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Another nice bounce back win by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, a 3-1 win Sunday afternoon in Bridgeport after bussing overnight from Hershey in a thrilling and gut wrenching at the same time overtime loss to the Bears.

Matt Murray started this afternoon and was stellar again. It’s beginning to look a lot like a number one goaltender is emerging for the Pens. You put Murray in net and he gives you a chance to win. That’s what a number one goaltender does.

Penguins shook off any doubts from the night before and pounced on the Sound Tigers early and set the tone. They rode their defense and Murray the rest of the way and come back to Pennsylvania with two points and a three point weekend.

It was Murray vs. David Leggio in nets.

Lines were….

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Conor Sheary – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Jayson Megna
Dominik Uher – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers
Nick D’Agostino – Harrison Ruopp

Alex Boak took warmups but was scratched. Adam Payerl was out for Dominik Uher. Pierre Leblond was the other scratch. It was the first game played for Ruopp since October 11 season opener against Lehigh Valley.

First Period: The third line of Kuhnhackl, Megna and Rowney established their presence early and often. Carter Rowney fed Jayson Megna from behind the net and Megna cashed in at 1:10 off of this shot…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/564515863353888768]

The Penguins would go on the power play a few times but would not cash. There was a stretch of 5-on-3 for the Penguins and Bryan Rust fanned on an open net and David Leggio had a split second to get over and make a toe save. Later, off of a face-off, Jayson Megna puts a puck on net that Carter Rowney cleans up past Leggio and in for a 2-0 Penguin lead…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/564521214899924994]

Replay will show you that Megna’s shot went off of a Sound Tigers defenseman and right to the stick of Rowney and in. Leggio was asking for interference but his other defensemant was pushing the Penguins player into him and no interference was called.

Sound Tigers made a pushback after that. Murray made a toe save, back the other way Drazenovi fanned on a one time attempt setup by Conor Sheary.

Second Period: Sound Tigers open with a power play. Penguins kill that, then Carter Rowney takes a heavy hit from Scooter Vaughn, Rowney ended up in the locker room for a bit but returned. The two teams traded power plays after. Bridgeport outshot the Pens 13-6 in the period but Murray stayed perfect.

Third Period: Penguins tack on another off a nifty two on one rush with Drazenovic and Kostopoulos. Bridgeport defenseman Aaron Ness was back, blocked the initial pass from Drazenovic to Kostopoulos but not the second and it was then 3-0…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/564546298314244099]

So the issue was whether Matt Murray would back-to-back shutouts. He wouldn’t. Penguins would take two penalties on the same play and Kael Mouillierat would score to break up the shutout for Murray on a nice shot from the slot. Not before Murray made many saves down and out with his team on a two man disadvantage. Murray’s shutout streak officially ends at 114:12.

Three Stars: 3) Carter Rowney (goal, assist, +2) 2) Jayson Megna (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Matt Murray (36 saves on 37 shots)

Around the Division: Binghamton lost a fight filled affair up in Utica, 7-4. Norfolk was off. Hershey lost to Lehigh Valley at home in overtime, 5-4. That one was back and forth also, the Bears battled back from four one goal deficits.

Standings: Hershey 61 — Penguins 57 — Lehigh Valley 49 — Norfolk 43 — Binghamton 42

Conference: 1) SYR (65) 2) MCH (64) 3) HER (61) 4) SPR (60) 5) HFD (58) 6) WBS (57) 7) WOR (55) 8) POR (55)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the Elmira Jackals 3-1 at home. Josh Archibald scored twice and Eric Hartzell stopped 19 of 20 shots.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Penguins are resume play on Wednesday with a home game against the listless Senators. Before then, you can click here to see the updated stat chart through games this weekend and come back Monday at 4 p.m. for the Week 18 AHL Power Rankings.

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You knew coming in to the night that the Hershey Bears were the East Division leaders. Up four points on the Penguins coming into tonight, the Bears are probably one of the hottest teams in the AHL. Let’s look at a quick rundown of some key points.

— 7-0-0-1 in their last eight games.
— 17 wins at home, leads the AHL.
— Have lost just once in regulation in 2015. (A 4-2 loss to Norfolk on January 11)

So you know coming into tonight that the Penguins were heading into an uphill battle tonight.

