I mentioned this in the game story that I filed for The Citizens’ Voice that the Penguins master the Bears in their own barn for nearly two years and now have lost four straight going back to last year. I also mentioned that the Pens have pretty much mastered teams while on the penalty kill but haven’t figured out the Bears special teams yet.

The Pens lost tonight 4-1. The defense corps looks pretty anemic right now. That didn’t make the game story, obviously cause it’s my opinion.

Anyway, I am writing this just after 10:20, 10 minutes before my self imposed deadline. No quotes from players or coaches, just writing. I have to say I was nervous, and don’t know how guys like JB and the like do it.

Brad Thiessen vs. Braden Holtby — Keven Veilleux and Philip Samuelsson were in for Steve MacIntyre and Brian Strait

First Period: Garrett Mitchell picks the pocket of Brian Dumoulin. Dumoulin hooks him on the breakaway. Referee Geoff Miller signals penalty shot. Mitchell scores on his attempt. Thiessen has been involved in two of the eight penalty shots awarded in the AHL and stopped one of them.

Second Period: Pens draw even when Beau Bennett setup Trevor Smith. This was all predicated by the physicality ramping up. There were fights. Joe Morrow involved in his first with tough guy Matt Clackson. You almost got the feel that things were going to turn bad. The Pens prevailed and tied the score though. Then, Mitchell again. A low angle backhander that goes in and out in the upper right hand corner of Thiessen’s net. I knew it was a goal when I saw it. It was ruled no goal at the time but Miller went and had a look at it and ruled goal. Then with .4 seconds remaining, Tomas Kundratek scored a goal off a bouncing rebound from a shot from Garrett Stafford.

Third Period: Nothing doing for the Pens offensively. Boyd Kane hits an empty net goal from center ice with Thiessen pulled.

Three Stars: 3) Braden Holtby (23 saves on 24 shots) 2) Tomas Kundratek (goal, +1) and 1) Garrett Mitchell (two goals, +3)

Around the Division: Binghamton beats Rochester 3-2 and Norfolk loses to Springfield 5-2. Syracuse drops Adirondack by a score of 5-2 and the Crunch are the first team to 20 points in the East Division.

Standings: Syracuse 20 — Binghamton 16 — Penguins 16 — Norfolk 14 — Hershey 13

Conference: 1) SPR (22) 2) SYR (20) 3) WOR (16) 4) BRI (18) 5) BNG 16) 6) WBS (16) 7) MCH 15 8) POR (14)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lost 6-1 in Toledo tonight. Patrick Killeen drubbed for all 6 Walleye goals.

SendToNews Highlights: Haven’t been uploaded by the Bears yet. If I see it Sunday, I’ll throw a link up here. edit: here they are

Pens have off until Wednesday when they face off against the Bears in Hershey.

Penguins get three power play goals from Eric Tangradi and Jeff Zatkoff continues to be a rock wall in net as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers by a score of 3-1.

I really don’t know who was more of a story in this game. You have Tangradi scoring a hat trick, the Penguins special teams unit scoring three power play goals in the game or Jeff Zatkoff who was pretty much awesome in the third period keeping the Sound Tigers out of his net. Since there is no “I” in team, you can say yes to all three.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Kevin Poulin – Brian Strait returned from scratchdom. Brian Gibbons took warmups and was scratched again. Keven Veilleux did not take warmups and was a scratch. I am very curious to see what is up with that.

First Period: Tangradi wastes no time in getting the Penguins on the board. After getting cross checked into the boards by Bridgeport’s Travis Hamonic, Trevor Smith centered Tangradi who snuck it past Poulin to put the Pens on the board first. Penguins did not let up. It seemed that whenever a Sound Tiger touched a puck, there were three Penguins in the vicinity to take the puck off of him. Later, on a power play, Johan Sundstrom finishes off a nice passing sequence to tie it at one apiece. Even later on a power play, Beau Bennett skates out from behind the goal line and passes to Benn Ferriero who passes to Tangradi who scores his second.

Second Period: Heard someone say in my section that Simon Despres takes a lot of silly penalties. Well, they were right. He high sticks Ty Wishart and took his 21st PIM of the season, second to only Brian Strait for the WBS defense who was a healthy scratch last game. I personally don’t think Despres will ever get scratched, but it is worth noting. Regardless, the infraction was killed. Penguins really ramped up the physicality this period just mugging Bridgeport whenever they came close to a puck. On yet another power play, Brian Dumoulin wrister from the point gets deflected in past Poulin by Tangradi for the hat trick. Initially, there was confusion on who scored it, but I heard the tip and knew it was Tangradi’s hat trick.

Third Period: Bridgeport really ran over the Pens this period. Here’s where Jeff Zatkoff earned his postgame meal because it really could have been a tie game on several occasions. It essentially was a reverse of the first forty minutes for the Penguins. Thankfully for the Penguins, no Sound Tiger was able to get one past Zatkoff.

