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Yep. This one felt like a playoff game.

But it’s only both teams second game of a 76 game journey.

Not to mention the first of a dozen meetings.

Penguins get yet another third period push and skate past the Hershey Bears tonight by a score of 3-1.

Two old faces are really making an impact on this team. They are Jeff Deslauriers, who was stellar in goal tonight for the Penguins, robbing the Bears of  many chances and Chris Conner, who just makes players like Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons that much better on the ice. Conner buried a drop pass from Gibbons on a breakaway to push the Penguins up 2-1 late in the third. Gibbons finished a cross ice pass from Megna in the second while shorthanded to tie the game for the Pens.

Zach Sill buried any chances of a Bears comeback late when Dominik Uher wheeled around the Hershey net and fed Sill who picked a corner.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. David Leggio.

Lineup notes: Bobby Farnham took warmups, but with Joel Rechlicz scratched on the other side, did not play. Paul Thompson did not dress either.

After a scoreless first filled with a lot of back and forth and a few near misses for both sides, Penguin Killer Tomas Kundratek scored for the Bears early in the second.

Tom Kostopoulos took a penalty, and the Bears right here could have buried the Penguins. Instead Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons work shorthanded magic and Gibbons finishes off a pass from Megna to tie the score at one a side.

Real high intensity, end to end hockey between the two clubs after forty minutes of play.

Jeff Deslauriers and David Leggio were stealing the show, both making stunning saves for their respective clubs. Leggio on Chris Conner on a mini breakaway and Deslauriers time after time for the Penguins. Deslauriers was the reason the Penguins were in the game this late on into the third period.

As always between these two teams, things boiled over. Game had a powder keg feel to it at the time, like one shot or one kit would blow things up in favor of the team that shot or the team that threw the big hit.

Brian Gibbons steals a Hershey D-to-D pass, skates in, drops to a trailing Chris Conner, who buries it to push the Pens up 2-1.

1:25 later, Zach Sill picks a corner off a feed from Dominik Uher to seal it for the Penguins late. It seemed to me that the Pens kept pushing after the goal because you knew Hershey was going to make it interesting but instead they stalled out and the Penguins took advantage.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (18 saves on 19 shots) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Chris Conner (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton avenges a 5-0 whooping the night before by the Norfolk Admirals and win 4-1. Syracuse thumps Rochester 5-1.

Standings: Norfolk 5 — Penguins 4 — Binghamton 4 — Syracuse 3 — Hershey 1

Conference: Hartford and Manchester have 7, Norfolk and Providence 5, Penguins, Springfield, Binghamton 4, Syracuse 3 are your Top 8.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are still in preseason. They lose 6-2 to the Fort Wayne Komets in Indiana. Local product Patrick McGrath with 9 PIMs, including a fight.

Pens back at it Sunday afternoon in Syracuse at 5 p.m. for another huge test against a division rival. Gameday for that will be up at 1 p.m. here on the blog.

Let’s Go Pens!

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After a deadlocked 40 minutes, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins score two goals in :11 and cruise to a 5-2 victory in Bridgeport and are on pace for a 76-0 record.

Alright, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Chris Conner and Harry Zolnierczyk both scored two goals a piece and are on pace to score 152 goals this season.

Okay, now I am just being silly.

Pens played a fundamentally sound game all night, caught the Sound Tigers napping for :11 in the third period, and won the hockey game. Jeff Deslauriers was sharp when he needed to be. Defense looked sharp. Promising start to the very young year.

The aforementioned Jeff Deslauriers vs. Anders Nilsson

Lines looked like this:

Kuhnhackl-Ebbett-Conner
Kostopoulos-Drazenovic-Thompson
Zolnierczyk-Gibbons-Megna
Leblond-Sill-Uher

Despres-Samuelsson
Harrington-Mikkelson
McNeill-D’Agostino

Deslauriers-Hartzell

Scratches were Peter Mannino, Peter Merth, Brian Dumoulin, Mike Carman, Anton Zlobin, Dustin Stevenson, Harrison Ruopp,, Bobby Farnham and Adam Payerl.

Payerl was an interesting scratch. After being arguably the best player for the Penguins in the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs last season, he found himself a scratch in Game 1. Jonathan had some thoughts on this, indicating that Dom Uher essentially beat out Payerl for the spot.

First Period: Penguins jumped all over the Sound Tigers in the the opening twenty, they got an early power play but weren’t able to score. Unfazed by taking a penalty of their own, they continued to pressure Bridgeport. Then, Scott Harrington scored the first goal of the season then Tom Kostopoulos won a faceoff to Harrington’s left. Harrington jumped on the loose puck and had only the goaltender in front of him, shot and it went in.

Pierre Leblond fought Brett Gallant. Leblond was bloodied in the fight which was a draw.

First period was all Penguins really. Anything that the Sound Tigers threw at the Pens, Wilkes-Barre had an answer for.

Jeff Deslauriers had a heck of a save on a Ryan Stome shot when Simon Despres turned the puck over.

Second Period: Complete opposite of the first. All Sound Tigers. Anders Lee scored when Jeff Deslauriers was thinking poke check. Then, Kirill Kabanov finishes off a tic tac toe pass to him to push the Sound Tigers up 2-1 on a power play. Penguins go on a power play late, Brendan Mikkelson shoots from the top of the blue line and Chris Conner is right out in front to deflect the puck home to tie the score at two with 2.1 left in the period.

Third Period: Penguins didn’t register a shot 8:23 in the period in what I called at the time a winnable game for both sides at the time. Then, Chris Conner and Brian Gibbons work a 2-on-1 and Conner finishes off a pass from Gibbons to make it 3-2 Penguins. It’s going to be nice to see these two speedsters work together all season long.

Then, :11 later, Andrew Ebbett wheels around the Sound Tigers net, passes to Harry Zolnierczyk who scores to make it 4-2. Two quick bang-bang goals by the Penguins. Zolnierczyk then scored again when he looked off Tom Kuhnhackl on another 2-on-1 and shot it past Nilsson to make it 5-2 Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (21 saves on 23 shots) 2) Harry Zolnierczyk (two goals, +2) and 1) Chris Conner (two goals, +1)

So a good win to start the year. A winnable game for both teams half way through the third period. Penguins step on the gas and blow it open. You want to see this trend continue.

Around the Division: Norfolk wins 3-2 up in Hartford in a shootout. Binghamton, down 3-1 at home vs. Syracuse, rally and win 4-3 in overtime. Hershey loses in overtime to the Adirondack Phantoms 4-3.

Standings: With points for every team tonight, it’s WBS / NOR and BNG with 2 points and SYR and HER with 1 point.

Conference: Will not recap a bunch of 2’s and 1’s and 0’s until the first team in the conference reaches 10 points.

SendToNews Highlights: Will throw a late edit up Sunday if they go up.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in preseason. They lost 5-4 to the Elmira Jackals. Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath had a goal and a fight in the loss.

Pens get a week off to rest and ready for their home opener next Saturday vs. Hershey.

Let’s Go Pens!