Chirps from Center Ice

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This was a heavyweight battle early on in the American Hockey League’s Atlantic Division. On the one hand, you have theWilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, winners of five straight facing off against the Hartford Wolf Pack, who have amassed points in every game played so far but for their first game of the season.

It was one game of a six game series that goes to the home side, the Penguins winning 4-1.

Matt Murray vs. Magnus Hellberg.

Lineup wise, Scott Wilson was back from his one game suspension, and took the spot of Ty Loney.

On defense, Reid McNeill was in for Will O’Neill.

Kevin Porter, reassigned today by Pittsburgh was not in the lineup because this would have been his third game in three days in his third city. (Washington Wednesday, Pittsburgh Thursday, Wilkes-Barre today)

First Period: Hartford is a speedy quick team and that was on full display early and often. The Pens were forced into sloppy play and general puck mishandles. They did an OK job of containing the speed of a Wolf Pack team that jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when Nick Tarnasky was alone in front and slammed one home on Matt Murray.

What shots the Penguins did get to Hellberg, it seemed like he was spilling rebounds all over the place. It bit him when Nic Andersen threw a shot on net that rebounded to Tom Kuhnhackl and then pinballed to Carter Rowney cutting in near he far post and in for a tie game.

Neither team had any success on the power play in this period or the entire game.

Second Period: Pens matched Hartford’s speed with being smarter with the puck than they were in the first. In the middle of the period the game opened up to a furious pace which resulted in end to end play.

Eventually Wilkes-Barre got a chance they cashed on. Scott Wilson peeled away from the near wall and threw a shot on Hellberg that he tried to smother in his breadbasket, but never controlled. He wasn’t down in the butterfly, the puck kicked off him back to Wilson who followed the play and slipped it under Hellberg and in for a 2-1 Penguin lead.

The Penguins think they score again when Tom Kostopoulos tips in a shot but referee Garrett Rank washed out the goal immediately citing incidental contact with the goaltender before the shot was taken. The replay shown afterwards, showed something entirely different, which incited the crowd angrily.

Third Period: Penguins took control and used special teams to get them there.

Short handed, Dominik Uher and Oskar Sundqvist broke in on a two on one. Uher made a pinpoint pass to Sundqvist who stabbed at it and redirected it past Hellberg and in for a 3-1 Penguin lead.

Physicality picked up. Pens kept their cool though.

Later with Hellberg vacated, Scott Wilson scored on an empty net to seal it.

Three Stars: 3) Carter Rowney (goal, +1) 2) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, even) and 1) Scott Wilson (two goals, +2)

Matt Murray was stellar again, stopping 29 of 30. He had the secondary assist on the Sundqvist goal, the second game in a row where a Penguin goaltender picked up an assist. Tristan Jarry had an assist in Wednesday’s contest against Binghamton.

Around the Division: Bridgeport beats Albany 3-2 in the Capital District…Springfield stomps Rochester 6-1…St. John’s squeaks past Lehigh Valley 3-2…Providence beats Portland 6-4 and Hershey jumps out to a 1-0 lead but Syracuse and their 30th ranked power play strike twice and the Crunch win 4-2.

Standings: Penguins (.875 percentage points) — Bridgeport (.700) — Hartford (.688) — Providence, Hershey, Portland (.500 each) — Lehigh Valley (.375) and Springfield (.357)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lose at home to the Adirondack Thunder 4-1. Patrick McGrath scored the only goal for the Nailers in the loss.

Here is your infographic on tonights game courtesy of Coal Street:

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/660263907257360384]

And video highlights. Check out that Sundqvist shorty…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDCTcsBmTgY&feature=youtu.be]

Pens are off the rest of the weekend, back in action Wednesday against St. John’s. I may take a look at the Wheeling / Quad City game and blog about it. If not, I will have my chart refreshes done this weekend and the Week 4 AHL Power Rankings up on the blog Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!!

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In just his second AHL game, Ty Loney is making an impact and a case for keeping him around and not sending him back to Wheeling.

Tonight, a 4-3 Penguins win over the Binghamton Senators at the Mohegan Sun Arena, Loney’s fourth line of he, J-S Dea and Tyler Biggs set up two goals including the game winner in the third period of a tight contest against a good opponent.

Tristan Jarry made his professional home debut against Binghamton’s Chris Driedger.

