened) Jarrett Burton (after a nice end to end rush by Pouliot and a ridiculous pass setting up Burton for the goal) and Kevin Porter (on a rebound left by Sakpski with 17.2 left)

Here they are, in order, courtesy of the GIF skills of Taylor Haase…

–

Casey DeSmith assisted on the Jarret Burton goal giving the Penguins netminder his first assist in the AHL. Who knew that it would be DeSmith’s first point to come rather than his first shutout in the regular season.

In the second, J-S Sea scored in close on this shot from Barry Goers and it was 4-0 Penguins…

–

I thought, and still believe, that the goal should be credited to Sahir Gill. Anyway, that second assist by Goers gave him 100 points in the AHL.

Taylor Beck busted up the DeSmith shutout that made it 4-1. Hartford was starting to make a push but DeSmith was holding them out.

Sahir Gill scored for sure and made it 5-1. Adam Krause, who was recalled earlier in the morning in the wake of the Sundqvist recall, picked up his first assist of the season on the Gill goal here…

–

That was the turning point in this one. Hartford was trying to push after the Beck goal but the Penguins step up and score another to re-establish their four goal lead and continue to rout the Wolf Pack.

18th time this season that the Penguins have scored five or more goals. Who is slumping? Who is in danger of losing the division lead and miss playoffs? Who? Who? Who?

In the third, Hartford couldn’t get anything going on a DiPauli double minor for high sticking and gave the Penguins several chances to get a shorthanded goal.

Bad to worse for Hartford, Garrett Noonan scored an own goal which was credited to Dominik Simon, who finally gets his 10th goal of the season that made it 6-1 Penguins…

–

All that was left was the Penguins scoring a power play goal and they got one via a Tom Kostopoulos tap in that made it 7-1. Kostopoulos tied Jake Guentzel for lead on the Pens with 21 goals….

–

Barry Goers scores on a ridiculous dangle that made it 8-1. What Nick said….

–

Notes: Wilkes-Barre is the first team to 10, 20, 30, now 40 wins in the AHL….Derrick Pouliot’s first four point game in the AHL….Wilkes-Barre’s magic number Saturday morning will be 23 with the win and coupled with Hershey’s regulation loss to Lehigh Valley.

Three Stars: 3) Kevin Porter (goal, two assists, +1) 2) J-S Dea (goal, two assists, +4) 1) Derrick Pouliot (goal, three assists, +4)

Here is who did what point wise….

Warsofsky 2A
Prow 1A
Dea 1G 2A
Porter 1G 2A
Burton 1G
Gill 1G
Krause 1A
Kostopoulos 1G
Goers 1G 2A
Simon 1G
Pouliot 1G 3A
DeSmith 1A

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley beats Hershey in a close one 3-2 over Hershey. Phantoms stay 4 back of the Pens for the division lead….Springfield beats Syracuse 3-2 and Utica beats Bridgeport 2-1. Providence was off.

Standings: Penguins (.692 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.669) — Providence (.653) — Bridgeport (.636) — Hershey (.608) — Springfield (.475) — Hartford (.398)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout by the Quad City Mallards 3-0.

Video highlights….

–

Crumble this laugher up and get ready for Providence tomorrow. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

      vs.      

  3                                       0

–

Every coach draws up a game plan pregame with a formula to beat the opponent. Happens in every sport.

For the Penguins opponents, its simple, force them into penalties.

Lehigh Valley went 1-7 on the power play tonight, the Penguins went 0-1.

Now were referees Pierre MacDougall and Pierre Lambert the reasons the Penguins lost this game 3-0 tonight to Lehigh Valley? Hardly. The Penguins played from behind from the opening moments and weren’t able to convert any offense in front of Alex Lyon and, coupled with having to kill penalties seemingly every five minutes, lost the game.

Lazy legging lines again because the common theme on this blog is that I do not like games where I have to get up the next morning for my real job. So here they are…

Tristan Jarry started and was opposed by Alex Lyon and was backed up by Casey DeSmith.

Lineup Notes: Derrick Pouliot was sent down from Pittsburgh earlier in the day as the Penguins recalled Tom Sestito and Cameron Gaunce for insurance on their Western Canada trip. Patrick McGrath took warmups but was scratched. Thomas DiPauli was back in the lineup after being a precautionary scratch Sunday in Hartford. Christian Hilbrich was recalled from Wheeling Tuesday and was in the lineup on the fourth line.

First Period: Lehigh Valley jumped all over the Penguins and used that hot start to jump out to a 1-0 lead when Ryan Haggerty wasn’t able to clear the zone and Chris McCarthy scored his first of the season to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead.

Pens seemed to settle after that. They played the period better shorthanded where they found themselves twice, and didn’t allow the Phantoms a shot on goal. Shots after one were 11-8 Wilkes-Barre.

Second Period: No scoring this period. Kevin Porter was stopped for the second time in the game on a breakaway. Wilkes-Barre continued to find themselves in penalty trouble but were able to manage to get away unscathed. Wilkes-Barre finally got a power play but weren’t able to score.