A 4-3 overtime loss to the Bears. You can add one to the first two points above. Hershey, down 3-1 to start the third period, get a shorthanded goal by Kris Newbury :17 in and build and build momentum until ex-Penguin Chris Conner scores with under five minutes left to tie the game then Mike Moore scores his first as a Bear to win it in overtime.

Jeff Zatkoff hasn’t won a game since beating the Bears on December 31. He opposed Philipp Grubauer.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Conor Sheary – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Jayson Megna
Bobby Farnham – Matia Marcantuoni – Adam Payerl

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers
Nick D’Agostino – Alex Boak

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Harrison Ruopp took warmups but was scratched. The other healthy scratches were Dominik Uher and Pierre Leblond.

First Period: Penguins came right out and bltizkrieged the Bears with a long offensive zone setup and caught Hershey on their heels. They had two power plays that looked excellent, nothing like the mess that has become synonymous with power plays of Wilkes-Barre’s past. Conor Sheary had two misses of seemingly wide open nets….

Shots were somehow 8-8 in the period, but if you asked someone that watched the period that didn’t look at a shot board, it felt like the Penguins had more shots.

Second Period: Penguins came out sluggish to start but recovered nicely. Stan Galiev scored :57 in after lax neutral zone puck play by Wilkes-Barre. Ex-Penguin Chris Conner is the fastest guy on the ice and set the whole thing up perfectly to Galiev.

But the Penguins needed a response and respond they did.

Taylor Chorney took a cross checking penalty about three minutes after the Galiev goal. Bears to the power play. The Penguins haven’t scored a shorthanded goal all season.

Until….

There is only one team left in the AHL that hasn’t scored a shorthanded goal yet. It’s Oklahoma City.

Then the Penguins would head to a power play of their own. Conor Sheary found Nick Drazenovic in the slot. All Drazenovic did was angle his stick out and redirected the puck past Grubauer to make it 2-1 Wilkes-Barre…

Mike O’Brien said afterwards that finding time and space in the slot on the power play was something that the Penguins have worked on in practice recently. It paid off.

Penguins continue to pressure. I couldn’t remember anything resembling a Hershey chance after their opening goal by Galiev in the first minute. The Pens had late offensive zone time. Reid McNeill shot….

… Tom Kuhnhackl finish.

Third Period: The Bears prove to all why they lead the East Division. They were not going to lose this game. :17 in, Kris Newbury gets a breakaway and scores to make it a 3-2 Penguin lead. You knew that at some point the Bears would make a push, but didn’t expect it to be that quickly.

The turning point of the game was when the Penguins found themselves on a 5-on-3 for 1:17. Penguins nearly score one on the two-man advantage, but they made too many passes and Grubauer got to it. Then They took it too the perimeter and that was it.

Bears then get a power play. They get close, but don’t score. Penguins didn’t mount anything that resembled offense and tried to kill off Hershey’s momentum by constantly icing the puck.

It didn’t work. Conner found space in the slot and tied it, forcing…

Overtime: Mike Moore scored 3:24 into overtime sending the Bears fans home happy and Hershey a five point lead over the Penguins in the East Division race with two games in hand over the visitors.

Three Stars: 3) Kris Newbury (goal, assist, +2) 2) Stan Galiev (goal, assist, +2) 1) Chris Conner (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Binghamton wins 4-1 against Lehigh Valley at home, snapping a five game losing streak….Norfolk shuts out Worcester the night before but is shutout by the Sharks 4-0 tonight.

Standings: Hershey 60 — Penguins 55 — Lehigh Valley 47 — Norfolk 43 — Binghamton 40

Conference: 1) SYR (65) 2) MCH (64) 3) HER (60) 4) SPR (60) 5) HFD (58) 6) WOR (55) 7) WBS (55) 8) POR (55)

Wheeling Update: Blown leads must be rampant in the organization tonight as the Wheeling Nailers were up 3-1 in the third, but lost 4-3 to the Cincinnati Cyclones. J-S Dea had a goal for the Nailers. Eric Hartzell took the loss.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens bus to Bridgeport tonight. Game is at 3 tomorrow. Gameday for this will be up here on the blog at 11.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Be honest, the pessimistic side of you wasn’t expecting tonight’s result.

After getting shellacked in front of a sellout crowd on Saturday night by the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 6-2, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and Head Coach John Hynes go right back to G Matt Murray Tuesday night and the Penguins shutout the Springfield Falcons for the third time this season and win 4-0.

The Falcons, in three games played against the Penguins this season, have yet to score a single goal against Wilkes-Barre. The Falcons have been shutout four times this season and three of them have come against the Penguins.

