Chirps from Center Ice

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2                                              4

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Couple things out of the gate about this five game winning streak that the best team in the American Hockey League is on right now…

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So is it a question of this Penguins team being a good team or a hard to play against team? I think the answer is in both the questions. Teams that are good are hard to play against. Teams that are hard to play against are usually good.

A 4-2 Penguins win and a long overdue one against a Springfield Thunderbirds team that is a lot better than their record and place in the Atlantic Division would indicate. Springfield would probably be a playoff team anywhere else in the AHL, just not the Atlantic Division which is full of great teams.

Tristan Jarry opposed Mike McKenna

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Jake Guentzel – Teddy Blueger – Danny Kristo
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Tom Sestito – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner

Cameron Gaunce – Stuart Percy
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Tim Erixon – Barry Goers

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Chad Ruhwedel was recalled to Pittsburgh earlier in the day with the injury to Trevor Daley. Pittsburgh chose Ruhwedel over someone like Warsofsky because Ruhwedel is right handed. Other notes included Gardiner for Ryan Haggerty on the fourth line, Blueger up centering Guentzel and Kristo. Tim Erixon was in for the recalled Ruhwedel and Barry Goers appeared in place of Ethan Prow.

First Period: Very even period in every facet really, with no scoring and the Penguins leading in shots 13-10. Springfield plays such a similar style to the Penguins in terms of blocking shots and getting tremendous goaltending from Mike McKenna. McKenna is going into the AHL Hall of Fame someday and would win a ton of games with the right team in front of him.

Second Period: What I said earlier about the teams being so similar happened in the following sequences.

A shot from the point by Springfield was initially stopped by Jarry but went in the net behind him off of Danny Kristo’s skate. An own goal by the Penguins that gave the Thunderbirds the lead.

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About five minutes later, on the power play, Springfield would put a goal in their own net as well when David Warsofsky would get credit of a puck that would go in off of Ian McCoshen that would set off the annual teddy bear toss.

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Score sheet says David Warsofsky got credit.

More similarities. Both teams got breakaways on the same shift but were stopped by the puck stoppers.

Penguins edge ahead for good on an Oskar Sundqvist goal. Tim Erixon put the puck on net and Sundqvist was there to push it across.

For good measure, the Penguins got another power play goal in the period when Sundqvist skated in close, threw a puck off the pads of McKenna in an impromptu set play where it leaves the puck wide open to Garrett Wilson to put across the line to open the Penguins lead to 3-1.

Third Period: Thinking to myself, “Jake Guentzel hasn’t scored yet” as Guentzel races by me at center ice, and scores to make it 4-1.

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That is an NHL caliber type play from a player who belongs in the NHL.

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Springfield would get one back late when Jarry stopped the initial three attempts flopping all over the crease but couldn’t stop the fourth one. With McKenna vacated for the extra man, Springfield would get no closer and the Penguins would hold on for their fifth straight win.

Three Stars: 3) Garrett Wilson (goal, +1) 2) David Warsofsky (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley cuts down the Providence Bruins 13 game point streak and is the first AHL team to 20 wins with a 7-1 blowout win over the Bruins. Syracuse beats Bridgeport in Central New York in a game that included a goalie fight 5-3…Hartford has won two games in a row since their loss Wednesday against the Penguins and beat Hershey 5-4.

Standings: Penguins (.759 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.732) — Hershey (.667) — Providence (.611) — Bridgeport (.593) — Springfield (.519) — Hartford (.407)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were unable to complete the comeback like last night against the Fort Wayne Komets again tonight in Indiana and lost 4-3. Garrett Meurs and Cody Wydo scored goals for Wheeling.

Video highlights…

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Content wise for the blog this week, I will have the Week 10 AHL Power Rankings here on Monday at 4. With there not being a ton of games next week with a lot of teams off now till after Christmas, Penguins included, I have decided to combine Weeks 11 and 12 so the next time you will see the AHL Power Rankings after Monday will be January 2. Also the Wheeling Wrap will be here Tuesday at noon.

Let’s Go Pens!

