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It’s good to see that there are teams out there that don’t lay down easy and pack up and call it an evening when they are faced with adversity.

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms will be bussing to Bridgeport, Connecticut Saturday night into Sunday morning for an afternoon affair with the Sound Tigers. After going down 2-0 in the first period Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre, some players for the Phantoms could have packed it in, started conserving energy and coasting a bit for tomorrow’s game in Bridgeport.

But not Scott Gordon’s crew. Undeterred, the Phantoms would go on to outscore Wilkes-Barre 6-1 and turn what looked like a Phantoms rout into a Penguins rout. Lehigh Valley wins 6-3.

If Clark Donatelli is the coach I know him to be, this will be a teachable moment.

Anthony Peters opposed Alex Lyon. Tristan Jarry backed up, it may be time to get a look at what Johnny Muse can do for the Penguins in the pipes. That’s not a knock on either Jarry or Peters, Muse hasn’t played a regular season game yet for the Penguins and may be due.

Lines were…

Notes: Troy Josephs was in for Ryan Horvat up front and Matt Abt was in for Jeff Taylor.

First Period: In a period where the Penguins put up an eye popping 20 shots on goal, they would race out ahead of the Phantoms and took a 2-0 lead off the stick of Sam Miletic.

A redirect of a Will O’Neill point shot here…

And again on a rebound of a Summers point shot…

1:11 later, Mark Freidman goes bar down and in to cut the Penguins lead to one…

A quick start by Wilkes-Barre who were at time running around on the Phantoms but Friedman’s goal had them sticking around heading into the…

Second Period: German Rubtsov wrist shot beat Peters clean to tie the game for Lehigh Valley for exactly the answer the Phantoms were looking for coming out of the intermission…

In a game where few penalties were called (and none against the Phantoms) the last thing the you wanted to see was Lehigh Valley going on a power play.

:06 into a Teddy Blueger slashing penalty, Phil Varone scores to give the Phantoms a 3-2 lead…

Ethan Prow would answer 2:54 later on a shot from the point that floated through and in for a tie game.

But then the Penguins would get caught in a bad line change and German Rubtsov would score his second of the period and gave the Phantoms a lead they would never relinquish.

Third Period: Rout was on when Philippe Myers put a shot on that changed speed and direction and got past Peters for a 5-3 Lehigh Valley lead.

Woof indeed. 🐩

Lehigh Valley connects again on a power play when TJ Brennan finds Chris Conner backdoor to make it 6-3.

Two power plays that took :16 total. Price Chopper Market 32 in Kingston sponsors the Penguins penalty kill and Bobby Day never was able to get the sponsor read out. I’d be calling this week to get the money back on this one, but I just named them here. I shop there sometimes. It’s a nice grocery store. They have a seafood department, a butcher shop and a nice deli. You can always tell the quality of a grocery store by its deli.

Anyway.

After some rough stuff in the games final minute that saw Will O’Neill get assessed a game misconduct, a regular misconduct, a fighting major and an instigating minor, the game concluded without further incident.

Update: Lost among the madness is the fact that O’Neill did indeed receive an instigator penalty in the games final five minutes. That carries an automatic one game suspension with it unless it is rescinded. I don’t really see any reason for it to be taken off the board, so expect an announcement from the League Monday or Tuesday announcing that O’Neill is suspended for the next game which will be Friday at home against the Bears.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Don’t look now but Hershey collected 5 of 6 points this week and in turn hand Charlotte their first regulation loss of the season, beating the Checkers in shutout fashion 2-0. A 25 save shutout for Vitek Vanecek, who most assuredly you can expect first out of the tunnel at around 6:20 on Friday night in Wilkes-Barre….Springfield sweeps Laval 4-2…Toronto beats Hartford 3-2 and Providence beats up on Bridgeport 5-2.

Standings: Springfield 10 – Charlotte 10 – Hartford 9 – Penguins 8 – Lehigh Valley 6 – Bridgeport, Providence and Hershey with 5 all in that order.

Wheeling Update: I’ll let Taylor sum it up.

That was Kevin Lynch with the lone goal.