Lines were:

Conor Sheary – Kael Mouillierat – Josh Archibald
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Simon
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Ty Loney – J-S Dea – Tyler Biggs

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Niclas Andersen – Dave Warsofsky
Tim Erixson – Will O’Neill

Tristan Jarry – Matt Murray

Lineup Notes: Reid McNeill was scratched again. Tyler Biggs made his season debut. Scott Wilson was serving his suspension; Kael Mouillierat was coming off his.

First Period: Dominik Simon’s shot from the slot at 1:30 was all the offense that the first period saw. Carter Rowney tracked a puck off the near wall, passed it to Simon who ripped the shot from the high slot with Tom Kuhnhackl setting the screen in front of Driedger. It was only the ninth even strength goal scored by Wilkes-Barre all season.

Tristan Jarry saw the puck well, robbing Ryan Dzingel bearing down he left slot while the B-Sens were on a power play. Later, David Dziurzynski took a slapshot from the high slot with players buzzing around Jarry that the Penguins rookie netminder saw and tracked easily.

Second Period: Penguins scored at 1:30 in the first period. Well in the second period it took them one second longer to find the back of the net. Kael Mouillerat cleaned up a Conor Sheary to put the Pens ahead 2-0.

Pens could have stepped on it but seemed to let off after the Mouillerat goal. Later, the B-Sens cycle a puck for a good minute to Chris Carlisle on the far side who lets rip and goes bar down on Jarry.

1:10 later, Ty Loney made a cross ice pass to Tyler Biggs who finished off the pass to reestablish the two goal Penguin lead.

The Wilkes-Barre penalty kill had been one of the strengths of late, but it failed the Penguins in the second period. The B-Sens struck twice on the power play, rather quickly, with Cole Schneider doing the damage twice.

I got the sense that Binghamton wanted badly back in the game and would be undeterred. To this point, it worked.

Third Period: The fourth line struck for their second goal of the game when Ty Loney connected with J-S Dea for a goal that put the Penguins ahead 4-3 in the third period. This was a much more even period for Wilkes-Barre.

As time dwindled, the Penguins started to hunker down defensively. With Chris Dreidger pulled, the Sens never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Ty Loney (two assists, +2) 2) Cole Schneider (two power play goals, even) and 1) J-S Dea (game winning goal, even)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley beat a good St. John’s team 5-1…Springfield is finally in the win column winning tonight in Bridgeport against the suddenly cold Sound Tigers. Everyone else was off on this otherwise light Wednesday night in the AHL.

Standings: Penguins (.857 percentage points) — Hartford (.786) — Bridgeport (.667) — Portland (.600) — Hershey (.583) — Lehigh Valley (.429) — Providence (.429) — Springfield (.250)

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in action again Friday when they host the Adirondack Thunder.

Pens are in action again Friday at home when they host the Hartford Wolf Pack at 7:05

Let’s Go Pens!

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I have wanted to add a smattering of Wheeling Nailers coverage here on the blog for a while, because when players get called up to Pittsburgh or injured in Wilkes-Barre, most of the time they came from the Nailers. Being able to watch the Nailers on ECHL.TV to get an idea of what a guy will bring when called upon when he gets to Coal Street is an asset I would like to have.

I don’t really know what they plan is going to be with these, obviously if there is a Wilkes-Barre game or something else going on my attention will be there and I can’t recap every game. I want to shoot for at least one a week, depending on schedules.

Anyway, the Nailers were in Brampton, Ontario this afternoon paying off the back end of a home and home with the Beast. This is the recap of a 4-3 win by the Wheeling Nailers.

The Nailers started Brian Foster in net, who was looking for his first win. He was opposed by Eddie Pasquale.

It was a hot start by the Nailers in the first period. It started with a nice chip out of the defensive zone by Paul Cianfrini to Shane Bakker who was off with Cody Wydo. Wydo finished the two on one to put the Nailers ahead just 2:17 into the game.

:41 later and off an offensive zone face-off, Clark Seymour scored his second goal in as many games to put Wheeling ahead just 3:20 into the game.

The Nailers were facing Eddie Pasquale in net. You may remember the name as the goaltender that was signed but never played for the Hershey Bears last year. Pasquale finally settled down and made a nice glove save on Adam Krause bearing down on a rush late in the first.

The Nailers outshot the Beast 10-7 in the first period.