Murray, to his credit, was masterful in net for the Penguins. Several stops in close and stops on rebounds and in a pile of bodies. There was a sequence early in the second period where it looked like the Falcons had scored a few times on the power play but Murray and the Penguins penalty killing unit kept them off the scoreboard.

Scott Wilson and Bryan Rust had a three point night, Andrew Ebbett had two power play goals on a late 5-on-3 the Penguins had. Wilkes-Barre went 3 for 5 on the power play and 3 for 3 on the penalty kill. I guess when you have two players that put up three point nights, go 60% on the power play and have a goaltender that has a teams number, you win by the scoreline that the Penguins won by.

Same lineup as Saturday but for Pierre Leblond and Dominik Uher out for Adam Payerl and Matia Marcantuoni. We were expecting word on Leblond’s suspension for the instigator in the final five minutes of Saturday’s game but a suspension never came down from the AHL offices in Springfield. Hynes told Tom after the game that it was rescinded, so no suspension is coming. Also, there was some confusion this morning with the news that Harrison Ruopp was recalled by the Penguins. In the initial press release from Coal Street this morning it stated that Alex Boak and Eric Hartzell were re-assigned there. That was an error and a dated press release. Harrison Ruopp’s recall was the only transaction made by the Penguins today. I apologize for any confusion I may have caused with my tweets (since deleted) this morning.

First Period: Falcons came out flying. They blitzkrieged the Penguins and led in shots 6-1 thirteen minutes in. Springfield was doing everything right until Kerby Rychel hooked Nick Drazenovic putting the Penguins on the power play. Tom Kostopoulos set a nice pick on a Falcons defenseman, allowing Scott Wilson an easy path to the net of ex-Penguin Scott Munroe. Wilson went top shelf on Munroe and put the Penguins up 1-0.

Penguins weathered the early Springfield storm, earn a power play and cash on it. I love it when a plan comes together.

Second Period: Barry Goers is boxed for a puck over glass delay of game and the Falcons do everything but score on the ensuing power play. Murray battled. Then the Penguins swung the momentum in their favor with great offensive pressure.

Turning point of the game was the failed Springfield power play on the Goers infraction. Falcons did everything they could to score but couldn’t.

Third Period: Bryan Rust and Nick D’Agostino come up ice on an odd man rush. Rust centers D’Agostino who shoots, Munroe makes the save but leaves a juicy rebound to Rust who scores to make it 2-0 Penguins. Seemingly that was all the momentum and scoring the Penguins needed. The Falcons got a power play but it was the Penguins taking advantage of shorthanded opportunities. Sean Collins had a breakaway that was denied by Murray. They couldn’t put anything past him.

The Falcons took a series of high sticking penalties late, and Andrew Ebbett made them pay. The game, seemingly already decided was cemented in the Penguins favor with two power play goals by Ebbett on the far circle.

Three Stars: 3) Scott Wilson (goal, two assists, even) 2) Andrew Ebbett (two goals, +1) and Matt Murray (28 save shutout)

Since returning from Pittsburgh, Ebbett has 4-3-7 in four games, Wilson has 7-4-11 in eight games and Rust has 2-6-8 in six games.

Also, with his second power play goal tonight, Andrew Ebbett has 300 AHL points.

Matt Murray is tied with Portland’s Mike McKenna for shutouts with 5. That leads the AHL. He has stopped all 77 shots faced by Springfield in three games.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Hershey 56 — Penguins 54 — Lehigh Valley 47 — Norfolk 41 — Binghamton 40

Conference: 1) SYR (61) 2) MCH (60) 3) HER (56) 4) HFD (57) 5) SPR (56) 6) WBS (54) 7) POR (53) 8) ALB (53)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They take on the Reading Royals tomorrow night at 7.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube instead…

[youtube http://youtu.be/6bS_f649xJc]

Penguins are off until Saturday when they play the Hershey Bears in Chocolatetown. The Bears get one of their three games in hand back Friday night in Binghamton. Lehigh Valley hosts Worcester Wednesday and is off Friday as well. The Penguins have played the most amount of games (47) than anyone else in the top 8, so there are games in hand. I will probably have a Friday night blog after all the games of importance go final as a setup to the weekend for the Pens then. Unless I can think of anything or there is newsworthy things worth blogging about, look for the next update then.

Let’s Go Pens!