Made my first ever regular season trip down to GIANT Center tonight for Wilkes-Barre / Hershey. One of the greatest rivalries in all of the American Hockey League. Left nearly needing to go to the emergency room because I nearly had a heart attack watching this game, at 4-3 Penguins victory. It felt like a playoff game.

I attended Saturday Mass in Hershey so I can sleep in Sunday, so I missed warmups. It was John Curry vs. Semyon Varlamov. Expect Holtby any day down from parent Washington and Varlamov to be recalled. Lineup change to note for the Pens found Carl Sneep scratched and Joey Mormina in his place.

First period: Brett Sterling made it 1-0 after a rebound stuff in under the pads of Varlamov. I was doing yardwork earlier this afternoon and said to myself he was going to have a great game tonight. The rest of the period saw Joey Mormina absolutely flatten Andrew Joudrey along the benches and that was about it. Referee Jeff Smith ran things this evening. You pretty much have to have your arm ripped off in order for him to call a penalty. I am of the opinion that you let the boys play, and not make yourself part of the game by raising your arm every five seconds. Here’s a quick preview for the Binghamton game tomorrow, Smith is the ref for that one too.

First intermission I did a walk around GIANT Center. I saw this and it made me very sad.

Second period: Tim Leone tweeted that Wilkes-Barre hadn’t a shot since 8:18 of the first period, which was the Sterling goal. We went about 5 minutes into the second before Joe Vitale got two in one shift. Steve Wagner was spotted for a hook, and four seconds into the power play Lawrence Nycholat rifled one home to tie the score. Almost immediately afterwards, Sheldon Souray sat for interference, and the calls were even up. The score would be 1-1 after two periods.

Third period: Keven Veilleux scored a hightlight reel goal. Eric P at the Wilkes-Blog has it over on his postgame recap there. Please make sure you are on an empty stomach. It is that sickening. Later, Varlamov was screened by fellow Russian Dmitri Kugryshev and Brian Strait of all people scored a goal for us. His game isn’t scoring goals guys, it’s playing defense. Then, Chris Collins jumped Mathieu Perreault. Collins would sit for interference, :08 seconds into the power play and Boom! Andrew Gordon scored. At this point I felt like this was the tipping point of the game. The fans were crazy, the Bears are back within one with just over 10 minutes left to play, oh don’t wake up that sleeping bear!

Gordon would get another chance and I thought for sure he would score but somehow either he missed the net or Curry made the save. Later, Dustin Jeffrey would knock down a Lawrence Nycholat clearing attempt and this would prove to hold up as the game winner to make it 4-2. Andrew Gordon would score another power play goal after a Joe Vitale delay of game. Hershey would press, press, press but wound not score with Varlamov pulled and it’s game over.

Three Starts were Kyle Greentree, Dustin Jeffrey and Brett Sterling in that order.

The power play was AWFUL. You cannot, can. not. go 0-fer on the penalty kill. Hershey didn’t have Keith Aucoin tonight. and still scored goals 4 seconds, 8 seconds and 77 seconds into their man advantages. This needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed QUICKLY!

Like I said at the beginning, a fun game to watch but one that for sure leaves you breathless and all you are doing there is sitting watching. Man.

Bombulie with his postgamer. Love the mention about if Nygel Pelletier had this game the score would be 11-4.

Around the division: Norfolk beat Adirondack 3-1, Hartford downed Bingo 3-2 in OT, Springfield beat the Crunch 5-4, and Albany blanked Rochester 4-0 in Rochester.

Standings: Penguins sit atop the division with 26 points. Charlotte is idle till Monday. They have 23 points. Norfolk has 22. Bingo has 21. Hershey has 19 points. Albany and Syracuse have 16 points apiece and the Phantoms have 8 points.

Afternoon game vs. the Binghamton Senators at home. Last time we played Bingo we got destroyed 5-2. The last time Bingo played the tail end of a three-in-three they got smoked 8-3 by Hershey. We are terrible on home ice of recent. I guess we’ll see tomorrow afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

I don’t even know where to begin on this one. A 4-1 Norfolk win tonight which depending on which side of the ice you sat on, could have been sheer domination by the Admirals tonight in every sense of the word. I mentioned on Bombulie’s blog this week after the Albany game when hearing that Wednesday practice would be canceled about complacency. Never rest on your laurels. Well, tonight kind of proved me right, don’t you think?

Brad Thiessen v. Cecrick Desjardins this evening. Brett Sterling made his return to the Pens lineup.

The way Chris Cozzan referees a hockey game, it can get boring on the ol’ twitter feed. Six penalties tonight resulting in only two power plays for Wilkes-Barre and all in the first period and nothing thereafter. Don’t get me wrong, I love the way Chris Cozzan referees hockey games, but sometimes it can tend to get boring.

Regardless, after a Radko Gudas hook, Tim Wallace scored to make it 1-0 Wilkes-Barre. After that, Norfolk just went into pure shutdown mode after that. Desjardins is as good as advertised. He was not challenged much tonight. When he was, it was an ohmygodhowdidhemakethatsave moment.

