Chirps from Center Ice

          vs.       

  1                                           3

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I don’t know how much of a narrative there is going to be when your team is 9-2 and both goaltenders are playing at the top of their levels right now.

But the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins needed a strong performance after getting run out of the rink by a Toronto Marlies side and shutout Friday night at home.

The man to help deliver that was Casey DeSmith.

DeSmith must really love playing against the Bruins because I can’t remember the last time he lost to Providence. DeSmith stopped 28 of 29 and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeat the Providence Bruins by a score of 3-1.

Tom had the stat I was looking for post game…

https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/797638958553280512

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DeSmith was opposed by Malcolm Subban.

Lines were…

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Kevin Porter – Dominik Simon
Jarrett Burton – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Ryan Haggerty

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Ethan Prow
Cameron Gaunce – Tim Erixon

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Ryan Haggerty returned from injury. There were no bodies listed on the injured list. Ethan Prow took the place of Stuart Percy. Thomas Di Pauli did not warm up and was a healthy scratch.

First Period: Pens jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when Sahir Gill centered to J-S Dea to put the Penguins on the board.

Providence pushed back almost immediately, and got a power play out of it but DeSmith was up to the task, stopping a redirect from an Alex Grant shot and a Peter Mueller redirect.

Second Period: Said this at the time after the Penguins killed a McNeill high stick…

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Later, as a power play for the Penguins expired, Oskar Sundqvist powered one through the pads of Subban to double the Penguins lead.

Then, Casey DeSmith stole the show with two saves on Peter Mueller in one series.

First on a two on one, DeSmith lunged over to deny Mueller, as the puck cycled around Mueller stayed camped out at the near post and was fed the puck again and DeSmith lunged over at the last second and again denied Mueller this time with the stick. Mueller, aghast at what happened to him in one shift, left the ice bewildered.

It ended up being an important save.

Third Period: Danton Heinen scored on his own rebound that punched out to him and put the puck over DeSmith’s glove and under the bar to put the Bruins on the board via a power play goal. The Bruins had been pushing all period to get any type of offense going and got one.

Pens got a power play and I felt at the time that they needed to cash here despite only leading by one. Then it was Malcolm Subban that made some big saves for his team, stopping Dominik Simon and then Carter Rowney on a two on one. Later, with Subban vacated for an extra man, Jake Guentzel found a puck and raced out of his own zone to put it into the empty net that gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead and iced the game away.

Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (goal, +2) 2) Casey DeSmith (28 saves on 29 shots) and 1) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, +1)

Around the Division: The Phantoms owe the Penguins big time because Wilkes-Barre softened top the Marlies bad enough to where the Phantoms crushed Toronto 7-2. A good Phantoms team is a dangerous Phantoms team. Quietly, that’s five in a row for the Phantoms. Tomorrow’s game in Hartford may be a trap game for the Penguins as Wilkes-Barre travels to Allentown Wednesday night….Bridgeport beats Hershey 4-3 in a shootout in a back and forth affair between those two teams. Hershey hosts the Phantoms Sunday afternoon…Springfield shuts out Binghamton 4-0….Utica beat Hartford 3-2 in a battle of bad teams.

Standings: Penguins (.792 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.682) — Bridgeport (.667) — Springfield (.625) — Hershey (.625) — Providence (.423) — Hartford (.318)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They travel to Brampton tomorrow at 2.

Video highlights…

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Couple more going away nuggets on Casey DeSmith…

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Pens bus overnight for a 5 p.m. Sunday game at Hartford. Gameday setup for that hits the blog Sunday at 1.

Let’s Go Pens!

           vs.           

3                                                0

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Don’t let the result or the scoreline fool you, these two teams are very well built and very good hockey teams.

One was better tonight, a lot better.

Kerby Rychel’s first period power play goal holds up as the game winner as the North Division leading Toronto Marlies come to Wilkes-Barre and the home of the AHL’s best team and hand them a 3-0 defeat. Antoine Bibeau stopped just 19 shots, picking up his third shutout of the season. The Penguins see their four game winning streak and eight game point streak (15 of 16) come to an end. It’s the second regulation loss of the season for the Penguins and also the second time this season they were shutout.

