News of the day was that Robert Bortuzzo and Alex Picard being recalled to Pittsburgh as Kris Letang and Zbynek Michalek are out with undisclosed ailments. As a result, Wilkes-Barre drops this one 5-2.

After the game, I mentioned that final shots on goal were 32-18 Norfolk and wondered if this was an indirect effect of Bortuzzo’s and Picard’s absence. Well, Jonathan Bombulie tweeted me the following:

https://twitter.com/#!/CVBombulie/status/141711773974806528

Regardless, it was Scott Munroe vs. Dustin Tokarski this evening. All hands on deck defensively tonight.

First Period: Early, Walker had some odd touches which lead to him turning over the puck in his defensive zone twice in one shift. Then, with ex-WBS Penguin J-P Cote in the box for cross checking Eric Tangradi, Nick Petersen would feed Niko Dimitrakos on the power play where Niko would have all the time in the world to rip a shot past Tokarski to put the Pens up 1-0. Late, with matching minors to Ryan Craig and Cory Conacher for roughing, Mike Angelidis would redirect a Mark Barberio offering to even things.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre came out and played the first three and a half minutes like gangbusters. Then Mark Barberio hooks a Penguin and on the ensuing power play the Penguins looked like the Keystone Kops. Norfolk easily killed the penalty. Then, a weird sequence. As a Norfolk power play expires, Blair Jones scores when Munroe was interfered with. Referee T.J. Luxmore rules that a WBS player pushed a Norfolk player into Munroe so therefore no interference and a good goal. Then, off of the ensuing faceoff, Ben Street would score a weird goal redirecting a Nick Petersen shot. Then, Simon Despres and Bryan Lerg would sit for slashing and hooking respectively and Cory Conacher would score on an easy backdoor while up 5-0n-3 to put the Admirals up 3-2.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre, down a goal on the road, would only take two shots on goal all period. Meanwhile, Norfolk would get a power play goal from rookie sensation Cory Conacher who is absolutely tearing it up right now. Norfolk would clamp down, Penguins would pull Munroe late and Trevor Smith would pot an empty netter from center ice to ice it and the Pens would lose at Scope for the first time in eight games.

Three Stars: 3) Trevor Smith (goal, two assists, +2) 2) Blair Jones (goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Cory Conacher (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey lost in Hartford to the Connecticut Whale 4-2. Big news there was that Mattias Sjogren was returning to Sweden.

Standings: Norfolk tied with Wilkes-Barre in points, but since they have more wins are first in the division with 27 points. Hershey has 23 points in third. Syracuse sits fourth with 21 points and Binghamton last with 16 points.

Conference: Missed opportunity for WBS tonight as a win would have put us in sole possession of first place overall. Standings look like this. 1-StJ (28) 2-CT (27) 3-NOR (27) 4-WBS (27) 5-MCH (25) 6-BRI (24) 7-ADK (23) 8-HER (23)

Wilkes-Barre travels home tonight. Here’s Bombulie’s postgamer. Pittsburgh also confirmed that Letang and Michalek are out for Thursday’s game at Washington. I would expect a calllup from Wheeling in the form of Andrew Hotham. If that occurs, you’ll see it from me on Twitter first.

Penguins will practice Thursday morning then Portland comes calling Friday night.

Let’s Go Pens!

Been dogging on Philip Samuelsson a bit here and on Twitter. Tonight, with two primary assists on two Penguins goals he silenced those including myself who said that he needs to get shipped to Wheeling in a 3-2 Wilkes-Barre victory in Binghamton.

Scott Munroe vs. Robin Lehner. Binghamton didn’t dress a single veteran player because bodies are banged up. Zach Sill was out for the Pens with an upper body injury, Cody Wild, Alex Grant, Matt Rust and Ryan Schnell joined him in the press box. Niko Dimitrakos was in, Brian Gibbons as well. Lots of shuffling going on. The Walker-Lerg-McDonald line was back, too.

First Period: Philip Samuelsson point shot was saved by Lehner and the rebound came to Bryan Lerg who gave the Pens an early 1-0 lead. Then, David Dziurzynski dangled around Robert Bortuzzo and unleashed a wrist shot snipe which beat Munroe to even things at one. Later, with Derek Grant in the box and then Dziurzynski in the box for boarding on Nick Petersen, Colin McDonald would clean up the rebound to push the Pens back out in front 2-1.

At some point I tweeted that this was the first lead WBS had in quite a while. They did not lead vs. Hershey, Syracuse or Worcester. You had to go all the way back to last Saturday in Manchester when the Pens enjoyed a lead in a hockey game.

Second Period: Mike Hoffman had a breakaway but was unable to score on it. Then, Sneep was whistled for holding and the Pens in the penalty kill did not allow the B-Sens a shot on goal. Really a quick moving period with the teams going up and down the ice.