Three Stars: 3) Trevor Smith (two assists, even) 2) Benn Ferriero (two assists, even) and 1) Eric Tangradi (hat trick, even)

See I would have replaced either Ferriero or Smith with Zatkoff. He deserved a star tonight for his work in the third period alone.

Around the Division: Syracuse beats Hershey 6-1. Braden Holtby started the game, but was chased in the second after allowing four straight Crunch goals. Binghamton beat Adirondack 5-2. Norfolk loses to Springfield in Virginia 3-2

Standings: Syracuse 18 — Penguins 16 — Binghamton 14 — Norfolk 14 — Hershey 11

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight, tomorrow they play the Toledo Walleye in Toledo.

Conference: 1) SPR (20) 2) SYR (18) 3) WOR (16) 4) BRI (16) 5) WBS (16) 6) MCH (15) 7) BNG (14) 8) POR (14)

SendToNews Highlights: Have Tangradi’s first goal and Johan Sundstrom’s only goal.

Penguins travel to Hershey tomorrow for a date with the Bears at 7. Gameday for that will be here at 3 p.m.

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I will be making the trip. Not as a fan, but as Jonathan Bombulie’s proxy. Yes, you read that right, I will be covering the game and writing a story for The Citizens Voice for Sunday’s paper. I was honored when Chris Roy from the Maine Hockey Journal asked me to write for him last Saturday. To have Jonathan Bombulie, who I consider one of the best at what he does, ask me, a yak with a blog and too much time on his hands, to write and cover for him is humbling.

Look for my tweets of the game tomorrow. I’ll be “reporting” on the game and not “cheering” on the game. Then make sure you buy a paper Sunday.

There is a lot about this Springfield Falcons team that makes you go, “wow” – some examples:

–> Top 5 in both penalty kill (4th) and power play (5th) coming into tonight.
–> Not a single player on the roster a minus in +/-.
–> Five players with 10 or more points. Comparatively, the Penguins have none.
–> Team with the fewest goals allowed (17) coming into tonight.
–> Have a goaltender in Curtis McElhinney which leads the AHL in shutouts, and  many other statistical categories.

Someone forgot to tell Beau Bennett.

Riding two goals from the rookie, the Pens hold on and defeat the Springfield Falcons 2-1 tonight dealing the Falcons just their second loss of the season in regulation. It may be too early in the season to call this a “statement game” but by all senses of the word, it was. The Penguins played a solid 60 minutes of hockey this evening and they won the game.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Curtis McElhinney – Keven Veilleux made his debut, Brian Strait was benched scratched for this game.

First Period: By all accounts, the Penguins won this game in the first 15:40 of the period, as they did not allow the Falcons a shot on goal until then, meanwhile taking 11 or 12 of their own. It was a forechecking and puck possession clinic by the Penguins. They worked a full line change while in the Falcons offensive zone. Rookie Dominik Uher just grinded opponents, forechecking any Falcon player with the puck and driving them backwards. The Penguins did not score this period, but “worked the game backwards” it seemed by not allowing Springfield to do basically anything.

Second Period: Falcons, as you would expect, come out flying. Robert Bortuzzo takes an interference call. In the ensuing power play, Springfield registers five shots on goal. Later. Riley Holzapfel finds Beau Bennett camped out on the far dot and fires a long pass to him he deposits very quickly into the net behind McElhinney. Just a laser beam shot. More buzzing by Springfield. Penguins do not bat an eyelash. Again, Beau Bennett corrals a bouncing puck and scores his second of the night to make it 2-0.

About this period: According to the Falcons, this was the first game all year an opposing player has scored two goals in a game vs. the Falcons and Curtis McElhinney’s shutout streak ended at 166:40.

Third Period: This tweet sums up the period:

(replace “put” with out – I often misspell words when tweeting a game on my iPhone)

And this one, but with a few other players too, but this one stuck out:

–

Rinse and repeat all period. Falcons took 11 shots this frame and finally got one with 1:47 to go when Nick Holden fired a shot from just below the blueline that Tomas Kubalik deflected.

Falcons, with McElhinney pulled, never got the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Zatkoff (25 saves on 26 shots) 2) Riley Holzapfel (two assists, +2) and 1) Beau Bennett (two goals, +2)

Keven Veilleux looked okay in his first game back and fought Dalton Prout in the first period and earned a takedown.

The Penguins are over .500 for the first time all season.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Syracuse 16 — Norfolk 14 — Penguins 14 — Binghamton 12 — Hershey 11

Conference: 1) SPR (18) 2) SYR (16) 3) WOR (16) 4) BRI (16) 5) MCH (15) 6) NOR (14) 7) WBS (14) 8) BNG (12)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendtoNews Highlights: Are here. This is a new thing that I am incorporating, so the video highlights may be uploaded later.

Penguins back at it Friday when they welcome the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Gameday for that will be up here on the blog Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.