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1                                                  4

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Methodical win by the Penguins tonight, who defeat the Rochester Americans 4-1 tonight.

I asked my pal John on the concourse tonight during the first intermission of a 1-0 Penguins lead at the time and he offered that the Americans were running with the Penguins step for step. There were 25 shots total in the period (13-12 Penguins) and Wilkes-Barre led 1-0 off of a guffaw turnover by Rochester right to the wrong man in Jake Guenztel who buried it past starting Americans goaltender John Muse to give the Penguins a lead they would never relinquish.

Wilkes-Barre would avalanche the visitors in the second period and led 3-0 and were outshooting the Americans 13-3 at one point.

A good team crushed a bad team tonight. Wilkes-Barre never let off the gas pedal tonight in a game when you looked at the records and statistics coming in you had that shadow of a doubt that they could have. Starting goaltender Casey DeSmith lost his shutout with 1:22 left to play. DeSmith improved to 7-0-2 and Wilkes-Barre won their fourth straight game.

About DeSmith, and this headline (compliments of Kaitlyn from Twitter) – DeSmith didn’t face a ton of shots tonight, but when he did they came in a flurry and shut down Rochester. DeSmith has not allowed opponents to one goal in five of his last nine starts.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea – Danny Kristo
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Ryan Haggerty

Stuart Percy – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Derrick Pouliot was recalled to Pittsburgh on Thursday with the injury to Kris Letang. Only lineup change that affected Wilkes-Barre was Ethan Prow taking Pouliot’s spot.

First Period: Penguins started strong. Garrett Wilson rung a post. Pens were really knocking on the door. Shorthanded, Ryan Haggerty was denied twice and Oskar Sundqvist was denied on the followup rebound by John Muse. Rochester then couldn’t score on a small flurry in front of DeSmith in what was going to be a precursor of things to come.

Jake Guentzel stole a Rochester outlet pass and made it 1-0 Penguins…

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High octane first period for both teams with the Penguins leading the Americans in shots 13-12 heading into the…

Second Period: David Warsofsky scored through bodies that doubled the Penguins lead…

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Josh Archibald scored on a power move that made it 3-0 Wilkes-Barre just past halfway through.

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As mentioned in the lede, Wilkes-Barre was leading Rochester 13-3 in the second period and completely smothering the Americans.

Then Rochester all of a sudden found themselves with a 5-on-3 power play for 1:22.

Enter Casey DeSmith.

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If you don’t have a Twitter account and are wondering what the attribution is from the Penguins to me is in this tweet, it’s because they initially credited this save to Tristan Jarry.

Another look. Still photo.

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If you are looking for a turning point in the game, you found it here with the saves by DeSmith. If Rochester makes it a 3-1 or even 3-2 game in the power play, who knows what the third period brings.

Third Period: Penguins didn’t GIF this one, but Lukas Bengtsson scored his first North American goal with a sweet dangle on John Muse and backhanded it past Muse to give the Penguins a 4-0 lead.

Coal Street highlight package will have it.

You would think that the Penguins, up big on home ice in the third period, would let off.

Nope.

Rochester didn’t get in their own zone for a while. Penguins were still sniffing for their fifth goal.

But it was Norfolk Admirals Legend Kyle Bonis* that would break up Casey DeSmith’s shutout bid with 1:22 left in regulation.

Three Stars: 3) Casey DeSmith (26 saves on 27 shots) 2) Jake Guentzel (goal, assist, +2) and 1) David Warsofsky (goal, assist, +4)

Notes: Third straight game where a Penguin scored his first goal of the year. (Percy, Gaunce, now Bengtsson) … Jake Guentzel had his fourth one goal, one assist performance in five games since returning from assignment from Pittsburgh…David Warsofsky has 11 points (2-9-11) in his last nine games…10 different players scored the last 10 goals for the Penguins. That is depth.

