@      

  0                                         4

–

The Worcester Sharks are a really good hockey team of late. They had won four games in a row at home and are on a five game win streak coming into tonight’s game against the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. They beat the Conference leading Manchester Monarchs twice this week, with a rematch tomorrow.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins got a cavalry back from Pittsburgh this week, were the rested team, but none of this mattered as Troy Grosenick and the Worcester Sharks defeat the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins by a score of 4-0.

Whatever it is that is ailing the Penguins, they will need to figure this out on the road, as six of the next seven are away from the friendly confines of the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

With five players re-assigned from Pittsburgh this week, the lineup looked drastically different. Here’s a look….

Tom Kostopoulos – Conor Sheary – Jayson Megna
Scott Wilson – Nick Drazenovic – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Josh Archibald
Dominik Uher – J-S Dea – Bobby Farnham

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot
Nick D’Agostino – Barry Goers

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Derrick Pouliot’s first action since December 19. Bryan Rust’s first since December 12 and Scott Wilson’s first Wilkes-Barre game since November 29.

Matia Marcantuoni was a scratch but participated in warmups. Alex Boak and Pierre Leblond were the other scratched. Anton Zlobin and Adam Payerl are still injured.

First Period: Period started out fine for the Penguins, who controlled the puck and the possession for the first ten minutes. After the midway part of the period, Worcester started to chip away…

— A J-S Dea turnover to Daniil Tarasov, who marched down the slot, made a bunch of moves and deked Zatkoff for a 1-0 Sharks lead at 12:11.
— Freddie Hamilton fires a puck at Zatkoff using D’Agostino as a pick to make it 2-0 at 15:05. A really nice shot by Hamilton that handcuffed Zatkoff.
— Ex-Penguin Bryan Lerg cleans up a rebound of a Jeremy Langlois shot from the blue line while the Sharks were on the only power play of the period that made it 3-0 at 19:31.

Three goals in a span of 7:20 in the final eight minutes of the period.

Second Period: Penguins would make a change in goal as Matt Murray would come in to relieve Jeff Zatkoff in goal. You really could not fault Zatkoff on any of the three goals he gave up in the first period, but the Penguins to this point were on a four game slide so Head Coach John Hynes decided to make the change in goal.

Wilkes-Barre would outshoot Worcester 12-4 in this period. Many of the shots from the Penguins would come on a power play where Grosenick was outstanding. Later, Taylor Fedun would finish off a tic tac toe pass as a Sharks power play had just expired to extend the lead to 4-0 for the Sharks.

Third Period: Nothing by the Penguins resembled any kind of comeback, and nothing by the Sharks resembled anything that looked like they wanted to pile on. What Grosenick saw, he stopped. John Hynes mixed up the lines that I listed earlier.

Three Stars: 3) Matt Taormina (two assists, +1) 2) Bryan Lerg (goal, +1) and 1) Troy Grosenick (25 save shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey takes over the East Division lead with a 5-4 overtime win against the Albany Devils. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms win at home in front of their largest crowd of the season with a 5-1 win over the Binghamton Senators. Hartford shutout Norfolk 3-0.

Standings: Hershey 45 — Penguins 44 — Lehigh Valley 43 — Binghamton 36 — Norfolk 34

Phantoms travel to Hershey tomorrow. It’s a Catch-22 for the Penguins. The Phantoms have three games in hand on the Penguins, so a win tomorrow by the Phantoms and Penguins would put the Penguins back over Bears by a point but the Phantoms would be in second place and trail the Pens by a point. A Bears win and a Penguins win would separate the Phantoms from the East lead but the Bears would still have a game in hand on the Penguins.

Bottom line, if the Penguins win tonight, none of tomorrow really matters. And the Penguins have lost five straight, so a guarantee that a win happens tomorrow in Providence is far from a guarantee.

Conference: 1) MCH (57) 2) SPR (56) 3) HER (45) 4) SYR (53) 5) HFD (49) 6) POR (47) 7) WBS (44) 8) WOR (43)

Pit of vipers from 7 on back. Expanding, Lehigh Valley is the 9 seed with 43 points, Albany is 10 with 43, Providence is 11 at 42. Bridgeport is 12 with 41. St. John’s is 13 at 40.

