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I have recycled this headline tonight, I think for the third time if the slug is any indicator, but it bears repeating again that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had a chance to win tonight;’s hockey game against the Syracuse Crunch, but due to the inability to score on five power play opportunities, at key times in the contest, mind you, they were unsuccessful in winning tonight’s game, losing 4-3.

There is also something about the Syracuse Crunch that gave the Penguins fits this weekend. Maybe it was the speed, maybe it was a rag tag group fo Crunch players all playing out of position (defenders were playing forward and vice versa) that had teh Crunch wanting it more than the Penguins. I wouldn’t have faulted you at all if you thought that the Penguins were going to easily win this series with the Crunch. Count me in with those that believed that the Penguins were going to steamroll Syracuse in these two games.

Casey DeSmith opposed Connor Ingram.

A lot of chatter on my social media outlets that was wondering when Colin Steven was going to get a start in goal for the Pens. I think that DeSmith wanted tonight’s game as a revenge for what the Crunch did to the Penguins last night. Wilkes-Barre has three games coming up in a row Friday, (vs. Milwaukee) Saturday (vs. Rochester) and Sunday (at Hershey) next weekend, so Stevens is going to have to get a game. My money is on next Sunday at Hershey, but I could probably go with Saturday at home against Rochester too.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Daniel Sprong
Dominik Simon – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Adam Johnson – Gage Quinney – Freddie Tiffels

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

Casey DeSmith – Colin Stevens

Lineup Notes: 400th AHL game for Chris Summers…Andrey Pedan was back in the lineup after seeing his three game suspension for Zack Trotman, who was given the night off. But for some shuffling up front, no changes to the forward core.

First Period: Daniel Walcott scored his first of the season with this tap in goal at 1:39 that put the Crunch out in front…

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Penguins answer right back though with Freddie Tiffels first AHL goal after a nice pass from Gage Quinney in front…

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Game developed into a fast paced affair. Then Teddy Blueger stuffed one under Ingram’s pads to put the Penguins out front 2-1…

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Great offensive zone shift by the Penguins set all of that up. I personally thought that the entire play was offsides, myself, but that was never raised.

Here’s the turning point in the game in my opinion…

Reid McNeill interfered with Thomas DiPauli, so much so that I caught the infraction myself without even having to look at a referee’s arm go up. After the play stopped, referee Tyler Puddifant signaled the interference call but also indicated to DiPauli that he was guilty of something also. That something was embellishment, or formerly diving. I don’t see where that could apply here. McNeill stepped in front of DiPauli while DiPauli was hustling for a puck and knocked him down. Clear interference. How Puddifant saw a dive from DiPauli from the sequence is beyond me. Penguins had all the momentum at this point and had it all go poof because of a questionable at best embellishment call.

What’s better, is that after all of that nonsense, the other referee working the game, Pierre Lambert, got Teddy Blueger for a holding penalty. That player that Blueger held went down like a house of cards, but no embellishment call was called there.

Pens would kill that penalty, but Frank Corrado was called for interference and then Carter Verhaeghe scored on the power play to even it at two…

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Just skated to the slot unabated and let it rip.

Second Period: Penguins get three straight power plays given to them. The first one was bad, the second one was worse, and the third one Michael Bournival scored a goal shorthanded…

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To add insult to injury, two Penguins collided at center ice and Matthew Peca scored this goal late to make it 4-2 Crunch…

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Third Period: Penguins played with vim and vigor this period but couldn’t dig out of a two goal deficit with a Crunch team playing confident in front of their young goaltender. Frank Corrado scored this goal to bring the Penguins back within one…

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… but with a late power play that came and went and later with DeSmith pulled, the Penguins never found the equalizer.

While I am ragging on officials, linesman Jud Ritter had an overall embarrassing game for himself. There was a sequence late with the Penguins pushing for the final goal that Syracuse would go for a clear and Rutter (who called the delayed too many men on the ice penalty on the Penguins in Game 5 against Providence last year) tried to get out of the way of the clear but couldn’t, thus keeping the puck in the Penguins offensive zone. Play was halted for some reason by likely one of the referees killing all momentum. Oh, and it was the other linesman, J.P. Waleski that missed the offsides call on the Penguins second goal, just to show that I am being fair.

