Chirps from Center Ice

          vs.       

  2                                           3

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Things are tightening up in the Atlantic Division. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms are bearing down on the Penguins and if not but for the play and offensive output of one Barry Goers, the Penguins could likely be tied with the Phantoms heading into a huge weekend where the two teams meet for a home and home next Friday and Saturday.

Goers’ four points last night (two goals and two assists, the AHL changed the Dea goal to Goers this morning) and two assists tonight for Goers as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins hold on to defeat the Providence Bruins 3-2.

Tristan Jarry vs. Zane McIntyre

Lines were…

Thomas DiPauli – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Adam Krause
Ryan Haggerty – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

David Warsofsky – Frank Corrado
Derrick Pouliot – Barry Goers
Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: The Penguins sent Christian Hilbrich and Brett Stern to Wheeling earlier in the day. Patrick McGrath took Hilbrich’s spot in the lineup from last night.

First Period: Wilkes-Barre did their damage in the first period. :31 in, Dominik Simon pounced on a Providence turnover in the neutral zone and scored to make it 1-0 Penguins…

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Penguins would take a penalty and it would be a theme for the evening. Noel Acciari scored :18 into the power play to even the game at one a piece. This would be the anomaly for the Penguins as they would finish the game 5-for-6 on the kill.

Penguins would then get two goals 1:09 apart that would chase Zane McIntyre, who all of a sudden after starting the season 15-0, has lost three straight games.

Josh Archibald deflected a Barry Goers point shot that would make it 2-1 then Patrick McGrath would carry a puck in and put it on net where McIntyre spilled a juicy rebound to Jarrett Burton who extended forward and lifted it over McIntyre for a 3-1 Penguins lead. Here they are…

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McIntyre’s night was done, stopping 6 of 9 shots.

Enter Malcom Subban and the end of the scoring for the Penguins. Subban placed a flaming spirit on the Bruins but they were just not able to spark enough of a comeback.

Patrick McGrath fought Tyler Randell. You may read that and say, “yeah, the Bruins are being routed and need a spark” but only be partially correct. McGrath left the bench to engage with Randell. Here is the fight…

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You can’t do that. It’s a violation of Rule 70.3 “Leaving the Players’ Bench” which carries an automatic six game suspension. Straight from the rulebook, in part…

70.3 Leaving the Players’ Bench – Players shall not be permitted to come on the ice during a stoppage of play or at the end of the first and second periods for the purpose of warming-up. The Referee will report any violation of this rule to the President for disciplinary action.

Except at the end of each period or for entering the game legally, no player may, at any time, leave the players’ bench. If it is necessary to proceed to the dressing room during the course of the game (and when it is required to proceed by way of the ice to access the dressing room), the player must wait for a stoppage of play and ensure there are not altercations in progress before proceeding.

The player who was the first player from either or both teams to leave the players’ (or penalty bench) from either of both teams shall be suspended automatically without pay for the next six (6) regular League and/or playoff games of his team.

          vs.          

1                                              8

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Tonight’s game was an evisceration of the Hartford Wolf Pack by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, plain and simple.

8-1 the final tonight and exactly what the doctor ordered for a team which was floundering a bit in the wake of the yearly injuries to Pittsburgh and the drones of early Spring, where the Penguins always go cold.

Eight different goals scored by eight different goal scorers. Five players with multiple point games. It’s probably easier to lost the players who didn’t record a point tonight than it is who didn’t, but I will do it anyway.

No points for Tim Erixon, Josh Archibald, Teddy Blueger, Frank Corrado, Christian Hilbrich, Tom DiPauli and Ryan Haggerty. Hell, even starting goaltender Casey DeSmith picked up an assist in this game.

For Hartford, Every single player on the team was a minus, except for the line of Marek Hrivik, Taylor Beck and Michael Joly, who scored on DeSmith to break up his shutout bid in the second period. No Wolf Pack players was an even.

But you can’t play Hartford every night and the real test to see if the Penguins are indeed back to shredding teams will come tomorrow when a rested Providence Bruins team comes in hungry to get at it with the division leading Penguins.

The aforementioned Casey DeSmith opposed Mackenzie Skapski, who allowed all eight goals tonight. God love him.

