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It is probably all moot anyway, since Providence keeps winning. The Bruins control their own destiny at this point and have seven point leads on both the Penguins and Phantoms tonight, eight if you consider the tie breaker.

The Bruins shutout the Belleville Senators tonight 2-0. Troy Mann, coach of the Senators, should probably get AHL Coach of the Year for the turnaround in Belleville this season. Mann has the Senators primed as a playoff team in the North Division.

His Senators were completely shut down tonight and had just 14 shots on goal.. This after the Bruins traveled to and from Laval, Quebec to play a midweek game against the Rocket, one that they lost in a shootout.

So it’s message sent and delivered by Jay Leach’s Providence Bruins, who are seven clear of Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre with ten games left.

Penguins lose 3-2 Friday night in Wilkes-Barre. Saturday is essentially must win to just to hope to maintain a seven point deficit over Providence, who plays at home again against Binghamton team who have lost nine straight.

Tristan Jarry opposed Alex Lyon.

Here is how they lined up:

Pittsburgh recalled Adam Johnson Thursday and returned Adam Johnson and Just Riikola came with him. Linus Ölund and Tim Erixon yielded for them from Tuesday in Hershey.

Pens jumped out to a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Ryan Haggerty goal where he stole a puck at center ice, skated in and scored.

Shots were 8-6 Penguins after one. Tristan Jarry was dialed in.

Phantoms score twice to go ahead 2-1 when Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored on a nice feed from Philip Sameulsson and then Chris Conner completely walked past Jeff Taylor and stuffed the puck under the pad of Jarry to give the Phantoms a 2-1 lead.

Ryan Haggerty scored at the end of the period when Lyon tried to home run a pass out of his zone which was intercepted.

Phantoms score :28 into the third period when Aube-Kubel scored again to make it 3-2.

Wilkes-Barre had two opportunities on the power play to tie the game back up, but failed. There is your turning point.

Alex Lyon locked things down from there and the Penguins ran out of time.

Here are your three stars:

Here are the video highlights:

These teams rematch Saturday in Allentown. Gameday setup hits the blog here Saturday at 3.

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Tristan Jarry and Vitek Vanecek turned in a goaltenders clinic Tuesday night in Hershey.

Scoreless after three periods, the 39th shot off of a Bears shooter beats Tristan Jarry in overtime off of the stick of Garrett Pilon and Hershey wins 1-0.

A point gained on idle Providence. It’s a four point deficit to the fourth place Bruins. Each team has a dozen games left.

Wilkes-Barre had only 17 shots. Hershey did the same thing to Bridgeport last Saturday, holding the Sound Tigers to just 19 shots on goal and scoring five of their own.

Lines were…

Adam Johnson – Jarrett Burton – Jimmy Hayes
Sam Lafferty – Ryan Haggerty – Sam Miletic
Anthony Angello – Jake Lucchini – Joseph Cramarossa
Trevor Yates – Cam Brown – Linus Ölund

Ethan Prow – Kevin Czuczman
Jeff Taylor – Chris Summers
Matt Abt – Tim Erixon

Tristan Jarry – John Muse

Lineup Notes: The Cramarossa – Lucchini – Hayes line was broken up. Forward lines shuffled up off of that with Hayes up with Burton and Johnson and Angello with Lucchini and Cramarossa. Jeff Taylor went in for Macoy Erkamps on defense.

First Period: Largely uneventful but for an 11-4 Hershey shot advantage thanks to the only power play awarded in the period which Hershey was on the man advantage. Tristan Jarry looked great and any ills that you thought were bugging him after Sunday’s performance against the Marlies were a distant memory.

Second Period: Two more power plays for the Bears, two more fine kills by the Penguins. Tristan Jarry continued to excel. Pens had a good chance when a Bears defender fell down springing Ryan Haggerty but Vitek Vanecek made the stop.

Third Period: Both teams traded power play chances. The Penguins looked great on their first and only power play of the game but couldn’t get anything past Vanecek.

Overtime: Periscoped here. Mind the high angle, Hershey didn’t bother to activate the lower angle camera.

Here is the goal GIFed for you.

The Good: Penguins bottled up the high powered Bears offense up for 60 full minutes and the play of Tristan Jarry. If Wilkes-Barre does manage to make it into the playoffs, it will be on the back of Jarry who will virtually carry them there.

The Bad: Lack of a scorer in regulation. Pens were perfect defensively (didn’t allow a goal) perfect on special teams and their goaltender plays out of his mind. All the Penguins needed was one goal in regulation and the game, barring anything funny, was theirs.

Turning Point: Garrett Pilon’s seemingly harmless shot at 1:14 in overtime is the easy, obvious choice.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Syracuse beat Charlotte in overtime 2-1 on this otherwise busy for a Tuesday night.

Standings: Charlotte 90 — Bridgeport 81 — Hershey 77 — Providence 74 — Penguins 70 — Lehigh Valley 68 — Springfield 66 — Hartford 65

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Setting Up Wednesday: Providence is in Laval Wednesday against the Rocket. Laval doesn’t really have anything left to play for. You would like a Rocket win. Pens will get that game in hand back Sunday when they host Springfield. Ideally, the deficit at the end of this weekends action should be where it is currently or lower. Time will tell.

Video Highlights:

But for anything else breaking, check out the Power Rankings on Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Tyler had a tweet right after a 4-2 Penguins loss to the Toronto Marlies on Sunday afternoon which summed up the game perfectly I thought.

Now, it was a bit of a different game in stark comparison to a few weeks ago against Syracuse. The Crunch were tops in the AHL in just about every category, but the Penguins bottled up the Crunch (after an awful first period) and were able to beat the Crunch. Use the boiling a frog technique.

But Sunday against Toronto, it was an avalanche that the Penguins got buried in and never dug out of.

Toronto scored at the expiry of a five on three power play when Chris Mueller finally banged home a back door pass in the first period that gave the Marlies a 1-0 lead.

But then Adam Brooks cleaned up a rebound of a Jeremy Bracco shot that gave the Marlies a 2-0 lead in the second period.

Jimmy Hayes finished off a loooooong pass by Tristan Jarry that made it a 2-1 game. The Penguins had the Marlies right where they wanted them, a goal away and a new period to play in the third.

Only Toronto scored two goals in :19 in the periods final minute to extend the lead to 4-1. A Jarrett Burton shot off of a long rebound left by Marlies starter Michael Hutchinson made it 4-2, but the Penguins would get no closer.

That’s basically it. There weren’t any GIFs of the Penguins goals and while Toronto did GIF theirs, I doubt there are many Marlies fans living in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Tristan Jarry opposed the aforementioned Hutchinson. Jarry started his tenth straight. I don’t think he was the reason the Pens lost the game today. It’s his job to stop the puck yes, but when your team takes a two man disadvantage and then falls asleep in the final minute of the second period, no goaltender, I don’t care if he is as fresh as a daisy, is going to be successful.

Wasted opportunity for the Penguins who burn a game in hand on the Bruins and stay five off of the fourth place and idle Bruins. They will burn off that game in hand on Providence Tuesday when they head to Hershey.

Gameday setup hits the blog for that matchup against the Bears, last of the regular season, Tuesday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!