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley beats Hershey 3-2 in a shootout. There aren’t shootouts in playoffs, just saying….Providence does nothing until 4:38 left in their game with Bridgeport. Down 2-0, the Bruins explode for three unanswered goals and run their point streak to 13 games with a 3-2 win. Frank Vatrano (down on I hope is a conditioning stint) scored a goal, which is 37 straight games where Vatrano has scored a goal. Thirty. Seven. Straight. Games. If he sticks around, the Pennsylvania teams are in trouble….Springfield beats Binghamton 3-1 and Hartford picks up a 2-1 shootout win over the Syracuse Crunch.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.712) — Hershey (.692) — Providence (.635) — Bridgeport (.615) — Springfield (.540) — Hartford (.385)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers storm back from down 4-0 to stun Fort Wayne 6-5. Adam Krause netted a hat trick.

Video highlights…

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Gameday setup for tomorrow’s game vs. Springfield will be up on the blog Saturday at 3.

* – source

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2                                              6

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Here’s where I think that the game was decided tonight in favor of the Penguins and sort of shut down the Hartford Wolf Pack’s attempts at giving the Penguins a run.

Second period of a 1-0 Penguins lead Niklas Jensen, fresh off NHL re-assignment, scored to make it a tie game at 1-1. Hartford had been building a crescendo all period to bring it level and finally did.

Ensuing face-off at center ice, :16 later, Wilkes-Barre regains the lead. Lukas Bengtsson puts a shot on starting Hartford goaltender Magnus Hellberg, rebound spills to Kevin Porter who cashes on the rebound and the Penguins are back out in front 2-1 and never look back.

6-2 the final tonight and the Penguins cruise over a bad luck Hartford side. Dominik Simon had four assists. For someone who had been slow to get out of the gate to start the year, Simon has 1-9-10 in his last eight games. He’s shaking off his sophomore slump in a big, big way.

I was out celebrating the ninth anniversary of my 29th birthday tonight, so I only got to watch the third period in front of the computer. So I am going to piecemeal this recap the best I can.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea – Danny Kristo
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Ryan Haggerty

Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Stuart Percy
Cameron Gaunce – Lukas Bengtsson

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Ryan Haggerty for Reid Gardiner was the only lineup change from Sunday in Bridgeport.

Garrett Wilson scored in the first period off of a Hartford turnover. He followed his shot and roofed his own rebound into the net behind Hellberg.

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In the second, Hartford was building towards a goal and got one by way of Niclas Jensen. Tie game. :16 later the Penguins respond…

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Kevin Porter on a rebound of a Lukas Bengtsson shot that made it 2-1 Penguins and as I mentioned in the lede, where Wilkes-Barre really sucked the life out of the Wolf Pack.

Wilkes-Barre extends the lead to 3-1 on Cameron Gaunce’s first in a Penguin sweater with :29 seconds to play in the period…

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Most excellent feed from Kevin Porter to Gaunce who found a lane and cashed. Dominik Simon won a board battle that set the whole thing up to start.

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In the third, the Pens made it 5-1 before Hartford responded to make it 5-2. Tom Sestito then scored on a power play late that brought the score to its final at 6-2.

No really, Tom Sestito scored a goal. On the power play. He also set up this Ryan Haggerty goal to make it 4-1 Penguins…

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Sestito played in a milestone AHL game, his 300th, tonight.

If Hartford had any thoughts of coming back in this game, giving the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins three straight power plays wasn’t the best game plan.

Pens didn’t cash on the first one, but they are up 4-1 cruising in a weekday game.

OK, so you’re giving us a second one? We will score on that one. Tom Kostopoulos, ladies and germs…

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If you are thinking that the Penguins have been scoring a lot of power plays recently you are not wrong, that’s seven straight games where the Penguins have scored at least one power play after going cold and not scoring a single power play in almost 30 attempts.

Late, Tom Sestito scored with one second left in a power play that turned this one into a laugher. 6-2 Penguins, what a pass by Teddy Blueger here…

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Sestito was a fight away from a Gordie Howe with an assist and a goal. When you are getting these types of results from these types of players, you know that no matter what you step in, you know it’s going to turn up gold.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (power play goal, +2) 2) Dominik Simon (four assists, +2) and 1) Kevin Porter (goal, assist, +2)

Jake Guentzel registered four shots and was a -1. He did not record a point tonight.

