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Shoutout to Citizens Voice Penguins beat writer Tyler Piccotti for the headline suggestion here.

This was a methodical takedown of the North Division leaders in Toronto by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. After getting punched in the mouth early, the Penguins clamped down defensively, wore down the Marlies lines and were able to win a Wednesday night home game 4-2 to take sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference.

Veteran option on lines tonight cause it’s a work night and I have to get up for work in the morning…

Casey DeSmith – Colin Stevens

DeSmith opposed Garrett Sparks.

Lineup Notes: The Pens sent forward Freddie Tiffels and defensemen Jeff Taylor and Dylan Zink to Wheeling in a 5 pm transaction on Wednesday. With Wheeling playing three games in a row this weekend, it will be good for both club and player to get reps in. Gage Quinney went in between Garrett Wilson and Daniel Sprong. Tom DiPauli was back in as Tiffels departed to Wheeling earlier in the day. Pens also had their full compliment of defensemen but for Frank Corrado, who is still up with Pittsburgh.

First Period: 1:08 in and the Marlies scored on a Daniel Sprong turnover in his own end…

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Game settled a bit after that, because the Marlies came out and dominated, going up 5-0 in shots before the goal. Game ebbed and flowed both ways where the Penguins would get zone time, then the Marlies would follow.

Andrey Pedan scores his first of the season when he unleashed this shot that caught a lot of Sparks on the way through…

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Penguins found themselves in penalty trouble late, with Chris Summers and J-S Dea going off :06 apart, but Jarred Tinordi blocked three shots by the Marlies in the two-man advantage to help the Penguins kill the penalties heading into the…

Second Period: Penguins really found their wind and ran circles around the Marlies, outshooting the visitors 17-4. Neither team gave an inch however as it remained tied late into the period.

Ryan Haggerty with this dart that would make a sniper blush…

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A lot of the Marlies would be shots went wide and never registered, but the Penguins ones did and Haggerty made his effort count. Not bad for a guy who was scratched the first seven games of the season. Haggerty has scored five goals in for games.

Third Period: Thomas DiPauli busted around a guy, made a move to deke Sparks and scored to extend the Penguins lead to 3-1 on this pretty play…

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Nikita Soshnikov made it interesting with about six minutes to play. He waited and waited, danced around a Penguin, shot it, followed his shot and cashed the rebound left by DeSmith to cut it to 3-2…

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With time dwindling, the Marlies pulled Sparks and no sooner after that Thomas DiPauli put a puck into the empty net at center Ice to ice the game away.

Three Stars: 3) Ryan Haggerty (goal, +2) 2) Andrey Pedan (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Thomas DiPauli (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley and Bridgeport played a kids day game up in Connecticut this morning. The Phantoms scored four unanswered to beat the Sound Tigers 4-2…. Utica hosted the Charlotte Checkers and lost 5-2…Hershey was in Springfield and won 3-1.

Standings: Penguins (.773 percentage points) — Charlotte (.750) — Lehigh Valley (.714) — Providence (.636) — Bridgeport (.500) — Hershey (.462) — Hartford (.423) — Springfield (.179)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers host the Toledo Walleye Friday.

Video highlights…

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Pens are off Friday. But for anything breaking between now and the next time they are on the ice, which is Saturday at home against Providence, look for the Gameday setup of that contest to hit here Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Remember this point come the Spring.

That’s because the Penguins deserved to straight up lose this game against the Hershey Bears.

The Bears, playing their third game in three nights, came into Wilkes-Barre against a Penguin team that had Saturday night off and stayed step for step with the Penguins.

The Penguins, having been idle the night before, went 0-for-7 on the power play including a long stretch of 5-on-3 time in the second period in where they failed to register a shot on goal. They registered just six shots on the power play all night, four of those coming in the first period on one power play. Penguins had 27 shots on goal all game.

To get a point and ultimately lose in the shootout 3-2 won’t sit well with the Penguins coaching staff. Make no mistake, this was a game the Penguins should have won handily.

Maybe if they played the game without a penalty the outcome would have been different. Where’s Jeff Smith when you need him.

Casey DeSmith opposed Pheonix Copley.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – Colin Smith – Daniel Sprong
Gage Quinney – Adam Johnson – Dominik Simon
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Freddie Tiffels

Andrey Pedan – Lukas Bengtsson
Dylan Zink – Kevin Czuczman
Jarred Tinordi – Chris Summers

Casey DeSmith – Colin Stevens

Lineup Notes: Christian Thomas traveled for Finland today to play in the Karjala Cup this week in Finland. Thomas DiPauli was a healthy scratch. These two made was for Freddie Tiffels and Colin Smith, making his Penguins debut. On defense, Jarred Tinordi made his Penguins regular season debut and was joined by Dylan Zink for Ethan Prow and Kevin Spinozzi on defense.

First Period: 1:18 into the game, Daniel Sproing scored. he hd his stick on the ice, Kevin Czuczman shot the puck to his stick and the physics of it all saw the puck deflect off Sprong’s stick and into the net to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead…

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Game then devolved into a penalty fest. No flow and a parade to the penalty box.

Then s hot through traffic was redirected in by Wayne Simpson to draw the Bears even with the Penguins to tie the score at one all…

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Second Period: Penguins found themselves on the right side of 1:39 of a two-man advantage but in that same two-man advantage failed to register a shot on Copley. Bears killed it easy after just watching the Penguins complete passes in the zone without attempting a shot.

Bears cashed on a power play when Travis Boyd made his shot count that made it 2-1 for Hershey…

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Boyd lost the handle, regathered and snapped a shot off and it went in.

Dea hit the top of the cross bar on a late Penguins power play. Wilkes-Barre made a late push for the tying goal towards the end of the period.

Third Period: Zach Aston-Reese scored his first goal of the season on a wicked wrap-around attempt that went through Copley…

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Colin Smith collected an assist on that play, his first point in a Penguin sweater.

Game evened out after that and they teams headed to…

Overtime: Penguins lost the game because they couldn’t capitalize on the man advantage today. They got a point because of the saves Casey DeSmith made in the game, none more memorable than this robbery on future Hall-of-Famer Chris Bourque….

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The League didn’t let the GIF go for a few more seconds or else you would have seen Bourque lay on the ice lifeless like someone sucked his soul out of his eyeballs. Terrific save by Casey DeSmith who was outstanding again tonight.

Shootout: I don’t have a GIF of the goal that Wayne Simpson scored in the bottom of the first. He made a deke on DeSmith and scored. No Penguin scored in the three rounds, with Colin Smith here in the top of the third needing to score to extend it but failing…

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Three Stars: 3) Daniel Sprong (goal, +2) 2) Zach Aston-Reese (goal, +1) and 1) Wayne Simpson (goal in regulation, goal in the shootout, -1)

Around the Division: Bridgeport shuts out Providence 6-0. Sebastian Aho had a hat trick, the second time that the Sound Tigers shut out the Bruins this weekend. The Bruins shut out the Bruins on Friday 1-0…Hartford beats Springfield 4-2 and Toronto, who is in Wilkes-Barre Wednesday, beats Lehigh Valley 5-1. The Checkers were the only Atlantic Division team not in action Sunday.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.750 percentage points) — Penguins (.750) — Charlotte (.727) — Providence (.636) — Bridgeport (.545) — Hartford (.423) — Hershey (.417) — Springfield (.192)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are off until this Friday when they host the Toledo Walleye.

If Coal Street puts out a video package, I will run the video here.

Power Rankings Monday at 4. But for breaking news elsewhere, check you back here on the blog for the Wednesday setup against the Toronto Marlies at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!