No, don’t start the “fire Donatelli, this team is screwed” act yet. As I was trying to make sense of the fact that the Penguins were being run out of the gym tonight, I came up with these salient points:

-> The Marlies have 19 guys on their roster all over 6 feet tall. The Penguins only have 11.
-> Not a single Marlies defenseman is shorter than 6’1.
-> Every man on that Marlies roster can skate, well.

You can teach skating, but as my basketball coaches used to always say, you can’t teach height.

When a big, fast team runs over a team built with smaller-ish forwards and medium size defenders like the Marlies did to the Penguins tonight, the results are typical. It is really no wonder why Antoine Bibeau had two shutouts coming into tonight. He really wasn’t tested much at all by the Penguins.

Bibeau opposed Tristan Jarry. Jarry stopped 32 of 35 shots. It really could have been a 5, 6 or 7-0 shutout tonight.

Lines, then a brief recap of the game.

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Kevin Porter – Dominik Simon
Thomas DiPauli – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Tim Erixon
Cameron Gaunce – Stuart Percy

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: David Warsofsky and Stuart Percy were both in the lineup for the Penguins for the first time since October 15 for Warsofsky and October 21 for Percy. Thomas Di Pauli made his pro debut for the Penguins and also Lukas Bengtsson is dangerously close to debuting as well. A strong team only gets stronger with these additions.

Someone forgot to tell Toronto. In the first, the Penguins would get the first power play and came close to scoring but Bibeau and the Marlies kill kept the Penguins off the board.

Then the Marlies got a power play and it was Kerby Rychel scoring his first goal of the season when Jarry came out of position to make a save, with the puck bleeding to the stick of Rychel who backhanded it into the net to give the Marlies the lead at 7:33 of the first.

Toronto would never look back. They caught the Penguins in on an icing call, kept the puck in below the face-off dots and Andreas Johnsson dug a puck out from behind the Penguins net and centered back to Rychel who scored his second of the game with just over three minutes to play in the first.

Penguins were basically getting throttled, but in a subtle way. They did a good job of keeping their top line featuring ex-Penguin Kasperi Kapanen off the score sheet but were getting run around and out chanced at every opportunity.

In the second, Frederick Gauthier swatted in a puck that Jarry made the initial save on that made it 3-0.

Penguins had a few chances after that. Josh Archibald tried to slip a puck five hole on a shorthanded breakaway but was stopped, later Bibeau stopped a Oskar Sundqvist redirect.

The Penguins tried to add the speed element to their game but Toronto was just that much faster.

Three Stars: 3) Frederik Gauthier (goal, +1) 2) Kerby Rychel (two goals, +1) and 1) Antoine Bibeau (19 save shutout)

Around the Division: Albany stops the Bears long point streak as well as they beat Hershey 6-3 in the Capital District….Bridgeport beats Syracuse 3-2 in a shootout. Two sneaky good teams featured there…Providence beats a bad Binghamton team 4-2 and Lehigh Valley beats a worse Utica side 4-1. Springfield rebounds after a bad last weekend and hand St. John’s a 3-1 defeat and Hartford’s struggles continue as they lost 5-2 in Rochester.

Standings: Penguins (.773 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.650) — Hershey (.636) — Bridgeport (.636) — Springfield (.591) — Providence (.458) — Hartford (.318)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers defeat the Reading Royals tonight 4-1 at home. Adam Krause scored a goal. Doug Carr stopped 25 of 26.

I doubt Coal Street will even bother with video highlights but if they do I will put the embed here. If not, check here Saturday for  the 3 p.m. setup for the Providence rematch from Sunday.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @      

  5                                          4

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I said Friday that once Garrett Wilson found himself his first goal of the season for the Penguins, that the floodgates would open and the wins would flow for Wilkes-Barre.

Wilson scored Friday, and the Penguins steamrolled the Senators 4-1.

Wilson scored Saturday, and the Penguins blew away the Sound Tigers 7-1.

This afternoon in Providence, the P-Bruins gave the Penguins a heck of a fight, but it was the AHL’s league best Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins skating away with a 5-4 shootout win over the Providence Bruins. Penguins sweep the weekend three in three.