Three Stars: 3) Freddie Tiffels (goal, even) 2) Matthew Peca (goal, +1) and 1) Carter Verhaeghe (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Bridgeport scores a goal late to tie it at 4-4 in Allentown, but Will O’Neill scores 1:22 into overtime to give the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 5-4 win at home against the Sound Tigers….Hershey beats Hartford 4-1 in Connecticut and Charlotte crushes Providence 8-2 in a game between two teams that are up and down like the stock market. Springfield was off.

Standings: Penguins (.735 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.650) — Charlotte (.600) — Providence (.588) — Bridgeport (.583) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.425) — Springfield (.357)

Wheeling Update: fell at home to the Worcester Railers 4-3The Nailers despite two goals from Nick Saracino.

Video Highlights: 

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Week 8 AHL Power Rankings are here Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Syracuse Crunch played this game tonight against the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins two men shot tonight. Their leading scorer Cory Conacher was recalled to parent Tampa Bay Lightning earlier in the day then Alex Gallant was suspended four games by the AHL.

So things looked bleak for the Crunch with the AHL’s league leading team bussing into town for a 7:00 Friday start at home.

But you still have to play the game and the Crunch, bolstered by a three goal first period, ride a 23 save performance from Louis Domingue and go 6 for 7 on the power play and stun the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and win by a 5-2 score.

Scoreline closer than it would appear, the Penguins drew to within one goal late in the third period, then got a 5:00 major power play that they couldn’t do anything with. Syracuse hit two empty nets to win back to back games for the first time this season and ended the Penguins 12 game point streak.

Casey DeSmith opposed Louis Domingue.

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Adam Johnson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Dominik Simon – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Freddie Tiffels – Teddy Blueger – Thomas Di Pauli

Chris Summers – Lukas Bengtsson
Kevin Czuczman – Zach Trotman
Jarred Tinordi – Frank Corrado

Casey DeSmith – Colin Stevens

Lineup Notes: On fourth line, Thomas DiPauli was back in the lineup after missing Wednesday with Freddie Tiffiels for Jarrett Burton and Patrick McGrath. Andrey Pedan served the final game of this three game suspension.

First Period: Bad start for the Penguins. How bad? A 3-0 hole start, bad.

First, the Crunch thought they scored in a scrum, but the puck never crossed and the play was blown dead. Precursor of things to come for Syracuse…

Alexander Volkov scored through a screen of player and referee and made it 1-0 Crunch.

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Then the Penguins had a power play, but never got anything established and gave away a breakaway and a follow-up chance on the rebound left by DeSmith.

Then Syracuse got a power play, and three seconds later…

Jamie McBain made it 2-0 on the power play.

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:57 later, the first period rout was on when Syracuse made it 3-0. Kevin Lynch redirected a Jamie McBain shot in front of the net.

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First time that the Penguins had trailed by three goals since the home opener against the Charlotte Checkers.

Penguins got two late power plays but hit posts in both of them. They had some carryover heading into the…

Second Period: Penguins had the lion share of power plays in the frame and finally cracked Domingue on this nice goal by Colin Smith on the power play…

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But the Penguins could have slipped farther away in the deficit to the Crunch but due to these saves made by Casey DeSmith, the score remained 3-1. First, on a penalty shot.

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Then later with the Penguins caught in a line change, a four on one…

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Louis Domingue robbed Dominik Simon at the buzzer that kept his team ahead by two heading into the…

Third Period: Sleepy period in terms of action. Penguins hit a bunch of posts early. Then, Dominik Simon scored this goal to bring the Penguins to within one…

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Then, Thomas DiPauli was smashed into the boards by Ben Thomas. Thomas was ejected from the game and the Penguins went on a 5:00 power play. It was a power play that they played with like their hair was on fire. A lot of urgency, but nothing calm and everything seemed rushed and forced.

