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In Pittsburgh, they have a motto. It’s, “next man up” meaning that the next guy behind you in the depth chart is supposed to step up and fill your role and not look out of place.

Suffice to say, with the rash of injuries and such to the Pittsburgh organization, “next man up” is being tossed around a lot.

The situation applies, of course, to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, where all the “men” come “up” from.

The trickle down effect hits Wheeling. Sometimes hard.

Their leading scorer, Zack Torquato, was signed to an AHL contract today by the Penguins and had an immediate impact in the Penguins game vs. the Syracuse Crunch tonight, a 2-1 Wilkes-Barre win. Torquato’s power play goal in the first period was seemingly all the momentum the Penguins needed to get by the Crunch tonight.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Cedrick Desjardins

Torquato was in for CJ Severyn, who did take warmups but was scratched.

First Period: A lot more pop in the skates of the Penguins, who were flat last night in the first two periods vs. Worcester. Finally, Torquato lets it rip from the top of the near side to give the Pens a 1-0 lead on the power play.

Second Period: Pens seemed to keep the Crunch off the scoreboard via stingy defense and some jumbo saves by Jeff Deslauriers all night long. Many times Syracuse would bear down, make a move and I thought that they would score to tie it, but Deslauriers played outstanding all game. The most interesting thing to happen this period was Dustin Stevenson handily winning a fight with Syracuse Captain Mike Angelidis.

Third Period: With the feeling that one goal would not be enough vs. Syracuse, Brendan Mikkelson scores from a shot from the point while the Pens were on a power play. Yes, that’s right, two power play goals tonight from the Penguins whose special teams unit with the man advantage was 20th in the League, overall. Anyway, Evan Rankin scores on a slam dunk with 1:43 left to spoil any aspirations of a Deslauriers shutout. With a time out by Crunch Head Coach Rob Zettler and Desjardins pulled, Syracuse never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (25 saves on 26 shots) 2) Zack Torquato (goal, even) 1) Brendan Mikkelson (goal, -1)

Not listed was Barry Goers, who assisted on both goals.

Around the Division: Binghamton wins 3-2 in overtime over the Albany Devils. Norfolk wins 3-1 over Adirondack and Hershey loses 3-2 to Worcester.

Standings: Penguins 37 — Binghamton 35 — Norfolk 33 — Syracuse 28 — Hershey 27

Conference: 1) MCH (47) 2) SPR (43) 3) WBS (37) 4) ALB (37) 5) BNG (35) 6) PRO (34) 7) STJ (33) 8) NOR (33)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers win 3-2 in overtime at home vs. the Evansville IceMen.

SendtoNews Highlights: Are here. The Pens may run a YouTube highlight package, which I like better anyway because it plays nicer with my blog than the Java mess that is the SendToNews packaging. If they do and I remember to go back and look, I’ll throw up an edit.

Pens all split and head home for the Christmas break. Next game for Wilkes-Barre isn’t until next Friday at home when they host the Norfolk Admirals. There may not be a lot to blog about until then. The Week 12 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankins will be on the blog Monday at 4. That may be the only thing this week unless I get some kind of content that I feel would be good fodder for the blog during the downtime.

Let’s Go Pens!

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It was bound to happen.

The Penguins finally are starting to feel the ill affects of having half of their offense in Pittsburgh on recall. That, and the third period magic that flat out wins Wilkes-Barre games wasn’t enough to get by a determined Worcester team who skate into town and skate out of it 4-2 winners tonight.

The Penguins outshoot the Sharks 25-20 tonight, with 17 of those shots coming in the third period alone. Now, I’m not going to go all pessimistic on a team that is essentially a rag tag group of ECHL call-ups at this point held together with some rusty wire, but ask yourself the following question, if this was Hershey tonight is the result / shot total any different? I think it might be. You have to play a full 60 minutes and I don’t think any Penguin tonight who played will tell you that they played a full 60 minute game tonight.

Eric Hartzell vs. Harri Sateri.

No healthy scratches for the Pens tonight. It was all hands on deck.

First Period: Sharks come out and just catch the Penguins flatfooted. Outshooting them 10-3 for the period on the shot chart and 1-0 on the scoreboard on a Freddie Hamilton power play goal.

Second Period: You know its a bad night when Jimmy Bonneau, known more for his fists than his wrists, goes bar down and in on you to make it 2-0 Sharks. Penguins got completely bottled up by the Sharks to this point. The prime area seemed to be the slot, where no Penguin player ever was, as Worcester wouldn’t allow them.