Wait, where were you going with the Garrett Wilson angle? He scored the game winning goal in the bottom of the fourth round to salt the game away for the Penguins.

Tristan Jarry opposed Dan Vladar.

Lines were…

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Patrick McGrath

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Tim Erixon – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry  — Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: There were none. First time for the Penguins this season I think there hasn’t been any lineup changes other than just the goaltender.

First Period: Relentless pressure by the Penguins to start the game. Wilkes-Barre had put 7 shots at Dan Vladar and he stopped them all. Then the Penguins found themselves on a quick developing 2-on-1 and Reid Gardiner scored his second in as many nights when this shot banked off of a P-Bruins defender and in…

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Bruins would then find themselves on a power play and started to mount the pressure at Jarry and the Penguins. Later, a Jordan Szwarz shot from a ridiculously low angle beat Jarry for a tie game. I mean look at this shot…

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Penguins would score on a power play when Oskar Sundqvist, parked just outside the crease of Vladar, scored on a nifty redirect that reestablished the Penguins lead at 2-1…

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On that play, Garrett Wilson picked up his 100th AHL point.

Undeterred, the Bruins did something that teams haven’t done to the Penguins in eight straight games in regulation.

They scored a second goal.

A Danton Heinen shot from the high slot with Tim Erixon unintentionally screening Jarry made it a 2-2 game.

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Felt like, at least to me, that Jarry seemed a bit uncomfortable in goal as some of his saves looked odd and it appeared that he was fighting the puck at times.

Second Period: Through some power plays that came and went, Tom Kostopoulos scores this goal at even strength that re-established the lead for the Penguins…

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That clip doesn’t show the whole rush that started deep in the Penguins zone.

On that goal by Kostopoulos, Carter Rowney would join Garrett Wilson in the Century Club with his 100th point in the AHL. Four goals in four games for the Penguins captain.

Then the Penguins caught the P-Bruins on a sloppy line change. Providence chipped one in, Jarry raced up out of his crease and hit Sahir Gill who found a streaking J-S Dea breaking in alone at Vladar and scored to double the Penguins lead…

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Ahh, but the Bruins would not go away quietly as ex-Penguin Alex Grant shot this puck that went in. It may have deflected on the way in but it counted nonetheless…

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It was the first time all season (this is the tenth game) that the Penguins have allowed three goals against in a game. Shots were a healthy 33 for the Bruins and just 23 for the Penguins heading into the…

Third Period: The Bruins were steamrolling the Penguins from the jump of the third and again scored to tie the game at four a piece. Wayne Simpson scored a power play goal for the Bruins.

Pens only had two shots on goal about 15 minutes into the third then were awarded a power play. It was a good power play by Wilkes-Barre but a better kill for Providence. Time ran out and it was on to…

Overtime: A few chances both ways with the Penguins getting the better chances, but it was on to the…

Shootout: Garrett Wilson’s goal in the bottom of the fourth round was the only goal scored in the shootout and was enough to win it for the Penguins.

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Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +1) 2) Peter Cehlarik (goal, assist, -1) 1) Jordan Szwarz (goal, two assists, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey beats Rochester 5-3 at home Sunday afternoon. As good as the Penguins have been, the Bears have been just as good. Hershey has won five straight and have points in their last eight games…Springfield hosted Binghamton and lost 2-1. The Thunderbirds took only one point out of the weekend and are teetering in the wrong direction at this juncture.

Standings: Penguins (.850 percentage points) — Hershey (.700) — Lehigh Valley (.611) — Bridgeport (.600) — Springfield (.550) — Providence (.409) — Hartford (.350)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 3-0 at home and shut out the Kalamazoo Wings. J.P. Anderson had a 24 save shutout. Nick Sorkin scored twice. I will have much more on the weekend that was for the Nailers in my Tuesday, “Wheeling Wrap” feature.

Pens have off Monday and will get back to work Tuesday most likely as they prepare for the Toronto Marlies who make their only stop of the season to Mohegan Sun Arena.

