Chirps from Center Ice

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The Syracuse Crunch have the leagues best power play at home and overall. That didn’t seem to faze the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight who were successful on ten penalty kills tonight, getting stung just once.

The Penguins scored all three of their goals on the man advantage tonight and and at times you would think that the Penguins had the better power play between the two sides.

But the special teams was a footnote in a game where the Penguins lose Ethan Prow to possible injury, as Syracuse gets a late goal and wins it in overtime, 4-3 the final tonight from Syracuse.

Tristan Jarry opposed Eddie Pasquale.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Jarrett Burton was the only lineup change, yielding to Ryan Scarfo.

First Period: Crunch scored 1:01 in after a miscommunication between Tristan Jarry and Jeff Taylor, as Taylor Raddysh was the recipient of the snafu and the Crunch were on the board first.

But the Penguins got it right back when Garrett Wilson setup a screen and deflected in an Ethan Prow shot on a power play that tied things at one.

Collateral damage in the period as Ethan Prow blocked a shot on a Crunch power play here in this sequence.

First Period Highlights: More team should do this. Syracuse is the only team that I know that does this consistently.

Second Period: Ethan Prow did not return for the second period. The Penguins started taking penalty after penalty but managed to get out of it.

Then, Tristan Jarry connected with Adam Johnson, Johnson was hooked down and Anthony Angello cleaned up the mess to make it 2-1 on the power play.

The Penguins would connect on yet another power play goal when J-S Dea scored in the slot on a pass left by Garrett Wilson that made it 3-1.

Tristan Jarry was the best player in the period for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. He helped kill off 1:28 of two man disadvantage and sprung Johnson for the sequence that setup the Angello goal.

He was bested by Alex Barre-Boulet on a late Crunch power play that closed it to one gaol for Syracuse heading into the third.

Second Period Highlights: Note to anyone on Coal Street that reads the blog, please try to do this.

Third Period: Eddie Pasquale had the save of the game when he went post to post to deny Sam Lafferty off on a two on one with Adam Johnson. The Penguins had to kill another 5-on-3 penalty against and got out of it OK.

Ross Colton scored on a great pass from behind the net to tie it at 3-3.

Which forced…

Overtime: Carter Verhaeghe, who didn’t have any puck luck at all in regulation, finally got one to go and the Crunch won the game.

Here is the whole overtime in case you want to watch it.

The Good: The Penguins scored three power play goals and were 10-for-11 on the penalty kill against the AHL and home best power play.

The Bad: If Prow is out for any extended amount of time with his injury, that’s going to sting. Kevin Spinozzi is tearing it up in Wheeling, he’s probably next man up because the Pens are already at the veteran limit….the officiating was a clown show tonight. No one wants to watch 18 total power plays awarded (7 for Wilkes-Barre to go with the 11 for the Crunch) and every face-off where a guy gets tossed.

Three Stars: 3) Tristan Jarry (37 saves on 41 shots) 2) Ross Colton (goal, assist) 1) Carter Verhaeghe (overtime game winning goal)

Around the Division: Hartford with the sweep in Rochester this weekend, wins 5-1 against the Americans…Charlotte beats Bridgeport 3-1…Lehigh Valley crushes Hershey 6-1 and Providence beats Springfield 5-4.

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

Wheeling Update: 

Box here.

Video Highlights:

Pens are off until they take on Lehigh Valley on December 26 at home. Gameday setup for that will be up Wednesday at 3. Until then, Merry Christmas and Let’s Go Pens!

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Matt Abt is sitting in the catbird seat.

With Chris Summers and Zach Trotman injured, the Penguins still have way too many veterans in the lineup to justify Abt sitting out a game. Tim Erixon, who counts as a veteran, also plays defense.

Abt took three consecutive penalties in the second period on Friday and the Penguins anemic penalty kill, 29th overall in the American Hockey League coming into the game, kill the first two but not the third and that stands up as the game winner as Hershey wins 3-2.

