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Here is a tweet from Seth that sums up the night well.

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That’s your ballgame right there, as the Penguins fall 5-2 to the hands of a very good St. John’s IceCaps team who is playing some great hockey as of late. Wilkes-Barre sees their five game winning streak at home come to an end and suffer just their tenth loss in regulation in the first weekend of February.

Tristan Jarry opposed Charlie Lindgren

Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – Ryan Haggerty
Danny Kristo – Sahir Gill – Patrick McGrath

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: J-S Dea was out tonight battling an illness. He skated the extra in warmups. Steve Oleksy was back in the lineup for the Penguins for the first time since November and this was his 500th game as a professional.

First Period: Both teams would score on their first shots of the game. Ryan Johnston would score for the IceCaps at 1:02 to give St. John’s the lead and 1:45 later Ethan Prow scores his first as a professional that made it a tie game at one.

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Oh, yes. The Penguins are playing on pink ice this weekend. Do not adjust your computer screens.

St. John’s hit three posts in the period. Derrick Pouliot scored this goal on the power play that made it a 2-1 Penguins lead.

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Its would be the last power play that the Penguins would score for the remainder of the game.

Second Period: The St. John’s IceCaps were playing a song and lulling the Penguins monster to sleep. Wilkes-Barre registered its first shot on goal 6:06 into the period. The game was getting almost boring, with both teams transitioning back and forth up and down the ice. I don’t think I have seen another team counterpunch as well as St. John’s does.

Finally, the IceCaps tied it on a Daniel Carr shot through a screen that beat Jarry that made it 2-2.

The Penguins were then gift wrapped a 4:00 double minor and were not able to score on it.

Third Period: Penguins think that they score on a puck that goes in the net through a scrum but referee Terry Koharski, right on top of the play and standing on the net loses sight of the puck. In the mass of bodies crashing the net, Koharski has to maintain his balance to keep from falling down and washes out the goal which would have tied the game. Koharski invoked the intent to blow rule which means that if the referee loses sight of the puck but can’t get whistle to mouth in time before the puck crosses the line and goes in the goal is disallowed. Fairweather fans don’t undertstand that rule and neither do some of the fans that come to every game. I, personally, thought it was the right call under the circumstances.

Michael McCarron, who seemingly always scores big goals against the Penguins, scored to give St. John’s the lead at 3-2 when he scored on a bad Jarry rebound.

All of a sudden after, the Penguins found themselves on a 1:35 of two man advantage. St. John’s killed it, but not for lack of puck movement by Wilkes-Barre.

Dan Carr scored on a laser beam shot that extended the IceCaps lead to two.

Wilkes-Barre had yet another power play come and go after that goal. Since the Pouliot first period goal, the Penguins went 0-for-6 on the man advantage.

Old buddy Bobby Farnahm, who was up to his old antics again tonight, scored an empty net goal that made it 5-2 St. John’s.

Three Stars: Daniel Carr (two goals, +2) 2) Tom Kostopoulos (two assists, +1) and 1) Michael McCarron (goal, two assists, +2)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley continues to score third period goals, getting three tonight in Almaty and winning 4-3….Bridgeport has won its eighth straight game with a 3-2 win against the Rochester Americans at home….Hershey wins in Binghamton 5-3. Stan Galiev had a hat trick for the Bears in the win….Providence beats Springfield 3-1 and Hartford beats Utica 4-3.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.705) — Providence (.652) — Bridgeport (.628) — Hershey (.600) — Springfield (.455) — Hartford (.424)

Wheeling Update: Jordan Kwas, Darryl Lloyd and Gage Quinney score goals, Doug Carr stops 26 of 28 and the Wheeling Nailers beat the Kalamazoo Wings tonight in Michigan by a 3-2 score.

Video highlights….

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Penguins are back on home ice again Saturday night against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the first time all season. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday afternoon at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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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!