Nine game winning streak comes to an end in Hershey today as the Pens lost 4-3 in a shootout. The Pens do get a point with the shootout loss and are now the outright leaders in the Eastern Conference. The Pens are four points up on the Hershey Bears for the division lead.

But, the St. John’s IceCaps have two games in hand on the Penguins and the Hershey Bears have one.

Scott Munroe vs. Braden Holtby – no lineup changes for the Penguins.

First Period: The Penguins mastery at scoring shorthanded goals would continue as Brandon DeFazio would pick off Chris Bourque at the blue line and skate in and score. This is the 12th shorthanded goal for the Pens this year, good for tops in the AHL. But the Bears continued to pressure as the Pens were too cute in their own defensive zone and Sean Collins scored then Chris Bourque would score about 1:10 later. Zach Sill nearly tied things when he clunked a puck off of the top of Holtby’s net. Then the Bears were being called for a delayed penalty when Cody Wild fired a puck from the blueline which crawled up and over Holtby’s stick. In the process, Bryan Lerg got a stick on it and he got credit. Scott Munroe had to make a few good saves in the final five minutes to keep it at 2-2 into the…

Second Period: Sean Collins trips Brian Gibbons. Pens to the power play. This tweet sums up the power play:

Bears would easily kill it. Later, the Pens would get 1:41 of 5 on 3 power play and with one second left in the two-man advantage, Geoff Walker scored to make it 3-2. Would turn out to be a big goal at the time as the Bears were just pressuring the whole time.

Third Period: More Bears pressure, more Penguin turnovers. Finally, newcomer Mike Carman scored from the slot to even things at three. Brian Gibbons had a breakaway but did not score with under ten minutes. Pens defense held off the Bears charges and we went into overtime.

Overtime: Tomas Kundratek made the save of the game on an Alex Grant shot while Holtby was on the other side of the crease. Munroe never saw a shot in overtime.

Shootout: Geoff Walker was the only player to score for the Pens. Bears Cody Eakin and Ryan Potulny scored for Hershey in the third and fourth rounds.

Three Stars: 3) Sean Collins (goal, +2) 2) Bryan Lerg (goal, assist, -1) 1) Ryan Potulny (assist, shootout game winner, even)

Who does this win benefit more? The Pens or the Bears? If the Pens win outright it’s seven points on the Division. If the Bears lose, major changes come for the Bears most likely on and off the ice. Bears win, what now? Do they storm back and take the division by 13 points?

Around the Division: Springfield beats Norfolk 4-2 in the only action of East Division teams today.

Standings: Pens  63. Bears 59. Admirals 57. Crunch 45. Senators 43.

Conference: 1-WBS (63) 2-StJ (62) 3-BRI (51) 4-HER (59) 5-NOR (57) 6-MCH (56) 7-WOR (51) 8-CT (51)

Pens are off until Saturday when they host the Portland Pirates. The Bears are in Syracuse on Friday. St. John’s takes their two games in hand when they host the Providence Bruins Tuesday and Wednesday.

Next blog update, short of major breaking news, won’t be until Tuesday provided there is enough interesting parts to blog about.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens win a game tonight 5-2 but the score was much closer than the final score suggests, with the Pens getting two goals by Bryan Lerg late seal the win. Pens are not 9-1-1-0 in their last 11 games and now over .500 on home ice this season, a place they flat out struggled earlier pin the year.

Brad Thiessen vs. Jeff Frazee. Philip Samuelsson was in for the injured Carl Sneep.

First Period: Seven minutes or so into the game and the Pens hadn’t a shot on net. Albany was pressuring but the Pens held firm. Then, out of the first television time out Alex Grant fires a shot from the blue line which deflected into the net off of  Albany’s Mike Banwell. Banwell would be then whistled for hooking and the Pens would head to the power play. Pens think they score on the power play, but referee Francis Charron had “intent to blow” and immediately waved off the goal as the puck crossed the line. However, the Pens would cash anyway as Joey Mormina would fire a puck from the blue line which Brian Gibbons deflected in. Then, right after that, Mormina beats Frazee on a clean wrist shot for his sixth goal of the season.

Second Period: All Albany this period as they mounted a comeback from the beginning. This period was all about Albany taking chances and scoring on breakaway. Nick Palmieri scored on a two on none to put the Devils on the board. Then later, Alex Urbom would score on a wrap around attempt to put the score at 3-2. Head Coach John Hynes would use his time out to regroup. It did pay off as no more goals were scored by Albany.

If Wilkes-Barre somehow loses this game, it goes to note that the fact they could not score on three consecutive power plays ion the second period could have done them in.

Third Period: Tight checking period. Thiessen made some tremendous saves, none better than a Brandon Burlon slap pass to Darcy Zajac who attempted to deflect it past Thiessen on what would have been the tying goal. Before this, Bryan Lerg took a hooking call which needed to be taken or else Albany would have likely scored. Finally, Geoff Walker puts a puck on net which Lerg collects and stuffs past Frazee and in. Then, Albany head coach Rick Kowalsky pulls Frazee and Lerg  scores from center ice to seal it.

Pens have started to salute the fans after every home win. Here is a picture I took:

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (two goals, +4) 2) Alex Grant (goal, assist, even) and 1) Joey Mormina (goal, assist, +2)

Of note, Jason Williams and Bryan Lerg were a +4 and Geoff Walker was a +3. Impressive.

Around the Division: Hershey lost to Connecticut 4-1. The Bears have lost 6 of the last 7 games and three in a row at home. They face off against a Penguins team which has won nine straight in Giant Center. Bears had 40 shots on net to Connecticut’s 21 also. Norfolk thumped Springfield tonight 6-1. Syracuse loses in overtime to Rochester 5-4. Binghamton loses 5-2 in Portland.

Standings: Pens have 62 points to Hershey’s 57. Norfolk is tied with Hershey in points with 57 and lead Syracuse who have 45 points. Binghamton has 43 points in last place.

Conference: 1-StJ (62) 2-WBS (62) 3-BRI (51) 4-HER (57) 5-NOR (57) 6-MCH (56) 7-WOR (51) 8-CT (51)

Pens go to Hershey for a 2 p.m. start and look for ten in a row in Giant Center and more separation between themselves and the rest of the division. With St. John’s idle, the Pens can outright be tops in the Conference with a win of any kind, too. Gameday for the game will be up at a very early 10 a.m.

Let’s Go Pens!