The Week 4 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog Monday at noon, Wheeling Wrap follows Tuesday at noon, followed by anything else deemed bloggable (Jake Guentzel made get Player of the Week, watch out for that Monday) I can find in the buildup to the Marlies matchup Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @       

  7                                         1

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So many directions I can go with this open. Let’s start with this.

The Penguins are a good team with Jake Guentzel on their team. He leads all AHL rookies in scoring. He added four more points tonight and the Penguins rolled a Sound Tigers team I honestly expected to give the Penguins a better run tonight. Wilkes-Barre wins 7-1. They are the best team in the AHL right now. On top of all that, this…

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This is the eighth straight game where the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have held their opponents to one regulation goal.

Points in seven straight games for Wilkes-Barre. It’s a train that keeps rolling.

If Jake Guentzel isn’t in the running for AHL Player of the Week honors this week, I would love to see who did better.

Anyway, Casey DeSmith opposed Stephon Williams.

Lines were…

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Patrick McGrath

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Tim Erixon – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith — Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Tim Erixon was out last night with the flu, but was recovered enough Saturday night to slot in with Barry Goers on the second defensive pairing. Patrick McGrath replaced Jarrett Burton on the fourth line up front.

First Period: Penguins found the back of the net early and often to start. First, Tom Kostopoulos forces a turnover and Jake Guentzel capitalizes to make it a 1-0 Penguin game. Then, the Penguins would double their lead when Reid Gardiner put his first puck in the net as a Penguins when he cleaned up the rebound of a Steve Oleksy shot.

Bridgeport would get one back when Devon Toews collected a juicy rebound left by DeSmith from a Kellen Jones shot and Bridgeport cut the lead in half.

Undeterred, after a bit of a run and gun session after the Toews goal, Jake Guentzel returned the favor to his captain and Tom Kostopoulos made it a 3-1 game.

Penguins would score on the only power play awarded in the period from the whistle of referee Breet Iverson when Carter Rowney rifled a shot past Williams that made it 4-1 Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. It was the first power play goal allowed by Bridgeport in 18 straight kills.

Jake Guentzel was already up to three points. (1-2)

Despite all the Penguins scoring, Bridgeport was outshooting the Penguins 16-13 after the first.

Second Period: The Penguins continued to pour in the goals. This time on Christopher Gibson, who replaced Stephon Williams in net. Jake Guentzel scored his second goal of the game, his fourth point of the night, off of a Cameron Gaunce shot that the rookie Guentzel legally tipped in. It’s a career high in points in a game for Guentzel, who you would have to think is gunning for AHL Player of the Week.

Here’s a look at the Guentzel goal. Sorry for not having all of them, the Bridgeport replay feed was iffy, and I didn’t want to miss any in-game action…

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Garrett Wilson scored on a penalty shot. The play looked offside to me, and the infraction to Wilson looked ticky-tack, but Wilson scored to extend the lead to 6-1 Penguins…

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Back to back penalty shot goals for the Penguins and Garrett Wilson is warming up, having scored last night against Binghamton.

Penguins and Sound Tigers would trade penalties to close out the second heading into the…

Third Period: Steve Oleksy scored with one second left on the power play leftover from the second period and it was 7-1 Penguins.

Remainder of the game was an effort to get Patrick McGrath his first AHL goal or Jake Guentzel his hat trick. Patrick Nullity managed to not let the latter happen, diving over to stop a Guentzel attempt.

Three Stars: 3) Steve Oleksy (goal, assist, +1) 2) Casey DeSmith (28 saves on 29 shots) 1) Jake Guentzel (two goals, two assists, +3)

Around the Division: Hershey is warming up. They shutout Albany 4-0 on home ice… Springfield was up 4-2 in Allentown against the Phantoms but Lehigh Valley scores four and rallies for the 6-4 win against the Thunderbirds. That’s two straight for Lehigh Valley and a really bad loss for Springfield. Have to see how that affects them if at all going forward…Providence beat up a bad Hartford Wolf Pack team and won 6-2.

Standings: Penguins (.833 percentage points) — Springfield (.688) — Hershey (.667) — Bridgeport (.600) — Lehigh Valley (.563) — Providence (.400) — Hartford (.350)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers extract some revenge from the Toledo Walleye and win 5-2 in Ohio. Jordan Kwas had two goals. Doug Carr stopped 23 of 25. Nailers host Kalamazoo Sunday afternoon at 5.