Putting Erixon in means that you are over the veteran limit. Abt still gets in cause Will O’Neill would go out. If they wanted to do Erixon and O’Neill and force Abt out, someone like Jimmy Hayes, currently a fourth line forward, comes out and Troy Josephs would go in. I’d be OK with that, honestly, but then you are still gambling with Will O’Neill doing something that makes you grit your teeth.

I guess the moral of the story is that Zach Trotman and Chris Summers need to come back, and quickly.

I am burying Abt. Is it fair? The Pens were 7-3 in their last ten while the Bears were 3-6-1 and winless (0-3-1) in their last four.

Tyler sums it up nice here.

Anthony Peters opposed Vitek Vanecek.

Coal Street didn’t post the lines tweet so this was what I saw as they rolled off early in the first:

Joseph Cramarossa – J-S Dea – Ryan Haggerty
Anthony Angello – Teddy Blunger – Garrett Wilson
Sam Lafferty – Ben Sexton – Adam Johnson
Jimmy Hayes – Linus Ölund – Jarrett Burton

Kevin Czuczman – Macoy Erkamps
Ethan Prow – Matt Abt
Jeff Taylor – Will O’Neill

Tristan Jarry backed up tonight.

Lineup Notes: Erkamps made his WBS debut, Erixon was the D scratch. With Garrett Wilson back down from Pittsburgh, Troy Josephs was also a scratch.

First Period: Ever ride on a see-saw? One side goes up, the other side goes down. Hours of endless entertainment.

That best defined the first period from Hershey.

J-S Dea made it 1-0 for Wilkes-Barre 1:07 in, but then Hershey rattled off two power play goals to make it 2-1 before Teddy Blueger redirected a Garrett Wilson shot on a power play that made it 2-2.

Penguins need to tighten up their putrid penalty kill. I say that because they go to Syracuse on Saturday and the Crunch power play should be illegal it is that good.

Here are the goals.

Riley Barber, who seconds earlier rang iron, drew a lot of attention as he had the puck and instead passed to Mike Sgarbossa who tied it on the back door.

Nathan Walker redirected an Aaron Ness shot from the point on another power play that made it 2-1.

But then the Penguins got it back even when Blueger redirected a Garrett Wilson shot as the Pens were on a two man advantage.

Second Period: Awful hard to build momentum when you are constantly killing penalties in a period, just like the Penguins did in the second. It’s also doubly hard to do so when it’s the same player heading into the penalty box.

Matt Abt took all three penalties in the period, and Riley Barber scored on the third try for Hershey. The Bears outshot the Penguins 15-7 in the period and I couldn’t identify anything other than a Teddy Blueger shorthanded bid as a Penguin shot on goal and a good play on a tic tac toe that Vanecek stopped early on in the period as quality chances for the Pens.

Here is the Barber goal.

Third Period: Penguins had a leftover power play which was really their best shot to get back in the game in hindsight because they wouldn’t get another chance on the man advantage. Wilkes-Barre had to kill another penalty (not Abt this time; Lafferty high stick) but with Peters vacated for the extra attacker they never were able to find the equalizer.

To their credit, Wilkes-Barre outshot Hershey 13-5 in the third period but Vanecek is a good goaltender for Hershey and the Bears seemed locked in tonight after getting smoked in Allentown on Wednesday, putting up a flaccid 18 shots on goal in the game.

The Good: Hershey didn’t score a goal at even strength.

The Bad: Hershey scored three power play goals and the Pens struggles on the penalty kill continue.

Three Stars: 3) Mike Sgarbossa (goal, assist) 2) Vitek Vanecek (26 saves on 28 shots) 1) Riley Barber (goal, two assists)

Around the Division: Bridgeport with a convincing win in Charlotte, the Sound Tigers crush the Checkers 6-1…Binghamton beats Providence 6-3…Syracuse clips Lehigh Valley in a shootout 3-2…Hartford doubles up Rochester 4-2…Utica beats Springfield 2-1.

Standings: Charlotte 46 — Bridgeport 41 — Lehigh Valley 35 — Springfield 35 — Penguins 34 — Providence 29 — Hartford 29 — Hershey 26

Wheeling Update: 

Box here.