Lines were…

Thomas DiPauli – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Adam Krause
Christian Hilbrich – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty

David Warsofsky – Frank Corrado
Derrick Pouliot – Barry Goers
Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Oskar Sundqvist was recalled earlier in the day to Pittsburgh. It’s his first callup of the season. Sundqvist has 9 points in his last 25 games. Regardless, the lines were all shook up for the Penguins.

Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period with goals by Derrick Pouliot (from the blueline with Skapski screened) Jarrett Burton (after a nice end to end rush by Pouliot and a ridiculous pass setting up Burton for the goal) and Kevin Porter (on a rebound left by Sakpski with 17.2 left)

Here they are, in order, courtesy of the GIF skills of Taylor Haase…

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Casey DeSmith assisted on the Jarret Burton goal giving the Penguins netminder his first assist in the AHL. Who knew that it would be DeSmith’s first point to come rather than his first shutout in the regular season.

In the second, J-S Sea scored in close on this shot from Barry Goers and it was 4-0 Penguins…

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I thought, and still believe, that the goal should be credited to Sahir Gill. Anyway, that second assist by Goers gave him 100 points in the AHL.

Taylor Beck busted up the DeSmith shutout that made it 4-1. Hartford was starting to make a push but DeSmith was holding them out.

Sahir Gill scored for sure and made it 5-1. Adam Krause, who was recalled earlier in the morning in the wake of the Sundqvist recall, picked up his first assist of the season on the Gill goal here…

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That was the turning point in this one. Hartford was trying to push after the Beck goal but the Penguins step up and score another to re-establish their four goal lead and continue to rout the Wolf Pack.

18th time this season that the Penguins have scored five or more goals. Who is slumping? Who is in danger of losing the division lead and miss playoffs? Who? Who? Who?

In the third, Hartford couldn’t get anything going on a DiPauli double minor for high sticking and gave the Penguins several chances to get a shorthanded goal.

Bad to worse for Hartford, Garrett Noonan scored an own goal which was credited to Dominik Simon, who finally gets his 10th goal of the season that made it 6-1 Penguins…

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All that was left was the Penguins scoring a power play goal and they got one via a Tom Kostopoulos tap in that made it 7-1. Kostopoulos tied Jake Guentzel for lead on the Pens with 21 goals….

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Barry Goers scores on a ridiculous dangle that made it 8-1. What Nick said….

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Notes: Wilkes-Barre is the first team to 10, 20, 30, now 40 wins in the AHL….Derrick Pouliot’s first four point game in the AHL….Wilkes-Barre’s magic number Saturday morning will be 23 with the win and coupled with Hershey’s regulation loss to Lehigh Valley.

Three Stars: 3) Kevin Porter (goal, two assists, +1) 2) J-S Dea (goal, two assists, +4) 1) Derrick Pouliot (goal, three assists, +4)

Here is who did what point wise….

Warsofsky 2A
Prow 1A
Dea 1G 2A
Porter 1G 2A
Burton 1G
Gill 1G
Krause 1A
Kostopoulos 1G
Goers 1G 2A
Simon 1G
Pouliot 1G 3A
DeSmith 1A

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley beats Hershey in a close one 3-2 over Hershey. Phantoms stay 4 back of the Pens for the division lead….Springfield beats Syracuse 3-2 and Utica beats Bridgeport 2-1. Providence was off.

Standings: Penguins (.692 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.669) — Providence (.653) — Bridgeport (.636) — Hershey (.608) — Springfield (.475) — Hartford (.398)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout by the Quad City Mallards 3-0.

Video highlights….

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Crumble this laugher up and get ready for Providence tomorrow. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

      vs.      

  3                                       0

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Every coach draws up a game plan pregame with a formula to beat the opponent. Happens in every sport.

For the Penguins opponents, its simple, force them into penalties.

Lehigh Valley went 1-7 on the power play tonight, the Penguins went 0-1.

Now were referees Pierre MacDougall and Pierre Lambert the reasons the Penguins lost this game 3-0 tonight to Lehigh Valley? Hardly. The Penguins played from behind from the opening moments and weren’t able to convert any offense in front of Alex Lyon and, coupled with having to kill penalties seemingly every five minutes, lost the game.

