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J’ever show up late to something and ask, “what’d I miss?” and be told, “everything!” That’s how the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins felt when tonights game started. The Pens do nothing for 9:30, look flat as a pancake, allow the Bears to score three goals on them and before you knew it, starter Brad Thiessen was chased and Jeff Zatkoff was in.

Pens mounted a comeback the rest of the way, locking the Bears down and only allowing the Bears 9 more shots on goal, but the end result was a 3-2 loss on home ice to yet another divisional foe.

Bears goals in the first went like this: Boyd Kane spin-o-rama roof job on Thiessen to make it 1-0. Then Jeff Taffe in similar fashion and it’s 2-0. Later. Ryan Potulny under the bar and in. Referee Trevor Hanson reviewed it on replay and it stood and it was 3-0. Enter Zatkoff. Penguins settle, get a power play, no shots. Uh oh. Casey Wellman then boards Tom Kostopoulos. Another power play.

J’ever see something happen before it happens? That’s what this Penguin power play looked like. You could see the ferocious tenacity in the eyes of the Penguins. They were going to score. They just were. Sure enough, they did. Tom Kostopoulos scored his 100th goal as a WBS Penguin, his third straight and second on the power play. Penguins caught up in shots at nine a piece heading into the second.

The second period could best be described as a textbook way that you control the puck, pressure the opponent and back and fore check like madmen. That’s exactly what the Penguins did the entire period. The Bears only manage two shots on Zatkoff this period. Joey Mormina brings things to within one when the puck hits everything but the kitchen sink and clangs off the post and in. Wave after wave of pressure. All lines rolling.

Then three things happened the rest of the way home that didn’t really happen. Trevor Smith finds a cutting Riley Holzapfel towards the net. Holzapfel could not corral the puck on the back hand and it hops over his stick. Then, in the third period, Bobby Farnham shoots, Jayson Megna pounces on a rebound and Sabourin dives over to block it. Finally, in the dying minutes of the third Warren Peters has the game on his stick but is unable to control the puck and it skitters off his stick and out of his reach. Ballgame.

I thought Sabourin won the game for Hershey tonight. He was spectactular when he had to be.

Three stars were 3) Jeff Taffe (goal, even) 2) Joey Mormina (goal, -1) and 1) Ryan Potulny (game winning goal, +1)

How Sabourin didn’t earn a star was beyond me.

It is too late in the season to count this game as a “moral” victory. There are no more moral victories. The Penguins took 34 shots and allowed the Bears only 14. But the first 7 of those shots resulted in 3 goals. You have to be better than that. You just have to. Your biggest rival comes into your building with a game in hand on you and you let it be 3-0 before the game is 10 minutes old then fight like dogs just to get back even.

Anyway, here’s what happened outside of Wilkes-Barre:

Albany wins it’s third in a row by beating Syracuse 3-1 in Syracuse. The Devils are in town tomorrow night. The B-Sens beat Hamilton in the Steel CIty 3-2 and the Admirals beat the Charlotte Checkers (remember those guys?) 6-2 at home.

Standings: Syracuse 74 — Binghamton 69 — Penguins 61 — Hershey 60 — Norfolk 54

Conference: 1) SYR (74) 2) SPR (71) 3) PRO (68) 4) BNG (69) 5) POR (66) 6) WBS (61) 7) HER (60) 8) CT (59)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose at home to the Trenton Titans 3-2 in a shootout. Keven Veilleux had a goal and an assist and did not convert his shootout attempt.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here. Include Kostopoulos’ 100th goal as a Penguin.

Albany is in tomorrow on “Eric Tangradi Bobblehead” night. The good thing I guess that can be said here in this situation is that the Pens play seven non-divisional foes starting tomorrow and six of those seven on the road after tomorrow.

Gameday for tomorrows game vs. Albany will be here at 3. Check it out then then come back later for the “live tweet” feed.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Spot the Penguins three goals a game and plan the parade, baby. Here are three things you know going into to a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins game on any given night:

1) Either Jeff Zatkoff or Brad Thiessen have a legitimate chance at a shutout.
2) The defense is going to shut the other teams top line down.
3) The penalty kill is going to be rock solid.

Notice above that I mentioned defense and goaltending as my main points. I did not mention offense. There isn’t any. The Pens are relying on the defense and goaltending to get them through and hoping for a good bounce here and a good bounce there to muster enough offense to hopefully win a game for them.

Going back to the start of 2013, that’s 24 games if my late Wednesday night math is correct, the Penguins are 8-0 in games where they score three or more goals.

Driving home, I thought that it had to be scouting that prevents the Penguins from having success against the teams in the East Division. It isn’t that. It’s a total lack of offense. Maybe a bad break here and there mixed in, but the bottom line at the end of the day is that you need offense and goals to win games and right now the Penguins don’t have that. The power play is poop, 26th in the league at 13.7%. The offense is ranked 28th in the 30 team league at 2.35 goals a game and dead last in the Eastern Conference.

The Pens lost tonight 2-1 by the way. Tom Kostopoulos scored a rebound goal on a power play in the second period. Jeff Zatkoff took the loss, stopping 31 of 33.

Norfolk tied the game late in the second on a power play goal from Brandon McMillan shot that Zatkoff was heavily screened on. Then at just past the midway point of the third period, Dan Sexton and Ryan Parent work a puck off a Penguins defenseman and throw it at the net from a ridiculous angle. Josh Brittain gets a stick on it on the way by to put the Ads up front 2-1. With the anemic offense that is the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, that’s all they would require to skate away with the two points.

