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Johnny Muse was better.

In two previous starts for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, the running theme for John Muse when he started a game was that he deserved better. Last Friday in Rochester, a 1-0 Penguins defeat where Muse was the goaltender, he deserved better.

Well tonight, a 32 save shutout performance against a tough Cleveland Monsters team, John Muse was better. Penguins get a power play goal from Ryan Haggerty in the second period and that is all the offense needed to get the first home win for Wilkes-Barre in over a month. Pens win 1-0.

And man, it felt good.

Muse opposed J-F Berube who by his own right was outstanding.

Ryan Scarfo made his Penguin debut. I didn’t notice much of him in the third (he was on the bench) but what I did see was pretty much all positive. He knocked a guy over and created a turnover on one shift. He was OK.

Clark Donatelli shook up his defense pairings, separating Ethan Prow and Kevin Czuczman. It worked. Czuczman was paired with Will O’Neill and that pairing was on the ice a lot and looked good. Actually every pairing from Summers and the rookie Taylor to Abt and Prow looked decent.

J-S Dea was recalled to Pittsburgh because Dominik Simon was put on injured reserve Friday afternoon.

No scoring in the first, Penguins had the only power play in the period. Shots were 10-5 Cleveland.

In the second, Pens broke through on a power play goal by Ryan Haggerty who finally broke through on the goal scoring column after having a goal scored a few weeks ago be taken away from him and awarded to someone else.

Kevin Czuzman flew the zone, danced around a few defenders, spun around the net, put a shot on and collected his rebound and then dished to Will O’Neill who one timed a pass over to Haggerty who finished and gave the Penguins the lead.

In the third, Cleveland outshot the Penguins 12-2, this was with the Penguins getting a power play, but John Muse stopped all twelve offerings sent his way.

Muse rarely, if ever, gives up rebounds. Everything sticks.

Cleveland called time out with about 2:30 left and pulled Berube but were never able to find the equalizer.

The Good: Good win against a tough opponent in Cleveland. The Monsters are second in a tough North Division, but sometimes styles make fights. The Penguins are 3-0 against Cleveland this season. John Muse should get the start tomorrow afternoon against Cleveland, but due to the quick turnaround and a 3:05 start against Bridgeport, Anthony Peters may get the nod instead.

Tyler confirmed my suspicion.

The Bad: Hard to nitpick, but 12-2 shots against in the third is a troubling statistic. All it would have took was one for a tie then who knows what happens after that. The Penguins played really conservative tonight, using eleven players on one penalty kill at one point. The cautious approach worked tonight against Cleveland, how does it work going forward? Again, I may be nitpicking.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Decent setup, actually. Springfield loses 5-2 in Utica, Hershey is shutout in Allentown 1-0 behind Carter Hart’s 26 save shutout, Rochester beats Providence 2-1 which ends the Bruins eight game point streak, Charlotte trounces Hartford 7-4 in the Connecticut capital. Bridgeport was the only idle team tonight, likely already in town for Saturday’s afternoon start.

Standings: Charlotte 37 — Bridgeport 32 — Lehigh Valley 30 — Springfield 27 — Providence 26 — Hartford 25 — Penguins 24 — Hershey 21

Wheeling Update: Taylor had another good recap of the proceedings in the ECHL.

Here is your box.

Video Highlights: Are here.

Pens are back in action at home Saturday at 3 against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The Wilkes University Colonels are playing immediately after the game, in case you are wondering why the odd start. Gameday setup is yours Saturday morning at 11 am.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Friday night in Rochester, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had one mistake cost them in a 1-0 affair.

Saturday afternoon in Toronto, there were too many mistakes to count.

A 7-4 pasting by the defending Calder Cup Champion Marlies on the Penguins Saturday. The Pens went up 2-0 before the game was five minutes old, before having three power play goals scored against them in a span of ninety one seconds and the rout was on. An uneventful second led to Josh Jooris scoring shorthanded :16 into the third period and the late comeback staged by Wilkes-Barre was too little, too late.

Anthony Peters opposed Kasimir Kaskisuo.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Troy Josephs was back in and went to the top line with Lafferty and Angello. Cramarossa replaced Jimmy Hayes at 3RW. Patrick McGrath went in at the fourth line. On defense, Jeff Taylor and Will O’Neill were out for Tim Erixon and Stefan Elliott who were paired with one another on third pairing.

