Comments Off on Fall Back — Pens WIN 4-2
Posted by nafsnep on November 2, 2013
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Penguins complete a perfect weekend with a 4-2 win over the Hershey Bears in South Central Pennsylvania tonight.
But, you would think by reading that lead that the Penguins sealed the win tonight in the third period, like they have all season long to date.
Not tonight.
The story of this game was two sided. David Leggio played out of his mind tonight for the Bears, stopping 38 of 42 shots. The other was the relentless pressure the Penguins put on the Bears from the second period on. There was nothing that the Bears or Leggio could do to stop the Penguins tonight. Wilkes-Barre played like they were not to be stopped.
The Penguins sweep the Bears this weekend and complete the perfect weekend.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. David Leggio
Late news in that Brendan Mikkelson was a surprise scratch. He took warmups, but was scratched and Nick D’Agostinio took his place in the lineup.
First Period: Adam Payerl feeds Tom Kostopoulos in the slot but Leggio made the save to deny him. Turns out that save would be a bit of foreshadowing for the way the period and most of the game would go for the Penguins.
But first, the Bears would get two bang bang goals 1:59 apart. David Kolomatis scores his first as a Bear when he throws a puck at the net that banks off of Scott Harrington and into the net. The second was a sharp angle shot from ex-Penguin Jeff Taffe that was set up by a hit on Andrew Ebbett.
Back to Leggio…the Penguins would end up on a 5-on-3 for 1:48 and when Brian Gibbons goes to bed tonight he is going to have nightmares over David Leggio. Leggio denies Gibbons not once, but twice when Gibbons seemingly had an open net to shoot into while on the two man advantage.
The rest of the period saw two fights, Uher and Tyson Strachan and Bobby Farnham and TJ Syner, fresh from a call up from ECHL Reading. Pens and Bears would trade power play opportunities but would not capitalize.
Second Period: The foreshadowing of this period was a D to D pass that Harry Zaolnierczyk picks off at the top of the rings in the Hershey zone that he skates in on Leggio and nearly scores on. The Pens would go on a penalty kill as a result of the goalie interference that Zolnierczyk committed. Gibbons skates in shorthanded and is then denied on a breakaway by Leggio. Then, Dom Uher is denied on the rebound as well.
Finally, Chris Conner craked the code which was David Leggio on 4-on-4 and scored the Penguins first goal.
Shots on goal for the second period were 22-9 Pens and 34-16 through 40 minutes.
Third Period: More even period for both teams. Bears think they score on a power play but referee Ryan Fraser takes a look at it and rules no goal. This was Fraser’s third look at replay tonight, as he had looked at two Penguins goals in the second period.
Wheeling Update:Nailers beat Greenville 5-3 in West Virginia tonight. Denver Manderson was the third star (1-2-3, +2) and Cody Sylvester was the first star (2-0-2, +2)
Pens off now until Wednesday when they square off against the Syracuse Crunch at home.
Content wise, if anything is worth blogging about Sunday I will have it here. If not, the Week 5 AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday afternoon.Don’t forget to set your clocks back Saturday night!
Nick Drazenovic had three assists and stepped up huge tonight. He and captain Tom Kostopoulous both had three points.
The fans will remember the goals, fights and the Deslauriers save in overtime on the Matt Watkins penalty shot. I’ll remember the Drazenovic three point night (0-3-3) as maybe his breakout game in a Penguins uniform.
Drazenovic was second in points last year for a loaded Springfield Falcons team. He is a very crafty hockey player. Hopefully this game snowballs things his way and I’m making silly headlines about him.
But tonight, was all about Mikkelsons heroics, set up by Jeff Deslauriers save on a Matt Watkins penalty shot.
Let me set this up, backwards to forwards. The Penguins were awarded a power play in overtime when Nicolas Deschamps ran into Deslauriers behind the net. Deslauriers helmet came off, so referee Brett Iverson had to call something.
Somehow, Watkins slips by the Penguins defense and is interfered with enough to be awarded a penalty shot. Iverson must have figured that if he called Hershey for interference in overtime, he would at least award them a penalty shot.