Video Highlights: Bears are usually quick on them. If I see one tweeted I will edit it in here.

Pens are in Syracuse tomorrow. They will need to be a lot more disciplined than they were tonight if they want to have success.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Had this tweet at some point during the game tonight which setup the game story you are reading right now:

Prow’s two power play goals setup a stunning comeback for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton who defeat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday night.

Prow has ten goals on the season, the first Penguin to double digit goals this year. Definitely the team MVP and likely the lone Penguins representative for the All-Star Classic a month from now in Springfield.

Tristan Jarry opposed Christopher Gibson.

Lines were:

Lineup Notes: With J-S Dea back, Ryan Scarfo took warmups but didn’t dress. Garrett Wilson cleared waivers and will most likely be assigned in time for the NHL roster freeze.

First Period: The Penguins were asleep to start. 1:10 in, Chris Bourque and Michael Dal Colle worked a little give and go on the near side, drew Jarry down and Dal Colle tucked it past to give the Sound Tigers the early lead.

Tyler set the next goal up perfectly.

Pens had to kill back to back penalties but got out of those unscathed. They looked a bit stronger, but didn’t have anything to show for it on the scoreboard and were already down two goals.

Second Period: Better quality period for the Penguins who get a goal from Ethan Prow on the power play. Shots were 11-7 in the period favoring the Penguins but it seemed like the quality chances were not there.

Here’s the Prow goal:

Pens couldn’t score on a power play after that.

Crazy sequence where Christopher Gibson came way out of his crease to challenge Troy Josephs. Josephs couldn’t dangle around Gibson and the Penguins couldn’t score on the open net left by the Sound Tigers netminder. Gibson also broke his stick in the process, but the Penguins could not threaten for a goal.

Third Period: Pens overload on the near side and lose Mitch Vande Sompel who gets time and space and buries a shot over the blocker of Jarry to reestablish Bridgeport’s two goal lead.

(no goal video here)

Pens got back to one with a shot from Jeff Taylor that was tipped in by Linus Ölund. Big goal at the time because it set the Pens off in a rabid attempt to tie the game.

The Pens had a little over five minutes left to score another goal to potentially force overtime.

Who else but Ethan Prow?

On a power play, no less, and the game was tied.

It was then off to…

Overtime: It would have been bonkers if Prow scored in the overtime frame to net a hat trick and win the game, but it was Kevin Czuczman on a three on one rush that completed the stunning comeback for Wilkes-Barre.

That’s Tristan Jarry with the great setup there and of course Czuczman with the finish.

Three Stars:

Around the Division: Providence was in Hartford and were shut out 3-0, Lehigh Valley hosted Hershey and shut out the Bears 5-0 Springfield hosted Syracuse and beat them 3-2.

Standings: Charlotte 46 — Bridgeport 39 — Springfield 35 — Lehigh Valley 34 — Penguins 34 — Providence 29 — Hartford 27 — Hershey 24

Wheeling Update: Nailers were in Norfolk and were involved in a wild, thirteen goal game. They led the Admirals by a bunch then Norfolk came back to tie it and force overtime where the Nailers won in a shootout 7-6. Nick Saracino continued his tear, with a pair of goals and an assist. Cam Brown scored the only goal in the shootout. Yushiroh Hirano had three assists.

Video Highlights:

Pens are back at it Friday in the Facebook Watch AHL Game of the Week in Hershey.

AHL Power Rankings Thursday. Check back then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had six chances on the power play Sunday afternoon in Bridgeport and weren’t able to get anything going on any six of them that would be considered a serious threat.

Not that Bridgeport goaltender Christopher Gibson was going to let anything by, anyway.

33 saves for Gibson and the five game winning streak for Wilkes-Barre ends in Bridgeport, Penguins lose 1-0.

Lines were…

Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Anthony Angello
Adam Johnson – Sam Lafferty – Ben Sexton
Joseph Cramarossa – Linus Ölund – Ryan Haggerty
Troy Josephs – Jarrett Burton – Jimmy Hayes

Kevin Czuczman – Tim Erixon
Jeff Taylor – Will O’Neill
Matt Abt – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry backed up Anthony Peters.

