vs.       

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What a wild one this turned out to be.

The Laval Rocket came into tonight’s contest with the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins with the most goals in the American Hockey League with 18. The Penguins knew this all week. They knew that they needed to play a strong defensive game if they wanted to hold on and win the game.

But the Penguins are no slouches offensively, either. They won their last game 6-1 over the Syracuse Crunch. They know how to put the goals up when and if they need to.

They needed to in this one. Thanks in large part to Daniel Sprong’s hat trick and Teddy Blueger’s overtime game winner, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins win a thriller at home against the Laval Rocket 6-5 in overtime.

Not the best game from Tristan Jarry, but it’s awful hard to look as good as he has been and as we remember him when his defense constantly spills the puck to the other team and create turnovers which lead to goals for the other team. I don’t think that half of the goals were his fault by any stretch of the imagination. Feel free to disagree with me in the comment section, if you would.

He opposed Charlie Lindgren, who was good tonight, but will be having nightmares of Daniel Sprong for sometime and may even need a therapy cat. Inside joke on that one, if you followed me on Twitter, you got it.

Anyway. Here were the Penguins lines…

Dominik Simon – Adam Johnson – Christian Thomas
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Freddie Tiffels – J-S Dea – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Thomas Di Pauli

Andrey Pedan – Lukas Bengtsson
Kevin Czuczman – Dylan Zink
Chris Summers – Frank  Corrado

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: No changes up from for the Penguins. Zach Trotman was recalled to Pittsburgh and was swapped out for the returning from Pittsburgh Chris Summers. Dylan Zink drew in for Ethan Prow also.

First Period: Didn’t take long for Daniel Sprong to make his impact…

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Face-off win to Sprong who lets one go like a firecracker on the Fourth of July. What a release.

Sprong’s scoring streak of scoring in the first five games matches Tomas Surovy from the 2003-04 season.

Didn’t take long for the Rocket to answer, which was the theme for most of the night. Chris Terry far dot, after a failed clear by Wilkes-Barre….

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Rocket edge ahead with a shot by Tom Parisi that Jarry maybe should have had. I thought he was screened when the shot went in live. You be the judge….

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Penguins went to a power play and three seconds in, Daniel Sprong did this…

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Lethal. Face-off win back to Sprong high slot who has time, waits, calibrates and scores to make it 2-2.

Here is one that Jarry should have had in my opinion. David Broll goes by the nickname, “Broll-dozer” which is a play on “bulldozer.” Bulldozers are slow. Broll is slow. Half clapper beats Jarry after Broll sneaks past the Penguin defense…

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3-2 Rocket late first. Heading into the second down one, right?

Wrong.

Tom Kostopoulos with his first of the season, ties the game at three a side…

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Pedan with a pass to Dea who put a knee drop one timer on Lindgren who spilled the rebound to Kostopoulos who backhanded it in.

Second Period: Rocket score on a rocket from the far dot by Eric Gelinas that made it 4-3…

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Penguins respond :14 later with a goal by Gage Quinney. Kevin Czuczman with the shot and Quinney with the tip in front….

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Game settled for a bit. Then Andrey Pedan lost his man, that man being Mike McCarron who had an easy tap in goal to give the Rocket a 5-4 lead….

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That goal was not Jarry’s fault. Fight me.

Third Period: Penguins opened with massive pressure to open, lots of zone time, and were forcing the Rocket into mistakes.

Those mistakes came rapid fire as Wilkes-Barre found itself on 1:25 of 5-on-3 power play time. Unlike last week in Allentown, they scored. Daniel Sprong made the hats rain…

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Seven goals and ten points in five games for Sprong. He is embarrassing the American Hockey League right now.

Last hat trick for the Penguins was Jake Guentzel against the Springfield Thunderbirds on December 27, 2016 at home. Sprong may be better than Guentzel, if that is even imaginable.

Jarry sucked tonight, right? WRONG!

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Penguins held off the Rocket and it was onto…

Overtime: Sprong started, had some looks, but couldn’t get anything serious at Lindgren. Line change and Teddy Blueger steps on. At the end the shift, Kevin Czuczman runs a puck down to Teddy Blueger who put a shot on Lindgren and followed it and knocked in his rebound to send the fans home happy….

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Celly game on point….

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Three Stars: 3) Tom Sestito (500th professional game, really deserved a goal in this game) 2) Teddy Blueger (game winning goal) 1) Daniel Sprong (hat trick, assist, even)

As far as Sprong’s trajectory to the NHL, he is ready offensively but needs to round out his defensive game. He was on the ice for two of the Rocket’s goals scored. Splitting hairs, but that may be what the brass is looking for, which is why he is here.

