It is truly amazing sometimes what a team which has the majority of what makes it run not a part of it. Tonight, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins recorded their 500th win in franchise history by beating the Binghamton Senators 4-2.

With this, the Pens move into sole possession of first place in the East Division and the Eastern Conference. All while having half of its defensive corps in Pittsburgh and its power play quarterback in Jason Williams there as well.

Brad Thiessen vs. Robin Lehner. Chris Barton was called up from Wheeling but did not dress. The B-Sens dressed tough guy Francis Lessard tonight so Ryan Schnell was a late add for Paul Thompson.

First Period: Geoff Walker and Corey Cowick scrapped early, likely as payback top Cowick for injuring Joey Mormina at the end of last Wednesday’s game in Binghamton. Then the Pens found themselves down two men on a 5-on-3 for Binghamton when Matt Rust was caught holding and Zach Sill in the penalty kill batted a puck over the glass for a delay of game. Stephane Da Costa scored his first AHL goal to put the B-Sens up 1-0.

Second Period: Eric Tangradi passed a puck to Colin McDonald in the slot which McDonald wired over the shoulder of Lehner to even things at one. Then, the Pens found themselves down two men again on questionable tripping calls from referee David Banfield. Mike Hoffamn would score on a slapper which Thiessen didn’t catch all of to put the Senators up 2-1. This was all predicated from the B-Sens buzzing around in the offensive zone prior to going on the 5-on-3. Then, with Mark Parrish in the box for slashing late in the period, Ben Street would even things on a quick rush the other way. Huge goal by Street. The Pens are a dismal 0-5-0-1 when trailing after two periods.

Third Period: A Carl Sneep shot from the point was deflected down by Zach Sill and eluded Lehner to put the Pens ahead 3-2. Pens sat on the lead and really didn’t allow many good chances for Binghamton. An unselfish play by Eric Tangradi passing the puck to Colin McDonald sealed it late as McDonald would pot the easy empty net goal.

How Sweet it is!

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (power play goal, even) 2) Zach Sill (game winning goal, +1) and 1) Colin McDonald (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: No one else skated.

Standings: WBS sits first with 35 points. The Bears and Admirals have 33 points in second and third respectively. Syracuse is fourth with 25 points and Binghamton has 20 points in last.

Conference: 1-WBS (35) 2-StJ (34) 3-CT (33) 4-MCH (34) 5-HER (33) 6-NOR (33) 7-ADK (30) 8-WOR (28)

No one does more with less I would say. Astute Twitter follower Brandon chirped in with insight:

And also…

Good stuff and I agree.

If anything happens on the wires with guys shuffling to and from Wilkes-Barre, check me on Twitter first then on here if I can throw together enough to make a blog out of it.

Let’s Go Pens!

I lived in fear of this game all day long. One of the reasons was because half of our defense corps is in Hershey. Another being that Jason Williams was called up to Pittsburgh today and Joey Mormina was scratched as injured with an upper body injury. Bears are rolling right now. Pens were depleted. I expected a Bears win tonight.

Boy was I wrong. The Pens stuck with the Bears all game long then won the game in the first four minutes of the third period and won 4-2 this evening.

Scott Munroe vs. Braden Holtby. Zach Sill was back for the Penguins and Paul Thompson was scratched.

First Period: A spirited Ryan Schnell / Joel Rechlicz fight early set the tone. Credit Schnell for hanging in and dropping punches while having his head down. The Pens would have a 3-on-1 but not score. Patrick McNeill would go to the dressing room after getting a knee on knee hit from Paul Thompson but would return for the second.

Second Period: Ryan Potulny would score after a weird sequence which would see Carl Sneep clear a puck which trickled past Munroe but not in the net. Right after a Maxime Lacroix high sticking penalty Ben Street would score to even things at one.

I tweeted in the second period that Eric Tangradi looked disinterested in the game thus far as he was committing turnovers and just did not look like he was into the game to this point.

Third Period: :46 in, guess who? Eric Tangradi scored on a daft backhander to give the Pens the lead. About three minutes later, Tangradi would keep a puck in, pass to Colin McDonald who would find Bryan Lerg who scored on a wide open net to make things 3-1 Penguins. Hershey would muck things up post whistles to try an get the Pens to take penalties but WBS was 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. Late, with Holtby pulled, Graham Mink would knock the net off while McDonald was bearing down and Referee David Banfield awarded a goal. Late, Tomas Kundratek would get a goal to make it 4-2 but the Pens would hold on and win.

Again, was I expecting this? No. With the depletion on defense and Hershey running at near 100%, I was expecting a bit of a Bears blowout. I always harp  on those who doubt this team. Perhaps I need to harp on myself!

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (goal, assist, +2) 2) Scott Munroe (33 saves on 35 shots) 1) Eric Tangradi (goal, assist, +1)

So, basically, you need your best players to be your best players.

Around the Division: Norfolk beat Binghamton 5-2. The Ads and Penguins are tied in the East Division with 33 points a piece. Hamilton beat Syrause 4-1 in the Salt City.

Standings: WBS and Norfolk sit atop the division with 33 points. Norfolk actually gets first place on wins. Hershey is third with 31 points. Syracuse sits fourth with 25 points and Binghamton is last with 20 points.

Conference: 1-StJ (34) 2-CT (33) 3-NOR (33) 4-WBS (33) 5-MCH (32) 6-HER (31) 7-ADK (30) 8-ALB (27)

Tomorrow the Bears host the Norfolk Admirals in a game I’ll be watching on AHL Live.

Elsewhere, if you are looking for some Sunday reading or whatever, my fellow WBS blog pal Butch Petit caught up with Bryan Lerg in a neat interview. Check it out.

Pens back in business again Tuesday as they host the Binghamton Senators. If we should by chance get bodies back from Pittsburgh, I’ll do what I can keeping the blog updated.

Let’s Go Pens!