Wheeling Update: Nailers hang seven goals on the Brampton Beast tonight. The Beast are at the bottom of the Central Division in the ECHL and the Nailers were pummeled by call-ups to Wilkes-Barre, so the 7-2 win is welcome. Eric Hartzell stopped 22 of 24 to pick up the win.

SendToNews Highlights: Not up yet. Doubtful that I go back and make an edit here. If you’ve clicked through before, you know where to find them if you want to see them.

Penguins look to regroup tomorrow afternoon in Providence. Gametime is at 3 p.m. Gameday setup hist the blog Sunday at 11 a.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @          

3                                              4

–

In case you aren’t friends with me on Facebook, I wrote the game story for the Citizens’ Voice tonight. Look for that in Sunday’s paper.

I wanted to lead that story with something like John Hynes must want his ECHL lineup back. That’s because the Penguins have lost again, this time 4-3 to the Syracuse Crunch with a lineup more similar to his November lineup than his December lineup, that won 7 games and extended their lead on the East Division.

I can’t really put my finger on what is up with this team. Norfolk is big up front and that caused the Penguins issues. It has to be more than, “Syracuse is a good team.” Maybe it is and the Penguins have gotten here on smoke and mirrors. I doubt it. Wilkes-Barre is just going cold as other teams around them in the division is getting hot. It happens.

Two lineup changes for the Pens tonight. Alex Boak was in for Nick D’Agostino on defense and was more noticeable than D’Agostino was last night. I had people ask me why Boak over D’Agostino and the answer is simple. He’s a draft pick and the AHL is a developmental league. The other lineup change was Sahir Gill for Nick Drazenovic. It was a surprising move, as Drazenovic was all set to play in the game on the top line but was scratched late for Gill, who took warmups but didn’t take part in line rushes.

This game was a “I told you so” game if I ever saw one. Here’s why…

— Jasyon Megna scored two goals for the Penguins in the first period, the only offense for Wilkes-Barre in the game. It’s no secret that I don’t really like Megna. Most of it is schtick at this point, I respect him as a player but at times he makes boneheaded moves. The AHL is a developmental league and I have to remember that next time Megna does something dumb.

— Andrei Vasilevskiy won AHL Goaltender of the Month for December and even collected his award pre-game. He played in just five games in the month of December and in my opinion didn’t deserve the award. He replaced starting goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis after the first period when Gudlevskis was beat by Megna twice.

Syracuse jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when ex-Penguin Joey Mormina fired through a crowd of bodies and Philippe Paradis tipped in in and past Zatkoff.

The Crunch jumped ahead of the Penguins in the second period. Jonathan (don’t call me Audy) Marchessault scored when he batted down a high pass and backhanded a shot over the right shoulder of Zatkoff then Mike Blunden tipped in a Luke Witkowski shot after he got free when Brian Dumoulin fell down on after a Syracuse offense zone face-off win.

Wilkes-Barre mustered nothing that even resembled a comeback in the third period. Syracuse held the Pens to just a single shot on goal for much of the period. Henri Ikonen added an insurance goal off of a pass from the wall by Joel Vermin.

Late, Carter Rowney scored a goal with eight seconds left on the power play with Zatkoff vacated. Too little, too late.

Vasilevskiy was the third star after stopping 10 of 11….Marchessault took home second star honors with a goal and an assist…Mike Blunden was the first star with a goal.

Around the Division: Nate Schmidt Hershey beat Norfolk 3-1. Nate Schmidt, down from parent Washington earlier today, nearly scored all three goals for the Bears in the win, his shot was tipped by Casey Wellman on the third Bears goal. The two teams rematch tomorrow and Hershey can jump ahead of the Penguins with a win. Lehigh Valley beat St. John’s on The Rock 4-2. The Phantoms have five games in hand on the Penguins and two games in hand on the Bears. Binghamton lost 6-1 to the Manchester Monarchs. The Senators have lost five in a row.

Standings: Penguins 44 — Hershey 43 — Lehigh Valley 39 — Binghamton 34 — Norfolk 31

Conference: 1) MCH (54) 2) SPR (53) 3) WBS (44) 4) SYR (51) 5) HFD (44) 6) HER (43) 7) POR (41) 8) LV (39)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers win at home against the Elmira Jackals 4-2. Eric Hartzell picked up the win after stopping 24 of 26. Zack Torquato had three assists.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens get a week to regroup. They are in action again Saturday in Worcester, as they have two in New England next weekend against the Sharks and Sunday against the P-Bruins.