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley beats Bridgeport at home and continue their good pace winning 5-2 at home…Charlotte beats Rochester in their first ever matchup against the Americans by the same 5-2 score….Providence beats Springfield again by, you guessed it, a 5-2 score….Belleville beats Hartford 5-1. The Wolf Pack couldn’t get one more goal? Crumb bums….Milwaukee beats Hershey in Wisconsin 4-1.

Standings: Charlotte 8, Providence 6, Phantoms 9 (percentage) Penguins 6, Hartford 6, Bridgeport 2, Hershey 1 and Springfield 0.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off, they open at home tomorrow against the Cincinnati Cyclones.

If (when) Coal Street puts out video highlights, I will edit them in. Check back sometime Saturday.

Let’s Go Pens!

       vs.       

1                                          6

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When it was announced during warmups that Zach Aston-Reese was going to be a healthy scratch tonight and that Gage Quinney was going to slot run and make his AHL professional debut, it raised some eyebrows.

Not because of Quinney, mind you, but because Aston-Reese is the higher listed prospect. That he sits in the fourth game of the season for a guy making his AHL debut that has been a professional in the ECHL previously certainly piqued my interest.

Quinney made his presence felt in a big way. A goal and two assists and first star honors, Pens beat Syracuse 6-1 in a laugher.

How about they weekend Casey DeSmith had? Shutout the Phantoms on Friday and only allowed one goal on a five on three power play for Syracuse off the stick of AHL sniper Cory Conacher in the second period. DeSmith has turned away 57 of 58 shots so far and hasn’t given up a goal yet at even strength.

DeSmith opposed Connor Ingram.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Adam Johnson – Christian Thomas
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Freddie Tiffels – J-S Dea – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Thomas Di Pauli

Andrey Pedan – Ethan Prow
Zach Trotman – Kevin Czuczman
Lukas Bengtsson – Frank Corrado

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Ethan Prow for Dylan Zink on defense, Jarrett Burton and Zach Aston-Reese for Freddie Tiffels, making his pro debut and Gage Quinney, making his AHL debut. Zach Trotman, originally a question mark last Monday heading into the week, played all three games.

First Period: :34 in, J-S Dea cleaned up the rebound of a shot by Lukas Bengtsson…

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Pens looked like they were going to open the floodgates, but after giving up the first goal to Dea, Ingram settled in and kept his team in the game, denying a shorthanded breakaway by Andrey Pedan and multiple odd-man rushes. Penguins ended the period with 12 shots to Syracuse’s 4.

Second Period: Pens double up on a shot by Daniel Sprong that went in off the skate of Garrett Wilson in slow motion…

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And as Taylor mentioned, Sprong’s first professional assist and Gage Quinney’s first pro point in his Penguin debut.

Penguins score a third goal as a power play expired. Thomas DiPauli scored on this deflection of a shot by Blueger….

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Wilkes-Barre found itself in a bit of penalty trouble with two penalties that put Syracuse on a 5-on-3. After a time out, Cory Conacher scored from the far dot to ruin Casey DeSmith’s shutout bid….

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Penguins kill off the other minor or else things would have really gotten interesting, then Christian Thomas defects in a shot by Zach Trotman to make it 4-1 Penguins and the runaway was on…

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Call initially announced as Trotman’s goal then reversed in second intermission.

Mike O’Brien set this next play up on radio. He was mentioning at the time that Daniel Sprong had yet to score in the game to extend his goal scoring streak. Sprong must have heard him because seconds later, he did this…

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First even strength goal for Sprong. Neat little thing I picked up after was when Sprong went to the bench for congratulations, the entire team ignored him. He must score too much.

All that was left for was to have Gage Qunney score.

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Nice pass from behind the net to the guy in front Blueger who either missed intentionally or knew Quinney was trailing. Either way, nice play.

Video highlights….

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Three Stars: 3) Christian Thomas (goal, even) 2) Daniel Sprong (goal, two assists, +3) and 1) Gage Quinney (goal, two assists, +3)

Around the Division: Springfield is still looking or their first win, losers 2-1 to the Toronto Marlies…the Hershey Bears and Lehigh Valley Phantoms needed extra time to decide a winner with the Phantoms taking home the two points in a shootout, 4-3 the score there.

Standings: Phantoms with 7, Charlotte and Hartford with 6, Providence and Wilkes-Barre with 4, Bridgeport with 2, Hershey with 1 and Springfield still has 0.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off, they are on their way home from Greenville, SC after winning both games against the Swamp Rabbits.

Power Rankings for Week 2 are due Monday at 4. Check me out then.

Let’s Go Pens!