Syracuse got the kill and with DeSmith pulled, hit two empty nets. The latter being a short handed goal when the Penguins were looking for a late, desperation comeback.

Three Stars: 3) Alexander Volkov (goal, +1) 2) Louis Domingue (23 saves on 25 shots) and 1) Kevin Lynch (goal, +3)

Around the Division: Bridgeport beats Hartford 7-3…Lehigh Valley doubles up Springfield 6-3. Hershey, Charlotte and Providence had the night off.

Standings: Penguins (.833 percentage points) — Providence (.625) — Lehigh Valley (.611) — Bridgeport (.588) — Charlotte (.579) — Hershey (.474) — Hartford (.447) — Springfield (.375)

Wheeing Update: The Nailers played an afternoon game in Cincinnati and lost 3-1 Derek Army scored the lone goal for the Nailers in the loss. Sean Maguire took the loss in net.

Video Highlights: 

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Crunch are normally good with the video highlights so if they put one in a tweet that I see, I will run it here in a later edit.

These two teams are right back at it Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05. Gameday setup hits the blog at 3 on Saturday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Penguins continue to pile the points in the month of November, now points in twelve contests after a 4-2 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Wednesday night.

Small statement game for Wilkes-Barre here. Division leaders taking on the second place team at home go up early then get slapped down and trail after one period and are heavily outshot. But some adjustments made in the second period on and the Penguins mount a comeback and win and collect a point again in their twelfth straight contest.

Casey DeSmith opposed Alex Lyon.

Veteran option on lines / lineup notes tonight:

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Lineup Notes: Corrado was re-assigned from Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Freddie Tiffels was recalled from Wheeling Wednesday morning as the Penguins quietly have found themselves in a bind up front somewhat. From Tom, a couple days ago…

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First Period: :31 in, Ryan Haggerty scored his eighth goal in his eighth game.

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But the Phantoms responded quickly with goals 1:26 apart when Corban Knight scored the first even strength goal allowed by the Penguins in eight periods. Later, a shot from the point was stopped by DeSmith but then cue balled in by Greg Carey that made it 2-1 Lehigh Valley. Here they are for you:

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(Phantoms didn’t tweet a GIF of their second goal, so I asked them to nicely and they obliged)

The Phantoms didn’t tuck their tails in and hide after getting scored on :31 in, they responded with a ton of shots and a boatload of offensive zone time to take a 16-5 lead heading into the…

Second Period: Penguins had three power plays in this period but didn’t score on them. That offensive momentum though flowed into an 18-7 shot advantage in the period and two goals from J-S Dea and Colin Smith. First Dea’s, after some nice passing from Ryan Haggerty:

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Colin Smith found himself alone in the slot, made a move to freeze Lyon and sniped this one home for a 3-2 Penguin lead:

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Third Period: Teams traded power plays, neither able to score. Penguins looked like they wanted the final slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and desperately tried to get the fourth goal.

Ryan Haggerty got that fourth goal, his second of the night, into the empty net with Lyon pulled with no time left to make it 4-2.

Nice stat from Hart postgame…

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Three Stars: 3) Colin Smith (goal, even) 2) J-S Dea (goal, two assists, +3) and 1) Ryan Haggerty (two goals, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Belleville beats Charlotte 5-2 down in North Carolina….Providence beats Binghamton 2-1 in overtime on the Southern Tier….Springfield beats Hershey in Chocolatetown 2-1.

Standings: Penguins (.821 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.647) — Providence (.600) — Charlotte (.579) — Bridgeport (.563) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.472) — Springfield (.342)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win in a shootout 4-3 against Worcester in a game that saw the Railers on a 5-on-3 power play in overtime. Sean Maguire picked up the win. Garrett Meurs had a goal and an assist.

Video Highlights: 

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Tom had some injury updates postgame…

And Hart with some late night nuggets on Casey DeSmith creating milestones…

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Pens are off Thursday for Thanksgiving then back at it Friday in Syracuse. Happy Thanksgiving too everyone who reads here. Gasmeday setup for the Friday game at Syracuse will hit the blog Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!