Highlights: 

Pens are off Sunday and have an optional skate Monday. I’m back here Thursday with the Week 3 Power Rankings for sure, may fill in with news as I can scratch them together between now and then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Tristan Jarry took a lot of flak from some of the chicken littles Wednesday night when he came back from Pittsburgh and was named the starter early in the week by Head Coach Clark Donatelli.

“Ride the hot hand in Anthony Peters!” they yelled.

Peters has the best GAA / SV% coming into the week, but he’s not on an NHL contract. Jarry is. The Pittsburgh Penguins assigned Jarry to Wilkes-Barre because he is waiver exempt and he came to Coal Street with orders that he is the starting goalie.

It’s like that line in Captain Phillips.

(Jarry, busts into the coaches office….)

Jarry to Clark Donatelli: Look at me. LOOK AT ME! 

(Donatelli looks up from his desk)

Jarry: I am the starting goaltender now.

Jarry lost Wednesday to the 0-5 Bears at the time. I didn’t make him the focal point because the AHL team will always do what the NHL team wants. The AHL is a developmental league. Jarry wasn’t the reason that the Penguins lost the game Wednesday; Vitek Vanecek was, stopping 40 off 42 shots.

But enough about the past, let’s talk about the present.

Jarry turns in a great performance in Allentown, and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins survive a thriller at PPL Center and win 5-4.

A comeback in the third led by a power play goal by Teddy Blueger that made it 4-4 then a late go ahead goal by Garrett Wilson which made it 5-4. Late saves by Jarry at the end preserved the win for Wilkes-Barre who improve to 4-1 on this young season.

Jarry opposed Carter Hart.

Lines were…

Take a look at the projected #WBSPens lines and defensive pairings for our game against the @LVPhantoms – #WBS20 https://t.co/2w45EhwVwF—
WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) October 19, 2018

Notes: No Anthony Angello tonight so everyone moved up one on the right side, Patrick McGrath made his season debut on the fourth line. No other changes to defense. Angello’s status is the ever detailed “day to day.” 🙄

Tonight’s game was Will O’Neill’s 400th AHL game.

First Period: Was a goalie duel to start the game, with Jarry and Hart making some good saves.

Hart stopped Adam Johnson shorthanded with his mask, then later stopped him on a power play with the glove.

Jarry was dialed in, bailing out Stefan Elliott on this play…

Then, Patrick McGrath threw a big hit which caused a commotion and Linus Olünd pounced on it and scored to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

But the Phantoms answered right back with less than a minute to play when Mike Vecchione scored on a bouncing, uncontrolled puck that put the Phantoms on even footing heading into the first intermission.

Second Period: Penguins withstood four Phantoms power plays along with having a Phantoms would be goal taken off the board on account of goalie interference on Jarry and take a 3-2 lead into the third period.

Sam Miletic scored after the Penguins killed a Phantoms carry over power play to open the period on this play…

About a minute later, Philippe Myers scored a goal with Jarry screened to tie it.

Then, the game slowed with the Penguins taking penalty after penalty.

Pens get a call go their way when Zach Trotman hit a guy that bowled over Jarry, who never recovered, and a goal was scored.

Immediately waved off by both referees Dan Kelly and Chris Pontes. Look, there are 12 pages in the AHL Rulebook on this type of play. These types of plays are like car crashes. They happen all the time, you just hope you are never involved in one. There never seems to be a right or wrong call and depending on what side you are on, you like or dislike the call.

Zach Aston-Reese scored on a bank pass off of the back boards to give Wilkes-Barre a 3-2 lead.

A lot of action in the period, to say the least.

Third Period: All of that penalty killing that Wilkes-Barre did in the second period finally caught up to them in the third.

TJ Brennan point shot tied it…

Then Greg Carey gave Lehigh Valley their only lead of the night…

Both goals came on the power play.

Those were the last power plays that the Phantoms had for the rest of the game.

Penguins cashed on a power play goal of their own when they kept it in the zone the entire time, and Teddy Blueger scored off of a pass on the pads to tie the game.

Penguins got another power play but were not able to score on it. As time ticked away and it looked like overtime was inevitable, Jimmy Hayes led a two on one, put a shot on Hart that the Phantoms net minder made a stop on but never was able to smother, and Garrett Wilson did this.

