Comments Off on D – Pens WIN 5-3
Posted by nafsnep on December 13, 2013
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What’s the D for?
Well, a few things.
1) Tom Kostopoulos scored his 500th professional point tonight.
2) The Pens rode “D”efense to another victory, this time a 5-3 win over the Hershey Bears.
3) The Bears are back to .500.
D is the Roman numeral for the number 500.
Get it?
Anyway, a thriller tonight in Wilkes-Barre. After going up 3-0 in the first period on three power play goals (yes, I wrote “three” then “power plays” and mean in all one period) the Penguins slowed a bit in the second then played a pretty even third, got some puck luck and won the game and sit in sole possession of first place in the East Division.
Eric Hartzell vs. David Leggio. Michal Neuvirth, sent to Hershey for conditioning yesterday, did not make the trip.
Penguins signed Barry Goers from Wheeling to a PTO before the game. He’s a defenseman. With the recall of Brian Dumoulin to Pittsburgh and now apparently Peter Merth injured again, Goers got the call. Other scratches were CJ Severyn, healthy.
First Period: Pens get a quick power play and cash even quicker, a Scott Harrington shot from the point that Toim Kostopoulos deflects for a 1-0 Pens lead. Then the Pens go on a power play, don’t score, then a fight between Harrison Ruopp and Dane Byers after Byers boarded Harry Zolnierczyk. Paul Thompson at the net front receives a nice pass from Anton Zlobin cutting to the net to Thompson for the virtual empty netter. Then, Penguins headed right to the power play again and Brian Gibbons would finish off a nice back door pass to make it 3-0.
I mixed in something shortly thereafter that mentioned the Penguins not letting off because they were in a trap at this stage of the game. Turns out, I was almost right….
Second Period: Penguins get outshot 11-3 in the period and 2-0 on the score sheet. Much back and forth to open the period, then finally the Bears got on a bit of a run: Ryan Stoa from the slot, a laser that goes in. 3-1. :55 later, Nic Deschamps deflects a lazy Peter Leblanc shot from the blue line and in. 3-2. If the Bears would have come all the way back to tie and then win the game, the tweet above would have lead and the headline would have been, “Nafstradamus – Pens LOSE….”
Thankfully, we didn’t have to go there.
Third Period: Pens would kill an early penalty. Then Tom Kostopoulos benefits from a Derek Whitmore turnover to score his 500th professional point.
Then the Pens get a power play. Time to pile on, right? No, you’re wrong!
Nic Deschamps scores on a breakaway. Hartzell stopped the initial shot, lost the rebound, Deschamps found it and he stuffed it past and cut the deficit to one again.
Pens kill a bonehead Bobby Farnham goalie interference call then Nick Drazenovic scores in a pile to extend the lead to 5-3 for the Penguins. It was too much, too late for the Bears.
Three Stars: 3) Scott Harrington (two assists, -1) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, assist, -3) 1) Tom Kostopoulos (two goals, -1)
I should note that Gibbons is three points back (27) of the active leaders (30) for the AHL scoring lead. Depending on call-ups, production and such, I may start mentioning it on the blog from time to time.
SendToNews Highlights: Better than a link to the SendToNews package, the YouTube highlights!
There’s snow in the forecast tomorrow. 4-6 inches. Hershey is already saying that they will make a determination on their game (home, vs. Binghamton) by mid-afternoon. Utica, in case you were wondering, is about an hour north of Binghamton. Basically, if you get the opposing team in, with the officials (Ryan Fraser scheduled to work the game, he’s a Central PA resident if I remember right, linesmen are local guys) it’s game on. If the roads are treacherous, the team may, for the safety of the fans, cancel the game. Anyway, check the Pens website or stick with me on Twitter if you are planning on going tomorrow but use your judgement. Push come to shove, watch it on TV. It’ll be on MyNetwork TV.
Comments Off on Falcons Soar — Pens LOSE 3-2
Posted by nafsnep on December 11, 2013
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The season series may be over, but I have a funny feeling that this won’t be the last time we see this Springfield Falcons team this season.
The Falcons are essentially a mirror image of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Flashy guys who can score, bangers that can mix it up combined with solid D and good goaltending.
The better team won tonight, 3-2. The Falcons sweep the two game series between these two teams and are off to Norfolk to play the Admirals this weekend.
First Period: Patrick McNeill used to terrorize the Penguins while a member of the Hershey Bears. He scored the first of two goals in the game in the first period when Broc Little had a puck in the corner that drew the attention of the Pens. Little passes to McNeill who snaps a shot past Deslauriers for a 1-0 Springfield lead.