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley sees a 5-1 lead evaporate in 7:40. Bridgeport ties it at 5-5, but Lehigh Valley ultimately wins 8-6. This is the number one reason why you can’t trust the Phantoms. All-Star defense, lets four goals past in 7:40? Calder Cup winning teams don’t allow this. I can’t take this team seriously, sorry. Everyone else in the division was off.

Standings: Penguins (.740 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.700) — Hershey (.700) — Bridgeport (.667) — Providence (.620) — Springfield (.521) — Hartford (.360)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were defeated at home by the Orlando Solar Bears 5-2. Sean Maguire stopped 25 of 30 and was pulled after the fifth Solar Bears goal. Doug Carr stopped all 8 shots he faced. Christian Hilbrich and Cody Wydo scored for the Nailers. Orlando struck twice on the power play.

Video highlights…

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Pens are back in action Friday at home against Rochester. But for anything newsworthy Thursday, next blog update comes at 3 p.m. Friday for the Gameday setup against the Americans.

Let’s Go Pens!

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2                                         6

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Let’s get something out of the way quick. The answer to the question in the headline is in the slug. If you don’t know what the slug is, open this post on its own window, bereft of anything else as far as content on the blog, and tell me what you see. Hint: I leave the occasional easter egg from time to time in the slug.

Now, to the game, a 6-2 Penguins win over the rival Hershey Bears. Oskar Sundqvist scored four goals, tying a franchise high for goals in a game by a player.

It looks like the Penguins were going to get housed again by Hershey when the game just turned on a dime in the Penguins favor in a big, big way.

The win puts the Penguins back to first place in the Atlantic Division and drops the Bears, with wins by Lehigh Valley and Bridgeport, to fourth place. That’s how ultra competitive this Atlantic Division is. Hershey’s ten game point streak comes to an end as well.

Casey DeSmith opposed Joe Cannata.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea – Danny Kristo
Ryan Haggerty – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Stuart Percy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Swap Percy for Lukas Bengtsson on defense and the entire fourth line from last night (Teddy Blueger, Tom Sestito and Reid Gardiner) f0r Haggerty, Burton and McGrath.

First Period: Pens had the pop going early but it was Hershey that found the back of the net first when Christian Djoos scored when Casey DeSmith lost his stick to make it 1-0 Bears.

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Not tonight.

On that goal, Chris Bourque collected his 600th AHL point. It feels like half of those have come against the Penguins, but I congratulate Bourque on the milestone nevertheless.

Chandler Stephenson scored when a pass setup for a guy in front was whiffed on. Stephenson was there as the safety net and scored it to make it 2-0 for the Bears. You could feel the rout coming again. It was setting up as another lifeless performance for the Penguins.

Oskar Sundqvist doesn’t speak that language.

He literally put the team on his back tonight. He scored to cut it to one late in the first period. A big hit led to the goal and it was 2-1 Bears.

Second Period: Oskar Sundqvist tied the game off a bad rebound that was left by Cannata. Then Jake Guentzel scored because it wouldn’t be a Penguins game if not for a Guentzel goal that made it 3-2 for the Penguins. That goal happened :29 after the Sundqvist goal.

Sundqvist completed his hat trick on a power play that made it 4-2. It was all Penguins and they were pouring it on. Wilkes-Barre limited the Bears to just six shots in the period.

Third Period: Sundqvist netted his fourth of the game off a breakaway that made it 5-2 Penguins. Then the Bears had a power play that DeSmith stopped. The Bears sling the puck around on the man advantage with sickening pin point accuracy but DeSmith read it all like a comic book and squelched any seedlings of a comeback by the Chocolate and White.

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The last time that an opponent scored four goals against Hershey? The year was 1993.

– The player was Steve Konowalchuk of Portland on October 10, 1993.
– Oskar Sundqvist wasn’t even born.
– The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were six years from being born.
– You were paying about a dollar for a gallon of gas.
– This blogger was a freshman in high school.