Content wise, I will have the Week 14 AHL Power Rankings on Monday, a post on this chart that I have been keeping up with on Tuesday and the Second Quarter Grades on Wednesday. This will be a good way to space out the content when the Pens aren’t on the ice.

In closing, thanks to the Great Jonathan Bombulie for allowing me to pinch hit for him tonight. Make sure you read all about in the paper tomorrow.

Let’s Go Pens!

          vs.          

2                                             0

–

Tom Venesky from The Times Leader summarized this game, a 2-0 Penguins shutout loss to the Norfolk Admirals nicely.

[tweet https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/553739824067530753]

–

Jason LaBarbera had a 27 save shutout tonight, and the Penguins have lost two straight to the Norfolk Admirals this week and three straight if you count shootout losses as losses going back to Saturday in Hershey.

After tonight, LaBarbera upped his stats against Wilkes-Barre to 4-1, with a 1.20 GAA and a .947 save percentage.

A couple things went wrong in this game that put the Penguins behind the 8-ball.

— They gave up two quick goals in the first period in a 1:37.
— One of the goals was shorthanded. It was the first shorthanded goal allowed by the Penguins this season.
— They were, “on tilt” to use a poker term, when Max Friberg elbowed Nick Drazenovic in the head that dazed Drazenovic. The play went unpenalized by referee Fred Leblanc. Nearly after every whistle, the Pens were more focused on revenge on the hit on Steckel than they were trying to get back into the game they were already down 2-0 on.
— The power play continued to struggle. Late in the third period with the Penguins slowly building momentum, Marc Cantin draws a double minor for high sticking Drazenovic. Here is where you expect a team with a good power play to use this to their advantage and get back in the game. Not the Penguins, who went 0-for-6 tonight.

Matt Murray was shaky in the first half of the first period and solid the rest of the way. He stopped 9-of-11 shots in the first period and all twenty faced after that.

The Pens were held to just five shots in the second period. Norfolk did an excellent job of blocking shots and taking away shooting lanes. What LaBarbera did need to make a save on he did so without an issue.

On the two Norfolk scoring plays, the Pens were on a power play when there was a misconnect between defense and forwards entering the zone. A turnover to Emerson Etem resulted in Matt Murray making the initial save but Conor Sheary knocking in the puck inadvertently. The second goal game from Marc Cantin from the blue line with Murray screened.

Drazenovic returned in the second period and didn’t look worse for wear. Another scary moment was Conor Sheary getting in the way of a shot from his own man that crumbled him. Sheary would need assistance getting off of the ice, but returned.

Quick lineup note, with Bobby Farnham and Brian Dumoulin back in town, the Pens scratched Alex Boak and Sahir Gill. I don’t like scratching an offensive guy like Gill over someone like Farnham. And is Alex Boak better than Nick D’Agostino? That’s up for debate.

Three stars were Marc Cantin with a goal and a +1, Emerson Etem with a shorthanded goal, an assist on the Canton goal and a +2 and LaBarbera with a 27 save shutout.

Hershey beat Albany up in the Capital District by a score of 4-0. The Bears draw to three points on the Penguins for the East Division lead. They host Norfolk Saturday and Sunday.

Binghamton lost to Worcester 6-3. The B-Sens have lost four in a row. Lehigh Valley was off, they face off against the St. John’s IceCaps Saturday and Sunday.

Standings are:

1) Penguins — 44 points
2) Hershey — 41
3) Lehigh Valley — 37
4) Binghamton — 34
5) Norfolk — 31

Lehigh Valley has five games in hand. They have only played 33 games. The Pens have just played their 38th game of the season and are at the halfway point.

Conference is Manchester and Springfield for 52 points, Wilkes-Barre with 44, Syracuse with 49, Hartford with 42, Hershey and Portland with 41 and Bridgeport with 38.

I doubt anyone will want to look at highlights of this one.

Wheeling won a thrilling 6-5 game against Reading. Zack Torquato had a goal and two assists.

Syracuse tomorrow. The Crunch are a damn good team. Tomorrow won’t be easy. Gameday at 3 p.m. here on the blog.

Let’s Go Pens!