Pens travel to Providence for a 3:05 matinee against the P-Bruins. Gameday setup will hit the blog Sunday morning at 11.

Please do not forget to set your clocks back one hour after you read this.

Let’s Go Pens!

          vs.      

  1                                       4

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This game was a tale of two hockey games.

For the first thirty minutes of the game, the Penguins played bad. They trailed on the scoreboard and were getting run around by an undermanned Binghamton team in a classic trap style game. A lot of guys on the Senators side were stepping into bigger roles and were showing that the faith in the coaching staff bestowed upon them in a road game against a premier opponent.

For the final thirty minutes of the game, you would swear that there was only one hockey team playing. The Penguins rip off four goals, including two more points for Tom Kostopoulos and the Penguins win 4-1. Wilkes-Barre has held their opponents to just one goal in the last seven straight regulation contests. We all knew that the defense was going to be good going into the season, but this good?

Oh, if you are struggling with the headline, as you can see, so am I. The Roman Numeral for 400 (as in points scored by Tom Kostopoulos in a Penguin uniform) is CD.

Some times the puns flow. Sometimes they don’t.

Anyway.

Tristan Jarry opposed Matt O’Connor.

Lines were…

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Jarrett Burton

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Barry Goers – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: First time for Jarrett Burton in the lineup since October 26 against Albany. Patrick McGrath took warmups.

First Period: Pens had a goal disallowed on a Jake Guentzel interference  incidental contact with the goaltender call. Referee Mike Mullen was right on top of the play and washed it out immediately. Explanation to Clark Donatelli’s bench was not met with much opposition. But you can tell in the way that the rest of the game unfolded that the call bothered the Pens.

Binghamton came out and started running around on the Penguins. Mike Blunden then stole something from Tristan Jarry of value to him…

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And it was 1-0 Binghamton.

This is a better pun.

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Second Period: Penguins had a power play and looked terrible in the process. It was shaping up into a classic trap game. The undermanned, underdog team, comes into the living room of the big bully and slaps him around.

If Jarry lets in this Triston Grant would be goal, it’s probably a different outcome…

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Shots at this point was something like 13-13 at this point. Then the Penguins took over.

A Chad Ruhwedel shot from the point was deflected in by Jake Guentzel and it was a tie game. Tom Kostopoulos had the secondary assist here for his 399th point in a Penguins uniform.

Exactly two minutes later, on a power play, Tom Kostopoulos whacked in a rebound through the pads of O’Connor for his 400th point and a 2-1 Penguins lead and a power play goal.

Third Period: They weren’t done.

Garrett Wilson had yet to find a goal yet this season but erased that in fine fashion on an odd man rush. Wilson waited and froze O’Connor and sniped one past him for a 3-1 Penguins lead. Now watch Wilson get hot now. Could be the start of something great.

O’Connor was needed agains stoning Kevin Porter after the face off else it would have been 4-1.

Oskar Sundqvist made sure it would get to 4-1 on a cannon of a shot that deflected off of O’Connor, off the post and into the net that extended the Penguins lead to three.

Late, Binghamton had a long 1:56 of five-on-three power play time after back-to-back penalties by the Penguins. Binghamton’s inability to score on a two man advantage Saturday in Hershey led to their undoing. The B-Sens lost that one 7-1. Back to the present, the B-Sens weren’t able to get anything past Jarry as he saw everything.

Three Stars: 3) Garrett Wilson (goal, assist, +2) 2) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley wins 4-2 in Providence. I think that the Bruins are bad more than Lehigh Valley is good….Hershey battles back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Springfield 3-2 in overtime. I think that the Penguins inability to win over the Thunderbirds is a style thing more than it is anything….Bridgeport beat Hartford 5-4 in overtime. That’s a surprise because Hartford is awful, but it’s a rivalry for these two teams so maybe the Wolf Pack got up for that one but still lost.