Josh Archibald left the game after a nasty knee on knee hit by Joey Leach. It was his right knee, but it wasn’t his right knee that was injured as told to the WBS media post game by Clark Donatelli. He is considered day-to-day.

Off the ensuing major power play, Tom Kostopoulous banked in a pass intended for Jake Guentzel off of Colby Williams’ skate and in to make it 6-2.

Tux missed the extra point. There would be no seventh goal tonight.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, even) 2) Jake Guentzel (goal, assist, even) and 1) Oskar Sundqvist (four goals, +2)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley sweeps Rochester with a 4-2 win in Allentown….Bridgeport gets two goals in the third period on the road in Binghamton to tie it, remain perfect past regulation and win 4-3 in overtime. Eamon McAdam is now 7-0 for the Sound Tigers this year….Toronto beats Hartford in Connecticut 5-3…Springfield beats St. John’s on the Rock 2-1 and Providence runs their point record to 11 straight games, best in the AHL right now with a 3-1 win over the suddenly slumping Albany Devils.

Standings: Penguins (.717 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.700) — Bridgeport (.696) — Hershey (.688) — Providence (.604) — Springfield (.521) — Hartford (.370)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video highlights…

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One more deep mined stat for the road from the desk of color man Nick Hart….

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Pens will bus to Bridgeport overnight for the 5 o’clock game with the Sound Tigers, who will be the more rested team having not played Friday. Gameday setup for that one hits the blog Sunday at 1.

Let’s Go Pens!

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5                                         2

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I thought about this headline on the drive home tonight. A lifeless effort by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight and a 5-2 pasting from the rival Bears.

Part of me thought it was too harsh. After all, Hershey came into tonight’s game on a nine game point streak. The Bears are no pushover.

The other half of me, and I think that’s where this one is going, stuck with the headline because of the star power that the Penguins brought with them tonight. 13 forwards and 7 defensemen skated today in Florida for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have no injuries to report and thus, no need for a recall to from the farm leaving the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins as strong as they can be with the likes of Jake Guentzel, Derrick Pouliot, Kevin Porter and Oskar Sundqvist in the lineup only missing Carter Rowney to injury and Steve Oleksy to recall to Pittsburgh as that seventh defenseman.

At home, on a Friday, against your biggest rival after a week of practice and you go and get your ass kicked. That’s pretty bad, no matter how you try to paint it.

Tristan Jarry opposed Vitek Vanecek.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea – Danny Kristo
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Reid Gardiner

Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Healthy scratches were a mile long. Tim Erixon, Stuart Percy, Patrick McGrath, Sahir Gill, Jarrett Burton, Ryan Haggerty and Barry Goers with Carter Rowney and Thomas DiPauli the injured. Home debut for Danny Kristo, season debuts for Blueger and Sestito. Obie said pregame that Percy and Erixon will cycle in defensively this weekend. You may also see Patrick McGrath tomorrow as well.

First Period: Felt like it was all Bears to open despite either team having one shot on goal in the games first 6:30. Tristan Jarry stopped Christian Thomas on a breakaway, but later the Bears scored on a three on one when Nathan Walker put one past Jarry on an easy tap in. Said this at the time…

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Chandler Stephenson doubled the Bears lead about a minute later. That goal came after a questionable icing call on the Penguins. It appeared that a Wilkes-Barre player had beat Hershey back to the line but the linesman called it anyway.

Jake Guentzel, fresh off of NHL assignment, would score on the power play to cut the Bears lead in half and made it 2-1.

Second Period: First 12 minutes absolutely flew by with end to end action. Hershey came out of the game without receiving a single penalty from the whistle of referee Andrew Thackaberry, who I thought called an outstanding game. As an aside, because there wasn’t any rough housing our stupid stick fouls, that made this game all the more frustrating to watch because the Bears straight up beat the Penguins clean.

Hershey transitioned up ice using all of I think it was three passes and Zach Sanford cashed on a nice cross ice feed by Nathan Walker and it was 3-1 Bears.

