Chirps from Center Ice

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I am assuming that you saw this tweet this afternoon about a former Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins alum.

Tristan Jarry sure did.

Facing a sudden uncertain future with the organization he plays for, Jarry goes out and pitches a gem as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins take down the American Hockey League’s best team 5-1 tonight in Charlotte.

That’s four straight wins for Tristan Jarry. If you were wondering, like me, how the Penguins netminder would respond in his next game in the wake of the DeSmith extension against the best team in the AHL, you have your answer.

Jarry can ball. He should get the start again Saturday in the rematch against a likely pissed off Checkers team to really show his value, but that decision rests with Clark Donatelli, not this writer.

He opposed Scott Darling.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Cam Brown goes top line with Blueger and Angello. Hayes goes 2RW with Johnson and Lafferty. Cramarossa drops from first to third with Dea and Haggerty. Scarfo goes in w Ölund and Burton. On defense, Chad Ruhwedel was recalled after his 14 day stay on conditioning so Jeff Taylor jumped in and was paired with Tim Erixon.

Garrett Wilson was recalled earlier in the week when Zach Aston-Reese broke his hand in a fight and Patric Hornqvist left Pittsburgh’s last game with a concussion. Aston-Reese was placed on injured reserve.

First Period: I said in my Gameday setup that the Penguins almost needed to play a perfect game against Charlotte if they wanted to have success. Well, they got it in the period. Here is how.

1) Relentless forechecking.
2) Great special teams.
3) Solid goaltending.

Jarrett Burton would open the scoring when an Ethan Prow shot is blocked and the rebound is collected and a pass swept over to Jarrett Burton to give the Pens a 1-0 lead.

Linus Ölund would score short handed to give Wilkes-Barre a 2-0 lead.

Tristan Jarry was making saves like a ninja in the crease to keep the highly potent Checkers offense in the cold with saves like these.

And Anthony Angello, who had been stymied by Scott Darling, with this fitting goal here that would end Darling’s evening and gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead.

Enter Alex Nedeljkovic.

Second Period: Penguins score quickly out of the gate when Cam Brown dropped a pass to Teddy Blueger on a three on one that Blueger finished off for a 4-0 Penguins lead.

Just defensive breakdowns by the Checkers all over the place. The Penguins to this point were reading all of the passes like they knew where they were going to go before they were even made.

Checkers finally go on the board when Andrew Poturalski scored on a two on none to cut Charlotte’s deficit to three.

Wilkes-Barre managed to kill a penalty soon after the goal scored against without any issues. Charlotte found themselves in late penalty trouble. You would have like to have seen the Penguins score a goal here to really ice the game away, but they could not.

Third Period: You wanted to see the Penguins maintain the pressure and keep pushing vs. playing to protect a lead or as I sometimes like to say, “playing not to lose.” It was working. Wilkes-Barre continued to apply pressure and get good looks throughout the period.

Wilkes-Barre would be the beneficiary of two power plays in the period and finally cashed on this J-S Dea marker that would essentially ice the game away late and made it 5-1.

The Good: Penguins played that perfect game that I mentioned in the Gameday setup this afternoon. I don’t think there is any doubt that the Penguins play better depending on the quality of the opponent. Charlotte is a team that only lost eight games in regulation coming into tonight.

The Bad: Nitpicking again cause they got one and the game really wasn’t close, but the power play could have iced this game away way earlier than with less than ten minutes to play in regulation.

Three Stars:

Around the Division: Bridgeport beats Utica 4-3 in overtime. Big win for the Sound Tigers who were winless in their last three straight comings in….Lehigh Valley loses 2-1 at home to a suddenly hot Binghamton Devils team….Springfield beats Hershey 6-2 and Providence doubles up Hartford 6-3.

Standings: Charlotte 57 – Bridgeport 50 – Lehigh Valley 43 – Penguins 43 – Springfield 42 – Providence 39 – Hartford 38 – Hershey 32

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout 3-0 at home by the Utah Grizzlies.

