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Let’s get a couple things out of the way.

First, the score line is correct. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins lost this game tonight 12-3. It is the most goals allowed in Penguins history. I don’t know if a nine goal loss is the biggest deficit that the Penguins have lost by, but it matters little.

Second, Wilkes-Barre / Scranton lost three defensemen in the game tonight. The first was Lukas Bengtsson which swung the momentum for the Rochester Americans in a huge way.

Third, the Amerks have been punching under their weight class of recent, winless in their last five games and sliding in the North Division and losing touch with Toronto for the lead and being passed by the Utica Comets for second in the division. To say that they got up for this game, with four ex-Penguins in the lineup for Rochester, player and coach on running the team, would be an understatement.

It was 3-0 Rochester at the end of the first period. Penguins went on a hot run for about two minutes that saw them score two goals, but then the Americans scored one of their bazillion goals tonight that killed that momentum.

So it ends as an embarrassing loss for the team tonight and one that may have collateral damage in the long run. If you don’t want to read the meat of the story, the Pens also lost Chris Summers in the first period to injury as well as Frank Corrado in the third.

Casey DeSmith opposed Linus Ullmark.

Lines were…

Thomas Di Pauli – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Adam Johnson – Greg McKegg – Joseph Cramarossa
Cody Wydo – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Chris Summers – Lukas Bengtsson
Jarred Tinordi – Ethan Prow
Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado

Casey DeSmith – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Penguins went back to the conventional 12F, 6D setup after using an extra defenseman last weekend in Providence…. Cramarossa debuted on the third line…. Andrey Pedan was a scratch, radio noting he was ill…. Coal Street recalled Cody Wydo and Freddie Tiffels from mWheeling yesterday. Wydo was in, Tiffels was a scratch. Tom had another piece on the Penguins defenseman Lukas Bengtsson for The Athletic which you can check out here if you are a subscriber. If not, what are you waiting for? They are going all in on baseball this season and are already in 20 of the 30 MLB markets.

First Period: Penguins lost three players in the period and for every player they lost, Rochester scored a goal.

First, Lukas Bengtsson early on on a clean, unwhistled hit by Colin Blackwell…

Then Chris Summers went out of the game after friendly fire from Daniel Sprong. Sprong goes to throw a check at Seth Griffith, hits him and Griffith throws his head back directly into Summers’. Here’s the video…

Shortly thereafter, almost immediately, Griffith scored to put Rochester on the board.

:59 later, after a turnover and a bad line change, ex-Penguin Adam Krause capitalized and made it 2-0.

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Bad to worse, Thomas DiPauli later took a puck over glass delay of game penalty.

:06 later, Zach Redmond scored to make it 3-0.

Bad to worse.

Back to the unwhistled hit on Blackwood on Bengtsson, Patrick McGrath was upset about it wanted a piece of Blackwood who wanted nothing to do with the Penguins winger. The officials, knowing that the game was meeting it’s boiling point, tossed McGrath from the game with a game misconduct.

Second Period: Rochester didn’t let off. Seth Griffith banked on in off of DeSmith from behind the goal line that made it 4-0.

Griffith’s second goal of the night.

That was the end of Casey DeSmith. Anthony Peters entered the game.

He was met with the same buzzsaw.

With Jarred Tinordi in the box for a pick on Justin Bailey, Alex Nylander scored here to make it 5-0.

Three power play goals for the Rochester Americans.

Wilkes-Barre punches back and scores two goals 2:02 apart. Jarrett Burton scores in a pile here that makes it 5-1…

Entire play was set up with a nice quick save by Anthony Peters. Cramarossa with the clear, Cody Wydo beats out the ice and Jarrett Burton scores to bust up the shutout. Cramarossa picked up his first Penguin point on this sequence.

Cody Wydo then scored to make it 5-2…

..with nice work by him to sauce a pass that deflects off of Ullmark and creeps slowly over the line and in.

Comeback is on! Yeah, here we go!

About that.

Jarred Tinordi pinches, and why blame him, his team is on the comeback, giving Rochester a 3-on-1 and Brendan Guhle unleashed this rocket that squelched the momentum the Penguins were building that made it 6-2.

But Rochester wasn’t done. A puck went into the skates of Justin Bailey, Bailey digs it out and centers to Sean Malone who scores to make it 7-2 Amerks.

(Rochester never GIFed this one, use your imagination)

Despite all this, Wilkes-Barre outshot the Americans heading into the…

Third Period: Penguins made it 7-3 on this Greg McKegg goal…

But that just made Rochester mad. God love you if you are still reading the recap at this point. I’ll try not to keep you any longer.

Alex Nylander made it 8-3 when he banged in a rebound. Pens had a turnover and a bad line change. Guys were gassed and tired at this point.

Rochester scores their fourth power play of the night when Kyle Criscuolo scored to make it 9-3.

Criscuolo made it 10-3 with another.

Second time Rochester has scored ten goals this season by the way, they did it to Binghamton earlier this year.