Third Period: Pens couldn’t cash on a carryover penalty from the second on fresh ice. Danny Kristo blew a tire in front of Vanecek and fell trying to get a shot off then Vanecek robbed Oskar Sundqvist in close later on. But it was a nice pass at even strength by Guentzel setting up Jean-Sebastien Dea that brought the Penguins back within one and it was 3-2. Three gals in four games for Dea.

Undeterred, old buddy Zach Sill scored a big goal in front of Jarry on another blown assignment that pretty much iced the game away and made it 4-2.

If that didn’t, a Penguins power play where they failed to gain entry into the offensive zone to register even a shot at Vanecek surely did, as the Wilkes-Barre faithful booed their power play unit off the ice as Hershey easily killed the penalty.

Hershey iced the game away on yet another quick developing odd man rush and made it 5-2 Sill fed Garrett Mitchell who scored and it was all over.

Three Stars: 3) Nathan Walker (goal, assist, +1) 2) Jake Guentzel (goal, assist, -1) 1) Zach Sanford (goal, assist +2)

Around the Division: St. John’s beats Springfield in a run and gun affair 6-5 on The Rock…Lehigh Valley beats Rochester 4-3. Those two teams rematch tomorrow…Providence is a team you need to start paying attention to, they beat Toronto at home tonight in Rhode Island by a 5-3 score. Hartford and Bridgeport were off.

Standings: Hershey (.717 percentage points) — Penguins (.705) — Lehigh Valley (.688) — Bridgeport (.682) — Providence (.587) — Springfield (.500) — Hartford (.386)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fell in Canada to the Brampton Beast by a 4-2 score. Milos Bubela scored and so did Garrett Meurs for the Nailers. Doug Carr started and stopped 21 of 24. Have to think that Sean Maguire gets the start Sunday in the rematch in Brampton.

Pens and Bears will rematch tomorrow in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05. Expect a bevy of lineup changes and honestly a different result. Gameday setup is yours Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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 2                                       3

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The officiating in the American Hockey League has, in this writer’s opinion, gotten a lot better in the past five years.

How many times would you cringe in your seat when you learned that Nygel Pelletier was assigned to work the game you were watching that night? What about Harry Dumas?

You don’t see that anymore because the AHL finally got serious about who they put in charge of their on ice product. The officiating has improved and the awful referees are filtered away.

But you see, it’s still a work in process.

The officiating crew of Andrew Wilk, a referee who worked ECHL games on the West Coast and Troy Murray, who I never heard of before this season, doled out a cumulative total of 14 power plays for the St. John’s IceCaps this weekend and eight in this game alone. The AHL wants all games in 2019 to be manned by the four official process, but pairing two rookie referees together is a recipe for disaster, and that’s exactly what that was in this weekend’s games.

I don’t want to dedicate the entire lede to the horrific officiating, because this game with the IceCaps and Penguins, was very entertaining.

A 3-2 overtime loss for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. The Penguins battled back from 2-0 deficit to get a goal late in the second period and then tied it in the third with a relentless attack on St. John’s.

The Penguins take 3 of 4 points out of the weekend and will remain in first place in the Atlantic Division, and what will ultimately be lost in all of this is the play in goal by IceCaps goaltender Yann Danis. Danis, a backup to Charles Lindgren in St. John’s, is a former AHL Goaltender of the Year and single handedly kept his team in the game. Any other mortal goaltender sees six or seven slip by and the officials could have hit Tom Kostopoulos with a steel chair and I am not mentioning a word of that in the story because the Penguins win easy. But it didn’t work out like that.

Casey DeSmith opposed the aforementioned Yann Danis.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Danny Kristo – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Ryan Haggerty – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Stuart Percy – Chad Ruhwedel
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
David Warsofsky – Barry Goers

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: There was a discussion earlier in the week about not having Danny Kristo play in back to back games to get his wind back, but Kristo played again Sunday. Barry Goers took the spot of Tim Erixon and Sahir Gill yielded to Patrick McGrath.