Watkins took the shot and at the last second, Deslauriers gets the pad over to deny him.
That was all the momentum the Penguins would need as 1:35 later, Mikkelson would send the 5,019 that attended tonights game home happy.
The teams traded power play goals in the first. Derek Whitmore on a rebound of his own shot as the Bears were on a 5-on-3, then Dominik Uher on a power play goal 4:01 later.
Hershey would get another goal in the second period on when the Pens were caught on a bad line change.
Wilkes-Barre returns fire in the third with a goal from Tom Kostopulous off a face-off win from Drazenovic.
There were fireworks in the game, as there nearly always is when these two teams step on the same 200′ sheet of ice together. Dane Byers hit Simon Despres with a thunderous check that set off a brawl of sorts in the third period. Byers would get a 5:00 charging call and get ejected from the game. Philip Samuelsson would also get thrown out for instigating in response to the Byers antics. Sameulsson was actually lucky that the penalties were levied when they were. Six seconds later and he would have been suspended a game for getting an instigator in the last five minutes.
These two teams get to do it all over again tomorrow night in Hershey.
Around the Division: Syracuse down at one point 4-1, come back to beat the Rochester Americans 5-4 in a shootout. It was a Russian party that led the comeback. It’s late and I don’t feel like spelling out the names of those who scored, so if you want to, click the link to see who scored for Syracuse…..Binghamton loses 3-1 to Adirondack in Glens Falls….John Gibson backstops the Norfolk Admirals to a 3-0 win in Albany tonight.
It was one of those games that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are known for. Tight, aggressive hockey. Not a lot of offensive opportunities. Good goaltending. A break here and there and a score for or against.
Reid McNeill was in for Nick D’Agostino on the blue line for the Pens. It’s been a common occurrence where D’Agostino will get a game then McNeill. Tonight was no different.
First Period: Simon Despres springs Brian Gibbons on a home run pass Gibbons collected at center, skated in and put the Pens on the board 1-0 early on. I had a feeling at the time that 1) one goal wasn’t going to be enough to get by Norfolk because 2) John Gibson doesn’t give up many goals, a .952 SV% and a 1.53 GAA.
Turns out, I was right. Pens take their foot off the gas the last 12 minutes of the period, get outshot 9-0 and scored on when Rickard Rakell tied things on a power play late.
Second Period: Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond fought twice in the period. Zack Stortini and John Kurtz. That was all the excitement in the period, really.
Third Period: Norfolk pressures in the Penguins zone a good minute, Max Sauve scores in a pile. Pens have to kill consecutive penalties which stall any sort of a comeback, then get a 4:00 power play with 2:38 left to play. Then, for some unknown reason, the Pens get caught with too many men on the ice with 1:50 left. With Mannino pulled a short time after, Wilkes-Barre never found the equalizer.
Someone said this on Twitter…
WBS Penguins are now 0-2 without Jayson Megna, just sayin.....
SendToNews Highlights: Still being curated by Brian Coe and the video guys. I’ll have a link up here if I remember tomorrow.
That thing I said last night about which team between Binghamton and Norfolk I detest more? Call it a push. Now, how do Syracuse, Hershey and the rest of the league pick up on how to beat the Penguins at their own game is the question.
Probably won’t have anything here Sunday. Have to get to work on the Week 4 AHL Power Rankings which will be here on the blog sometime Monday afternoon.
Comments Off on Shootout on the Southern Tier – Pens LOSE 4-3 (SO)
Posted by nafsnep on October 25, 2013
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Ask me again in 24 hours, when the Penguins play the Norfolk Admirals, who the bigger rival is going to be for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.
The Penguins, coming into this game a perfect 6-0, won all their games in all ways. They go to Binghamton and get handed their first loss of the season, a 4-3 setback in the shootout.