Third Period: Penguins were still desperately searching for a goal and staying in lockstep with the Phantoms on the shot board but it was Colin McDonald shooting one past Jarry at 12:02 through a screen that doubled Lehigh Valley’s lead and seemingly was the death knell for the Penguins chances in the game.

For good measure, Mark Zengerle poked one in far post in a scramble in front of Jarry that made it 3-0. Colin McDonald put the shot on net and Zengerle corralled the rebound and pushed it in.

Three Stars: Colin McDonald (goal, assist, +1) 2) Chris McCarthy (goal, +1) 1) Alex Lyon (31 save shutout, his fourth)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins (.686 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.664) — Providence (.653) — Bridgeport (.647) — Hershey (.619) — Springfield (.466) — Hartford (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off as they prepare for a big weekend of games against Quad City twice and Toledo on Sunday.

If there are video highlights, look for them in a later edit.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @          

6                                              3

–

Make nothing of this score line, this game with a lot closer than it should have been.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins came into this game with 30+ wins. The Hartford Wolf Pack came into this game with 30+ losses.

The good team let the bad team hang around for too long and the bad team nearly upset the good team.

J-S Dea has seen this movie before.

Dea’s two goals lift the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins to a 6-3 win over the last place Hartford Wolf Pack Sunday afternoon and concludes the road trip. David Warsofsky got to 40 points in the season with two goals himself and added and assist, like Dea.

Casey DeSmith opposed Brandon Halverson.

Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Jarrett Burton – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Ryan Haggerty – Sahir Gill – Patrick McGrath

Tim Erixon – Barry Goers
David Warsofsky – Frank Corrado
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Should have figured that Head Coach Clark Donatelli wasn’t going to play Thomas DiPauli in back to back games and that suspicion was confirmed as he was the scratch for Patrick McGrath. No other lineup changes for the Penguins. Tom Sestito played in his 500th professional game and picked up his 100th professional assist.

First Period: It was a special teams party where every goal was scored on the power play.

The Penguin opened the scoring with this goal from Kevin Porter with Oskar Sundqvist setting the screen in front of Halverson…

–

The biggest problem that the Penguins faced in this period was the fact that they were letting Hartford run with them. The Wolf Pack hit two posts and were pretty much step for step with Wilkes-Barre the whole period. They got on the board via a Niklas Jensen power play goal that evened things at one a piece.

Penguins had a power play come and go which was effectively killed by Hartford. They got another one via good stick handling work by Tom Sestito when David Warsofsky banged this puck in in a pile of bodies which was confirmed via video replay…

–

40th point of the season for David Warsofsky.

Shots ended up 12-10 for the Penguins heading into the…

Second Period: Back and forth period that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins sleepwalked through the first half, went down a goal after the Penguins led by a goal, then roared back for three unanswered goals. Here is the setup…

Up 2-1 to start the second, the Penguins killed a Hartford penalty then as a puck was caroming around in front of Halverson it went quickly out to Jensen and he scored again to make it a 2-2 game.

1:59 later, Matt Carey pounded home a drop pass that made it 3-2 Hartford. The wheels were coming off! The Penguins were sleepwalking through a Sunday game with a last place team! The horror!

The Penguins finally came alive. A Jarrett Burton twirling pass to Josh Archibald camped out in front made it a tie game again.

–

The AHL Live picture went out on me and all I got was sound and no picture, while I was watching this…

–

David Warsofsky scored his second of the game that re-established the lead for the Penguins. Goals 90 seconds apart. Warsofsky’s two goals so far gives him 14 on the season and second most among AHL defensemen.

Looking at the score line and the shot board, I came to the realization that the Penguins were still allowing the Wolf Pack to stick around and maybe jump up and sting them again. Then J-S Dea scored at the buzzer with .8 seconds left to make it 5-3 Penguins…

–

So the Hartford Wolf Pack run step for step with the best team in the Atlantic Division, get careless for one second and the best team in the division make them pay. Tim Erixon fired a shot at the net and Dea, all alone with no one checking him, makes it a two goal game for the Penguins heading into the…

Third Period: The Wolf Pack switched goalies with Magnus Hellberg coming on for Brandon Halverson. I picked up the vibe that this move was made because Hartford was still in things.

They were, in part, getting a couple of breakaways, but Casey DeSmith was more than up to task. This one with the skate denied Marek Hrivik…

–

J-S Dea scored the only goal of the period which proved to be insurance in the insurance capital of the world…

–

I love insurance.

Three Stars: 3) Niklas Jensen (two goals, even) 2) J-S Dea (two goals, assist, +1) and David Warsofsky (two goals, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey goes down 2-0 and claw their way back and beat Springfield 4-2 at home. The Bears sweep the weekend. Utica beats Bridgeport straight up 2-1 and Providence crushes Lehigh Valley 7-3.

Standings: Penguins (.698 percentage points) — Providence (.664) — Lehigh Valley (.658) — Bridgeport (.640) — Hershey (.619) — Springfield (.474) — Hartford (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fell again to the Fort Wayne Komets 2-1. Gage Quinney scored for the Nailers.

Video highlights…

–

The AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday at 4, the Wheeling Wrap will be here noon Tuesday.

Let’s Go Pens!