The Penguins would get their chances on the power play tonight but just would not convert.
Mike O’Brien had a tweet in first intermission that pretty much summed up the evening in general:
To this point, yeah, Springfield had the better of the chances and made the most of them.
Second Period: Cody Bass and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond fought in a great battle that I hope the Pens YouTube feed puts up so I can straight link on here. Pens had a power play, Harry Zolnierczyk flubs a one timer destined for the back of the net otherwise but the Falcons kill it. Then, Cody Sylvester and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault tangle in the far corner and Audy-Marchessault throws a punch but Sylvester is the only one taken off the ice. The Falcons win a face-off and get the puck to McNeill who scores quickly on a shot that Deslauriers was screened on.
Third Period: Harry Zolnierczyk is awarded a shorthanded penalty shot. He scores on it to bring the Pens within one. I think, if memory serves, that was the second successful regular season penalty shot in team history. I could be wrong though. Anyway, later, whole four-on-four Paul Thompson takes a nice centering pass on a rush up ice from Drazenovic and scores (finally) to tie the game at two. For Thompson, it was his first goal of the season and long, long overdue.
But, the momentum was snuffed away as Tom Kostopoulos takes a penalty and Jonathan, don’t call me Audy anymore, Marchessault scores off the face-off to put the Falcons ahead 3-2.
Springfields power play is thing of beauty. 1) Win face-off. 2) Pass to guy. 3) Shoot 4) Celebrate with teammates.
Penguins with a furious rush in the final minute with Deslauriers pulled never found the equalizer.
Three Stars: 3) Paul Thompson (goal, even) 2) Harry Zolnierczyk (shorthanded penalty shot goal, +1) and 1) Patrick McNeill (two goals, assist, even)
Around the Division: Hershey rallies to get by Binghamton in a shootout 4-3. St. John’s has their way with Syracuse and win 5-1. Norfolk was off.
Has Deslauriers been the MVP of the team or, what? Every time he steps in the crease he gives the Penguins a chance to win.
I strung for the Great Jonathan Bombulie of the Citizens’ Voice tonight. Check out my story in the paper Sunday.
In it, I led with the fact that the Pens may be missing a large majority of their best players, but they still have a pretty intact blue line and goaltending department. The Pens got goals tonight from Tom Kuhnhackl, Brian Gibbons and Bobby Farnham then played prevent defense all third period and won the game.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. Eddie Pasquale
Two lineup changes: John Hynes went 11F/7D tonight. Peter Merth and Carter Rowney were out for Reid McNeill and Harrison Ruopp. Ruopp made his season debut for the Penguins.
First Period: About as inert a period you can get. With 5:27 left in the period, shots were 2-1 Penguins. It ended up 4-2 St. John’s at the end of the period. Best chances were a high slot shot by Gibbons and a Eric O’Dell cross ice saucer pass to Kael Mouillerat that Deslauriers made a cross ice post-to-post save on.
Second Period: IceCaps made their best efforts to jump ahead in the hockey game. I remember Mike O’Brien saying that the shots were 10-2 IceCaps at some point. Despite that, the Pens headed to a power play where Tom Kuhnhackl would score to break the deadlock. Brendan Mikkelson kept a puck in the far wall, fed Nick D’Agostino in the low far circle, he throws it at the net, it caroms off of Pasquale to Kuhnhackl who hacks and whacks and stuffs it past Pasquale.
Then, Mikkelson holds up Eric O’Dell on the half wall and Brian Gibbons comes in out of no where to pick O’Dell’s pocket to start a three-on-one up the ice with Cody Sylvester and Bobby Farnham. Gibbons passes to Farnham who touch passes back to Gibbons who scores an easy goal to put the Pens up 2-0.
Third Period: It took :21 for Bobby Farnham to find the back of the net for the Pens. Mike Carman tries a cross ice pass to Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. Defenseman Brenden Kichton puts a stick on the puck, but in the process sets the table for Farnham to step into one and laser it past Pasquale for a 3-0 lead.
Pens let off after that, and played prevent defense. Jeff Deslauriers made some sprawling saves in the period, most notably this one on Eric O’Dell, which will likely go on Deslauriers’ highlight reel.
Deslauriers first shutout of the year, and he’s tied for wins by goaltenders with 11.
