Last Game: Last night in Syracuse, the Pens won 5-3. Simon Despres had a goal and two assists and was named first star of the game. For Hershey, they played in Charlotte on Thursday and beat the Checkers 8-1. Casey Wellman had a hat trick.
Last Meeting: November 2 in Hershey, the Penguins score four unanswered goals and beat the Bears 4-2.
Record: For WBS: 9-3-0-2 (20 pts., 1st place East Division) For HER: 5-4-2-2 (14 pts., 5th place East Division)
Why you should care: Pens will need the same kind of effort from last night in Syracuse if they want to get by the Bears at home tonight.
Promotion(s): Team Photo – sponsored by Bayard (first 5,000 fans) / Adoption Awareness Night
Other Game to Watch: I’m going out West today and going with the white hot Abbotsford Heat squaring off against the Oklahoma City Barons in a rematch from last night.
Next Five Games: @ RCH 11/20, STJ 11/22, STJ 11/23, @ ADK 11/27, BNG 11/29
Comments Off on Kick Ya When You’re Down – Pens WIN 5-3
Posted by nafsnep on November 15, 2013
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The Crunch are missing some key pieces which got them to first place in the division.
No one in a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton sweater cared tonight.
Anchored by a strong performance by Simon Despres, the Penguins roll the Crunch 5-3 in Syracuse tonight.
I was “out” and didn’t tweet the game in its entirety. If you were in the blog earlier, you saw that I amassed a list of those who did and I will build this postgamer off of that.
First Period: Simon Despres gets the party going for the Penguins with a low shot that beat Helenius to give the Pens a 1-0 lead.
Then, a strange sequence. The Pens would take a penalty and Brian Gibbons on the next face off would draw the Crunch into a penalty. This happened twice in the period. Wilkes-Barre would get a goal on the first part of 4×4 when Jayson Megna, fresh from the NHL, would score to put the Pens ahead 2-0. Then, on the late back half of a Pens power play, Despres would throw it at the net ant it would deflect off of Gibbons for a 3-0 lead.
Second Period: Pens get some pushback from the Crunch when Vlad Namestnikov scored to put the Crunch in the board at 3–1. Then, Tom Kostopoulos would score to re-establish the three goal lead for the a Penguins. Late, with :18 left, Evan Rankin would score to cut the deficit in half for the Crunch. 4-2.
Third Period: Brian Gibbons scores top shelf to put the Pens back up three. Then Danick Gauthier scores to put the Crunch behind two. Felt like at this point time was not ticking down as much as the Pens would like. The a Pens also got caught standing, watching the Crunch battle and score their third goal.
Teams would trade power plays late. No dice. Crunch would pull Helenius but couldn’t capitalize.
With the win, the Penguins are back in front of the East Division.
Three Stars: 3) Vlad Namestnikov (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, two assists, even) and 1) Simon Despres (goal, assist, +2)
Last Game: Sunday in Springfield, the Penguinss lost 4-3. Simon Despres had two goals in the loss. For Syracuse, they last played on Saturday and beat the Norfolk Admirals 4-0. G Cedrick Desjardins pitched a 19 save shutout.
Last Meeting: November 6 in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins lost 4-3 in a shootout. Andrew Ebbett had two goals in the loss.
Record: For WBS: 8-3-0-2 (18 pts., 2nd place East Division) — For SYR: 9-3-1-0 (19 pts., 1st place East Division)
Why you should care: They don’t come any tougher than Syracuse in the division. The Penguins will need a full team effort to get by the Crunch tonight, something not seen the last two games.
Other Game to Watch: The Adirondack Phantoms are hot right now and travel to the Southern Tier of New York to square off against the equally hot Binghamton Senators.
Next Five Games: HER 11/16, @ RCH 11/20, STJ 11/22, STJ 11/23, @ ADK 11/27
Comments Off on This Isn’t a Potpourri Factory
Posted by nafsnep on November 14, 2013
Well, maybe it is.
Here’s a catch-you-up from the week that was….
— Steven Stamkos was hurt Monday playing in Boston. As a result, JT Brown and Dmitry Korobov were called up from Syracuse to help fill the void. Brown has always killed Wilkes-Barre in one way or another, so we will see what his absence does for the Crunch heading into the weekend and beyond.
— Ex-Penguin Keven Veilleux was loaned to the Elmira Jackals by the Portland Pirates. The Pirates’ ECHL affiliate is the Gwinnett Gladiators. This is an interesting move. The Jackals are in Wheeling tonight.
— Certified Penguin Killer Tomas Kundratek was sidelined Sunday in Hershey with an ACL tear. He will need surgery and is obviously out. The Bears come to Wilkes-Barre Saturday night.
Finally, I will not be able to tweet the Syracuse game tomorrow. But the blog will still be covered. I’m putting together a list of those who will tweet the game and will run it here Friday night. I will be able to listen to and most likely watch the game on AHL Live on my iPhone and most likely will have a recap here afterwards as always.
Comments Off on Penguins Clipped – Pens LOSE 4-3
Posted by nafsnep on November 10, 2013
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Penguins play a sloppy, undisciplined first period then have to claw their way back for the remainder of the game, tie the game, then lose late when ex-captain Ryan Craig gets two whacks at a rebound and puts it behind starting goaltender Jeff Deslauriers by a final score of 4-3.