Video Highlights: 

Pens and Checkers are back at it again Saturday at 6 o’clock. Gameday setup is yours here on the blog Saturday at 2.

Let’s Go Pens!

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If you were in attendance at Saturday’s game agains the Milwaukee Admirals, you may be thinking that the referees, Alex Ross and Mitch Dunning were awful and cost the Penguins the game. One that the Penguins lose 5-3.

Here is where I am going to tell you you are dead wrong.

Let me set it up for you. The Penguins were in a 4-1 hole early in the third period when J-S Dea and Teddy Blueger scored goals a little over 90 seconds apart from one another and it’s a one goal game all of a sudden. Wilkes-Barre was rolling and the Admirals heads were spinning. Milwaukee head coach Karl Taylor called time out to try to calm things down a bit.

Then, Emil Pettersson puts this shot on net.

I am sorry. That shot needs to be stopped.

Those are not spectacular numbers from your back up. The Penguins play a bunch of Friday-Saturday hockey games in the month of January with the exception being a 1:05 start on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and a 10:30 Wednesday kids day road start in Bridgeport on January 23. The moral of the story is that if I am Clark Donatelli, I tell Tristan Jarry that he better eat his Wheaties cause it’s his net from now on.

The Penguins are in a dogfight for a playoff spot. They are in an OK spot for now, but it’s games like these that will have Wilkes-Barre kicking itself if it is mid-April and a playoff spot still isn’t sewn up. With numbers like Peters has been giving you lately, you have to take the option and either let Tristan Jarry play all the games or call up your NHL contracted goaltender in John Muse from Wheeling and let Muse back up or get starts.

On Peters, the Cincinnati Cyclones own his ECHL rights, so the Penguins can’t just send him to Wheeling. The Cyclones and Nailers play in the same division so sending Peters down is a fighting with your family situation. Unless the Penguins flip Peters in a trade, they are in a precarious position unless Peters can regain the magic of old.

He opposed Troy Grosenick.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Haggerty and Cramarossa swap spots. Burton up to third with Dea and Haggerty, Cam Brown yields to Linus Ölund on fourth line.

First Period: Patrick McGrath and Mathieu Olivier fought. A draw in my book but you can be the judge.

Anthony Angello connected on a power play goal on a double minor to Jeremy Gregoire for high sticking and the Pens were on the board first.

Off the post and in.

Second Period: Pens give up a shorthanded goal to Emil Pettersson which tied the game at one.

Frederic Allard hooked Sam Lafferty down on a breakaway and the Penguins were on the power play. A power play which included Jimmy Hayes getting ice time which I cannot explain, but Allard served his two minutes, was sprung on yet another breakaway against given up by Wilkes-Barre but was denied by Peters. Yet, Nicholas Baptiste was there to clean up the wreckage and the Admirals went on top 2-1.

Refs Ross and Dunning may have or may not have, depending on your view, started losing control of the game. They called Anthony Angello for a cross checking penalty when a linesman couldn’t drop a puck the right way. That set the Penguins off a bit because it seemed at the time that the game was spiraling out of control and the Admirals were getting all the calls.

Ex-Penguin and current Admirals captain Jarred Tinordi scored in a pile with players draped all over Peters that made it 3-1.

Third Period: Tanner Jeannot connected with a power play goal on the front end of a Sam Lafferty double minor for high sticking and it was 4-1.

J-S Dea and Teddy Blueger score on top of one another and it’s 4-3…

Nice setup from Jimmy Hayes.

Blueger hits the post, Anthony Angello collects the puck and feeds Blueger again for the goal. Nice play.

You already know from the lede what happened next. Emil Pettersson from the slot and it’s a hole that Wilkes-Barre can’t dig out of.

Jarrett Burton fans on a wide open net on a nice feed which could have maybe changed the complexion of the game. Burton has to bury that chance.

Ben Sexton got crushed on an open ice hit and left the game with a probable concussion.

Matt Abt had a nice hit.