Three Stars: 3) Bobby Farnham (goal, assist, +2) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal) 1) Jeff Deslauriers (30 save shutout)
Around the Division: Norfolk, hot on the heels of the division leaders, sweeps Syracuse this weekend with a 2-1 victory in Central New York. The Hershey Bears are halted by a resurgent Bridgeport Sound Tigers and lose 4-2. Binghamton gets a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the surprisingly good Albany Devils, who are just two points behind the Northeast Division leaders the Springfield Falcons who are the Penguins next opponent.
That means that, despite a patchwork lineup of ECHL call ups, your Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are in sole possession of first place in arguably the best division in the AHL, the East Division.
Wheeling Update: Nailers are a point factory right now. Nailers win 2-1 in a shootout over the Cincinnati Cyclones tonight and lead their division by 8 points.
SendToNews Highlights: Despite last night, a ton of good things to look at from a Penguins fan perspective tonight. Here you go.
Pens probably travel Sunday back to Wilkes-Barre, off Monday, and prep Tuesday for a home game vs. Springfield Wednesday.
Blog wise, barring anything huge, the Week 10 AHL Power Rankings will be here Monday afternoon.
The results were predictable. St. John’s goaltender Eddie Pasquale stops all of twenty shots faced and WheelingWilkes-Barre loses 5-0.
The two teams rematch tomorrow night.
News of the day was the recall of Harry Zolnierczyk to Pittsburgh and Andrew Ebbett to injured reserve with a fractured ankle. Mike O’Brien said on the pre game show that Ebbett is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. He also stated that Nick Drazenovic is about a week away from returning. He is hopeful for a return Wednesday vs. his old team the Springfield Falcons.
Eric Hartzell vs. Eddie Pasquale. With the Zolnierczyk recall, it was all hands on deck up front for the Pens.
First Period: Bobby Farnham fought J.C. Lipon for the hit Lipon put on Tom Kuhnhackl a few weeks ago in Wilkes-Barre, where Lipon was suspended for the hit. The Pens struggled to get shots in close on Eddie Pasquale. Seemed that anything from the face-off dot or higher that the Pens shot at Pasquale, he saw like a beach ball.
Finally, just past the halfway mark of the period, Eric O’Dell wheeled around the Wilkes-Barre net, threw a weak shot at Hartzell and Carl Klingberg backhanded it home over the left shoulder of the Penguin net minder.
Other than that, Hartzell was pretty flawless otherwise for the Pens in the period, stopping shots in traffic, on a power play and even on a give away at the blue line that saw Patrice Cormier skate in unabated.
Second Period: Pens came out with much more life to start the period. They’d be rewarded with a power play, and that seemed to halt all momentum as the Pens would gain center red and dump and chase.
Then, Peter Merth and ex-Penguin Ryan Schnell are fighting for a puck along the wall and Blair Riley comes flying in with a check on Merth. Merth’s head collides with Schnell, cuts him badly, and then Merth and Riley fight. Merth would pick up the extra minor. Then, my AHL Live feed wet the bed. During the outage and me rushing to bring it back, Carl Klingberg scored his second of the game with a one timer in front for a 2-0 St. John’s lead. Then, Zach Redmond scores on a power play to extend the IceCaps lead to three.
The Penguins obviously weren’t doing themselves any favors taking lazy penalties. They needed to kill a carryover one heading into the….
Third Period: They would, then would get a power play but about fifteen seconds later would take a penalty. But that wasn’t the story of the period. It was this:
What little offense the Pens could muster at Pasquale and the IceCaps, the St. John’s net minder handled easily. This display was the most heat in his kitchen all night, and he came up with ten bell save after ten bell save.
Oh, that thing I said about the Pens getting a power play then taking one? Happened again. Seemed that any momentum the Pens got rolling they just applied the brakes themselves with dumb penalties.
Jerome Samson and Andrew Gordon strike in 1:05. Samson strips Brian Gibbons, skates the length, and fires a shot on Hartzell that was deflected by a stick. So, it badly changed the speed and the angle as the puck approached Hartzell. It was an ugly goal. Then, Zach Redmond fires a shot on goal that Andrew Gordon gets a stick on that appeared to be a high stick. I have an iPhone 5S that has a slo-mo camera on it. I looked at the goal again. It looked like, to me, that Gordon’s stick was legal at the point of contact then a split second later, as Gordon was raising his stick, illegal.
Referee Darcy Burchell must have saw it that way too, as he emphatically ruled goal and there wasn’t a replay.
That was it. Five goals scored against. Ain’t that enough?