Standings: I better start doing these by percentage points if I want these to be accurate, so here goes… Penguins (.813 percentage points) — Springfield (.668) — Bridgeport (.667) — Hershey (.625) — Lehigh Valley (.563) — Hartford (.389) — Providence (.333)

Wheeling Update: Bad night for the Nailers who lose 6-1 to Toledo. Cody Wydo scored the only goal for Wheeling.

Video highlights…

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Pens will bus now to Bridgeport for the second of their three in three. Gameday setup will hit the blog Saturday at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

        vs.        

1                                             6

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The Syracuse Crunch used to be represented by Al the Ice Gorilla. One of my biggest regrets as a fan is I never was able to get a picture with Al the Gorilla. Al was a big scary white gorilla that apparently was supposed to be an intimidating figure.

Kevin Porter played the role of Al the Ice Gorilla for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins this afternoon as the Penguins roll the Syracuse Crunch by a 6-1 score. Porter has four goals this season, all coming against the Syracuse Crunch.

Casey DeSmith opposed Kristers Gudlevskis.

Minor lineup changes for the Pens. Up front, Patrick McGrath was in for Ryan Haggerty who was injured last night in Springfield. Barry Goers skated warmups and was projected to be a scratch but Tim Erixon, who was to play, was the late scratch.

As told to the WBS media postgame, Ryan Haggerty is “week to week” with an upper body injury and Tim Erixon is “day to day” with a lower body injury picked up in Saturday’s game vs. Springfield.

First Period: Carter Rowney got the goal scoring for the Penguins started early when he deflected a Reid McNeill shot in for a 1-0 Penguins lead. The Penguins jumped all over the Crunch to start. The Crunch played two tough games Friday and Saturday so they may have been a bit out of gas. The Penguins, having not played Friday, were the better and fresher team.

Here’s the Rowney goal:

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Jake Guentzel kept the puck in the zone batting the puck mid-air to keep it in.

Kevin Porter struck twice in the final half of the period. First, Cameron Gaunce found a puck at the near wall, centered Porter and Kevin whipped in the puck past Gudlevskis for a 2-0 Penguin lead.

Then, on the power play, the Pens struck again. Guess who? Kevin Porter on the power play as the puck was bouncing all over the ice late in the period.

Second Period: Theme for this period was survive and sustain.

Syracuse came out guns blazing, out shooting and out chancing the Penguins, but the defense and DeSmith did not break.

Then the Penguins scored again and put the game away. Nice keep in by Ethan Prow at the point, cycled around the net to Tom Kostopoulos who made it 4-0.

Just what the doctor ordered. You’re getting run over to start, survive the storm, sustain the lead.

Third Period: Penguins set it on cruise control to start, but Syracuse kept gunning for a goal and got one when Mike Halmo slammed one in far post to put Syracuse on the board with about 15 minutes to play.

But the Crunch would not get any closer as while still being outshot, the Penguins were getting lucky with the play of DeSmith in goal and the inability of Crunch shooters to position themselves in a prime scoring area to get a high quality shot off.

Penguins would ice the game away on a defensive miscommunication by Syracuse. Patrick McGrath pounced on a puck at the blueline while Henri Ikonen had his back turned, put a shot on Gudlevskis and J-S Dea was around to slam one home to make it a 5-1 game.

Pens would connect on a late power play when Oskar Sundqvist put one in on a rebound that made it 6-1. No letting off by Clark Donatelli there. Good to see, really, because the Penguins could use the power play work in front of live opposition.

Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (goal, assist, +1) 2) Casey DeSmith (22 saves on 23 shots) 1) Kevin Porter (two goals, even)

Around the Division: Springfield shutout Bridgeport 2-0…Hersey beat Lehigh Valley 3-2.

Standings: Penguins with 11, Springfield with 10, Bridgeport and Hershey with 8, Hartford with 6, Lehigh Valley with 5 and a better percentage than Providence in last with 6.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers just finished off a home and home series with the Kalamazoo Wings this past weekend, look for the Wheeling Wrap this Tuesday at noon.

Video highlights…

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The Week 3 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog next, Monday at 4. Please do check back then.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @          

1                                              2

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Let me let you in on a secret.

I detest thunderstorms.