Big deal. That will probably get him a few more games when Chad Ruhwedel gets recalled at the end of his conditioning stint. He’s been questionable too, even paired up with the All-Star Ethan Prow.

The Good: The fight that the Penguins showed in the third period early is a promising sign. It was game that they should have won.

The Bad: The backup goaltending is a mess. You have a guy in Peters on an AHL deal that can’t get sent to your ECHL affiliate because of a technicality and a NHL contracted goaltender buried in the ECHL. Sorry, there is no time to “play your way” out of a funk especially with how tight things are now for the #3, #4 and #5 spots in the Atlantic and most especially with a road trip to Charlotte coming up next weekend. If a plan is to give Tristan Jarry only one game next weekend, then call up Muse and bring him to Charlotte and have he and Jarry split Friday / Saturday. Anthony Peters should not see the net in a live fire game for the rest of the month, in this writers opinion.

But like I say countless times before, I just blog about this team, I don’t coach it.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Charlotte wins again with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen in Belleville 6-3. That team is just not fair….Bridgeport drops its third straight, this time in Binghamton 3-2…Lehigh Valley loses in Hartford 3-1…Springfield beats Providence 5-3 and Hershey beats Grand Rapids 6-4.

Standings: Charlotte 55 — Bridgeport 48 — Lehigh Valley 41 — Penguins 41 — Springfield 39 — Hartford 38 — Providence 35 — Hershey 32

Lehigh Valley and Springfield play Sunday. You just hope that it doesn’t get to overtime.

Wheeling Update: 

Box here. John Muse stops 29 of 31 shots and was names third star.

Video Highlights: 

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Pens are off until next Friday in Charlotte. If there are news and notes I will note it here. Power Rankings next Thursday for sure.

Let’s Go Pens!

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In stark contrast to last Friday around this time, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins put up and displayed a fight to them all night against the Grand Rapids Griffins from the Central Division.

The Griffins will bury you offensively if you let them. Any team will, really but not many are as stacked as Grand Rapids is. Chris Terry leads the AHL in goals scored. Turner Elson or Carter Camper is usually there setting him up for all that success. They are a deep team and a team that had points in five straight games coming in.

Make it six, but just an overtime point as the Penguins take down the Griffins in a shootout, 3-2. It was a classic knockdown, drag out game from the jump. The teams started out nice to each other then the competitive juices started flowing and they hated each other at the end of the night. And Terry, Elson and Camper had company in the forms of Ryan Haggerty (two goals) Joseph Cramarossa (shootout goal and one of his finer performances) and Teddy Blueger.

It’s two teams that you wish would play more, because it was a game that brought the best out of both sides.

Tristan Jarry opposed Patrik Rybar.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Garrett Wilson serves the first of his two game suspension, Ryan Haggerty went to the top line with Blueger and Angello. Joseph Cramarossa returned from his one game suspension and took Ryan Haggerty’s third line spot with Jimmy Hayes and J-S Dea. Jarrett Burton went in for Linus Ölund on the third line. Jeff Taylor yielded to Tim Erixon on defense.

First Period: The Penguins got the game started off on the right foot just :17 when Ryan Haggerty deflected a shot from the point that put the Penguins ahead 1-0.

Grand Rapids would counter and Matt Ford snapped in a shot off of a face-off play that made it 1-1.

That’s Wade Megan on the face-off win. You won’t see it in the clip above, but Megan gave Ford a look seconds before as if they knew what was up.

Second Period: Griffins go for a clear that doesn’t make it past center ice and Ryan Haggerty collects and skates in and snaps a shot from in between the circles to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

Have to wonder if Grand Rapids played more regular games in Wilkes-Barre and the players were more familiar with the building that clear goes further and the completion of the game changes entirely.

Griffins answer a few minutes later when Libor Sulak puts a shot on net that caroms off Jarry to the stick of Turner Elson for a goal that made it 2-2.

Jarry, pretty sharp all evening, was dull on that sequence. I think he lost sight of the puck.