One point to show this week for the Penguins after the shootout loss Wednesday to Syracuse and the regulation loss to Albany Friday.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. Jeremy Smith
Three lineup changes for the Penguins. Anton Zlobin (making his pro debut) Paul Thompson and Reid McNeil were in for the Pens and Tom Kuhnhack, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (out with a lower body injury per Mike O’Brien on pre game) and Nick D’Agostino.
First Period: Springfield gets four power plays in the period. What you need to know here is that they have scored on FOUR of those power plays in prior games all SEASON and scored TWO in the first period. Their power play was ranked dead last in the AHL. In todays first period, it didn’t look like it.
Tim Erixon on a shot where Deslauriers was screened and then Spencer Machacek on a tip of a Frederic St. Denis shot put the Falcons ahead 2-0.
Second Period: Simon Despres scores on a two on one rush to put the Pens behind by just one. Penguins slowly were coming to life, peppering Smith with shot after shot, but then Frederic St. Denis scores from the blue line on a shot that seemed to surprise Deslauriers as he may have been partially screened on that shot too.
Penalty filled period and overall game to this point. Since I rag on other real media outlets for complaining of referee’s calls, I won’t emulate the out of town act.
Third Period: The story of this week is going to be the Penguins inability to score on a 5-on-3 situation. Penguins got three looks at this situation but came up empty every time but for the Dumoulin goal late in the second period.
Simon Despres scored to tie the game as a five-on-three expired for the Penguins, who failed to even register a single shot on goal. Then, Craig scored late on a Darryl Boyce blast that the Springfield Captain gets two whacks on before it finally goes in past Deslauriers.
With the Wilkes-Barre net empty, the Penguins never found the equalizer.
Three Stars: 3) Simon Despres (two goals, +2) 2) Frederic St. Denis (goal, assist, even) and 1) Ryan Craig (game winning goal, assist, +1)
Last Game: On Friday, the Penguins lost 6-5 to the Albany Devils. Chris Conner had a goal and an assist and was named third star of the game. Springfield also played Friday and were shutout 3-0 by the Adirondack Phantoms.
Record: For WBS: 8-2-0-2 (18 pts., 2nd place East Division) — For SPR: 7-3-0-1 (15 pts., 3rd place Northeast Division)
Why you should care: Both teams are coming off of uncharacteristic bad losses from Friday. Should make for a compelling Sunday afternoon game.
Now you may look at the score and think it was a close game. You’d be wrong. The Devils controlled this game from the first second and never really looked back or stayed down. The Penguins didn’t help themselves any by sleepwalking though a good portion of the first half of the game. A sloppy, sloppy game all around from defense to goal.
Colin Riccobon is a sports anchor for the local TV news. He also moonlights on color with Mike O’Brien from time to time. He said at the end of the game that for the first time this season the Pens didn’t have their “all together game.” — That pretty much hit the nail on the proverbial head right there.
Peter Mannino vs. Keith Kincaid.
No lineup changes for the Penguins.
First Period: Dominik Uher in the penalty box and Reid Boucher cashes in the slot for a 1-0 Devils lead. Then, Rostislav Olesz snipes from a strange angle and it’s 2-0. Penguins sleepwalking, arisen a bit by a Harry Zolnierczyk goal to cut it to 2-1. But right after that, Sislo gets his first to put the Devils up by two again. They also exposed Mannino a bit as the Pens defense was hanging him out to dry.
Second Period: Scott Harrington scores on the power play to cut the deficit to one again. Then, the Penguins are given a power play. Wilkes-Barre is coming back, right? Wrong. Nick D’Agostino with a turnover and Mike Sislo makes it 4-2 on a shorthanded goal. Wait, Tom Kostopoulos scores on the power play anyway to make it 4-3 and the Pens trailed by one again!
At this point, the gloves were off. This was a slugfest.
Kelly Zajac scores a goal that Mannino should have had, it was 5-3 Albany.
Zach Sill did this:
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Then the Penguins found themselves with 1:17 of 5-on-3. They didn’t score. Let’s come back to this in a bit, shall we?
Third Period: Penguins score :24 apart, once from Mike Carman and once from Chris Conner and the score was tied. The Devils players were stunned. Don’t believe me?
Stunned, I tell you.
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Anyway, then the chances opened up for both sides. Brian Gibbons had a breakaway but was denied. Andrew Ebbett pounced on the rebound and was denied on the backhand. Then, Sislo completes his hat trick when his blast hits Deslauriers and is caromed in by Brendan Mikkeslon.
Penguins would then get ANOTHER five-on-three for 1:21. Here’s where I thought at the time that Head Coach John Hynes should have used his time out. You didn’t score on the last five-on-three you had earlier in the game and you NEED to score here to even it. He never did and the Pens didn’t score. Game over.
Notes: This is the first regulation loss for Jeff Deslauriers…..Albany was outscored 10-2 in their last three games, they came to play tonight.
Three Stars: 3) Chris Conner (goal, assist, even) 2) Reid Boucher (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Mike Sislo (three goals, assist, +3)
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