The Devils stopped the Americans from scoring more, though. The Penguins found themselves on a 5-on-3 penalty kill and Rochester scored twice, one by Stuart Percy and the other by Matt Tennyson to make it 12-3.

Americans ended up 6-for-9 on the power play.

Penguins lost Stuart Percy to injury / precaution late somewhere.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Nylander (two goals, two assists, +2) 2) Kyle Criscuolo (two goals, two assists, +2) and 1) Seth Griffith (two goals, three assists, +2)

Weird Facts: Penguins actually outshot the Amerks 38-37. No one on Rochester had a had trick. Kevin Porter and Eric Cornel were the only Amerks skaters to not record a point.

Around the Division: Providence beats Bridgeport 1-0 in a shootout…Lehigh Valley thumps Springfield 8-2…Hershey beats Laval 6-3. Charlotte and Hartford were off.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.673 percentage points) — Penguins (.667) — Providence (.630) — Charlotte (.587) — Bridgeport (.529) — Hartford (.519) — Hershey (.452) — Springfield (.442)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose at home to the Fort Wayne Komets 4-3. The Nailers game tomorrow is postponed with Cincy due to impending bad weather.

I doubt anyone wants to see highlights of this one. I sure don’t.

Penguins will regroup, make defensive callups from Wheeling if need be, and get ready for the Utica Comets Saturday night at home for Military Appreciation Night. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday afternoon at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Penguins didn’t give their goaltender any run support Friday in Providence and were unceremoniously shutout on Friday by their rivals, the Providence Bruins.

After the first period Sunday, down 2-0, it looked like the same story, just a different verse.

But in the second period, kicked off by a goal by Gage Quinney, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins claw back, tie the game and ultimately win in a shootout, 3-2.

They got there, largely due in in part to their goaltender, Casey DeSmith.

DeSmith came up huge with saves in the second and third period and again in overtime to preserve the score at 2-2 the way it was and J-S Dea’s goal in the bottom of the first round of the shootout was the only action in the bonus round.

Big win for the Penguins, who when they next step on the ice competitively this Friday in Rochester, they will have four games in hand on rival Lehigh Valley. The Phantoms play on Tuesday this week.

DeSmith opposed local thorn in the shoe, Zane McIntyre.

Lines were…

Thomas Di Pauli – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Adam Johnson – Greg McKegg – Jarrett Burton
Troy Josephs – Patrick McGrath

Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado
Jarred Tinordi – Chris Summers
Andrey Pedan – Ethan Prow
Lukas Bengtsson

Casey DeSmith – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Penguins rolled out 11 forwards and 7 defensemen for the second straight game with the only lineup change being Patrick McGrath in for Colin Smith.

First Period: First half of the period was a defensive gem, where neither team registered a shot on goal until 5:15 of the contest that came from Providence. The Penguins ended up seeing the Bruins take the games first five shots on goal before registering their own.

Penalty trouble was the early issue that was crippling the Penguins. Penguin killer Tommy Cross unleashed this shot from the high slot after Jordan Swarz took the puck in deep and found Cross at the top of the slot for the 1-0 Bruins lead…

Bruins add another quickly when ex-Penguin Adam Payerl puts a shot off the pads of DeSmith and followed up his shot to push it across go give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

Shots ended up being 13-5 Bruins, with most coming on the two power plays that Providence had, heading into the…

Second Period: Totally different period for the Penguins in terms of offense. Providence played the night before in Bridgeport and maybe some of that started to wear through because the Penguins started to eat into the lead that the Bruins enjoyed.

Gage Quinney scored the first goal for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton since Derrick Pouliot scored in overtime for the Pens last Spring in the playoffs. Quick developing 2-on-1.

Penguins started to eat into the shots and finally tied the game with this sequence that sees Jarred Tinordi even the score in the game…

McIntyre, swimming in his crease, isn’t able to get back u and Tinordi pounds it home. Resilient pressure from Reid Gardiner, also.

Casey DeSmith comes up huge on this save on Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson point blank to keep the game even at two late in the period.

The bar wasn’t very high to start, having been shutout in two prior games in this regular season, but Wilkes-Barre outshot the Bruins 16-7 in the period to take a 21-20 shot advantage heading into the third period in arguably their best period played at the Dunkin’ Donut Center all season.

Third Period: Slowly developed into the Casey DeSmith show after this save…

Both goalies were sharp in the period, but DeSmith was needed more as the Bruins had a late power play to edge ahead but were denied by the penalty kill and DeSmith.

Overtime: After the drop of the puck, reigning AHL MVP Kenny Agostino skated in on a naked breakaway but DeSmith shut the door. The Bruins then found themselves on a power play in the overtime period, but DeSmith was again timely in his saves to preseve the 2-2 deadlock.

Shootout: J-S Dea’s goal in the bottom of the first round was all the scoring in the shootout round.

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Ballgame.

