Pens up late 6-3 then cough up three unanswered Manchester goals and visions of Game 6 vs. Charlotte last year start dancing in my head. Pens take it to shootout and win, 7-6. They are now in sole possession of first in the East, two up on idle Norfolk, who plays in Binghamton tomorrow.

News o’ the day, which seemed to catch everyone off guard, was that Cal O’Reilly was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre from Pittsburgh. Here’s Jonathan Bombulie’s take from earlier, which I will cosign on. O’Reilly did not play tonight for Wilkes-Barre. Cody Chupp was recalled from Wheeling.

Scott Munroe vs. Jeff Zatkoff – scratches were Philip Samuelsson, Cody Wild, Matt Rust and Steve MacIntyre.

First Period: All Penguins. Forechecking had shots at 8-2 at the half way point.  Brian Strait turns the puck over to Justin Azevedo who scores on the third shot on goal for the Monarchs. Later, Stefan Legein scored a fluky goal to make it 2-0 on the Monarchs’ fifth shot on goal.

I tweeted at the end of the first that the score was not indicative of the effort, shots were 15-5 Pens and the Monarchs were 0/2 on the power play with no shot on goal during either man advantage.

Second Period: The jump wasn’t there to start for the Pens as Manchester had the first three shots on goal this frame and all good ones. Then Brandon DeFazio would score through a screen to put the Pens on the board. As a Penguins power play expired, Brian Gibbons would score to even things on a goal mouth scrum. Later, Jason Williams received a gorgeous pass from Colin McDonald which had like three Manchester players admiring it which Williams broke in on and backhanded it past Zatkoff to push the Pens ahead 3-2. Penguins, while on the power play, would be awarded a penalty shot when a Monarchs player covered the puck in the goal crease. Jason Williams took it and missed. Afterwards, Cody Chupp would get his first of the year from a nice centering pass from Brian Gibbons.

The period would end 4-2, and this would be the most productive second period of the season for the Pens. They scored three goals four separate times before this.

Third Period: Linden Vey would get a centering pass from Robert Czarnik he tapped in to bring Manchester to 4-3. Immediately thereafter, Jason Williams answers back to put the Pens out ahead by two goals. Almost right after that, Zach Sill would pick off a Zatkoff clearing attempt and scored to make it 6-3.

That goal chased Zatkoff. Martin Jones replaced him. That seemed to settle the Monarchs down some. Six minutes later, Robert Czarnik scored when the puck went in and out quickly. Referee Darcy Burchell immediately signaled goal, then went over to consult with the goal judge who confirmed it.

I had a strange feeling that this goal would be a tipping point of sorts for the Monarchs. Sometimes I hate when I am right. Linden Vey scored with 3:09 left to make it 6-5, then with Jones pulled Trent Hunter scored to tie it with less than a minute to go.

Overtime: Solved nothing. Hunter tried to end it, couldn’t. Then Street tried to do the same but it was off to the…

Shootout: Vey scored in the first round for the Monarchs. That was all for them. Lerg scored on his patented 650 deke move and Geoff Walker, who is perfect this season in shootouts, also scored and the Pens got the extra point.

Go back a second to the Williams penalty shot. I tweeted pre-game that the Pens have been involved in three of the last five penalty shots one way or another. Make it four for six now.

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (two assists, even) 2) Linden Vey (two goals, one assist, +5) 1) Jason Williams (two goals, +1)

Miscellany note: From the game sheet, looks like Manchester played a man down all night.

Around the Division: Hershey and Lake Erie squared off in the only other AHL game tonight. The Bears lost 4-3.

Standings: Pens outright number one for tonight at least with 71 points to Norfolk’s 69. Bears stuck at 67 points in third. Then it’s Syracuse 50, Binghamton 45.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-WBS (71) 3-CT (62) 4-NOR (69) 5-HER (67) 6-BRI (61) 7-MCH (59) 8-WOR (57)

Pens off tomorrow then Syracuse is in for a Saturday night game in front of a sold out crowd. Should be a fun one.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens get two power play goals when they need them and ride defense and sound all-around play to hold on and win this afternoon’s contest in Portland 5-3.

Lineup changes ruled the day with a cloud of questions at the start when it was announced that Eric Tangradi and Zach Sill were scratched. Tangradi was held out due to what Tom Grace called a “potential call-up” situation. (late edit: Tangradi has indeed been called up to Pittsburgh)

I’m not going to speculate what this means or could mean for Tangradi and his status as a Penguin. What I will say is he was awful in Albany and deserved to be sat, in my opinion.

DeFazio replaced Sill and MacIntyre replaced Tangradi. On defense, Simon Despres returned and took Cody Wild’s spot.

Scott Munroe vs. Justin Pogge

First Period: A back and forth, crisp period for two teams playing a 1 p.m. Monday game. Petersen had a good chance on Pogge but didn’t score. Shots were an even twelve leading into the…

Second Period: Pens would kill a carryover penalty from the first period then Nick Petersen would score on a rebound goal to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Then Tyler Eckford scored on a slapshot a few minutes later to bring things even at one. Afterwards, a Mathieu Beaudoin shot rebounded to Ryan Duncan who had essentially an empty net to shoot into to put the Pirates up 2-1. Then, the Pirates would take a too man men on the ice call and Geoff Walker would push the puck in past Pogge to even things at two. The Pens would buzz and Ben Street would earn two penalties when he walked around a man at the blueline, would get hooked then come in on Pogge and get hooked again. In the full two minute five on three, Bryan Lerg would be the recipient of a perfect tic-tac-toe pass to put the Pens up 3-2.

In hindsight, a huge period for the Pens. Start up the period with a goal, then go down 2-1 then get two power play goals to push ahead.

Third Period: Simon Despres would fall down then ultimately in the end get whistled for holding. In the power play, a Patrick O’Sullivan point shot would deflect off of the stick of Brett MacLean to even things at three a piece.  Then, Brian Strait would score a goal from the blueline on a slap shot on a delayed penalty call. Portland would push back hard but the Pens would not break. Ryan Craig would take a slashing call with 2:15 left. The Pirates would pull Pogge and Alex Picard, attempting to clear the puck out of his defensive zone would bank it off of the glass and into the empty net to seal it for the Pens.

Two quick things: Twentieth road win for the Pens this season and the Picard goal would end up being the 11th road shorthanded goal and 13th overall shorthanded goal which is the best in the AHL this season.

Three Stars: 3) Geoff Walker (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brett MacLean (goal, assist, even) 1) Brian Strait (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: They all watched us as no one else skated.

Standings: Penguins and Admirals are tied in points with 69 points each with 54 games played. Since the Admirals have more wins they are in first over the Pens. The Bears are in third with 67 points then it’s the Crunch with 48 points and then the Senators with 45.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-NOR (69) 3-CT (62) 4-WBS (69) 5-HER (67) 6-BRI (61) 7-MCH (58) 8-WOR (57)

I have a really big thing planned for the blog tomorrow. It’s a roundtable discussion between me, a Bears fan and an Admirals fan about what to expect over the last two months of the season. With the Penguins off until probably Wednesday, this will do well to carry the fodder on the blog until then. It will be out tomorrow on the blog at noon. Look out for that, some interesting answers from the five pack of questions I asked.

Let’s Go Pens!