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Penguins do something twice in about 42 minutes that they did twice in 42 games. They scored two shorthanded goals and a power play goal and roll the Manchester Monarchs by a score of 4-1.

Big game in the scope of things because the Monarchs and Penguins are nearly step-for-step with one another records wise and since the top eight in the conference make the playoffs, it’s a bigger win than you think at this point in the season.

Before we get going, congrats to Brad Thiessen for being named Goaltender of the Month for the month of January. He joins Jeff Zatkoff as prior winners of the award this season. Zatkoff won it in November.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Peter Maninno

Lineup Notes: Tom Kostopoulos played his 1,000th regular season game. Mark Eaton was the veteran scratch. Cody Wild took warmups but was scratched. Paul Thompson, Beau Bennett and Phil Dupuis were all injury scratches.

First Period: No scoring. Manchester is a quick team. They get the puck, take the puck and bang, they are gone. The Penguins were reacting to this and adjusting to it as time went on.

Second Period: Power play to the Penguins and Joe Morrow gets the puck at the far faceoff dot and fires it home past Mannino to make it a 1-0 Penguins lead. Then, the Penguins fail to clear their own zone and Brian Gibbons takes a tripping call. The Penguins put the puck all the way down the ice to Mannino, Trevor Smith pursues the puck by himself and goes essentially takes on the entire Manchester team. They stood around and watched him take a shot, get his rebound and put the puck in to put the Pens up 2-0.

Then, this happened during intermission…

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Moving on.

Third Period: Riley Holzapfel off on a trip, Zach Sill picks off a center ice pass and skates in on a break and scores to make it 3-0. 42 games, two shorthanded goals. 42 minutes, two shorthanded goals. Later, Adam Payerl takes a shot that rebounds to Holzapfel and he corrals it and wrists it home to make it 4-0. Manchester responds the next shift with Vincent LoVerde with a wrist shot from just under the blue line to break up the shutout bid for Zatkoff.

Overall, a great showing by the Pens. They could have had their doors blown in from Manchester’s speed, but adjusted and used special teams to win.

Three Stars: 3) Joe Morrow (goal, +2) 2) Zach Sill (goal, +2) and 1) Trevor Smith (goal, +1)

A forgettable game by Chris Barton, fresh from recall to the Wheeling Nailers. 6 PIMs, including a delayed penalty where he just skated down and ran over Mannino. You aren’t going to endear yourself to this fanbase or the coaching staff by doing that.

Around the Division: Everyone lost. Binghamton to St. John’s on the Rock 4-2, Syracuse to Springfield 5-3 and Norfolk to Adirondack 5-2. Hershey was idle.

Standings: Binghamton 58 — Syracuse 56 — Penguins 47 — Hershey 44 — Norfolk 39

Conference: 1) BNG (58) 2) SPR (58) 3) POR (54) 4) SYR (56) 5) PRO (51) 6) WBS (47) 7) WOR (46) 8) MCH (46)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost 2-1 at home to the Reading Royals.

SendToNews Highlights: Packaged right here for your viewing enjoyment.

Pens welcome the Adirondack Phantoms in tomorrow for a Saturday night game which will be on TV. Gameday for that will be up on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Shoot the puck.

That was the message delivered this morning by head coach John Hynes to his team.

Shoot the puck.

It worked.

The Penguins roll into Toronto and sweep the season series from the Marlies winning this afternoon 3-1. They hit the All-Star break winners of six of their last seven games.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Mark Owuya

Joey Mormina, Cody Wild, Beau Bennett and Steve MacIntyre were the scratches. Warren Peters returned from injury and Dominik Uher replaced Steve MacIntyre.

First Period: If the Penguins lose this game, it is because they were handed four straight power plays and could do nothing with them, including a 5-on-3 for 1:23 that saw a turnover by the defensive pairing of Alex Grant and Brian Dumoulin and a shorthanded chance by the Marlies. John Hynes even used his timeout to draw something up during the extended 5-0n-3, but the Pens and Marlies went scoreless.

Second Period: Bobby Farnham gets in the way of an Alex Grant slapshot and takes a puck off an unprotected area on his leg. He’d turn out to be fine. The Penguins were throwing everything at Owuya. He wasn’t necessarily sharp, but the shots offered by the Penguins made it easy on him to save. Finally, Riley Holzapfel dangles the puck like a yo-yo and scored to put the Penguins out ahead 1-0.

The Penguins would continue to throw everything at Owuya. It was at this point that he was sharp, because he would stop three or four shots every sequence. Second period shots on goal were 19-3 in favor of the Penguins, just one off the season high.

Third Period: Tim Connolly, down from the NHL, has two goals in two games. Well, make it three goals in three games. At the top of the slot on the power play, he wrists one past Zatkoff to even things up at one a piece.

At this point, maybe six games ago, the Pens allow the floodgates to open and the opposing team to dance and dangle all over them and continue to put in goals. Not so.