Three Stars: 3) Jordan Swarz (assist, even) 2) Tommy Cross (goal, even) and 1) Jarred Tinordi goal, +1)

Around the Division: Syracuse outlasts Bridgeport 3-2 in Connecticut…Hershey gets a late goal with under five seconds to play in regulation force overtime and new acquisition Joe Whitney, traded to Hershey this past Friday, wins it for the Bears against the Penguins next opponent the Rochester Americans. Bears win 3-2 in overtime.

Standings: Penguins (.681 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.660) — Providence (.622) — Charlotte (.570) — Bridgeport (.541) — Hartford (.539) — Springfield (.451) — Hershey (.441)

The Penguins will have four games in hand on Lehigh Valley when they set foot on ice competitively this Friday in Rochester. Phantoms play Tuesday in Bridgeport.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in action earlier today (by that I mean a 9:30 a.m. start time) and hung on for a 6-5 win in Orlando against the Solar Bears. Garrett Meurs had a pair of goals for the Nailers in the morning win.

My Week 19 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog Monday at 4. Please do check them out then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The mayor of Wilkes-Barre is a man by the name of Tony George.

If there is a snarky person who is a fan of the Providence Bruins, they may change that fact on Wikipedia to Providence Bruins goaltender Zane McIntyre.

McIntyre, you will recall, was the hero in Game 5 last Spring in the Quarterfinals of the Calder Cup Playoffs and sent the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins to an early Spring after a 50 save performance in April 2017.

He has now shutout the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in back to back games. 4-0 tonight. The Providence Bruins win their fifth straight game on home ice. The Penguins four game win streak goes out with tomorrow’s trash.

Styles may make fights. Recalls to Pittsburgh may or may not have something to do with it. But as said time and time again, if you do not score, you have no chance at winning. I mean it’s just that simple.

Zane McIntyre will likely get Saturday off as the Providence Bruins head to Bridgeport Saturday while the Penguins have the night off meaning that we may be seeing McIntyre Sunday afternoon again in the rematch. Wilkes-Barre will need to concoct something to get pucks past him if they wish to end the Bruins winning streak at home.

McIntyre opposed Casey DeSmith

Lines were…

Thomas Di Pauli – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Adam Johnson – Greg McKegg – Colin Smith
Troy Josephs – Jarrett Burton

Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado
Jarred Tinordi – Chris Summers
Andrey Pedan – Ethan Prow
Lukas Bengtsson

Casey DeSmith – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Lukas Bengtsson was back in the lineup for the first time since December 8. Troy Josephs made his Wilkes-Barre season debut. The Penguins went with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen because Teddy Blueger was recalled to Pittsburgh yesterday.

First Period: The Penguins faced a blitzkrieg of shots by the Bruins. 22 in total, and only trailed 1-0 after the break. This wild sequence by reigning AHL MVP Kenny Agostino was the only blemish on Casey DeSmith, on an otherwise yeoman like period by the Penguins netminder.

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The Penguins had the only power play of the period, but that was the only positive to come out of this one sided period, other than the play of their goaltender.

Second Period: A better period for the Penguins in terms of offensive zone time from the drop of the puck. Ex-Penguin Adam Payerl picked up on this and dropped the gloves with Jarred Tinordi.

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Both goalies traded some big saves in successive sequences.

The Penguins later found themselves on a penalty kill, their first of the night, and all was going well until Andrey Pedan decided to play the hero….

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Instead of going for the straight up clear, Pedan tries to make moves past two Bruins, is stripped, and Colton Hargrove scores to make it 2-0 Bruins.

Third Period: Here’s where the game was lost for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. After a bright start for the Penguins, down a pair looking to get something going, they get a power play early. Then, Anton Blidh blocks a shot and then clears it from his own defensive zone to give the Penguins a 5-on-3 for :20. Turkey is on the table for the Penguins here to get back into the game.

So what do they do?

Fail to register a single shot on goal, and the power play comes and goes.

Insult to injury, Tommy Cross scores from the high slot to make it 3-0 which essentially put the game away for the Bruins.

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Not for going down without a fight, Clark Donatelli double or triple shifted Daniel Sprong as the Penguins rookie prospect was out there for virtually every shift at the end of the game.

Ex-Penguins Adam Payerl scores to make it 4-0 to turn it into a laugher for the Bruins.

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Three Stars: 3) Jordan Swarz (two assists, +2) 2) Zane McIntyre (22 save shutout) 1) Kenny Agostino (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley trounces Hershey 5-1. Hartford clips Syracuse 4-3 in a shootout. Charlotte pounds Springfield 5-2. Bridgeport was off.

Standings: Penguins (.674 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.653) — Providence (.617) — Bridgeport (.564) — Charlotte (.561) — Hartford (.530) — Springfield (.460) — Hershey (.439)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost 5-2 in Orlando. Cody Wydo and Freddie Tiffels scored for Wheeling in the loss.

I doubt Providence will put highlights up. If they do and I can work an edit in they will go here.

Pens are off Saturday and rematch with the Bruins Sunday at 3 p.m. Gameday setup hits the blog Sunday morning at 11.

Let’s Go Pens!