The Penguins had a chance to get ahead when Dylan McIlrath was tagged for concurrent penalties which gave the Penguins a 4:00 power play. They buried the Griffins in their zone for a good three minutes, had a guy break a stick but the Griffins held the fort and killed the entire four minutes. A hell of a kill that could have swung momentum in their favor heading into the third.

Third Period: The Penguins took three penalties in the period, and their penalty kill held firm. Grand Rapids outshot the Penguins 9-4 in the period and overall dominated chances. But they didn’t finish.

Overtime: Thrill a minute. Adam Johnson had a pair of breakaways. Sam Lafferty had one which was sprung by a hand pass from Tristan Jarry.

But no dice in overtime. You would have loved to see the teams just play another period and keep playing until a winner was decided.

Maybe someday, like an early June summer. For now, it was off to the shootout.

Shootout: Joseph Cramarossa scored in the bottom of the third using his move that won it for the Penguins a few weeks back in Hershey in the bottom of the ninth.

Jarry stopped Chris Terry, Axel Holmstrom and Dominic Turgeon. Rybar stopped Adam Johnson and J-S Dea before succumbing to Haggerty.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Great night for the Penguins overall. Of course Charlotte wins with a man short in Belleville 4-1. Bridgeport loses in Syracuse 3-1, just third time in two months the Sound Tigers have gone without a win….Providence beats Lehigh Valley 4-2…Hartford beats Springfield 3-1. Hershey was off.

Standings: Charlotte 53 — Bridgeport 48 — Lehigh Valley 41 — Penguins 41 — Springfield 37 — Hartford 36 — Providence 35 — Hershey 30

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were beaten in Indianapolis tonight 3-2 by the Indy Fuel. Renars Krastenbergs scored for the Nailers in the loss.

Video Highlights: 

Pens are back in action Saturday against the Milwaukee Admirals, who were idol tonight. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Tyler’s tweet at the end of the Penguins 5-2 win over the Binghamton Devils Monday night gave me the headline idea.

110 PIMs Saturday in a blowout win over Lehigh Valley. Only 54 PIMs tonight but it was a testy affair that saw Garrett Wilson tossed for an illegal check to the head match penalty which may get him suspended, more on that in a bit, but the Penguins are mucking it up and being physical and going to the window with wins in their last two contests where they get their pants dirty.

Right now, Wilkes-Barre is in a bird fight with Springfield for the fourth spot in the Atlantic so, whatever works.

Tristan Jarry opposed Cam Johnson.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Joseph Cramarossa was suspended for the instigator he picked up in the last five minutes on Saturday in Allentown so Ryan Haggerty jumped in for him one the line with Dea and Hayes. The Penguins sent Troy Josephs and John Muse to Wheeling on Sunday and recalled Cam Brown who jumped right into the action on the fourth line, centering Linus Ölund and Patrick McGrath. Jarrett Burton is day to day with an injury.

First Period: Binghamton on the board first as a shot caromed off of Jarry and was swept in by Ryan Schmelzer that gave Binghamton a 1-0 lead. The Devils heavily pressured and struck first at 4:13.

Penguins would get it back on a weird sequence. Garrett Wilson just left the penalty box when two Devils got tangled up in the neutral zone by the penalty box. Kurtis Gabriel, in the box with Wilson on a roughing minor ran into his teammate Marian Studenic who had the puck. Wilson then did this…

…and that tied the game at one a piece heading into the second period.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre scores three times in a period that really could have gone either way.

Garrett Wilson with a nice blind pass to the slot for Teddy Blueger that made it 2-1.

Penguins found themselves in some penalty trouble and Colton White scored on a two man advantage that tied the game at two.

But then Kevin Czuczman stepped out of the penalty box and set up Ben Sexton who scored to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead.

That was Kevin Czuczman’s 100th AHL point on the assist.

Wilkes-Barre doubles the lead on a shot by Garrett Wilson which is cleaned up by Anthony Angello for a 4-2 Penguin lead.