Matthew Maione opened the scoring for the Beast from a shot from the point with bodies in front of Foster to put Brampton on the board at 3:50 of the second. Maione was in camp with Wilkes-Barre in preseason this year.

As the teams were 4-on-4 the Beast tied it at two on a low angle shot by Brandon Marino, but the Nailers got the lead right back as the penalty to Derek Army expired on the power play. John McCarron scored his first professional goal when he punched in a rebound of a Sahir Gill shot that put the Nailers ahead 3-2 just :57 after Brampton had tied it.

Brampton thought they tied the game at three on a power play in the final seconds of the period, but the shot came after the horn had sounded. There is no replay in the ECHL and Brampton didn’t argue referee Nic Leduc’s washout of the would be goal much, if at all.

The Nailers would double their lead in the third period on the power play when Derek Army backhanded one past Pasquale at 11:55.

Wheeling took one too many offensive zone penalties and Brandon Marino scored for the Beast on the power play at the top of the right circle for his second goal of the afternoon.

The Beast used their time out with under two minutes to play, pulled Pasquale and had boatloads of offensive zone time. Wheeling captain Shane Bakker blocked two shots. The Nailers iced and with 1.3 seconds left, a Matthew Maione shot went wide and time expired.

Three stars were Brampton’s Matt Maione with a goal, Wheeling’s Derek Army with a goal and two assists and Brampton’s Brandon Marino with two goals.

The Nailers improve to 3-1 on the season and first place in the North Division. They host the Adirondack Thunder on Friday, October 30.

Here were some of my observations…

– Harrison Ruopp was very physical, throwing guys around all over the place.
– Sahir Gill is a playmaker at the ECHL level. He has two assists today.
– The Nailers have a rookie defenseman by the name of Mike Gunn from Northeastern University out of Hockey East who I was really impressed with. He cleaned pucks away from the front of Foster and played an overall solid game. He could be a name to watch in the future either with the Penguins or some other AHL team.

Again, I plan on trying to do this at least once a week, as my schedule allows. Maybe this Saturday when the Nailers host the Quad City Mallards?

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I thought this tweet from Tom Venesky from The Times Leader summed up the Penguins 3-2 overtime win over the Springfield Falcons nicely:

[tweet https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/658111282843942912]

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After playing from behind pretty much the whole game, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and somehow manage to win the game in overtime. The penalty killing was phenomenal, starting goaltender Matt Murray was again stellar in net and the Penguins just found a way, like most teams do.

It was surprisingly Matt Murray against Louis Domingue in net again tonight, scuttlebutt here on this blog and elsewhere was that Tristan Jarry was going to get his first home start of the season but it was not to be.

The Penguins called up Ty Loney from the Wheeling Nailers earlier today. He was in for the injured Tom Sestito who Coach Sullivan told Venesky after the game has a lower body injury and will get re-evaluated on Monday. Niclas Andersen was in for Reid McNeill on defense. Here is a look at the rest of the lines…

Scott Wilson – J-S Dea – Conor Sheary
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Simon
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Ty Loney – Matia Marcantuoni – Josh Archibald

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Niclas Andersen – David Warsofsky
Tim Erixon – Will O’Neill

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

First Period: The Falcons jumped ahead with third first go ahead goal of the season and their first lead of the year I think when ex-Penguin Dustin Jeffrey ripped one past Matt Murray for a 1-0 lead. Then, it appeared that J-S Dea scored but upon video review he; 1) never put a stick on the puck going in (he was pushed from behind) 2) interfered with Domingue to a point to where the goaltender was unable to play his position and 3) may have kicked the puck in the net. When referee Ben Moser waved off the goal, there wasn’t much argument from the Penguins bench.

Later, Scott Wilson did score a goal on a nice wraparound the net, got Domingue down and roofed it over him for a tie game.

Shots after one were 15-5 Springfield. Mainly because the Penguins spent almost half the period killing penalties.

Second Period: The trend would continue. The Falcons go ahead from a shot from the near wall that Murray never seals off on on and its 2-1 Falcons. The Penguins were taking penalty after penalty and were not able to build any momentum. They looked desperate, almost like the 0-4 team they were playing against in Springfield. The penalty kill was great, going 5-for-5 to this point.