Hey, at least the Springfield Falcons lost in a shootout too tonight, losing 4-3 to the Providence Bruins. There are no more undefeated teams in the AHL. Break out the champagne.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. Nathan Lawson
Delauriers debuted new pads, blocker and glove:
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With Tom Kostopoulos out with injury, and Jayson Megna called up to Pittsburgh, Harry Zolnierczyk and Chris Conner replaced those two up front. Reid McNeill took warmups but was scratched.
First Period: Penguins come out and miss on two opportunities to score. The first was Harry Zolnierczyk on the doorstep of Lawson and him fanning on a puck. The second was a 2-on-1 with Chris Conner and Scott Harrington.
Pens would get a power play early but wouldn’t manage a single shot on goal at Lawson.
Then the Penguins found themselves in penalty trouble. All of a sudden, Binghamton was on a 5-on-3. They scored on all power plays enjoyed last Sunday in Bridgeport. It didn’t take them long to score two here. Stephane Da Costa under the glove of Deslauriers on a strong shot then Matt Puempel finished off the back end.
All of a sudden, the Pens were down 2-0 heading into the…
Second Period: The Pens would then get a chance on a 5-on-3. Tom Kuhnhackl scored to bring the Pens to one and the score was 2-1.
Then some hell broke loose. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond staples Mike Sdao to the boards. No call. Then Sdao skates up ice and cross checks Bobby Farnham. That was called. The Penguins would get a 5:00 power play and Sdao would get tossed from the game.
Five seconds later, Tom Kuhnhackl is whistled for a hook.
The two minutes pass with no scoring. Then, shorthanded, Cole Schnieder picks off a Brian Dumoulin exit pass and skates in shorthanded to make it 3-1. The next face-off, Paul Thompson appears to score but the goal was later washed out by referee Geoff Miller who ruled interference on the goaltender Lawson.
Third Period: I had a conversation with a nice man who was a B-Sens fan and informed him that the Penguins were the best third period team in all of the AHL. He didn’t believe me.
Harry Zolnierczyk and Brain Gibbons aggressively forechecked the B-Sens and forced a turnover on Lawson. Zolnierczyk scored to make it 3-2. Later, Adam Payerl crashes the net to tie the game at three. The Pens relentlessly forechecked like a pack of dogs the first 5:00 of the third and it showed.
After that, the play opened up. Lots of back and forth. Late, Brian Gibbons was denied by the pad of Lawson on a breakaway. Later, Jeff Deslauriers dives over to stop a B-Sens attempt. It was onto…
Overtime: Uneventful. I will use this space to say that the B-Sens only had four shots on goal in the second and scored on their second shot of the period, the Schneider shorthanded goal.
Shootout: The Penguins don’t score a goal. Stephane Da Costa scored in round one, Matt Puempel in round four. Tom Kuhnhackl, Paul Thompson, Nick Drazenovic and Andrew Ebbett were the shooters for the Penguins.
Three Stars: 3) Tom Kuhnhackl (goal, even) 2) Cole Schneider (goal, +1) and 1) Stephane Da Costa (goal, even)
Wheeling Update: The Nailers did not play tonight.
SendToNews Highlights: I am scrapping the package in favor of the B-Sens package that they put together which is easily embedded on YouTube, which plays nice with my blog:
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Norfolk is in tomorrow. Saw it on Twitter that the Anaheim organization has the best goaltender depth in the NHL, which certainly trickles down to the AHL, with John Gibson pitching a 38 save shutout for the Ads tonight. Gameday for that will be up at 3 p.m.
Brian Gibbons had 30 points in 70 games last year for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.
He has 11 so far after just 6 games this season.
Aided by a four point performance by Gibbons Sunday afternoon in Manchester, the Penguins defeated the Monarchs 4-3 in overtime and are off to a 6-0 start.
Tops in the East Division? Check.
Tops in the Eastern Conference? Check.
Tops in the entire American Hockey League? Checkmate.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. J-F Berube
Tom Kostopoulous did not play today for the Penguins. He’s day-to-day with a “lower body” injury. Simon Despres was apparently dinged up Friday against Adirondack. Despres played last night in Worcester and took warmups in Manchester but was scratched in favor of Nick D’Agostino.