:59 later, Paul Thompson picks off a Toronto clearing bid and puts a shot on Owuya that he fumbles with the glove and lets into the goal to put the Penguins up 2-1. Then, on the power play, Adam Payerl chases down his own rebound and scores to put the Penguins up 3-1. It would be all the run support that Zatkoff would need, as with Owuya pulled the Marlies generated good chances but couldn’t stick one past Zatkoff.

Three Stars: 3) Adam Payerl (goal, even) 2) Riley Holzapfel (goal, +1) 1) Jeff Zatkoff (27 saves on 28 shots)

Notes: Tom Kostopoulos has really helped guys like Payerl and Zach Sill. Payerl had six shots on goal this game alone, mostly from passes from Kostopoulos. … Marlies were an AHL best 13-2-0-1 at home coming into this game. … Three Marlies players made their AHL debuts today from the ECHL.

Around the Division: We were all watching the wrong game tonight as there was a goalie fight in Syracuse tonight as the Crunch triple up the St. John’s IceCaps by a score of 6-3. Binghamton beats Hershey in a shootout 3-2 and Norfolk whitewashes Bridgeport 5-0.

Standings: Binghamton 58 — Syracuse 56 — Penguins 45 — Hershey 44 — Norfolk 39

Conference: 1) BNG (58) 2) SPR (56) 3) POR (52) 4) SYR (56) 5) PRO (47) 6) MCH (46) 7) WBS (45) 8) WOR (45)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 3-2 in Trenton tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: Aren’t up yet. May not be, I’ll check again in the morning.

Penguins break now for the All-Star break. I will be heading to Providence tomorrow and pinch hitting for Tom Venesky from the Times Leader and writing stories for that newspaper for Monday and Tuesday. Make sure you pick up a copy. I’ll probably have stuff here for the blog as well.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Take the tape of all the defensive plays and burn them.

A forgettable defensive effort tonight by Wilkes-Barre and they lose tonight 4-2 in Rochester.

Rochester is one of the highest scoring teams in the AHL, averaging 3.44 goals a game. Coaching knows this. The players know this. The effort just was not there tonight defensively. Hopefully its a learning experience and you move on.

Brad Thiessen vs. David Leggio

Lineup Notes: Chad Kolarik started on the second line with Brian Gibbons. He and Gibbons worked well tonight. Beau Bennett is still battling the flu and also has a small lower body injury. His status for All-Stars at Providence is up in the air. Philippe Dupuis didn’t take morning skate in the morning and should be ready after the All-Star break. Cody Wild has the flu. Warren Peters is on the cusp of returning. He may tomorrow. Dom Uher took warmups but was scratched.

First Period: In his very first shift, on his very first shot, newcomer Chad Kolarik scores a goal for the Penguins to push Wilkes-Barre out to a 1-0 lead. Kolarik’s impact could be felt almost immediately, with his vision making the players around him better. No scoring the remainder of the period, mainly because the goalies were sharp.

Second Period: Nightmare period for Wilkes-Barre. Mark Pysyk blows by a D-man and wrists one past Thiessen to tie the game. Later, Tom Kostopoulos keeps a puck in and throws it at the net, Adam Payerl hacks and whacks at it and Zach Sill swoops in from out of nowhere to push the Pens out ahead 2-1.

Then, with the Amerks on a power play, Mark Mancari throws a puck cross ice that deflects off of the skate of Brian Flynn and into Thiessen’s net. That one surprised everyone. Then, Phil Varone wheels around the net, gets a step on Joe Morrow, passes to Adam Pardy who one times the puck home past Thiessen to put the Amerks out front 3-2. Then, with 7.2 seconds left and two Penguins draped all over him, Kevin Sundher scores a wrist shot after falling down to make it 4-2.

It would be the second time this season that the Penguins gave up four goals in the period. Three goals in the final six and a half minutes, too.

Third Period: Jeff Zatkoff comes in to relieve Thiessen. Amerks play prevent defense, allow the Penguins 10 shots on goal, Leggio stops all of them. Penguins pull Zatkoff late, but don’t score a goal.

Three Stars: 3) Adam Pardy (goal, +1) 2) Mark Mancari (two assists, +2) and 1) Mark Pysyk (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton beats Syracuse in Syracuse 1-0. St. John’s beats Hershey 3-1 and Norfolk beats Bridgeport 2-1.

Standings: Binghamton 56 — Syracuse — 54 — Penguins — 43 — Hershey 43 — Norfolk 37

Conference: 1) BNG (56) 2) SPR (56) 3) POR (50) 4) SYR (54) 5) MCH (46) 6) PRO (45) 7) WOR (44) 8) WBS (43)

Wheeling Update: Nailers beat the Bakersfield Condors with FOUR defensemen tonight 3-2 at home.

SendToNews Highlights: Rochester hasn’t posted them yet. I’ll check again in the morning.

Penguins are in Toronto for a 5 p.m. start. Gameday setup will be here tomorrow at 1 p.m.