Third Period: Tom Kuhnhackl scored on an NHL caliber snipe of a shot. He had a quick step off the blue line while the Falcons were trying to carry the puck out of the zone. Dominik Simon found him, and all of a sudden he had room to take a shot low and to the blocker side of Domingue, who never was able to get to it in time. Tie game. The Penguins were finally starting to find their legs and generate chances, several of which nearly gave them the lead and command of the game but Domingue held the fort for the Falcons. It was onto…

Overtime: Thirty-six seconds in and Dominik Simon backhanded a shot over Domingue and in for the overtime winner.

Three Stars: 3) Scott Wilson (goal, +1) 2) Greg Carey (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Dominik Simon (game winning overtime goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Albany extracts some revenge on Portland and wins 3-1 in their home opener…Chris Bourque nets the overtime game winning goal for the Hershey Bears in overtime as they defeat the Hartford WolfPack 3-2…St. John’s beats Bridgeport 3-2 and Lehigh Valley defeats Providence 3-1.

Standings: Penguins (.833 win percentage) — Hartford (.750) — Bridgeport (.714) — Portland (.600) — Hershey (.600) — Providence (.429) — Lehigh Valley (.400) — Springfield (.100)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers won their home opener against the Brampton Beast by a score of 5-1. Derek Army had a goal and two assists. Clark Seymour and Sahir Gill had goals as well.

Here is your post game info graphic…

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/658111496854052864]

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Penguins are back in action Wednesday at home against the Binghamton Senators. I’ll have a chart refresh up on the blog sometime Sunday and the Week 3 AHL Power Rankings on the blog Monday at 4. Check it all out then!

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I wonder if Springfield Falcons fans dread playing the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in recent years. Here’s why…

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Tonight, a 38 save shutout performance, his first of the season, as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins roll to a 5-0 victory tonight in Central Massachusetts.

Murray opposed Louis Domingue.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – J-S Dea – Conor Sheary
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Simon
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Josh Archibald – Matia Marcantuoni – Tom Sestito

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Reid McNeill – David Warsofsky
Will O’Neill – Tim Erixon

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Niclas Andersen was out for the newly demoted Tim Erixon, who was re-assigned by Pittsburgh this week. J-S Dea jumped into the spot vacated by the suspended Kael Mouillierat, serving the first of his two games. Tom Kuhnhackl moved up to the second line left wing with Carter Rowney and Dominik Simon. Barry Goers and Tyler Biggs are still hurt.

First Period: This period had everything but a goal. Sustained pressure by both teams, end to end action and 28 total shots by both teams. Penguins went 0-for-3 on a power play that never really threatened. The Falcons matched the Penguins intensity and outshot Wilkes-Barre 17-11.

Second Period: In a game which was settling into a defensive battle, the team that takes advantage of the opponents mistakes usually, if not always, comes out on top. For the the Penguins, the power play has been clicking really well of late, so much so that it is tops in all the AHL.

It worked to their advantage twice in the period. First, it was Derrick Pouliot on this nice shot from the high slot…

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The other, Tom Kostopoulos’ 350th point in a Penguin sweater on a tip in front from a Scott Wilson shot from the high right circle…

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In what was a defensive battle that ended in a draw in the first period with neither team scoring, the second period was a special teams battle with the Penguins scoring twice and the Falcons coming up empty twice in between the Wilkes-Barre power play goals.

One note from the period, Tom Sestito left the game at some point, I think it was in the first period, and did not return.

Third Period: Springfield never pressured Wilkes-Barre to the point of really testing Murray, became desperate as time melted away and the Penguins scored two empty net goals. The first was Scott Wilson, the second was Matia Marcantuoni.

For good measure, the Penguins tacked on another goal, this time with Domingue in the net. Dominik Simon got a piece of this Tim Erixon blast…

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The game was much closer than the score line would indicate, especially in the first period where Springfield came out guns blazing. The Falcons are under a new affiliation with Arizona and are still looking for their first win of the season, so there are growing pains involved in the process.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, assist, even) 2) Derrick Pouliot (goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Matt Murray (38 save shutout)

Nice breakout game for Pouliot, hitting the scoresheet three times. Have said for a while that his pedigree is something that Wilkes-Barre must use to the fullest, because he is not going to be an AHLer for very much longer.

Around the Division: Portland scored four unanswered at home and beat Albany 4-2, those two will race to the Capital District and rematch tomorrow in New York…Hartford slipped past Syracuse 4-3…Hershey bested Utica in New York in their first matchup since the Utica Devils were a thing by a score 1-0. Hershey’s home opener is tomorrow against Hartford…Providence beat a banged up Lehigh Valley side by a score of 5-3. Bridgeport was the only Atlantic Division team off tonight. The Sound Tigers are in Newfoundland and take on the IceCaps Saturday.