I knew the night wasn’t going to go our way when Bryan Lerg stickhandled through a crowd then fell flat on his face near Desjardins. Later, a Matt Fornataro blast was flicked away by the pad of Thiessen, right to Chris Durno’s stick. Period would end tied at 1.

Second period is not a minute old, a Mike Vernace change-up shot is sent towards Thiessen and Blair Jones deflects it past him. Really a bad goal. Later in the period, guess who? Blair Jones again! After this, that was all the Admirals needed, as they just went into shut down mode after that. Nothing doing in the third. Alex Berry got an empty net goal and that was all she wrote.

Bombulie with some great quotes from Coach Hynes and Eric Tangradi in his postgamer. Tangradi played a horrible game. He knew it too. He knows he played bad, knows he needs to finish on Desjardins’ doorstep, so I am not going to rip on him.

Pedestrian effort by Steve Wagner defensively. I’ll say no more.

Around the Division: Bingo beat Hershey 4-2 tonight. Tomorrow nights tilt at the GIANT Center just got that much more interesting. Albany beats Syracuse in a shootout 4-3 and Charlotte beats Adirondack 4-3 in OT. Standings wise it looks like this: We are still in first with 24 points. Charlotte sits alone in second with 23 points. Norfolk jumps to third with 20 points. Bingo has 20, Hershey 19, Syracuse 16, Albany 14 and Adirondack 8. The Checkers are off tomorrow night. They do not play until Monday vs. Norfolk at home.

I will be in Hershey tomorrow for the Pens / Bears. Just a note that depending on what time I get back home tomorrow night and how I feel, a postgame update may not be had until Sunday morning.

Go Pens.

Really a dominating performance this evening in the New York Capital District, a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre romp which by rights should have been a 7-0 thrashing or something like that.

Brett Sterling was a scratch. Joey Haddad took his spot on the fourth line. Nick Johnson as advertised did not play. Brad Thiessen got the nod in net in an unprecedented 2nd game in a row which to date has been unheard of. I was fully expecting John Curry against the broken Devils.

First period: Albany drew a quick 5 on 3 after a Brian Strait hook and a very soft Corey Potter trip. Tyler Eckford sniped from the blue line while Thiessen was screened. Later in the period, Adam Henrique took a cross check and Dustin Jeffrey scored to tie the game. More on him later.

Second period: Chris Collins bomb from the point finds a Ryan Craig stick to make it 2-1 early at 2:42 of the period. Albany beat writer Bill Cain tweeted that the Devils were being outshot 18-3 at 4:30 into the 2nd period. It really was a dominating performance for the Wilkes-Barre defense tonight. Radio called the corps a “man amongst boys” tonight. Later in the period, Joe Vitale drew an Alexander Urbom slash, and Andrew Hutchinson blasted a one timer from Dustin Jeffrey from the blue line past Frazee to make it 3-1. Then, Pierre Luc-Letourneau-Leblond and Jesse Boulerice scrapped in what was the fight of the year in my opinion. Both men struck each other so hard they cut each other. I mean open gashes which required stitches for both. Boulerice was hit so hard it knocked me out (not literally). Referee Terry Koharski reffed the score and called a bunch of penalties on WBS, but it just didn’t matter. We had shorthanded chance after shorthanded chance. Only 1,478 in attendance tonight and they booed the effort tonight. Bronx cheers on any legit shots on Thiessen who probably didn’t even break a sweat tonight.

The shots were 27-7 after two.

Third period: More shorthanded chances by WBS. Eric Tangradi lit the lamp at 5:50 from a delicious pass from Dustin Jeffrey. After that it was cruise control. Zach Sill got in late shenanigans but it didn’t matter it was a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre romp. 8-0 on the road and Thiessen undefeated.

Tyler Eckford for Albany, Andrew Hutchinson and Dustin Jeffrey for WBS were the three stars:

Thoughts: 1) As I said in my Gameday Preview, Albany’s core is fractured. Injuries and call-ups will hurt any team. Right now WBS is an elite team, so the 1-0 deficit early meant nothing to them, they just went on lockdown afterwards with the final SOG tally being 32-19. 2) Thiessen. Why start him twice in a row? Especially against a downtrodden Albany team? Unless you are naming him your #1 and going Thiess, Thiess, Curry this weekend v. Norfolk, Hershey and Bingo. My thought is it’ll be Curry-Thiessen-Curry this weekend. 3) The fourth line. Sill-Boulerice-Haddad worked hard and should have had a goal tonight. Really impressed by the depth on this team. 4) Bryan Lerg really played great tonight, which speaks again to the depth this team has. 5) Dustin Jeffrey. Really making a case to get called up to Pittsburgh and stay there. Eric P at the Wilkes-Blog has a post this week you should read. He was 1-2-3 tonight. Radio called his goal an “NHL caliber goal” and basically called this game his “breakout” game. Hard to disagree.

No other team in the East skated tonight, We are 12-2 right now with 24 points. Hershey and Charlotte have 19 a piece. Charlotte plays Adirondack tomorrow and Friday. Hershey plays in Bingo Friday.

Gigantic test coming against the Norfolk Admirals Friday which are going from pretender to contender. Get your popcorn ready.