Penguins lose out on a golden opportunity to put distance between them and Hershey in the division and teams around them in the conference. The Penguins have now played 55 games and have 61 points. Providence, ahead of them in the conference has 53 games played with 66 points. Binghamton at the four seed has 53 games played and 67 points. Hershey has 54 games played and 58 points. Worcester and Albany at the nine and ten seeds have 52 and 51 games played and 56 and 54 points respectively.

No one else in the division skated. Wheeling lost 5-1 in Elmira.

SendToNews highlights aren’t up yet, here they are. I’ll have to link up in the morning.

Hershey is in Friday for a game which is more important now because of points and divisional / conference jockeying. Oh, and the Bears are upset over the last two games played against Wilkes-Barre and how we celebrated each overtime win. It’s dollar beer night, too. Should be a wild ride.

If I think of anything for the blog, I’ll have my idea first on Twitter then if I remember Facebook. If not, Gameday for Hershey will be up Friday at 3.

Let’s Score Some Goals Go Pens!

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Coming into this weekend, I had some trepidation about how the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins would fare, having been shutout on Friday and Sunday of last weekend’s action. Then, at some point, I re-read this entry I ran this past week and figured that we would be fine.

My inhibitions would prove false, as the Penguins win Sunday in Bridgeport 2-1 in a shootout.

Three games won 2-1 three different ways. 2-1 Friday in Philly against Adirondack, 2-1 in overtime at home against Connecticut and 2-1 in a shootout over the Sound Tigers.

This current Penguins roster isn’t exactly the ideal lineup that staff, front office and fans had visions of dancing in with when the season started. Your fourth line is basically a Wheeling line. The top line is really a second or third line as Paul Thompson and Philippe Dupuis are still out with injury. The only steady thing has been in goal. Brad Thiessen and Jeff Zatkoff have been rocks all season long and the defense has been there. The majority of playoff games are normally one goal affairs. Not saying that I would bet the house on the Pens in playoffs with this lineup, but as bodies heal the best, may be, yet to come.

Really dull games this weekend if you are looking for thrill a minute, in your face hockey. At the tail end of a three-in-three as both clubs were in this afternoon it was more of the same.

Brad Thiessen got the start and was opposed by Kenny Reiter, who has spent much of his time down in the ECHL with the Fort Wayne Komets. The only lineup change for the Pens was Reid McNeill in for Philip Samuelsson on defense.

First Period: Defensive gaffe by the Pens leads to a goal for Bridgeport. Aaron Ness picks a corner and the Sound Tigers were on the board. More shaky defense on the backend by the Penguins but Thiessen was there to make the saves. I got the sense early that the Sound Tigers wanted to get the early jump on the Penguins, much like the Pens wanted to do to the Crunch last Sunday. Pens had about a minute of 5-on-3 but weren’t able to materialize anything.

Second Period: A puck is dumped in the offensive zone. Brian Gibbons keeps it in along the back wall, he ultimately feeds Joe Morrow back at the point who walks in and fires it and Tom Kostopoulos tips it in to even the score at one. It was Kostopoulos’ 98th all time goal for the Penguins and first in over nine years.

Third Period: Really choppy period. Penguins had a scare late when Bridgeport had a late offensive push but again Thiessen was more than up to the challenge to keep the Penguins square at one. It was on to…

Overtime: Nothing to see here.

Shootout: Chad Kolarik and Riley Holzapfel. Thiessen stops four of five and the Pens hang on to win to complete the perfect weekend.

Three Stars: 3) Riley Holzapfel (shootout game winner ) 2) Kenny Reiter (26 saves on 27 shots) and 1) Brad Thiessen 34 saves on 35 shots)

Jonathan had this gem of a tweet:

Around the Division: Adirondack beats Binghamton at home 2-1. Syracuse blanks Connecticut 4-0 in Central New York and Hershey loses to Albany in Atlantic City 6-4.

Standings: Syracuse 72 — Binghamton 67 — Penguins 61 — Hershey 58 — Norfolk 50

Conference: 1) SYR (72) 2) SPR (67) 3) PRO (66) 4) BNG (67) 5) POR (64) 6) WBS (61) 7) HER (58) 8) CT (57)

SendToNews Highlights: Not up yet. I will check later.

Wheeling Update: Nailers shutout the Fort Wayne Komets in Indiana 1-0. Paul Crowder scored the lone goal of the contest.

Three other things to note which you may or may not find interest in. First, ex-WBS defenseman Carl Sneep is on his way up to the NHL, he earned a callup this afternoon. Second, it looks like the Calgary Flames could be pulling out of Abbotsford and heading to Utica, New York according to this report. Should be interesting to see how this develops. Finally, remember Hershey Bears goaltender Freddy Cassivi? He played in the Alumni Game in Hershey this past January. He also played today for the Reading Royals and made 21 saves in a 5-3 Royals loss to the Trenton Titans. Reason for this is because last night in Hershey backup goaltender Dany Sabourin was struck with an errant puck and needed stitches. The Bears recalled Brandon Anderson from Reading this morning.

Pens take to the ice again Wednesday at home vs. Norfolk. Hoping that the Penguins can keep this thing rolling.

Let’s Go Pens!