No changes to the line up for the Penguins.

First Period: Wilkes-Barre was hit with a penalty for an illegal starting lineup. I think what happened there was Tristan Jarry’s name was circled instead of Anthony Peters. They had to kill that penalty and then a Will O’Neill penalty for cross checking right after that but were able to get out of it OK.

But then Sebastian Aho found room in the slot, made a move and scored to put the Sound Tigers on the board first.

Penguins had two power plays to close out the period but were unable to capitalize.

Second Period: Jarrett Burton missed a penalty shot when he was hooked down.

The Pens lost Thomas DiPauli in the period. He was injured by a Kevin Czuczman shot in the first period then got tangled up with Stephen Gionta in the second period. He left the ice and didn’t return for the remainder of the period or the game.

Going back to the first, Bridgeport took four consecutive penalties but Wilkes-Barre was not able to score on any of them. The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Sound Tigers heading into the…

Third Period: The penalties on both sides continues. Linus Ölund had a chance shorthanded. Sound Tigers hit two posts on one shift. Peters and Gibsons continued their goalie duel. Penguins had some chances late on a power play, but weren’t able to solve Gibson. With Peters pulled for the extra attacker, they never were able to find the equalizer.

The Good: Sound Tigers power play is very dangerous, Penguins kept them off the board on five attempts.

The Bad: I don’t want to say that Clark Donatelli’s illegal lineup set the tone of the game, but coming off of two consecutive penalty kills, Aho scored the only goal of the game that turned into the game winner. Does that happen if Peters name is circled on the card instead of Tristan Jarry’s? Your guess is as good as mine.

On the illegal lineup, it has happened before. A lot, actually, as Darryl Hunt looked back on Roy Sommer’s follies during his time with the Worcester Sharks.

Three Stars: 3) Sebastian Aho (goal) 2) Anthony Peters (24 saves on 25 shots) 1) Christopher Gibson (33 save shutout)

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Around the Division: Charlotte continues to roll, 2-1 winners in overtime against Utica. Springfield beats Hershey 4-1. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Charlotte 45 — Bridgeport 38 — Lehigh Valley 32 — Penguins 32 — Springfield 31 — Providence 29 — Hartford 25 — Hershey 24

Wheeling Update: Nailers double up Fort Wayne 6-3 at home, Cam Brown continues his tear with two goals. Renars Krastenbergs also had a pair of goals.

Highlights: If the Sound Tigers put them up and I’m near a computer, I will work the edit in here.

Pens are back in action on Wednesday at home against Bridgeport again. Christopher Gibson will undoubtedly get the start again for the Sound Tigers. Gameday setup hits the blog Wednesday at 3, barring any breaking news beforehand.

Let’s Go Pens!

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That’s five wins in a row now for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

A complete domination on offense and defense, including special teams, and Wilkes-Barre rolls Lehigh Valley 5-2.

Ryan Haggerty had a hat trick, Sam Lafferty and Teddy Blueger had shorthanded goals. The Penguins abomination on the penalty kill in the past carried the Penguins Saturday night against the Phantoms.

Tristan Jarry opposed Carter Hart.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Tim Erixon slotted in for the injured (week to week) Chris Summers.

First Period: Penguins dominated shots, had long offensive shifts and threw a lot of shots at Hart, but nothing went in. 13-3 was the shout count for the Pens after twenty.

Second Period: All of that momentum that the Penguins charged out of the room with in the first was deflated when Philip Samuelsson scored through a crowd to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead.

But then the Penguins were able to score when Teddy Blueger scored shorthanded which set off an avalanche of stuffed animals for the annual Teddy Bear Toss. It was Blueger that did the honors last year against Rochester. Teddy unleashed the teddies? Sometimes the puns just write themselves.

Penguins made it 2-1 when Zach Palmquist turned over the puck in the neutral zone which set off Adam Johnson and Ryan Haggerty who finished for his first goal of the night and the Penguins were off to the races.

