The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have made the Calder Cup Playoffs for the tenth straight year in row, defeating the Connecticut Whale in Hartford by a score of 3-0 behind a 32 save shutout by goaltender Scott Munroe and a three goal flurry in the first period spanning 2:11.

Scott Munroe vs. Chad Johnson – Cody Wild and Philip Samuelsson were in for the recalled Brian Strait and Simon Despres. Brandon DeFazio and Matt Rust were the scratches.

First Period: Penguins, on the power play, get a goal from Jason Williams on a backdoor feed from Colin McDonald. Then, Ben Street spun off a man, side stepped another and wired a slick wrist shot past Johnson to make it 2-0. Then, Cody Wilkd would collect his first goal of the season crashing the net and putting one past Johnson to make it 3-0. That goal would chase the Connecticut goalie in favor of Cameron Talbot. Pens would have to kill a 4:00 double minor for a Steve MacIntyre high stick. Connecticut would not get a shot on goal.

First Period Thoughts: Wow. Night and day from last weekend. Tom Grace said on radio that Coach John Hynes worked the team hard in practice and spent all week breaking down video. It worked. Pens looked like a totally different team.

Second Period: Whale come out with two quick chances but Munroe made some big time saves to keep them out of his net. Really the story of the night as the Pens did well in insulating him and he made the stops he needed to when called upon.

Third Period: More of the same from the Penguins just keeping the Whale in check, almost at arms length. When they got close, Munroe was there to deny them. Brian Gibbons was turned away by Talbot who really settled things down for the Whale. Munroe was seeing the puck through traffic late making a few big saves to preserve the shutout.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, +1) 2) Scott Munroe (32 save shutout) 1) Jason Williams (game winning goal, even)

Tom Grace stated that Brad Thiessen would get the net tomorrow night in Albany. If I am Hynes I go right back to Munroe. We will see.

Around the Division: Norfolk win 22 in a row in comeback fashion, 2-1, over the St. John’s IceCaps. Syracuse coughs up a 3-1 lead and lose 4-3 to the Adirondack Phantoms in overtime.

Standings: Norfolk 101 / Penguins 87 / Hershey 86 / Syracuse 74 / Binghamton 59.

Conference: 1-NOR (101) 2-STJ (86) 3-BRI (79) 4-WBS (87) 5-HER (86) 6-CT (77) 7-SYR (74) 8-MCH (73)

Penguins bus to Albany to take on the Devils tomorrow at 7. Gameday will be here tomorrow at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins finally win a game this weekend and beat the Springfield Falcons 5-3 this afternoon. Wilkes-Barre at times stifled the Falcons, limiting them to only nine shots on goal through two periods, but the Falcons pounced on defensive breakdowns by the Pens and scored three goals on them.

Patrick Killeen vs. Mike Clemente // Brandon DeFazio was scratched for Steve MacIntyre, who was back from his four game suspension.

First Period: Geoff Walker and Greg Amadio settled a score from the last game and fought at the opening face-off. Amadio got a takedown. MacIntyre took his first shift which was uneventful. Then, Springfield broke in on a 3-on-1 and scored when Matt Calvert snuck one past Kileen. Then, Jason Williams whacked in a rebound to finally end the goal less drought at just under 150 minutes. Then, something I never saw, referee Jarrod Ragusin calls Dalton Prout for diving, with no Penguin in the box for the trip you almost always see. Pens couldn’t do anything with it and it was off to the…

Second Period: Alex Giroux scored to push the Falcons up to 2-1. Then, Maksim Mayorov was awarded a penalty shot when Brian Strait put a hook on him, but Killeen made the save. Then, Ben Street was denied on two separate occasions by goaltender Clemente once on the far circle and again in the slot. Then, Dane Byers scores to make it 3-1 Falcons which was a slow developing three-on-one which ultimately ended a two-on-none. At this point it was three Falcons goals on seven Falcons shots. Penguins would hit a post on a power play then Bryan Lerg had a puck find him with a wide open net in front of him and cut the Springfield lead to one, making it 3-2.

Second Period Notes: The Giroux goal was his 700th AHL point, which makes him the 23rd player in AHL history to reach this plateau.

Third Period: Brian Gibbons would stuff one home in the periods opening stanza. The other way, Killeen had two big stops, then Alex Grant would unleash a bomb from the blue line which put the Pens out ahead. Falcons would pull Clemente late and would never find the equalizer. Brian Strait would backhand a puck in from center ice which found the empty net to seal it at 5-3.

Third Period Thoughts: Patrick Killeen stopped all 17 shots he faced and you can argue had a huge hand in the win, keeping Springfield out of the back of his net.

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (goal, assist, even) 2) Jason Williams (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Alex Grant (game winning goal, -1)

Around the Division: The Bears win six in a row and are a point back of the Penguins with a game in hand. They beat the Charlotte Checkers 3-2 in a shootout and are starting to look like the Bears of old, down 2-0 to comeback and win 3-2. only one other game featuring an East Division team with Binghamton running out of time in a 5-4 loss. At one point the B-Sens were down 5-1.

Standings: Norfolk 97 / Penguins 85 / Hershey 84 / Syracuse 71 / Binghamton 59

Conference: 1-NOR (97) 2-StJ (86) 3-CT (77) 4-WBS (85) 5-HER (84) 6-BRI (75) 7-MCH (73) 8-SYR (71)

Magic Number: Was seven at the start of the day, looks to be five now. Syracuse in eighth was idle and Worcester in nine lost. Number looks like it is still 90 to clinch.

This Week: St. John’s is in Norfolk on Wednesday looking to end the Admirals 20 game win streak, the Bears travel to Binghamton. Penguins practice Tuesday, so I will probably have news and notes then, unless something jumps up which is relevant to blog about sooner.

Let’s Go Pens!