Lazy legging lines again because the common theme on this blog is that I do not like games where I have to get up the next morning for my real job. So here they are…

Tristan Jarry started and was opposed by Alex Lyon and was backed up by Casey DeSmith.

Lineup Notes: Derrick Pouliot was sent down from Pittsburgh earlier in the day as the Penguins recalled Tom Sestito and Cameron Gaunce for insurance on their Western Canada trip. Patrick McGrath took warmups but was scratched. Thomas DiPauli was back in the lineup after being a precautionary scratch Sunday in Hartford. Christian Hilbrich was recalled from Wheeling Tuesday and was in the lineup on the fourth line.

First Period: Lehigh Valley jumped all over the Penguins and used that hot start to jump out to a 1-0 lead when Ryan Haggerty wasn’t able to clear the zone and Chris McCarthy scored his first of the season to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead.

Pens seemed to settle after that. They played the period better shorthanded where they found themselves twice, and didn’t allow the Phantoms a shot on goal. Shots after one were 11-8 Wilkes-Barre.

Second Period: No scoring this period. Kevin Porter was stopped for the second time in the game on a breakaway. Wilkes-Barre continued to find themselves in penalty trouble but were able to manage to get away unscathed. Wilkes-Barre finally got a power play but weren’t able to score.

Third Period: Penguins were still desperately searching for a goal and staying in lockstep with the Phantoms on the shot board but it was Colin McDonald shooting one past Jarry at 12:02 through a screen that doubled Lehigh Valley’s lead and seemingly was the death knell for the Penguins chances in the game.

For good measure, Mark Zengerle poked one in far post in a scramble in front of Jarry that made it 3-0. Colin McDonald put the shot on net and Zengerle corralled the rebound and pushed it in.

Three Stars: Colin McDonald (goal, assist, +1) 2) Chris McCarthy (goal, +1) 1) Alex Lyon (31 save shutout, his fourth)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins (.686 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.664) — Providence (.653) — Bridgeport (.647) — Hershey (.619) — Springfield (.466) — Hartford (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off as they prepare for a big weekend of games against Quad City twice and Toledo on Sunday.

If there are video highlights, look for them in a later edit.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @          

6                                              3

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Make nothing of this score line, this game with a lot closer than it should have been.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins came into this game with 30+ wins. The Hartford Wolf Pack came into this game with 30+ losses.

The good team let the bad team hang around for too long and the bad team nearly upset the good team.

J-S Dea has seen this movie before.

Dea’s two goals lift the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins to a 6-3 win over the last place Hartford Wolf Pack Sunday afternoon and concludes the road trip. David Warsofsky got to 40 points in the season with two goals himself and added and assist, like Dea.

Casey DeSmith opposed Brandon Halverson.

Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Jarrett Burton – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Ryan Haggerty – Sahir Gill – Patrick McGrath

Tim Erixon – Barry Goers
David Warsofsky – Frank Corrado
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Should have figured that Head Coach Clark Donatelli wasn’t going to play Thomas DiPauli in back to back games and that suspicion was confirmed as he was the scratch for Patrick McGrath. No other lineup changes for the Penguins. Tom Sestito played in his 500th professional game and picked up his 100th professional assist.

First Period: It was a special teams party where every goal was scored on the power play.

The Penguin opened the scoring with this goal from Kevin Porter with Oskar Sundqvist setting the screen in front of Halverson…

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The biggest problem that the Penguins faced in this period was the fact that they were letting Hartford run with them. The Wolf Pack hit two posts and were pretty much step for step with Wilkes-Barre the whole period. They got on the board via a Niklas Jensen power play goal that evened things at one a piece.

Penguins had a power play come and go which was effectively killed by Hartford. They got another one via good stick handling work by Tom Sestito when David Warsofsky banged this puck in in a pile of bodies which was confirmed via video replay…

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40th point of the season for David Warsofsky.

Shots ended up 12-10 for the Penguins heading into the…

Second Period: Back and forth period that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins sleepwalked through the first half, went down a goal after the Penguins led by a goal, then roared back for three unanswered goals. Here is the setup…

Up 2-1 to start the second, the Penguins killed a Hartford penalty then as a puck was caroming around in front of Halverson it went quickly out to Jensen and he scored again to make it a 2-2 game.