Tristan Jarry made some saves at the end of the game that preserved the win for his team. Jarry stopped 28 of 32 shots, none bigger then at the end of the game.

Three Stars: 3) Teddy Blueger (goal) 2) TJ Brennan (goal, assist) 1) Garrett Wilson (game winning gaol)

Around the Division: Springfield beats Laval 5-3…Hartford beats Belleville 4-3…Bridgeport beats Providence 4-3 in overtime…Charlotte improves to 5-0 with a 4-3 shootout win over Hershey where the Bears only had 13 shots all game.

Standings: Charlotte 10 – Hartford 9 – Penguins 8 – Springfield 8 – Bridgeport 5 – Lehigh Valley 4 – Providence 3 – Hershey 3

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Highlights: 

These two teams rematch Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre. If this game tonight was a preview of what we can expect for 11 more meetings, buckle the hell up. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Sometimes you run into a hot goalie. No matter how hard you try, the guy in the pads standing in front of the 4’ x 6’ cage just sometimes makes the stops to carry his team across the line.

Vitek Vanecek for Hershey carried his 0-5 Hershey Bears to their first win of the season on his back through an ocean with 20 foot waves.

40 saves by Vanecek tonight ensures enough for his Hershey Bears team who win their first game of the season 3-2 tonight in Wilkes-Barre. It’s also the first loss of the season for the Penguins.

I’m in the hurry up because 6:50 am Thursday morning comes quick and I don’t do this for a living.

Tristan Jarry made his first start of the season for the Penguins and opposed the aforementioned Vanecek.

Lines were:

Notes: Matt Abt was a scratch. Ryan Horvat made his WBS debut. Less roster jockeying with Derek Grant, a veteran, recalled when Jarry was sent back down. Ryan Haggerty is week to week with a lower body injury but Clark told Tom after the game it’s a shorter term week to week and shouldn’t be a long term issue.

First Period: I thought one play late in the period best summed up the period for Wilkes-Barre. It was on the power play and Sam Miletic had a wide open net to shoot into. He missed. The Penguins trailed 1-0 to the Bears after 20 minutes of play.  Lots of chances, no finish or nothing to show for it on the scoreboard.

Axel Jonsson-Fjällby scored on the Bears first shot of the game to give Hershey the early lead.

Second Period: First ten minutes took forever and I felt that it benefitted Hershey. They came in 0-5, in the midst of a seven game hellacious road trip that brought them through the Midwest, here tonight and to Charlotte this weekend, their backup goalie was a local guy signed to an ATO before the game and had guys banged up, so every stoppage after an icing or an offside was a chance to catch their breath, reset, and get back to it.

As the period wore on and the Penguins down 1-0 still, the last thing you wanted to see was the Bears go up two.

The Bears went up two. Old buddy Liam O’Brien beat Tristan Jarry gloveside on a quick shot with 20.2 seconds left in the period.

Third Period: Penguins get two quick goals in under two minutes in the games first five minutes and the thought from the Bears was likely here we go again…

Tobias Lindberg smacked one in off of Vanecek to put the Pens on the board.

Then Garrett Wilson with this deflection when the Penguins were on the power play tied it…

But then the Penguins got caught chasing their tail, watching too much in their own zone when old buddy and favorite of this blog Jayson Megna scored what ended up being the game winning goal…

Game then zipped on past after that. No power plays, minimal stoppages. The Penguins got close, again, multiple times with Jarry pulled for the extra man but Vanecek made some excellent stops to ensure that his team wouldn’t be playing overtime tonight.

Three Stars: 3) Vitek Vanecek (40 saves on 42 shots) 2) Tobias Lindberg (goal) 1) Jayson Megna (game winning goal)

Around the Division: Laval pounds Hartford 5-2. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Charlotte 8 – Hartford 7 – Penguins 6 – Springfield 6 – Lehigh Valley 4 – Bridgeport 3 – Providence 2 – Hershey 2.

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Hershey put highlights up first, so they run here so I am not looking back sometime Thursday morning. Here they are…

Pens are back in action Friday in Allentown against the Phantoms.

Don’t forget Week 2’s AHL Power Rankings out Thursday. Check them out around noonish.

Let’s Go Pens!