Third Period: Penguins come out the sharpest they’d been to date and force the Sharks into multiple icings. But, Worcester would get the backbreaker as Marek Viedensky would deflect a shot from the point past Hartzell and in for a 3-0 Sharks lead.

Penguins continues the onslaught though, Sateri denies Paul Thompson point blank. Finally, Nick Drazenovic did this:

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Yeah, it was a penalty shot goal. After not scoring two in the span of like, 10 years, the Penguins score two in a month. Weird.

Anyway, it wouldn’t be enough, as Sateri would continue to make great saves and Worcester hit an empty net from center ice to seal it.

Three Stars: 3) Nick Drazenovic (penalty shot goal, +1) 2) Harri Sateri (24 saves on 25 shots) and 1) Marek Viedensky (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Binghamton’s seven game losing streak is over, winners 5-2 in Syracuse. Norfolk loses 5-4 to the Adirondack Phantoms. Hershey was off.

Standings: Penguins 35 — Binghamton 33 — Norfolk 31 — Syracuse 28 — Hershey 27

Conference: 1) MCH (45) 2) SPR (41) 3) WBS (35) 4) ALB (36) 5) BNG (33) 6) PRO (33) 7) STJ (33) 8) NOR (31)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fared no better tonight being pillaged with call ups of there own here. Wheeling loses 6-3. Chaz Johnson had a goal in the loss.

SendToNews Highlights: Here they are.

Pens stay home and welcome in the Syracuse Crunch tomorrow at 7:05. Gameday hits the blog at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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In a game delayed about 30 minutes for an ice issue (a zamboni ran over a puck after warmups during the flood and put a rink long gash in the ice) about 6″ of snow in Wilkes-Barre and Nick D’Agostino’s first pro goal and Eric Hartzell’s second AHL shutout, this 1-0 Wilkes-Barre win made for a nice birthday present.

But the eyes of the Wilkes-Barre world will be turning to Pittsburgh again, rather the eyes of the Pittsburgh world will be turning to Wilkes-Barre again, most likely taking two defensemen and possibly a forward.

Wait, huh?!?

Kris Letang was a late injury scratch, Deryk Engelland has an in-person hearing this week for a hit in Pittsburgh’s game against Detroit on Justin Abdelkader and Evgeni Malkin left the game with an apparent leg or lower body injury.

Great. Just great.

But I am taking a stance that I don’t care if injuries or suspensions occur. I don’t. What can you do about them? Nothing. Just let it happen and pray that it doesn’t.

Eventually, bodies heal. All of this time spent in the NHL will be excellent experience for the key elements of this Wilkes-Barre team and we will be better than ever.

Wait. We lead the East Division by four points now.

Bring it on.

As you can see, I’m stalling for space because there really wasn’t a whole heck of a lot to write about tonight. Nick D’Agostino scored on the tail end of a power play for the Penguins just past midway of the third period. The Penguins, in the third, doubled their shot total through the previous 40 minutes of play. The 21-18 shot comparison was a lot farther in favor of the Comets than it looked because the Pens only had 9 shots through two periods. They finally snapped out of what ever it was that it was keeping them from taking control of the game in their best period of hockey.

Hartzell, who is turning out to be a fiery competitor, stopped 21 shots for his second shutout of the season. He may be playing himself into the #1 role here in Wilkes-Barre.

Personnel wise, Reid McNeill injured himself in last nights game and is out again so Barry Goers made his WBS debut. CJ Severyn took warmups but was scratched.

Around the Division: Binghamton is heading in the wrong direction, losing 7-4 to the Hershey Bears. Syracuse wins by its own 1-0 score tonight against Rochester and Norfolk loses 5-2 to Springfield.

Division: Penguins 35 — Binghamton 31 — Norfolk 30 — Syracuse 27 — Hershey 25

Conference: 1) MCH (41) 2) SPR (39) 3) WBS (35) 4) ALB (36) 5) STJ (33) 6) PRO (32) 7) BNG (31) 8) NOR (30)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose in a shootout to the Florida Everblades by a score of 5-4. Zack Torquato had a goal and two assists. Carter Rowney had three assists for the Nailers.

SendToNews Highlights: I like the YouTube embeds better, but you can click here for the SendToNews package, which in essence is the same thing.

Pittsburgh plays again Monday, so if recalls are made, I’ll have a blurb about it here Sunday. Week 11 AHL Power Rankings out Monday at 4 pm also.

Let’s Go Pens!!