Wild period which really could have broke for either side. Binghamton’s defense is leaky and the Penguins were better. They got in penalty trouble but were able to navigate out of it only giving up one goal and managed to net three of their own in the period.

Third Period: As mentioned in the open, Garrett Wilson may be looking at a suspension for an illegal check to the head Match Penalty on Nathan Bastian who was shaken, but not stirred as he would return to action after getting checked out on the bench. Binghamton had a 5:00 power play that they really let get by them as Jarry was never really challenged.

Here is all your verbiage on the Match Penalty and Illegal Check to the Head sections of the AHL Rulebook.

Here is the hit with the replays.

Teddy Blueger would hit an empty net with about 44 seconds left to ice the game away and give the Penguins the win to close out 2018.

The Good: When previous iterations of Penguins teams played, its always came with a physical edge that not many opponents were ready for that worked out in their favor. If this Wilkes-Barre team plays with ruthless aggression, they will be a hard team to beat on most nights, provided they play within the lines of the AHL Rulebook.

The Bad: I don’t think if Wilson is suspended it will be for a long time and I’d even argue that the match penalty he was assessed is enough punishment to fit the crime since Bastian returned to the game none the worse for wear, but going back to the previous paragraph, the Pens don’t want to catch a label as a dirty team.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Another day where the Charlotte Checkers go down big to an opponent, another comeback for the Atlantic Division leaders. Checkers get a point in Toronto and lose 5-4 in overtime. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Charlotte 51 — Bridgeport 47 — Lehigh Valley 41 — Penguins 39 — Springfield 37 — Hartford 34 — Providence 33 — Hershey 30

Wheeling Update: Nailers shutout the Reading Royals 4-0 at home. Johnny Muse a 28 save shutout, Troy Josephs with a goal.

Video Highlights: 

Have a happy and safe New Year. If there is anything mentioned about Garrett Wilson and any supplemental discipline from the League, I will run a blog post this week. If not, the AHL Power Rankings are out Thursday and the Pens are back in action at home against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Let’s Go Pens!

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After last nights nightmare, where you had the captain of the team telling the media that he didn’t get the group fired enough to play against a team in last place and the coach basically deflecting all blame and placing it on the players, you really didn’t know how tonight’s game against a Lehigh Valley team on a tear would go.

So of course it’s a blowout by the Penguins and everything is made up and the points don’t matter.

Penguins roll tonight 7-3.

It was a feisty, testy affair. The Penguins clearly came to the rink tonight pissed off at themselves at the embarrassment from the night before in Hershey. There were 110 penalty minutes. Wilkes-Barre played with aggression all night, maintained their composure when they went down a goal in the second period, got inspired efforts from the likes of Jimmy Hayes and solid goaltending from Tristan Jarry and crush one of their biggest rivals on their home ice.

Jimmy Hayes had his best game as a Penguin tonight. Clark Donatelli put him on a line with the gritty Joseph Cramarossa and the speedy J-S Dea. It worked. Hayes had a goal and an assist and a team leading four shots on goal.

The seven goals put up by the Penguins was the most goals scored in a game all season.

Tristan Jarry opposed Alex Lyon.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Pat McGrath and Troy Josephs were in ups front for Linus Ölund and Ryan Haggerty and Kevin Spinozzi yielded to Jeff Taylor.

Tristan Jarry was ill last night, and I really was expecting John Muse to go tonight but it was Jarry that got the start.

First Period: Very chippy period on both sides. After this fight between Anthony Angello and Philip Samuelsson…

…Garrett Wilson and Tyrell Goulbourne fought in a secondary altercation. You can’t do that, so both players were given game misconducts and thrown out of the game.

The Cramarossa – Dea – Hayes line in one shift created two shots, hit and created turnovers. A good sequence to see.

Wilkes-Barre killed the only penalty of the period successfully. Shots were 10-9 Penguins.

Second Period: Penguins found themselves in early penalty trouble and Greg Carey made them pay with this goal on the power play.