Third Period: Binghamton started out guns blazing, taking 11 shots in the period before Wilkes-Barre registered one. During, Joey Mormina covered his hand in a wild scrum in Munroe’s crease on the puck which was a penalty shot awarded to Nikita Filatov. He was unsuccessful on the penalty shot, however. Then, with Alex Picard in the box for tripping, Josh Godfrey would throw a change up at the net which either fooled Munroe or he was screened on. This evened things at 2. Late, a Samuelsson point shot again was deflected this time by Brandon DeFazio. After some rough stuff, the Pens held on and won.

Three Stars: 3) Colin McDonald (goal, assist, +1) 2) Philip Samuelsson (two assists, +2) and 1) Brandon DeFazio (game winning goal, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey lost to Lake Erie 5-4 in a wild game which saw the Bears even things at four late only to have Lake Erie storm back and win it on a wild goal mouth scrum. Norfolk edged Providence 3-2. Syracuse was idle.

Standings: 1-WBS (27) 2-NOR (25) 3-HER (23) 4-SYR (21) and 5-BNG (16)

Conference: St. John’s lost 6-3 to Toronto tonight so they are still in first with 28 points but now Wilkes-Barre sits a point behind them with 27. The rest of the conference looks like this: 3-CT (25) 4-NOR (25) 5-ADK (23) 6-HER (23) 7-BRI (23) 8-MCH (23)

Credit Binghamton for running with Wilkes-Barre tonight. When asked about the lineup tonight, here is what head coach Kurt Klinendorst told Bob Howard of the Power Play Post Show:

Our line-up vs WBS tonight, are you kidding me? We couldn’t even compare but we sure did compete. That’s a good thing.

Debate amongst yourselves if you think a team that “couldn’t compare” with the Penguins nearly won the game tonight on whether this is good or bad.

Penguins ship to Norfolk Monday. That is one trip I would love to take but am not. Updates may be scarce here on the blog till then. So if you will, take a look at the First Quarter Grades I ran on Thanksgiving, after the Syracuse game.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens lose another shootout tonight 3-2. I’d rather lose and get points then lose and get no points. Exciting game tonight between these two heated rivals.

Brad Thiessen vs. Braden Holtby. Geoff Walker and Carl Sneep were in for Niko Dimitrakos and Cody Wild. Paul Thompson and Brian Gibbons still in the chateau le bow bow Hynes.

First Period: Teams would trade penalties to start then Robert Bortuzzo would get called for tripping. Ryan Potulny, fresh back from being injured would clean up a Julien Brouillette shot and put the Bears up 1-0. Fights would break out, with Ryan Schnell and Patrick Wellar fighting to a draw and Zach Sill playing a tune on Garrett Mitchell. Bears basically controlled the Penguins this period, limiting them to 4 shots on goal while taking 10 shots themselves.

Second Period: With Ryan Potulny in the box for a four minute high stick, Ben Street would tie the game after a nice tic tac toe play from Simon Despres and Bryan Lerg. Penguins would only allow Hershey three shots in the period while taking eleven themselves.

Third Period: Penguins could not capitalize on a 5-on-3 for :56 even with a time out. The power play all night looked discombobulated. That was probably the turning point even with a tied game to this point. Then, after an Alex Picard initial holding call, Boyd Kane would elbow a Penguin and get a five minute major for elbowing (above the head) and a ten minute misconduct and a game misconduct. In the melee, Robert Bortuzzo would also get a roughing minor. After, Ryan Potulny would net his second of the night to make it 2-1. Right after the power play for the Pens after all the rough stuff expired, Nick Petersen would score on a flying backhander to even things late. Onto overtime we’d go…

Overtime: Teams would get one shot on goal. Best was a Patrick McNeill shot Thiessen got a pad on.

Shootout: Potulny and Aucoin would score for the Bears and Bryan Lerg for the Pens and the Bears would skate away with the shootout win. Afterwards, Braden Holtby would hotdog a bit which drew the ire of Ryan Schnell who got a slashing penalty after everything settled down. Holtby received a five minute misconduct. The teams would chirp at center ice (see what I did there?) and cooler heads would prevail and the game was over.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, assist, +1) 2) Ryan Potulny (two goals, -1) and 1) Keith Aucoin (game winning shootout goal)

Around the Division: Norfolk pumped Providence 5-1. Syracuse did the same to Binghamton 4-1.

Standings: WBS leads Hershey and Norfolk 25 points to 23 respectively. Then Syracuse has 21 points and Binghamton 16.

Conference: 1-StJ (28) 2-WBS (25) 3-CT (23) 4-HER (23) 5-NOR (23) 6-BRI (22) 7-ADK (21) 8-SYR (21)

7-1 in shootouts last year vs. 1-4 this year. Discuss amongst yourselves how, with the same goaltender, the deficit is what it is.

Onto Binghamton tomorrow. I will be there in attendance. Penguins are going to need to win and win big. Binghamton has not been kind to the Pens of late. We will see what happens.

Let’s Go Pens!