Haggerty again, a few minutes later, made it 3-1 when he tried to set up a one time slam dunk with Jeff Taylor for a goal that drew Hart out of position. Joseph Cramarossa kept it alive in front of the goal and Hggerty crashed and scored his second.

Phantoms get one back when Mike Vecchione scored. It was a changeup at Jarry that Vecchione pounced on that brought the Phantoms to within one.

A scrum at the end of the period saw Will O’Neill and Taylor Leier get game misconducts for secondary altercations when T.J. Brennan and Sam Lafferty got mixed up. Brennan had got things to a boiling point a few times tonight but when he was going to step across the line and be asked to answer for his line stepping, he seemed disinterested in actually engaging.

Third Period: Penalty fest that saw Wilkes-Barre on the short end. Maybe a month ago Lehigh Valley cashes on each power play individually and get back into the game, but it was on a Teddy Blueger slashing call that Anthony Angello dropped a pass for Sam Lafferty that made it 4-2 and essentially iced the game away for the Penguins. It was the second shorthanded goal of the night for Wilkes-Barre.

(Taylor or Coal Street didn’t GIF this sequence, or the Ryan Haggerty empty netter which made it 5-2, sorry)

Three Stars: 

The Good: Seems like a totally different team, doesn’t it? The Penguins dominated both ends of the rink and all sides of the puck tonight. Power play didn’t cash tonight, but that looked threatening as well. Ryan Haggerty is heating up in the absences of J-S Dea and Garrett Wilson. The penalty kill essentially won the game for Wilkes-Barre, tying the game in the second and then icing it away late.

The Bad: The Good doesn’t happen without the bad, Wilkes-Barre took three penalties nursing a one goal lead in the third. While some of them were tacky tack called by inexperienced referees, playing with that kind of fire will get you burned more times than not.

Around the Division: Charlotte keeps winning, this time 3-2 over the Hartford Wolf Pack who are swept in North Carolina….Bridgeport beats Springfield 5-3….Providence crushes Hershey 6-2.

Standings: Charlotte 43 — Bridgeport 36 — Lehigh Valley 32 — Penguins 32 — Springfield 31 — Providence 29 — Hartford 25 — Hershey 24

Wheeling Update: Nailers crush the Norfolk Admirals at home, 5-1. Cam Brown had two goals and two assists.

Video Highlights: 

Pens are bussing to Bridgeport for a 3 p.m. start against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Gameday setup will hit the blog Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Headline tonight would probably be reserved for something good happening for the Springfield Thunderbirds, but I’m using it for the purposes of this four game win streak that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins find themselves on after a 2-1 shootout win in a knockdown, drag out defensive and goaltending battle from Springfield on Wednesday night.

Springfield is a tough team. They are well coached and have legit prospects that are good. The Penguins and Thunderbirds always bring out the best of one another when these two teams hook up.

But what a difference a week makes. The Penguins played the entire month of November and couldn’t get out of their own way. Now, with adjustments from Head Coach Clark Donatelli, it’s a quiet four game win streak.

Thunder is coming. It may just be in the form of a bird that cannot fly.

Tristan Jarry opposed Samuel Montembeault.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: No changes on defense. Ben Sexton made his WBS debut so the lines up front got shook up. No change to the top line; Linus Ölund centered Haggerty and Cramarossa. Sexton debuted with Johnson and Lafferty on the third line. Burton centered Josephs and Hayes on the fourth.

Tristan Jarry was re-assigned by Pittsburgh earlier in the day and that meant that Anthony Peters backed up and John Muse either watched from the stands or from home.

First Period: Defenseman Chris Summers was injured on the very first shift of the hockey game ere when he went down to block a pass or a shot, popped up and collided with Jake Horton and then slammed awkwardly into the boards.

It was an exhibition in goaltending, as there were 25 shots total in the period and none finer stopped than this save Tristan Jarry made on sniper Jayace Hawryluk:

Even Hawryluk knew he was robbed.