Looked like it beat Jarry over the glove. A well placed shot, nonetheless.

But then the Penguins would score twice very quickly as Ben Sexton struck for his third goal of the week, all coming against the Phantoms with this goal that tied the game.

Face-off, shot, Adam Johnson there for the follow-up who finds Sexton on the doorstep for the cleanup.

Then, Jimmy Hayes broke in and scored his first goal since November 14 at Springfield.

Horrific turnover by T.J. Brennan there gift wrapping a breakaway chance for Hayes who finished.

Penguins would finally get a crack on the power play and would waste no time in scoring to extend their lead over the Phantoms to 3-1 on this Teddy Blueger redirect that was initially shot by J-S Dea.

Penguins outshot the Phantoms 15-10 in the period despite giving up two power plays to the Phantoms.

Third Period: Here is your turning point of the game.

Flurry of saves by Tristan Jarry, then minutes later Adam Johnson scores on a breakaway that makes it 4-1 Wilkes-Barre.

Whatever momentum that the Phantoms wanted to build coming out for the third was squelched by the Jarry saves and then the Johnson goal, which stood up as the game winner tonight.

Teddy Blueger scored his second of the game that made it 5-1 right at the half way point of the third.

Reece Willcox scored on a rebound of a shot that Jarry couldn’t cover entirely that made it 5-2.

Phantoms head coach Kerry Huffman pulled Alex Lyon and Ben Sexton hit the empty net which made it 6-2.

T.J. Brennan scored off of a face-off that made it 6-3.

Huffman pulled Lyon again and Chad Ruhwedel, almost by mistake, scored from 180′ away when he flipped a puck out of his own end that found the empty net that made it 7-3.

No GIFs on these, sorry.

Late, Joseph Cramarossa was given an instigating penalty as the game was devolving into a slugfest. Unless it’s rescinded (they never are) he will be suspended for Monday’s game in Binghamton.

The Good: Jimmy Hayes. One game doesn’t define a season, but Hayes finally put it all together tonight and helped set the tone for the road team in an impressive win against a rival. Hopefully, a veteran like Hayes uses a night like this as something he can build off of. I guess we will see Monday in Binghamton.

The Bad: Nitpicking, but another power play goal against is a small blemish on a bright night for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Charlotte beats Laval 5-4 in overtime, Bridgeport does the same to Hartford 3-2, Providence beats Hershey 4-1 and Syracuse beats Springfield 4-3 in overtime.

Standings: Charlotte 50 — Bridgeport 47 — Lehigh Valley 41 — Penguins 37 — Springfield 36 — Providence 33 — Hartford 32 — Hershey 28

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

Pens are off Sunday. Springfield travels to Hartford burning off one of their three games in hand on the Penguins. That’s a game you should pay attention to Sunday afternoon if you aren’t doing anything.

Penguins are back in action Monday at 6 p.m. in Binghamton for New Years Eve. Check out the Gameday setup here on the blog Monday at 2.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Friend from out of town sent me the following text tonight which kind of in jest summarizes this game nicely.

“The Penguins celebrated 80s night like they were a VHS tape, unfortunately the Hershey Bears were the VCR and ate them.”

In what can only be classified as the worst game that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have played all season, a 5-1 loss to the last place Hershey Bears, the team on a whole was outclassed.

Head Coach Clark Donatelli to the media postgame:

I don’t like this quote. I don’t like this quote for many reasons and the first one that jumps into my mind is the deflection from the coaching staff and placing the sole responsibility of the loss tonight on the players. Sure, you can say that the coaches come up with a game plan and it’s up to the players to execute, but that quote doesn’t sit well with me.

Another nugget from tonight was Tom’s opinion on something tonight when the game was well out of hand in the third period.

I don’t agree with this either and let Tom know as such. It would be seen as a desperate Hail Mary which wouldn’t work. There are far more skilled teams in this League than there were 5, 10, 15 years ago. Sending a message to the players in a developmental league by pulling up guys from the ECHL who aren’t going to magically save your season by scoring goals or stopping the other team from doing so is only going to drive more of a wedge in between the players and coaches and make you fall further into the abyss of obscurity.