Three Stars: 3) Eddie Pasquale (20 save shutout) 2) Zach Redmond (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Carl Klingberg (two goals, +2)
Wheeling Update: You’d think that you should feel sorry for the ECHL affiliate Wheeling. Yeah, no. The Nailers beat the defending Kelly Cup Champion Reading Royals 4-3 at home in a shootout. The Nailers are 9-0-2 in their last 11 games and are a point factory despite being stripped of all their players by call ups.
SendToNews Highlights: Are here. Not much to look at if you are a Penguin fan.
Rematch tomorrow on The Rock between these two teams. Gameday will be here at 2 p.m.
Comments Off on A Point in the Can is Worth a Division Lead – Pens LOSE 3-2 (OT)
Posted by nafsnep on November 30, 2013
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With the state of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins now, with half of their scoring on recall to Pittsburgh, a dogfight in Hershey was going to be expected. The Bears are underachieving right now, and they did not want to get outclassed by their rivals in Wilkes-Barre by going 0-fer in the season going into December.
They also accomplished this feat by yet another third period comeback, down 2-0 after the second intermission.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. David Leggio
Peter Merth was in for Dustin Stevenson. Dominik Uher needs “further evaluation” per Mike O’Brien on the pre game show from his upper body injury suffered Wednesday in Adirondack.
First Period: Pierre-Luc Letourneau Leblond and Joel Rechlicz fought in a dandy of a fight. Then, the Pens took a penalty and Stan Galiev scored to put the Bears ahead 1-0. Pens go 0-for-2 on the power play the rest of the way. The Bears really did a nice job of bottling up the Pens all period long.
Second Period: Pens fail to score on extended 5:00 major for charging on Garrett Mitchell on a hit from Brain Gibbons. Pens couldn’t do anything with it. Tempers flared as custom between these teams. Dave Leggio makes a nice save on Scott Harrington, Harry Zolnierczyk had about five chances all game to score but did not. Bears double the lead on a backhander just as a power play for them expires from Jeff Taffe.
Penguins really owned the period, but could not solve Leggio and gave up a goal to Taffe for a 2-0 deficit heading into the….
Third Period: Pierre Leblond scores his first goal for the Penguins on a firecracker of a shot from below the blue line to cut the Bears deficit in half. Hershey would then play full on prevent defense but Mike Carman would score in a scrum to tie the game late. Brian Gibbons and Harry Zolnierczyk were magic all night but just could not connect all night and missed one late. Deslauriers with a save on a Bear from the point. Penguins ice the puck three times in the final third seconds and it was onto…
Overtime: Mike Carman strips a Bear of a puck, feeds a streaking Kostopoulos but the captain misses. Then the Bears score with 6.6 left as David Kolomatis would receive a pass from the corner after Deslauriers directed a puck there. The Penguins goaltender was out of position as Kolomatis let loose and the Bears would take this one in overtime.
Three Stars: 3) Casey Wellman (two assists, +1) 2) Mike Carman (goal, +1) and 1) David Kolomatis (game winning OT goal, even)
Around the Division: Brad Thiessen loses in his 2013-14 AHL debut with the Norfolk Admirals 3-2 as the Providence Bruins sweep the weekend series with the Admirals. The Binghamton Senators lose 4-3 in a shootout to the St. John’s IceCaps and remain tied with Wilkes-Barre in points, but remains second in the division due to tiebreakers. The Syracuse Crunch bus broke down and arrived late for a game with the Adirondack Phantoms in Glens Falls but the Crunch still won 1-0 anyway.
Wheeling Update: The Nailers shutout the hapless Toledo Walleye 3-0 tonight in West Virginia. The Walleye have been shutout in three straight game. Anton Zlobin had a goal for the Nailers in the win.
SendToNews Highlights: Here they are. Or, alternatively, watch this…
Content wise, if anything breaks Sunday, I will have it here. If not, the Week 9 AHL Power Rankings will be here Monday afternoon at 4 p.m.
Comments Off on Hart Throb – Pens WIN 1-0
Posted by nafsnep on November 29, 2013
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It took 20 games, but the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have their first shutout.
Against a divisional foe.
By a rookie goaltender starting his second ever AHL game.
For first place.
Anchored by a 25 save performance by Eric Hartzell, the Penguins get a goal from Harry Zolnierczyk in the second period and ride solid defense the rest of the way to win 1-0 over rival Binghamton and are now in first place in the division.
Nathan Lawson vs. Eric Hartzell
Dominik Uher was listed as out with an “upper body” injury. Carter Rowney made his WBS debut for Uher. Peter Merth took warmups but was the lone healthy scratch.
Pre-game, the Pens announced that Jeff Deslauriers was signed to an AHL contract for the rest of the year. This should surprise no one. It wasn’t a matter of if they were going to sign Deslauriers, it was a matter of when.