The saves continued until Blaine Byron went to center a pass to Bobby Farnham that deflected off of Sam Lafferty’s skate and in past Jarry to give the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead.

Teddy Blueger saw his attempt at a redirect of an Ethan Prow pass hit iron.

Second Period: The Penguins would dominate the period. They easily killed a Springfield power play and scored on one of their own when Adam Johnson scored on a rebound left by Montembeault that leveled things for Wilkes-Barre….

That was a Lafferty shot that Montembeault stopped initially.

Springfield was held to a scant three shots on goal in the period. The Penguins accomplished this without the services of Chris Summers who did not come out for the second, so with only five healthy defensemen.

Third Period: Springfield outshoots the Pens 16-10 in the period and Tristan Jarry, who has been up in Pittsburgh for the past month and used sparingly during his stay was spectacular.

Penguins had to kill a late Jeff Taylor penalty and were able to successfully. Springfield’s home power play was second in the AHL coming in and was downright tepid against Wilkes-Barre / Scranton’s 30th out of 31 AHL teams penalty kill.

Overtime: Pens had a power play but couldn’t solve Montembeault. It was off to a…

Shootout: Adam Johnson, Thomas DiPauli and Ben Sexton all scored in that order. Springfield got one and the Penguins would win.

It’s all here, from overtime forward, here in another Periscope:

Here is Sexton’s game winner.

Three Stars: 3) Samuel Montembeault (41 saves on 42 shots) 2) Adam Johnson (goal) 1) Thomas DiPauli (shootout goal)

Around the Division: Providence lost in Utica 5-2. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Charlotte 39 — Bridgeport 32 — Springfield 31 — Lehigh Valley 30 — Penguins 30 — Providence 26 — Hartford 25 — Hershey 24

Wheeling Update: 

Allen are the Americans. They are from Texas. The ECHL do have fun matchups from time to time. Florida played Idaho in Boise a week or so ago. Box here.

Video Highlights: Haven’t seen them yet. If I can get to an edit I’ll work them in here.

Pens are of Friday before hosting Lehigh Valley at home Saturday. AHL Power Rankings will be out Thursday. Come back then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins came into Sunday afternoon winless so far on the season on the day the Lord rested.

Going down 4-1 at one point to their blood rival in Hershey, thoughts of last weekend’s debacle in Toronto started to creep into the minds of Penguins fans.

But a mix of the same tenacity that saw Wilkes-Barre shutout Cleveland on Friday and blitzkrieg Bridgeport on Saturday get the Penguins back into contention and they storm back to make it 4-3 at the end of the second period.

A quick moving third period where time melted off the clock like a snowman in June.

Until the Penguins best player stepped up and ensured that overtime would become a necessity.

Ethan Prow, a stone cold lock for Springfield in January at All-Stars, stepped into a shot with under a minute left and the game was tied.

Overtime would come and go and the Penguins even had to kill a penalty, then after nine cool saves in the shootout round from Johnny Muse, Joseph Cramarossa would score to give the Penguins the stunning 5-4 shootout win over the Hershey Bears.

Ethan Prow had a chance in the bottom of the sixth to win it, that would have been magical.

A perfect six point weekend for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. A shutout Friday, a come from behind win Saturday against Bridgeport and a come from behind from multiple goals down Sunday at the end of a three in three on the road against the Bears.

Are the Penguins back? Certainly seems like it, but one weekend does not a season make. We all know that the Penguins are good and have not played up to their potential in the weeks coming into this past weekend. Now, going forward the Penguins have shown the ability that they can indeed win in all different forms.

John Muse opposed Vitek Vanecek.

Lines were…

…once again unchanged from Saturday and Friday.

First Period: The Penguins weren’t able to capitalize on turnovers by the Bears, and Hershey struck twice to carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Jayson Megna, who always seems to score against the Penguins this season, opened the scoring.

Then Hershey cashed on a power play when Riley Barber found himself fin the slot, Chris Summers backed off and while doing so, sent an unintentional screen on his goaltender. Barber then snapped a shot in between Summers’ legs and beat Muse five hole.