Look, this is what you can expect when you sell off prospects and draft picks that get you your prospects in the name of winning two Stanley Cups in the last three years. You get a hodgepodge of washed up forwards like Jimmy Hayes mixed in with promising prospects like Teddy Blueger and Adam Johnson to go with a defense led by Ethan Prow and a bunch of defensemen right now that are either hurt (Trotman and Summers) or learning on the fly (Matt Abt, Jeff Taylor) and making up for nightly errors of Will O’Neill, who was rightly scratched tonight.

Teddy Blueger, Ethan Prow and Tristan Jarry are your best prospects at each position. That’s it. You can make cases for J-S Dea and Garrett Wilson, but they are beyond the ‘prospect’ phase of their careers. On defense you have nothing besides Prow that looks anything close to an NHL ready defenseman. Anthony Peters is an AHL only goalie and John Muse is in the land of Dea and Wilson. Sam Lafferty, Adam Johnson, Anthony Angello are all too green right now and haven’t, quite frankly, established themselves enough as players ready to breakout and make the next step.

Taking all that in, it’s hard to win games. Firing Clark Donatelli because he’s not Mike Sullivan, John Hynes or Dan Bylsma before him isn’t going to turn the ship around.

Bill Guerin is the General Manager. He built this team. His fill-ins around Prow, Blueger and Jarry aren’t cutting it. Clark Donatelli just tries to work with what he is given on a nightly basis.

Anyway, here’s your game story.

The Penguins went down 2-0 two minutes into the game when Nathan Walker scored :16 in and then Grant Beese at 2:00 and the rout was on for the Bears. It was at that point, in hindsight, that I would have took starting goalie Anthony Peters out of the game and replaced him with backup John Muse.

But they didn’t.

The Penguins actually played quite well in the final eighteen minutes of the period, but Steve Whitney and Mike Sgarbossa scored second period goals on busted coverage plays that made it 4-0 before Joseph Cramarossa scored on a nice give and go with Jarrett Burton that made it 4-1 heading into the third period.

Here is Cramarossa’s goal.

But then Garrett Pilon scored on a snipe that handcuffed Peters that made it 5-1 2:08 into the third and the rout was on.

Sorry about the lack of GIFs on those goals. I rely on Taylor Haase for those, but she’s on a well deserved break I think and didn’t tweet anything tonight for Wilkes-Barre or Wheeling. She deserves the break, she works hard and is good at what she does.

That’s basically it. Here’s how they lined up tonight:

Cramarossa replaced Ryan Scarfo up front and yes, that’s Chad Ruhwedel on defense. Pittsburgh sent him here on 14-day conditioning loan. He remains on Pittsburgh’s 23 man roster. Ethan Prow returned from injury and Wilkes-Barre called up Kevin Spinozzi, who leads the ECHL in points by a defenseman, on Friday. Will O’Neill, Jeff Taylor and Tim Erixon were odd men out.

Vitek Vanecek started in goal for Hershey. He wasn’t really challenged tonight, stopping 22 of 23 shots.

Three penalties total in the game, none in the third. Uninspired effort by Wilkes-Barre all around. Embarrassing. People paid money to watch this trash tonight.

May I mention that it’s the same Bears team that lost 11-1 over the course of two games to Lehigh Valley last week?

Here are your highlights.

Lehigh Valley beat Providence and Bridgeport beat Springfield. Charlotte lost to Laval. Hartford was off.

Bad loss? It’s always worse some where else.

Penguins and Thunderbirds are tied with 35 points but Springfield has three games in hand. Lehigh Valley is pulling away with 41 points and three games in hand on Wilkes-Barre and Bridgeport (34 games played) has 45 points and Charlotte (33) has 48.

Behind the Pens are Hartford and Providence (32 games played) with 31 points and Hershey (32) with 28.

