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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were 4-4-1-1 in their last ten games coming into tonight’s contest with the league leading Charlotte Checkers. During that span, they have allowed seven straight power play goals.

Make it eight tonight, two for the night, as the Penguins fall 2-1 to the Charlotte Checkers.

An even game otherwise. Shots were 28 a side.

The turning point in the game was when AHL league leader in goals from last year, Valentin Zykov, was thrown out of the game for a dangerous intent to injure cross checking penalty to Joseph Cramarossa. The Penguins were on a 5:00 major power play and were unable to score in a 1-1 game at the time.

Eight shots on the power play for the Penguins, but no goals.

Charlotte on the other hand, struck twice on the power play, but even those were goals made on tight shots.

Janne Kuokkanen over the glove of Jarry that made it 1-1 on a two man advantage in the second, and then Andrew Poturalski bar down on Jarry with under five minutes to play on a garden variety power play.

Game. Set. Match.

That’s pretty much it.

Tristan Jarry opposed Alex Nedeljkovic. Fourteen goaltenders have scored goals in the AHL. Nedeljkovic was the thirteenth, Jarry the fourteenth.

Here is how they lined up:

With no changes on defense, Lindberg and Ölund went top line with DiPauli. Haggerty for Jimmy Hayes (he missed tonight’s game attending to a personal matter) with the Lafferty / Johnson line. Joe Cramarossa debuted on third line with Blueger and Angello. Burton centered Horvat and McGrath.

Nobody scored in the first.

Thomas DiPauli opened the scoring with a nice give and go with Tobias Lindberg here.

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Janne Kuokkanen tied it on a two man advantage on a dart above Jarry’s glove that made it 1-1.

Zykov was assessed a match penalty for cross checking. Here’s the details on the penalty and the ramifications that go with it:

I don’t think he will be suspended for Saturday, but we will see. The punishment I think fit the crime.

Teams played with fire in the third period with each team trading multiple power play attempts but it was Andrew Poturalski going bar down and scoring on Jarry late with 3:36 left.

Pens pulled Jarry for the extra man but took a Teddy Blueger offensive zone penalty and that killed any chances at a tie.

The Good: The Penguins stood with the best team in the AHL and did not look out of place at all at even strength.

The Bad: Not scoring on the 5:00 major penalty was a major turning point. Allowing Charlotte to score twice on the power play killed the Penguins tonight.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Hershey crushes Cleveland 6-1. These teams rematch again tomorrow in Hershey…Lehigh Valley goes down 4-1 in the first period, win 5-4 in Providence…Springfield embarrasses Rochester 9-4…Bridgeport beats Laval 2-1 in a shootout…Hartford was off.

Standings: Charlotte 25 – Bridgeport 22 – Lehigh Valley 20 – Springfield 18 – Penguins 18 – Hershey 17 – Hartford 15 – Providence 12

Wheeling Update: Troy Josephs had a hat trick, John Muse tried to score on an empty net, the Nailers beat the Jacksonville Icemen 4-1 in Florida.

If Coal Street runs any highlights and I can get to an edit, they will run here.

Pens and Checkers rematch tomorrow at 7:05 in Wilkes-Barre. Gameday setup here at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins played their first home game 19 years ago Tuesday. Coal Street had a nice feature on their website which you can check out complete with an eight minute highlight package.

For 20 seasons though, a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins goaltender has never scored a goal.

Until today.

Fourteen seconds after losing a shutout bid, goaltender Tristan Jarry scored an empty net goal.

No, really, if you don’t believe me, here it is.

And it wasn’t like it was anything like a luck chance or a deflection or own goal from the other team. It was a dart. Tristan Jarry stepped into it and let it rip. And absolute howler.

First ever in Penguins history.

Wilkes-Barre likes making history in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Penguins won the game 5-1. Springfield has now lost four straight. I don’t want to call anything, “must win” in November, but this game felt as close to a must win as humanly possible for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Jarry opposed Michael Hutchinson.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Head Coach Clark Donatelli shuffled up things at the center position. Lafferty to 1C, Blueger to 2C, Grant from 1C down to 3C. No change to fourth line. On defense: Taylor for Matt Abt.

First Period: Was a herky jerky start for it being a 10:30 a.m. start, lots of icings and offsides. Some scary moments for the Penguins when Ethan Prow lost an edge three time skating backwards but Jarry was able to make the save and then Teddy Blueger makes the stop on the goal line in a scramble in front of the Penguins net.

Penguins get on the board late with goals by Jarrett Burton and Linus Olund. Burton’s goal came off of a deflection of a Stefan Elliott shot:

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…and then Olund, on an extended shift, scores on this dump in play by Wilkes-Barre that made it 2-0.

Penguins killed a later power play in the only special teams action in the period for both sides.

Second Period: Teams traded power plays but couldn’t get anything set up. Anthony Angello added a third Penguin goal when Hutchinson tried to play a puck but couldn’t because it was out of his reach in the restricted zone. Linus Olund collected the puck from behind the net and fed Angello for the goal.

Paul Thompson had a breakaway but missed late, his shot ringing off of the goal post behind Tristan Jarry.

Third Period: The Penguins took three straight puck over glass delay of game penalties before taking a hooking call with under three minutes to play. It was at that point that Thunderbirds Head Coach Geordie Kinnear pulled Hutchinson for the extra two attackers on a 6-on-4 power play.

Joel Lowry scored to break up the Jarry shutout bid.

:14 later, Jarry scored. Again, for emphasis…

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He is the 14th goalie in AHL history to be credited with a goal.

Jarry led the fist bump line too, because that is what goal scorers do.

Anyway, the game was not over at that point and Jimmy Hayes got in behind the Thunderbirds defense and scored a breakaway goal to make it 5-1.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Bridgeport and Hartford also played in a school day game. Hartford wins 4-3 in overtime. Charlotte and Lehigh Valley played at the more conventional 7:05 start time and the Phantoms beat the Checkers 3-2 in overtime.

Standings: Charlotte 23 — Bridgeport 20 — Lehigh Valley 20 — Penguins 20 — Springfield 16 — Hershey 15 — Hartford 15 — Providence 12

Wheeling Update: Nailers do not play today, are in action again this Friday in Jacksonville, Florida.

Video Highlights: 

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Pens bus home for a pair of games against the Charlotte Checkers Friday and Saturday. In the meantime though, the Week 6 AHL Power Rankings will be here on the blog likely sometime Thursday morning. Check back then.

Let’s Go Pens!