First Period: Gibbons had a hand in all the scoring plays for the Penguins. He got his party started by scoring a goal on the power play from a ridiculous angle from below the goal line to give the Pens a 1-0 lead.
Penguins had several chances to blow the game wide open in the first, but Manchester hug around and scored a goal late in the period to tie the game at one. Sean Backman finished off a two-on-one to bring the Monarchs even.
Second Period: The whole “Brian Gibbons assisted or scored a goal for the Penguins and the Monarchs would respond later in the period” theme continued. Gibbons this time broke out of the penalty box and hit Andrew Ebbett cutting to the net to put the Pens up 2-1.
Despite getting a power play goal in the first period, the Penguins did not look good future power plays. Two consecutive man advantages for Wilkes-Barre reared more chances for Manchester than it did the Penguins.
Andrew Bodnarchuk rifled home a one timer to bring the Monarchs level with the Penguins again late.
Third Period: Mike Carman, in his second straight game, forechecked the Monarchs forwards and defenseman all afternoon long. His efforts led to Gibbons’ second goal. Gibbons stole the puck and wired home a wrister to put the Penguins up 3-2.
Late, a puck skips Zach Sill’s stick. Manchester breaks out and Nick Deslauriers slams home a rebound of a Jordan Weal blast to even the game again. Manchester wasn’t going away, having been in overtime six times prior to this game.
Three Stars: 3) Brendan Mikkelson (goal, assist, +2) 2) Andrew Bodnarchuk (goal, even) and 1) Brian Gibbons (two goals, two assists, +3)
Around the Division: Binghamton was in Bridgeport and beat the Sound Tigers 6-5 in overtime. That one was a barn burner. The Sound Tigers were down 3-0 at one point in the first.
Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They are back at it Saturday in Toledo.
SendToNews Highlights: Here they are for your viewing enjoyment.
If Gibbons had found his way onto the scoresheet Saturday in Worcester, a strong case would need to be made for AHL Player of the Week. We’ll see. I’d be pleasantly surprised if he was named. Normally the League announces the nomination Monday afternoon.
Monday afternoon will also be when the Week 3 AHL Power Rankings will publish. It probably a fair speculation to say that one of the two teams involved in this game today will be at the top. Stay tuned.
Comments Off on Fishing For Wins – Pens WIN 3-2
Posted by nafsnep on October 19, 2013
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This is becoming a theme.
Penguins sleepwalk through 40 minutes in Worcester, get three goals in the third, Peter Mannino makes 28 saves and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are off to a 5-0 start after beating the Worcester Sharks 3-2.
Tom Kuhnhackl scored two of those goals. Tom Kostopoulous left the game at some point with an injury. Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons had an off night, by their standards and the Penguins still manage to come away with victory.
Peter Mannino vs. Harri Sateri
Mike Carman and Reid McNeill were in for Bobby Farnham and Nick D’Agostino, respectively.
First Period: 48 penalty minutes before the game was two minutes old. For some reason, both teams were ornery to start. I don’t think it benefitted anyone in particular. Freddie Hamilton scored a goal later on a wicked wrister on busted coverage by the Penguins. Penguins managed only four shots on goal in this forgettable period.
Second Period: Pierre-Luc Letournau-Leblond fought twice. The first fight was with fellow heavyweight Jimmy Bonneau, later with 6’7 behemoth Taylor Doherty. The Pens had three chances to get the score even in the period. Andrew Ebbett off the cross bar, Adam Payerl all alone in the slot then Zach Sill poke checked and tripped by Sateri with Sateri well out of his crease. They also had three power play opportunities but came up empty.
Third Period: I pinch hit for Jonathan Bombulie tonight and wrote a story for the Citizens’ Voice which will be in the Sunday paper. My lede was don’t bother showing up on time for a Penguins game. Why? The Pens do all their damage in the third period. The Pens have outscored their opponents 14-4 in the season. It’s clearly the reason they are 5-0 this season.