We live in an area in the Northeast that is insulated from hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. A thunderstorm is usually something that occurs in the summertime that blows through and leaves damage if you get hit in the, “sweet spot” of the storm. I’ve had several storms rip through where I live that have taken a pool, a shed, and a couple of trees. Also left me without electricity for a couple of days, so yeah, I don’t like thunderstorms.

I’m also not liking the Springfield Thunderbirds.

After shutting out the Penguins a few weeks ago and handing Wilkes-Barre their only loss in this early 2016-17 campaign, the Springfield Thunderbirds do it again, this time in overtime and take this game 2-1 in overtime.

No goalies were named to the three stars tonight but they should have been. Mike McKenna for Springfield was outstanding for the Thunderbirds in the second period, stopping all 16 shots sent his way while Tristan Jarry kept the Penguins in the game in the third period, stopping 10 of 11.

Lines were…

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Ryan Haggerty

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Tim Erixon – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Whatever it was that was bothering Kevin Porter enough to take him out of the game Wednesday against Albany was healed as Porter was back in the lineup for the Penguins. Healthy scratches were Patrick McGrath, Jarrett Burton, Adam Krause and Barry Goers. Stuart Percy is still injured, however Mike O’Brien stated on radio that Percy was skating and is close to being moved off of, “week-to-week” and on to, “day-to-day.”

First Period: Really quick, back and forth period between these two teams with few whistles. The Penguins had a power play about half way through but were not able to score on it then late in the period, Ryan Haggerty drove the net, wheeled a pass around to Reid McNeill at the point, McNeill shot the puck and J-S Dea tipped it past McKenna for a 1-0 Penguins lead:

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Shots were an even 8-8 heading into the…

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre would dominate this period, but Mike McKenna has been around for years and knows how to tend goal at this level. McKenna stopped all 16 shots sent his way in the period. Springfield only managed four at Jarry. The game opened up in spurts for the Penguins, but McKenna denied them all. Pens killed a late Steve Oleksy interference penalty easily.

There was a bit of collateral damage in the period as Ryan Haggerty took a knock and left the ice with Penguins trainer Kyle Moore and was not seen the remainder of the period.

Third Period: Haggerty would not return in for the Penguins to start the third. No WBS media was on site in Springfield tonight so we won’t know what the deal is with Haggerty until at least Sunday.

Anyway, the Thunderbirds mounted their comeback in this period.

Springfield lost last night at home to Bridgeport by a score of 5-1. That one goal they scored last night? Scored on the power play, in the third period.

It’s ex-Penguin Paul Thompson that did the honors against his former team:

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Another look:

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Springfield would outshoot the Penguins 11-4 in the third period.

Overtime: Carter Rowney had a chance to end the game on a happy note for the Penguins but whiffed on the shot. Later, Springfield won it off of this sequence:

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That’s Kevin Porter with the shot on the two on one with Simon. The shot goes wide and rums all the way out to Chase Balisy trailing, Balisy skates in on Jarry who tries a poke check to no avail and Springfield wins it in overtime.

Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (goal, +1) 2) Paul Thompson (goal, -1) and 1) Chase Balisy (goal, assists, +1)

Around the Division: Bridgeport beats Lehigh Valley at home 5-4. Utica beat Hartford about 45 minutes north of there by a score of 4-3. Tomorrows opponent Syracuse beats Providence in Central New York 4-3 and Hershey hangs seven on Binghamton and beats the B-Sens by a score of 7-2.

Standings: Penguins 9, Bridgeport and Springfield 8, Lehigh Valley 5, Hershey, Hartford and Providence 6. Again, standings are weighted by percentage points. Eventually, I will get around to making that format change here.

Wheeling Update: Nailers destroy the Kalamazoo Wings by a score of 8-1. Josh Shalla had a hat trick to go along with two assists. Captain Derek Army had two goals and two assists. Doug Carr stopped 22 of 23 shots. Much more on this game in Tuesday’s Wheeling Wrap.

Pens are home for a 3 p.m. start agains Syracuse, who comes in looking to avenge last weeks loss and also on a two game win streak. Gameday setup for this will hit the blog at 11 a.m.

Let’s Go Pens!