Evan Cormier backed up Anthony Peters…if you are wondering what happened to John Muse, he was, “not available” tonight to the Penguins which translated by my own speculation, meant that Muse has a visa issue which doesn’t allow him to work in Canada….Sam Miletic, who left the game Friday in Rochester with apparent injury was listed as day to day per Nick Hart on the radio before the game.

First Period: An eventful start, to say the least.

The Penguins went up 2-0 before the game was 3:15 old when Adam Johnson and Anthony Angello scored goals. Johnson was fed a pass from behind the net by J-S Dea and Angello created a turnover, headed up ice and was hit with a perfect pass by Troy Josephs.

Johnson’s goal was the quickest goal scored by the Penguins this season.

The Penguins were off to the races!

Until they hit a wall.

Three straight power play goals against in the span of ninety one seconds and Toronto took control.

Chris Mueller with a tip in front…

Trevor Moore from the slot. No idea what Anthony Peters was doing on the play…

…and then Pierre Engvall gave the Marlies a 3-2 lead…

Totally and completely unacceptable to just get run around like that in :91 when you get the jump on a team for a Saturday afternoon start. One power play goal is OK, two in a row is a concern and three in a row should start getting coaches fired or reassigned, especially this late onto the season.

I will say it again. Three consecutive power play goals allowed at this level in this time period is unacceptable. 

Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe called his timeout before the power play action got going and the Marlies unleashed their avalanche of goals. One has to wonder what was said.

Things settled after the explosion of goals in the games first 7:21.

Second Period: Quiet period in contrast to the action in the first. Toronto added another goal on a double deflection goal that extended the hosts lead to two…

That’s the initial pass or shot from Rasmus Sandin to Chris Mueller in the slot with the other deflection to Jeremy Bracco in front and past Peters.

Puck luck.

Pens had two power plays late in the game to try to cut the lead back to one but were unable to get anything past Kaskisuo.

Third Period: :16 into the period and shorthanded, Josh Jooris scored to make it 5-2 Marlies.

Ryan Haggerty was denied twice by Kaskisuo on two separate chances.

Patrick McGrath spilled a turnover in his own zone and the Marlies capitalized.

Saw someone tweet that Bracco didn’t deserve first star honors tonight, Head Coach Sheldon Keefe deserved it for the time out he called when Wilkes-Barre was up 2-0. I can’t disagree with that take.

Penguins mount a bit of a comeback to make things interesting. Ethan Prow with a power play tally…

…then Linus Ölund scored to make it 6-4 and things started to get interesting.

But time became the enemy of the Penguin, and with Peters pulled for the extra attacker, Morgan Klimchuk scored an empty net goal.

The Good: Ethan Prow, Ryan Haggerty, Sam Lafferty, Anthony Angello and Troy Josephs remain some of the Penguins best players. It’s a bad start to the season, yeah, but imagine where the Penguins would be if it weren’t for a guy like Ethan Prow.

The Bad: Where to start. The penalty kill is abysmal, the defense pairings are by committee. Most teams have seven defensemen. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have nine (Zach Trotman is hurt) and rotate eight night in and night out. This isn’t preseason. You should have seven that you can trust. Beside Prow and Czuczman, what do you have? Defense by committee. And that should not be the case at all with the likes of Chris Summers and others. The problem is that Jeff Taylor is a rookie, Tim Erixon just now got into the lineup after being healthy scratched forever, Matt Abt is a guy that made the team on a tryout, Trotman is hurt, Elliott is too inconsistent and O’Neill shouldn’t even be on the team. Hard to win hockey games on a consistent basis when your defense, which has been a solid backbone to countless Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins teams in the past, is an inconsistent mess.

Don’t even get me started on special teams.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Charlotte has lost two straight, the first time all year, with a 5-3 setback to the Hartford Wolf Pack…Providence clips Bridgeport 2-1 in overtime via a Ryan Fitzgerald penalty shot goal…Springfield beats Hershey 4-2…Lehigh Valley gets yet another late goal to beat Belleville 4-2.

Standings: Charlotte 33 — Bridgeport 28 — Springfield 26 — Lehigh Valley 26 — Hartford 25 — Providence 23 — Penguins 22 — Hershey 19

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout 2-0 to the Kalamazoo Wings.

Video Highlights:

Pens will bus back home tonight and likely have practice Monday or Tuesday. They are in action next Friday at home against the Cleveland Monsters. News, as I see them this week, will run here. AHL Power Rankings will be here Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!