Standings: Bridgeport (.833 percentage points) — Penguins (.800) — Hartford (.800) — Portland (.750) — Providence (.500) — Hershey (.500) — Lehigh Valley (.250) — Springfield (.000)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight and host the Brampton Beast at WesBanco Arena in the home opener for Wheeling Saturday night.

SendToNews Highlights: I may check in the morning, but doubt they will go up.

Penguins and Falcons will race to Pennsylvania for the rematch at Mohegan Sun Arena Saturday night at 7:05. Gameday for this will hit the blog Saturday at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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You could say that the Bridgeport Sound Tigers were playing their third game in three games and as with any team that does that, the legs are tired.

But don’t tell Tristan Jarry.

The rookie goaltender won in his professional debut with a dazzling 35 save performance to help the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeat the previously undefeated Sound Tigers by a score of 5-1.

The power play came through again and the defense and goaltending looked stout. It was a big win for a Penguin team that got run out of Southern Connecticut on a rail last weekend.

No lineup changes for the Penguins from last nights comeback win against Lehigh Valley. The only change was Jarry making his pro debut, opposing Stephon Williams in net for Bridgeport.

First Period: The Sound Tigers hadn’t trailed at all during the season, winning all five prior contests and beginning the season 5-0. That all changed on a power play when Tom Kostopoulos set up Kael Mouillierat on the doorstep of Williams:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/655857559476281345]

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Sound Tigers had a good couple shifts after the goal, but everything was to the outside to Jarry he saw with ease. Later, Oskar Sundqvist tipped in this long Will O’Neill shot from the blue line.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/655860269583872000]

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Second Period: Penguins expanded the lead to three goals with this nice garbage goal by Tom Sestito:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/655875905559113729]

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Then the Sound Tigers got a puck past Jarry on a four-on-three sequence. With Steve Oleksy and Mike Halmo in the box for roughing after an Oleksy hip check on Taylor Beck, Dominik Simon hooked Kevin Czuczman to make it 4-on3. A Ryan Pulock blast deflected off of the stick of a Penguin on the way in and Bridgeport was on the board to make it 3-1.

But the Penguins would re-establish the three goal lead on the power play again with this nice goal by Conor Sheary.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/655873719001313280]

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With Reid McNeill in the penalty box for slashing, Tristan Jarry made some nice saves on the penalty kill including this cool glove save of a shot by Czuczman.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/655874601818419200]

Third Period: The Penguins were buzzing from behind the Sound Tigers net when Carter Rowney knocked this puck in for a 5-1 Penguins lead.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/655882423209693185]

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Wilkes-Barre had outscored its opponents by a score of 11-2 in the last five periods.

Teams traded a bunch of penalties. Shots at one point were something like 13-3 in favor of the home team but the Penguins locked them down the rest of the way after Jarry kept them out of the net.

Three Stars: 3) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, +1) 2) Conor Sheary (goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Tristan Jarry (35 saves on 36 shots)

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/655892502948544512]

Around the Division: Hershey got swept this weekend in Portland, losing today by a score of 5-2…Hartford trounced Syracuse 5-2.

Standings: Bridgeport (.833 percentage points) — Penguins (.750) — Hartford (.750) — Portland (.667) — Providence (.400) — Lehigh Valley (.333) — Hershey (.333) — Springfield (.000)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers bussed back from Norfolk and are getting ready for their home opener with the Brampton Beast this weekend.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens have Monday off and will have this week to prepare for the Springfield Falcons in a home and home. The Week 2 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday at 4. I’ll update my stats chart board at some point this week based off of this weekends action. Check it out.

Let’s Go Pens!!

       vs      

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For a lot of people, a 4:05 start on a Saturday night is unheard of in these parts.

The Penguins started this game, their home opener of the 2015-16 campaign, three hours before the usual scheduled start time of 7:05.

In the first 5:06 of the game, the Penguins were down 3-0 before they knew what hit them, and things looked really bleak.

But the game of hockey is sixty minutes, not five minutes. They settled, and overcame the Lehigh Valley Phantoms by a score of 6-4 tonight, going 4-for-7 on the power play.