Tom Kuhnhackl scored his first of the game at 1:48 then his second with 39.6 left. His goals were bookended by a John McCarthy goal by the Sharks on a setup from Sena Acolatse who wheeled around the Penguins net and fed McCarthy on the doorstep. Andrew Ebbett scored his first goal of the season set up by a Letourneau-Leblond big hit on a Shark.
Pens bus to Worcester for a 3 p.m. start in New Hampshire.
Three Stars: 3) Andrew Ebbett (goal, assist, +1) 2) Freddie Hamilton (goal, +1) and 1) Tom Kuhnhackl (two goals, +1)
Tom Kostopoulos came into tonight with points in all games played so far. He was pointless tonight, as was Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons.
Manchester is a good team and the Penguins are in for a fight tomorrow afternoon. But, the Monarchs have gone to a shootout for a total of five of the six games played. So it will be a really good test for both squads tomorrow and one I am looking forward to.
1) The Penguins are really, really good right now and are clicking on all cylinders while other teams are finding their sea legs.
2) Adirondack is a bad hockey team. One that got out worked and out muscled from the drop of the puck. A good team like the Penguins should have manhandled this team and did.
I guess point one could be obscured a bit because of point two. But it doesn’t matter in the short term. The Pens are 4-0 and firing on all cylinders right now. The long term will sort itself out.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. Cal Heeter
Chris Conner was called up to Pittsburgh before the game. My guess is that Harry Zolnierczyk will be back in time for tomorrows game in Worcester. We’ll see. Paul Thompson and Bobby Farnham took Conner and Zolnierczyk’s spots in the lineup.
First Period: Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons look like two entirely different players this season. They have some magic going early on. Gibbons steals an Adirondack exit attempt then passed to Jayson Megna who fished the puck out of his skates and scored to put the Pens on the board first.
Minutes later, Bruno Gervais beats Deslauriers with an NHL-style slap shot that tied the game. It would be the closest that the Phantoms would get the rest of the night.
I say that because this next goal was a thing of absolute beauty and should be the postage stamp of things early on and a look to the future. Dominik Uher and Tom Kuhnhackl win a battle up the ice and score a goal. Uher outworks a Phantoms defender, then centers to Kuhnhackl who beats his guy and scores a goal to make it 2-1.
If that goal is any indication of how the season is going to go, that is, manufacturing blue collar goals by outworking your opponent, watch out.
The Pens nearly let the Phantoms back into the game with some sloppy play late in the first, but it broke 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Second Period: Philip Samuelsson shot a puck from the blueline that Adam Payerl deflected in to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.
Jayson Megna scored his second of the night shorthanded setup by, who else, Brian Gibbons. That set off a line brawl of sorts that sort of woke up the Phantoms enough to see Nick Cousins score a goal on the doorstep to cut the deficit to two, 4-2.
Dominik Uher again with a slap shot bomb after he, again, outworked his guy to score a goal.
Link here to the picture of the scrum of the line brawl and here to the fight that Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond had with Zack FitzGerald.
Third Period: Brian Gibbons finished off a cross ice pass on the power play to put the Pens ahead 6-2. Pens buzzed after that, you could almost smell the killer instinct that the Penguins had. Rob Bordson scored a goal late when Deslauriers left a rebound.
Three Stars: 3) Dominik Uher (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brian Gibbons (gioal, two assists, +2) and 1) Jayson Megna (two goals, +2)
Conference: Hartford 9, Wilkes-Barre, Manchester and Springfield 8, Norfolk 7, Binghamton 6, Albany and St. John’s 5
Wheeling Update: The Nailers kicked off their season at home vs. the Elmira Jackals and won 3-2. Christiaan Minella was named first star, with two goals.
SendToNews Highlights: Here they are. Pardon the terrible pun from Brian Coe.
Pens bus to Worcester overnight. The Sharks will be playing in just their second game of the season and tomorrow is their home opener. They lost to Springfield in their last game so you know they are going to be amped and ready to go. Tomorrow may be a trap game for the Pens if they aren’t careful….
Gameday for that game will be up tomorrow at 3 p.m.