First Period: Clark Donatelli said postgame on Saturday that he wanted a stronger start by his team Sunday. He didn’t get it. The IceCaps out chanced the Penguins off the hop, then scored on a Chris Terry power play goal that gave them a 1-0 lead. Terry scored a one timer from the dot, much like he did the night before.

The Penguins offense started to come alive, but they couldn’t solve Danis with 20 shots on him through 20 minutes. Pens had a lot of chances, but Danis kept them out of his nets. Ten of those shots came from defenseman and out of those ten, five came from Chad Ruhwedel.

Second Period: Penguins battled more than just the St. John’s IceCaps this period, they battled the officials. Troy Murray and Andrew Wilk called seemingly everything they could against the Penguins. Some of these infractions looked harmless…

J-S Dea crosschecking at 11:24.

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Patrick McGrath slashing at 12:23.

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My Vine identifies it as a roughing penalty. Mike O’Brien called it that and I thought I saw one of those bozos in stripes signal for roughing.

Three other things happened in the period. First, while shorthanded, Garrett Wilson nearly scored on this play…

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That’s referee Troy Murray with a look at it in real time, then he took a look at the video replay and the call on the ice of “no goal” was affirmed.

Second, while killing another penalty, Oskar Sundqvist was hooked from behind. No call by either of the referees on the ice.

Third, with four seconds left, Oskar Sundqvist scored on a rebound of a David Warsofsky shot that cut the deficit to one heading into the third period…

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Third Period: The Penguins limited the IceCaps to just five shots on goal in the period and were all over the IceCaps in the period. Finally, despite more questionable calls by the officiating crew, David Warsofsky or J-S Dea tied the game with this goal…

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Josh Archibald nearly made it a 3-2 game for the Penguins but Yann Danis made the stop with his stick. DeSmith later made a nice stop off of a Penguins turnover pun front. Despite battling five guys with sticks and four men with whistles after 60 minutes, it was off to…

Overtime: Wilkes-Barre had many chances. Kevin Porter fed Chad Ruhwedel cutting in the slot but Danis made the save, Josh Archibald fired a puck high. Pens cam win two on one, Danis made the save, and forwarded a pass up to an IceCap skater and St. John’s was off on a three on one. DeSmith made the save, then Ruhwedel turned the puck over and Chris Terry ended the madness on this snipe…

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End to end action, which is exactly what three on three overtime is supposed to be.

The Pens have recorded a point in all seven of Casey DeSmith’s starts this season.

Three Stars: 3) Chad Ruhwedel (goal, nine shots, +1) 2) Sven Andrighetto (goal, assist, even) and 1) Yann Danis (50 saves on 52 shots)

Around the Division: Hershey beats a road weary Syracuse team 4-2 at home.  Over 20,000 teddy bears were tossed on the ice after Garrett Mitchell’s first period goal…Lehigh Valley final solves the Bridgeport Sound Tigers puzzle with a 3-2 win in Connecticut….Providence beats Springfield 2-1 in overtime. The Bruins have points in their last nine games…Hartford is unable to sweep the Marlies in Toronto dropping a 5-3 contest to their Canadian foes.

Standings: Three way tie in points at the top, but the league doesn’t rank them by points anymore, they do it by percentage points. So it’s as follows: Penguins (.738 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.705) — Hershey (.705) — Bridgeport (.682) — Providence (.568) — Springfield (.500) — Hartford (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They are back in action this Friday in Brampton, Ontario, Canada when they take on the Beast, who are the ECHL affiliate of the St. John’s IceCaps. The weekly Wheeling Wrap will recap the week that was for the Nailers Tuesday at noon.

Here are the video highlights of the game…

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The Week 8 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have a roster in a bit of flux right now. So in times of need, you need to rely on the veteran players that remain.

Those players today were Kevin Porter and Tom Kostopoulos.

A goal and two assists by Porter and three assists for Kostopoulos, and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins win this game 6-2 up on The Rock this afternoon / evening.

Tristan Jarry opposed Charles Lindgren.

News of the day before the game started was the re-assignment of Tom Sestito to Wilkes-Barre and the announcement that Thomas DiPauli had back surgery and is out for the next 10-12 weeks.