1:59 later, Matt Carey pounded home a drop pass that made it 3-2 Hartford. The wheels were coming off! The Penguins were sleepwalking through a Sunday game with a last place team! The horror!

The Penguins finally came alive. A Jarrett Burton twirling pass to Josh Archibald camped out in front made it a tie game again.

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The AHL Live picture went out on me and all I got was sound and no picture, while I was watching this…

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David Warsofsky scored his second of the game that re-established the lead for the Penguins. Goals 90 seconds apart. Warsofsky’s two goals so far gives him 14 on the season and second most among AHL defensemen.

Looking at the score line and the shot board, I came to the realization that the Penguins were still allowing the Wolf Pack to stick around and maybe jump up and sting them again. Then J-S Dea scored at the buzzer with .8 seconds left to make it 5-3 Penguins…

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So the Hartford Wolf Pack run step for step with the best team in the Atlantic Division, get careless for one second and the best team in the division make them pay. Tim Erixon fired a shot at the net and Dea, all alone with no one checking him, makes it a two goal game for the Penguins heading into the…

Third Period: The Wolf Pack switched goalies with Magnus Hellberg coming on for Brandon Halverson. I picked up the vibe that this move was made because Hartford was still in things.

They were, in part, getting a couple of breakaways, but Casey DeSmith was more than up to task. This one with the skate denied Marek Hrivik…

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J-S Dea scored the only goal of the period which proved to be insurance in the insurance capital of the world…

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I love insurance.

Three Stars: 3) Niklas Jensen (two goals, even) 2) J-S Dea (two goals, assist, +1) and David Warsofsky (two goals, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey goes down 2-0 and claw their way back and beat Springfield 4-2 at home. The Bears sweep the weekend. Utica beats Bridgeport straight up 2-1 and Providence crushes Lehigh Valley 7-3.

Standings: Penguins (.698 percentage points) — Providence (.664) — Lehigh Valley (.658) — Bridgeport (.640) — Hershey (.619) — Springfield (.474) — Hartford (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fell again to the Fort Wayne Komets 2-1. Gage Quinney scored for the Nailers.

Video highlights…

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The AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday at 4, the Wheeling Wrap will be here noon Tuesday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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1                                         2

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You just can’t give Hershey six power plays in a game and expect to win.

Especially a close game, in front of a big crowd on the road against a team out of a playoff spot right now.

Tristan Jarry played an outstanding game, stopping 25 of 27 shots, but he was beaten by the Bears momentum and Pheonix Copley was better, stopping 36 of 37.

Pens lose 2-1. The division is tightening up….

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Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Thomas DiPauli – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Jarrett Burton – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty

Tim Erixon – Barry Goers
David Warsofsky – Frankie Corrado
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: DiPauli’s first game action since November 26. Frankie Corrado had his visa issues figured out and he was in the lineup as well.

First Period: Penguins jump out of a 1-0 lead on a redirect of an Oskar Sundqvist shot by Josh Archibald.

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Pens didn’t allow the Bears a shot on goal for more than ten minutes and were smothering Hershey. It felt like the Penguins should be up two or more goals at the time but Copley was keeping Hershey in it.

Colby Williams scored to make it 1-1 when the Penguins couldn’t clear a pin balling puck. Pens had a 12-4 shot advantage going into the…

Second Period: Score remained 1-1 when Stan Galiev, the Penguin killer himself, scored on a deke that beat Time Erixon and Barry Goers and then finally Jarry, to put the Bears ahead 2-1. At the end of the period Copley would be needed again, this time stopping a Penguin two on one.

Third Period: But the penalty train continued for the Penguins and and momentum built up by the Penguins was killed or slowed down by the referees arm going in the air to but the Bears on the power play.

Tristan Jarry kept it a one goal game with some dazzling saves. Here is just one of those…

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Bears power play after power play was met with Tristan Jarry save after save.

Pens didn’t register a shot on goal until halfway through the third, not a recipe for getting back into the game, but hard to do when you are constantly killing penalties 200 fee the other way.

