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A two goal night by Scott Wilson, the Penguins go 2-for-4 on the power play and another shutout, this time 23 saves and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins beat the Portland Pirates by a score of 3-0.

Some bullet points:

• Add the Portland Pirates to the list of teams that have yet to score a goal on the Penguins this season. Jeff Zatkoff shutout the Pirates in November, by a score of 2-0.
• The Penguins are on a season high point streak (4-0-1-0) and have points in their last ten games (8-1-1-0)
• The Pirates have not beat the Penguins since way back in 2010.
• Oh, Matt Murray’s sixth shutout, leads the AHL. There is some guy in Pittsburgh named Marc-Andre Fleury that leads the NHL with 8 shutouts.

It was Matt Murray vs. Mike Lee, making his first AHL start of the season.

Lines were…

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

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Scott Harrington
Nick D’Agostino – Barry Goers

Matt Murray – Jeff Zatkoff

Alex Boak took warmups but was scratched. Adam Payerl was in for Nick Drazenovic, who was listed among the injured players.

First Period: Nothing for scoring. Penguins trailed Portland 6-1 in shots at one point but then the Pens pushed back and rattled off eight straight to end the period.

Second Period: Was developing into a defensive battle with two teams in the top four in defense. Mark Louis trips a Penguin, leading to a Wilkes-Barre power play. Scott Wilson scores to make it 1-0 Penguins.

Third Period: Penguins get another power play and Scott Wilson gets another goal. Nice circle to circle pass from Sheary to set it up. Then. Bryan Rust does his patented power move to the net and dishes to Andrew Ebbett who scored to make it 3-0.

At this point, it was more about preserving the shutout Murray had going than it was anything else. Murray to his credit wasn’t tested much but when he was, he was fantastic.

Team record for shutouts is seven, by Brad Thiessen.

Three Stars: 3) Brian Dumoulin (three assists, +1) 2) Matt Murray (23 save shutout) and 1) Scott Wilson (two goals, even)

Around the Division: Philipp Grubauer and the Hershey Bears shutout the Albany Devils by a score of 1-0. It was Grubauer’s fifth shutout of the season….Binghamton beat Lehigh Valley in Allentown by a score of 3-2 and Norfolk beat Syracuse 2-0 as Jason LaBarbera had an 18 save shutout also. Good night to be an AHL East Division goaltender, I guess.

Standings: Hershey 63 — Penguins 61 — Lehigh Valley 49 — Norfolk 45 — Binghamton 44

Conference: 1) MCH (66) 2) SYR (65) 3) HER (61) 4) WBS (61) 5) SPR (60) 6) HFD (59) 7) PRO (56) 8) WOR (55)

Good night for the Penguins conference wise. Springfield lost. Hartford was idle. The Wolf Pack have three games in hand though. If the Pens can’t catch Hershey for the division, staying above the best of the rest is the spot to be.

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 3-2 in overtime. Eric Hartzell picked up the win. Josh Archibald and J-S Dea were pointless, but Archibald had 7 shots on goal and Dea 3.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube instead…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GjVkiEs9Mk&feature=youtu.be]

One more thing before I go, the 50/50 pot was $9,800. That thing will go to over $10,000 when the place sells out, I am sure of it. It is catching on. I didn’t win yet, though.

Pens welcome in the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tomorrow at 7:05. Gameday setup for that will be here on the blog at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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A 4-1 statement win by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight and statements made by three players who, ironically, were the three stars tonight. Let’s have a look:

3) Jeff Zatkoff: 26 saves on 27 shots for Zatkoff who picks up the win tonight, his first in 2015. Zatkoff has slipped to number two in the goaltending rotation with the stellar play of Matt Murray. His saves came at key moments of the game tonight when the B-Sens were pressing for a goal to swing the momentum. He was beat late in the second on an Aaron Johnson breakaway that broke up any hope for a shutout. You could argue that he was the reason the Penguins won the game tonight.

2) Bobby Farnham: a goal, an assist and a +3 rating for Farnham who buried the B-Sens when Binghamton was building momentum. After the Penguins scored their first goal, Binghamton was pressing in the offensive zone and you could feel the goal coming. But Farnham intercepts a pass in his defensive zone, races out at breakneck speed and sets up a fast developing two on one with Dominik Uher. Uher scored it, making it 2-0 at the time and you could feel some of the air being let out of the Senators sails at that moment.

The other moment that Farnham setup was this time late in the third period with a goal on a two on one with Marcantuoni. It was 3-1 at the time and all the momentum at this moment was with the Senators. His goal that made it 4-1 basically ended any comeback chances the B-Sens had.

1) Dominik Uher: two goals, an assist, and a +3 rating. Uher has been the thirteenth forward more often than not lately. His two goals in the first period jumpstarted the Penguins and that was all Zatkoff and the defense needed to put away Binghamton.

I called this game in my Gameday setup a trap game for the Penguins. Binghamton is in on a Wednesday night, you get lax here and there and your mistakes end up in your net. That didn’t happen, the Penguins were prepared, and the results show.

Penguins fourth line of Dominik Uher – Bobby Farnham – Matia Marcantuoni was 3-3-6 and a +8 combined tonight. If you get that kind of production out of your fourth line, chances are you win 100% of your games.

Penguins played disciplined tonight against Binghamton, allowing them just two power play opportunities.

Conor Sheary scored on a power play off a nice setup by Tom Kostopoulos in the second period that made it 3-0.

In case you missed it, Matt Murray was named AHL Player of the Week on Monday.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Hershey 61 — Penguins 59 –Lehigh Valley 49 — Norfolk 43 — Binghamton 42

Hershey has three hames in hand again on Wilkes-Barre. The division isn’t probably high on the minds of the Penguins right now with the way that the Bears are playing at current but the Conference probably is. The Penguins have played 50 games. Just one other team (St. John’s, 51) has played more. So everyone in the Conference pursuing the Penguins in the race has games in hand.

Conference: 1) SYR (65) 2) MCH (64) 30 HER (61) 4) SPR (60) 5) HFD (59) 6) WBS (59) 7) WOR (55) 8) POR (55)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube instead…

[youtube http://youtu.be/9q6tKng9g0c]

Penguins next host the Portland Pirates Friday then the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Saturday. Unless I can think of anything to blog about on Thursday, look for the next update here on the blog Friday at 3 for the Portland Gameday setup.

Let’s Go Pens!

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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.