First Period: Penguins went 0-for-7 on the power play and it showed early, especially with the second one of the night in the first period where the Penguins couldn’t get a single thing going. Late, shorthanded, Brian Gibbons hits the top of the goal post and the puck goes in at the buzzer. Only problem is, the puck went down and not in then was pushed in but after time expired. Replay confirmed the call.
Second Period: Eric Hartzell must have had six eyes and eight legs this period because he had every puck hit him this period. A redirect from in close? Saved. Penguins defensive turnover? Dial 555-BAIL – Eric is there to bail you out. A shot that goes through nine bodies on the ice that mere mortal goaltenders never see? Insured by Hartzell, we keep pucks out of the net! He saw everything and let everything hit him, closed his angles and was on money all period.
Then, Brian Gibbons takes a puck off the near low corner, sweeps it to Harry Zolnierczyk for the backhander to put the Pens up 1-0. Pens kill a 4:00 Brian Dumoulin high stick call, thanks in large part to the stout penalty kill and one Eric Hartzell.
Third Period: More terrible power play by the Penguins. A scary moment when Hartzell goes down and doesn’t move. The arena was quiet because most fans knew there wasn’t another goaltender in Wheeling for a call-up. Turns out, by my eyes, it was nothing but a cramp, as I saw trainer Kyle Moore mouth “cramp” while walking to the bench. Binghamton would have a power play to mess with after, but Hartzell and the stellar Wilkes-Barre penalty killing unit would deny all chances.
Three Stars: 3) Nathan Lawsn (25 saves on 26 shots) 2) Harry Zolnierczyk (goal, +1) and 1) Eric Hartzell (25 save shutout)
Comments Off on BOO! – Pens LOSE 3-1
Posted by nafsnep on November 27, 2013
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This headline is an all purpose one.
Since Phantoms are ghosts, and ghosts scare people, and you say “Boo!” to scare people, you have that angle.
When you don’t like something, you boo. I never like when the Penguins lose.
Wilkes-Barre lays an egg in Glens Falls, NY and lose 3-1 to the Adirondack Phantoms. The Phantoms bottled up the Penguins all night, especially in the second period onward, only allowing the Pens 12 shots on goal after the first period, where the Pens outshot the Phantoms 16-3.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. Yann Danis
Carter Rowney was the lone scratch for the Penguins. Peter Merth is day-to-day. Reid McNeill and Nick Drazenovic are week-to-week.
First Period: Penguins steamroll the Phantoms in the period, outshooting them 16-3. Phantoms won the game in this period by not going down multiple goals, as Danis was spectacular for Adirondack, only rearing one goal, on the power play to Tom Kostopoulos. Prior to, Brandon Manning had scored on the power play.
Second Period: The Pens played a great first five minutes then could not even muster a shot on goal, as it was noted in Adirondack that the Pens hadn’t registered a single shot on goal for the last three fourths of the period.
Some controversy with the second Adirondack goal scored by Petr Straka. Here, take a look:
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Sorry about the letter boxing. I never remember to put my iPhone on landscape mode when shooting video.
Didn’t look like, to me, that that goal should have counted. Referee Geno Binda was the ref you saw there waving it off at the last second but T.J. Luxmore was the high ref and overruled the call WITHOUT replay. You decide.
Chris VandeVelde later pounces on a puck in the slot while the teams were 4-on-4 to put the Phantoms up 3-1. It would turn out to be all the insurance Adirondack would need.
Third Period: Dominik Uher took a puck up high in the second period, left with a towel on his mouth with the trainer and didn’t return. Pens get two power plays in the period but do not cash on either and that’s your ballgame.
Three Stars: 3) ben Holmstrom (assist, +1) 2) Brandon Manning (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Yann Danis (27 saves on 28 shots)
Wheeling Update: Nailers shutout Cincinnati 3-0. Reigning ECHL player of the week Zack Torquato had a goal and an assist and was named first star of the game.
SendToNews Highlights: Aren’t up yet. Nothing much to see other than what I gave you above, but for the sake of completeness I will check later and link if one comes out.
Penguins back at it Friday vs. Binghamton. Looking ahead to that one, starting goaltender Nathan Lawson left the game with an apparent injury and Andrew Hammond came on in relief to start the second period.
Blog wise, I’ll have my First Quarter Grades here sometime tomorrow. I’m shooting for noon but only have the forwards done, so who knows. But they will be up, so check back at some point tomorrow.
WBS News