Penguins, with Jarry vacated for the extra man, were never able to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Christian Thomas (two assists) 2) Stan Galiev (game winning goal, assist) 1) Pheonix Copley (36 saves on 37 shots)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley beat Hartford 3-1 earlier in the day…Rochester beats Bridgeport 4-3 in overtime. Providence and Springfield were off.

Standings: Penguins (.693 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.670) — Providence (.658) — Bridgeport (.652) — Hershey (.612) — Springfield (.474) — Hartford (.412)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in Fort Wayne taking on the Komets and lost 4-3.

Video highlights…

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Pens bus to Hartford overnight for a 3 pm game against the Wolf Pack. Gameday setup for that will hit the blog Sunday at 11 am.

Let’s Go Pens!

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  4                                       3

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Said this in the Gameday setup earlier Saturday…

The Penguins need a win of any kind to get off of this skid that they are on. Look for the Penguins if they are to win tonight in Allentown, to do so in a dirty way. Shootout win or something crazy with a late goal is what I would classify as a dirty win.

They got one. A 4-3 overtime game winner from the unlikeliest of sources. Barry Goers, playing in his 300th professional game, scores his first goal in the AHL since April 18, 2015 and the Penguins four game losing streak is over.

Tristan Jarry went back in the net and opposed Alex Lyon.

Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Jarrett Burton – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Patrick McGrath – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Brett Stern – David Warsofsky
Stuart Percy – Barry Goers

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Ethan Prow is out with an upper body injury suffered yesterday in Utica. Interestingly, Head Coach Clark Donatelli told WBS media after the game that Prow is week to week with a lower body injury. So as with everything with hockey, give us your money and we won’t tell you anything when out comes to updates on players that you pay to see…Brett Stern took his place on the blue line. Patrick McGrath replaced Christian Hilbrich. Jarrett Burton moved to the second line replacing Hilbrich, Sestito moved back to the top line replacing Sahir Gill, who centered the fourth line.

First Period: Pens jumped out of the gate and nearly got a goal by Jarrett Burton but Alex Lyon made the save :08 in. Teams traded power plays with neither team doing anything memorable on them. Referee Jake Break gave Tim Sestito a 10:00 misconduct for either dissent or perhaps Brenk didn’t like the cut of Sestito’s jib.

T.J. Brennan tangled with J-S Dea behind Lyon’s net and Brennan was firing cross checks at Dea. Ref Brenk placed both players in the penalty box and while four on four, Kevin Porter found Tom Sestito and the Penguins had their first lead in 257:08 and their first even strength goal in 203:13….

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Kostopoulos’ 20th point in 20 games and his sixth 20 goal season in the AHL. Also, Kostopoulos is the 10th player in AHL history to score 20 goals in a season at age 38 years of age or older.

Second Period: Greg Carey scored :25 into a power play that gave him his league leading 17th power play goal that also tied it at one for the Phantoms.

Derrick Pouliot did not have a good period. He hit two posts and inadvertently put this puck into the net that was credited to Danick Martel which made it 2-1 Phantoms….

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Jarrett Burton got the goal back for the Penguins after a pass from Oskar Sundqvist hit his skate and redirected in. Brenk took a look at that to rule out a kick and his call of goal was confirmed and it was a 2-2 game.

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Third Period: J-S Dea, the Phantoms killer, scored to put the Penguins ahead 3-2 early in the third…

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Teddy Blueger won a race to a puck, slipped it along the wall to Dominik Simon who centered to Dea who put it past Lyon. His 18th point (11-7) in 25 games against the Phantoms, the most offense Dea has put up against any opponent.

Lehigh Valley responds on a power play when a big shot from the point rebounded past Barry Goers to Corban Knight and past Jarry for a tie game at 3.

Neither team found another regulation goal so it was off to…

Overtime: End to end action. Phantoms hit a post and Jarry was in the snow angel a few times. Then Barry Goers ended it with 1:15 left to give the Penguins the two points and broke the road losing streak…

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Dominik Simon shot it, the puck was dropped out of the glove by Lyon and Goers swept in and scored it to win it.

Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (goal, even) 2) Greg Carey (goal, assist, even) and 1) Barry Goers (overtime game winning goal, +3)

Around the Division: Providence sweeps Bridgeport this weekend with a 4-3 win tonight in Connecticut…Hershey battles back from 3-1 to beat Toronto 4-3…Springfield shuts out Hartford 2-0.