Bounces. The Bears had them, the Penguins didn’t.

Second Period: The Penguins would finally solve Vanecek after a power play expired as Kevin Czuczman’s shot deflects off in front of Liam O’Brien and goes in and it’s a 2-1 game.

But Liam O’Brien would exact an ounce of revenge finishing this play off of a nice pass by Steven Whitney on a Bears odd man. The only time Muse would get beat clean this weekend.

:52 later, Tyler Lewington wheels around the net and banks a shot off of Muse and in for a 4-1 Bears lead.

But instead of pack it in, Wilkes-Barre played lock it down.

Teddy Blueger got the deficit back to two with this nice play in front of Vanecek that made it a two goal game again.

Okay, good. Get to the intermission down two and see what happens from there, right?

Wrong. Thomas DiPauli scores with five seconds left and the entire complexion of the game changes.

Third Period: It really would have been a shame if the Penguins didn’t win the game, because the way they played the third, it seemed like it wasn’t if the Pens would score, it was when.

Wilkes-Barre outshoots Hershey 11-4 in the period. They locked things down and didn’t allow Hershey any more good looks.

Jarrett Burton took a hard hit into the boards, went to the room and returned. The Pens also had to kill a Prow tripping penalty.

Then, with Muse vacated for the extra attacker and after a Wilkes-Barre time out, Adam Johnson collected the puck in his own zone, flew the neutral zone and entered the zone ands dished to Teddy Blueger who dropped to Prow for the tying goal.

Overtime: Solved nothing. The Bears would get a power play, called time out, but weren’t able to score.

Shootout: No one scored till the bottom of the ninth when Joe Cramarossa stepped up to the plate

Here is the entire overtime and shootout round Periscoped for you by yours truly if you have 16:29 to kill.

Three Stars: 3) Joe Cramarossa (shootout game winner) 2) Teddy Blueger (goal, two assists) 1) Jayson Megna (goal)

The Good: I liked the tenacity from the team. Not just tonight, but the entire weekend. You could tell about half way through Friday that they were not going to let Cleveland beat them. Same for Bridgeport on Saturday after letting off at the end of the first period. I think they had enough losing and were starting to hear it at home, at the rink and in the media. It’s hard to win games in the American Hockey League. It’s even harder to win three in a row in three days. The Penguins accomplished that and have to feel good about themselves heading into Wednesday in Springfield.

The Bad: The lapses are still there. It’s nitpicking here on a Sunday evening after the team won three straight, but the lapses are evident. There was no way that the Penguins should have gone down 4-1 like they did. It was good that it happened in the second period and not any later, because it could have been a totally different result.

One More Thing: John Muse was as cool as a cucumber in the shootout. I think Head Coach Clark Donatelli was looking for either Muse or Anthony Peters to take the reins as the starter this weekend. I don’t think he has his answer to be honest with you. Also, if you tuned into the game today you heard Scott Stuccio on color. He adds so much more to the broadcast in that position just by his observances in the game flow and an extra set of eyes for Nick Hart on play by play. He’s prepared, knows what he is talking about and Wilkes-Barre should try to get him on more broadcasts as his schedule allows. It’s already a good broadcast with Nick Hart, it’s better with both Nick and Scott calling the action.

Around the Division: Only other team in action was Springfield, at home hosting the Binghamton Devils. Thunderbirds win 5-1.

Standings: Charlotte 39 — Bridgeport 32 — Springfield 30 — Lehigh Valley 30 — Penguins 28 — Providence 26 — Hartford 25 — Hershey 24

Wheeling Update: Nailers beat the Indy Fuel 5-1. Nick Saracino had two goals and three assists and factored into every goal. Trucksville native Craig Skudalski had a goal, his first as a Nailer:

Video Highlights: 

Pens are in action Wednesday night in Springfield. If there is anything newsworthy between now and then look for it here on the blog. Otherwise, have a good week and we will see you here again at 3 p.m. for the Gameday setup against the Thunderbirds.

Let’s Go Pens!