Wheeling loses a close one in Kalamazoo tonight, 6-5. They put up a fight. Alex Rauter had a goal and three assists.

Penguins are back in action Saturday in Allentown. Gameday setup will be up Saturday at 3.

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Quick aside, something to be thankful for: This is the last work night home game until March 6. There are actually just two left. Kindly mind any spelling or format errors as the game story was thumbed out on my iPhone. You may be lucky enough to have this week off before the New Year, but I burned off the last of my vacation time last week.

Anyway, enough about me.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had this game in the bag early, but then lost it in the end due to a questionable onside play and the fact that their defense is in big time flux with dependable blue liners injured. Penguins lose 5-3. A late goal by Tyrell Goulbourne pushed the Phantoms ahead with 1:02 left in regulation.

A bad way to lose, yes, with how close things are right now in the division. It looked like the Penguins were on track for two points, then maybe one, ultimately none.

Tristan Jarry opposed Alex Lyon.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Ethan Prow missed the game due to presumed injury. He is indeed just day to day per Clark to the Pens media postgame. As a result, the defense pairings were all shook up from Saturday. Tim Erixon replaced Prow and as a result that forced Joe Cramarossa out of the lineup due to the veteran rule. Jarrett Burton, who was scratched Saturday, slotted in on the fourth line and Ryan Scarfo replaced Cramarossa on the second.

First Period: These types of periods coming out of holiday breaks are dangerous because they can be traps. Lehigh Valley played decent, but took two penalties and had Ben Sexton tag them for all the offense in the period.

Sexton’s first came after Adam Johnson broke in and was stopped by Lyon. His follow up try was also denied, but hit the post and was there for Sexton to sweep in for his first of the season.

Sexton would strike again with 2.3 seconds left to play in the period when his low angle shot eluded Lyon which gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead heading to the first intermission.

Second Period: Penguins would keep the pressure on and lead in shots for a good amount of the period. But Lehigh Valley continued to test Jarry and the Pens netminder was successful.

But a bad outlet pass by Jeff Taylor found Reece Willcox instead and Willcox left a pass for Tyrell Goulbourne who finally solved Jarry to cut it to one.

But, the Penguins would strike again before the clock hit midnight again when Jeff Taylor’s dump in took a funny bounce right to Teddy Blueger who had a wide open net to shoot at when Lyon left his crease to play it.

Taylor atones for his previous error.

Third Period: Lehigh Valley gets one back quickly to open the frame when a Phillipe Myers shot is redirected in by Taylor Leier in front.

Then, Connor Bunnaman scores on a breakaway. Initially it looked like he was offside by a foot, but linesman Jud Ritter who has a history of calls that usually go against the Penguins, deemed it clean.

No way to definitively say yes / no on that. Clark postgame to Tyler…

Phantoms score late when a puck is redirected pulling Jarry out of position when Tyrell Goulbourne scored with 62 seconds left to edge the Phantoms ahead.

Phantoms score again off the faceoff when a routine dump in handcuffs Jarry that made it 5-3.

(no GIF of this sequence that I saw)

Pens shellshocked with Jarry pulled, saw the game end with the arena chanting, “Let’s Go Phantoms!”

Three Stars: 

The Good: The start was fine. Going up 2-0 in the first was the perfect way to set up the second and third.

The Bad: Can’t blame special teams here. Pens couldn’t defend a lead with the vertebraes of defense (Prow, Trotman, Summers) injured. It’s a concern going forward.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Charlotte 48 — Bridgeport 41 — Lehigh Valley 39 — Springfield 37 — Penguins 35 — Hartford 31 — Providence 31 — Hershey 26

Wheeling Update: Nailers, along with the entire ECHL, were off tonight.

Video Highlights: I will catch up on this later if I see any when I get home or Thursday morning.

Check out the Week 12 AHL Power Rankings Thursday around 11 a.m.

Next game is Friday against Hershey. Look for the Gameday setup here against the Bears Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!