Matt Murray opposed Lehigh Valley’s backup Jason LaBarbera, after the Phantoms bussed in overnight from Springfield last night.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Kael Mouillierat – Conor Sheary
Dominik Simon – Carter Rowney – Josh Archibald
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – J-S Dea – Matia Marcantuoni;

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Olesky
Reid McNeill – David Warsofsky
Niclas Andersen – Will O’Neill

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Harrison Ruopp took the warmup but was scratched.

First Period: Quick start by the Phantoms: Petr Straka banged home a rebound after Chris Conner got a step on a guy to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead at 1:11; Jay Rosehill picked a pocket of a Penguin in the defensive zone after Wilkes-Barre had become careless with their exit passes and scored at 3:31; and Tim Brent scored a power play goal after he connected with a stretch pass, and made a move to give the Phantoms a 3-0 lead at 5:06.

Phantoms weren’t done. More relentless pressure forced the Penguins into an icing.

Then, a turning point.

Matt Murray made a money save on Jesper Pettersson to set up a rush the other way which washed out as a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton power play. Will O’Neill stepped into one from the far hash to give the Penguins life on the ensuing power play to cut the deficit to 3-1.

Penguins started to roll and create chances. They played 15 minutes of great hockey predicated by 5 minutes of awful hockey that cost them three goals.

Second Period: Penguins had carryover power play time from the first. Tom Kostopoulos scored on a rebound of a Scott Wilson power move to the net to bring the Penguins to within a goal.

About 4 minutes later, Niclas Andersen stepped into one from the blue line to tie the game at three a piece.

The Penguins kept coming. The Phantoms kept putting themselves down taking penalty after penalty. Will O’Neill stepped into one from the right dot for a one timer, power play goal for a 4-3 Penguins lead.

Later, the Pens made it a two goal lead when Dominik Simon ripped a shot over the glove of LaBarbera on the power play to make it 5-3. It was Simon’s first goal on North American soil.

This week, Coach Mike Sullivan focused on special teams. It worked. Three power plays in the period to bring the Penguins back from dead and looking good heading into the…

Third Period: The Penguins got too cute with their exit passes again in the defensive zone and played loose and Nick Cousins made them pay to being Lehigh Valley back within one with 18:15 left to play in the game.

But the Penguins never allowed the equalizer thanks in part to the play in goal by Matt Murray. Murray was stellar with shot after shot heading his way. Taking away the first five minutes of the game tonight, Murray was a star of the game.

But you never know. The Penguins could have used another goal to give them a cushion and to crush the spirits of the Phantoms once and for all. Who are you going to call? The captain, tom Kostopoulos, that’s who. He took a pass off the short wall from Oskar Sundqvist, floated in the slot and ripped one past LaBarbera for insurance, and a 6-4 Penguins lead that held for good.

Three Stars: 3) Will O’Neill (two goals, -1) 2) Dominik Simon (goal, three assists, +1) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (two goals, assist, -2)

Around the Division: Bridgeport still has yet to lose. They lead the division and the conference remaining undefeated after beating Providence 3-1…Hartford shutout Utica 3-0…Portland tripped up Hershey 3-2. The Springfield Falcons were the only team in the Atlantic Division off tonight.

Standings: The AHL is doing this with percentages this year, so points don’t matter at all, but in the Eastern Conference where all the teams play the same amount of games, I am just going to base these off of points. Here they are: Bridgeport 10 — Penguins 4  — Hartford 4 — Portland 2 — Hershey 2 — Providence 4 (again, the AHL is using percentages and not points, Hershey is a .500 team with 2 points divided by 4 available) and Springfield – 0.

Conference look is moot because they aren’t doing top eight this year. I will figure out a way to let the reader know if the Pens are a playoff team. Way too early for that.

Let’s take a look at the postgame infographic, since I asked for it and the Penguins delivered…

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/655541501980733440]

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Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost their first game of the season in Norfolk by a score of 4-2. Anton Zlobin was injured on a hit by Gabriel Verpaelst and did not return. Jarrett Burton had the two goals. The Nailers were down 3-0 and got it to 3-2 late, but with Brian Foster pulled, they gave up an empty netter. Foster stopped 20 of 23 shots.

If the Pens put up a YouTube package, I’ll embed it here. If not, the Gameday setup for tomorrow’s tilt up in Bridgeport will hit the blog at 1 p.m. for the 5 p.m. start.

Let’s Go Pens!!