Standings: Penguins (.705 percentage points) — Providence (.664) — Lehigh Valley (.657) — Bridgeport (.642) — Hershey (.609) — Springfield (.491) — Hartford (.398)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost in overtime to the Toledo Walleye 4-3. Cody Wydo had a goal and an assist good for third star honors. The Nailers travel to Fort Wayne Sunday afternoon.

If the Phantoms or Penguin put a highlight package up I’ll run an edit and put it here.

I’ll have the Third Quarter Grades up sometime Sunday with the AHL Power Rankings Monday at 4 and the Wheeling Wrap Tuesday ta noon blog wise. Check them out then.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @          

1                                                2

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This is not a good road trip for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

In the four games now on the road for Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins have not led at all and are 0-4 after tonight’s 2-1 setback in Utica.

I still haven’t put my finger on what it is that’s been crippling the Penguins. Remember that the loss in Albany that set off this losing streak was a game that the Devils blocked a ton of shots. The Penguins ran into Reto Berra in Springfield who always plays the Penguins good and played run and gun in the third game in less than three days in Providence Sunday.

If you have a solution, please, leave me a comment here on this blog piece.

Tristan Jarry opposed Thatcher Demko.

Lines were…

Sahir Gill – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Christan Hilbrich – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Tom Sestito – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty

Derrick Pouliot – Barry Goers
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Brett Stern and Patrick McGrath were the scratches. Obie listed Lukas Bengtsson as ill, with Garrett Wilson and Thomas DiPauli among the injury scratches.

First Period: Jarry and this counterpart Demko traded some big saves to open. Pens controlled offensive zone time in bursts but were unable to solve Demko for the period. Utica chipped the puck out, transitioned and found Jordan Subban who ripped one past Jarry to make it 1-0 Comets…

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Pens had two cracks at the power play which came and went.

Second Period: The Utica Comets came into the game with the worst goal differential in the second period and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins came into the game boasting the best goal differential in the second period.

That’s a stat that didn’t matter at all in this period.

Shots at the end of the second were 15-13 favoring the Utica Comets, but if you watched this game you would have sworn that it was more like 28-0 Comets with the way that the Comets dominated the offensive zone percentage this period, moreso than the Penguins in the first period.

Ryan Haggerty got a step on a guy and couldn’t score on an excellent Demko save. Referee Furman South reviewed the call on replay and confirmed his initial call on the ice of no goal.

Utica had the Penguins on their heels. Nick Hart described on color commentary that the Comets were playing the Penguins with a playoff like intensity.

Darren Archibald works Stuart Percy to put the Comets yup a pair…

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Ethan Prow, who had his left arm injured in the first period, finally exited to the locker room right after the Archibald goal.

Penguins just couldn’t get anything going in the period.

Third Period: Prow did not rejoin the team for the third period.

Tom Kostopoulos scored on a power play that put the Penguins on the board. I don’t have a GIF of this, sorry. Dominik Simon assisted on that Kostopoulos goal and has three goals and two assists over his last six games and I would argue that he was the lone bright spot for the Penguins of late.

Penguins get a late power play and pull Jarry for an extra attacker in the games final minutes but were unable to score at all in a theme that I am picking tip here in this four game losing streak.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, even) 2) Thatcher Demko (27 saves on 28 shots) and 1) Darren Archibald (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Springfield pays the Penguins a favor beating the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at home 5-3. The Phantoms will now bus back to Allentown for Saturday’s matchup against the Penguins….Providence ends the Bridgeport Sound Tigers winning streak by beating them 2-1 in regulation and Hershey thumps last place Hartford 6-1.

Standings: Penguins (.700 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.660) — Providence (.657) — Bridgeport (.654) — Hershey (.602) — Springfield (.481) — Hartford (.406)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are currently trailing the Toledo Walleye 6-0. Box here.

If the Comets put up YouTube video of highlights of tonight’s game that I see I will run the edit here.

Pens will bus back to Wilkes-Barre, stay over night then catch a bus to Lehigh Valley Saturday afternoon for tomorrow night’s big matchup against the Phantoms at 7. Gameday drops here on the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!