Couple things on that news. First, props to Coal Street for disclosing the injury details and the length of time that DiPauli will be out for. Assuming he had the surgery this week, DiPauli’s timetable will be the end of March, barring a setback. Second, it looks like with Chris Kunitz coming off of injured reserve that Jake Guentzel, despite being a scratch in the last Pittsburgh game, will be up for longer than we thought.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Danny Kristo – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Sahir Gill – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty

Stuart Percy – Chad Ruhwedel
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
David Warsofsky – Tim Erixon

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Danny Kristo and Sahir Gill jumped back into the lineup for the injured Thomas DiPauli and the healthy Patrick McGrath. Stuart Percy and Tim Erixon were in on the blue line for Barry Goers and Lukas Bengtsson.

First Period: St. John’s dominated the period with a lot of zone time and a bevy of shots, but Tristan Jarry turned them all aside. A bit of puck luck for Jarry as two separate IceCaps players fanned on wide open nets. But then the Penguins got a late power play and it was Danny Kristo scoring his first goal of the season and first with the Penguins on this nice screen by Oskar Sundqvist parked in front…

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On that play, Chad Ruhwedel picked up his 100th AHL point.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre would extend the lead by two with a pair of power play, yes, you read power play, goals.

They both came on a five on three :19 apart. First, Kevin Porter…

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Porter dug the puck out of his skates, patiently waited for the players to fall like dominoes, and roof it over all of the humanity.

Then on the same power play, now five on four, Dominik Simon scored this nice backhanded goal as Lindgren just let a puck sit out in prime real estate…

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The tweet that you just read from the Penguins was true, the Penguins were 3-for-4 on the power play today. This after going 1-for-28 coming in.

But there was a lot of time left to play in the period and referees Troy Murray and Andrew Will put the IceCaps on a five on three power play and Chris Terry hammered one in far post on a one timer to put the IceCaps on the board.

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Wilkes-Barre / Scranton would re-establish the three goal lead on a nice deflection goal by Jean-Sebastien Dea in the final minute of the period…

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Team leading seventh goal by Dea there and a great pass by Dominik Simon to set it all up. Jarry’s shutout streak ends at 95:28.

Third Period: Tim Erixon made it a four goal lead for the Penguins with his first goal of the season…

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Dan Audette scored for the IceCaps that made it 5-2 when the Penguins blew a defensive assignment. Audette was parked right in front of the net and swept the puck past Jarry. After a referee review on account of a possible kick, the goal stood.

Josh Archibald scored a pretty goal as he flipped the puck over Lindgren that made it 6-2 Wilkes-Barre. Coal Street didn’t put a GIF out on that one, so just use your imagination.

Three Stars: 3) Sven Andrighetto (two assists, -1) 2) Kevin Porter (goal, two assists, even) and 1) Tristan Jarry (31 saves on 33 shots)

Notes: Oskar Sundqvist’s six game road point streak comes to an end as he was unable to find the scoresheet today.

Video highlights…

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Around the Division: Every team in the Atlantic picked up at least a point tonight. Starting in Hershey, the Bears lose in overtime 3-2 to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Bears took three out of a possible four points out of the miniseries with the Phantoms this weekend…Bridgeport stays hot with a 4-0 shutout win over the sorry Binghamton Senators. It’s the first shutout of the season for the Sound Tigers….Springfield beats Providence 3-2 in overtime. The Thunderbirds came back from a 2-1 deficit to win…The Hartford Wolf Pack beat the Toronto Marlies in the 6ix 3-2 this afternoon.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Bridgeport (.714) — Lehigh Valley (.690) — Hershey (.690) — Providence (.548) — Springfield (.500) — Hartford (.425)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers sweep the Utah Grizzlies with a 4-1 win Saturday. Doug Carr stopped 27 of 28. I’ll have more on the Nailers week that was Tuesday in the Wheeling Wrap.

Penguins and IceCaps rematch again Sunday from St. John’s again at 2:30 Wilkes-Barre time. Gameday setup will hit the blog Sunday morning at 10:30.

Let’s Go Pens!