vs.          

1                                              8

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Tonight’s game was an evisceration of the Hartford Wolf Pack by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, plain and simple.

8-1 the final tonight and exactly what the doctor ordered for a team which was floundering a bit in the wake of the yearly injuries to Pittsburgh and the drones of early Spring, where the Penguins always go cold.

Eight different goals scored by eight different goal scorers. Five players with multiple point games. It’s probably easier to lost the players who didn’t record a point tonight than it is who didn’t, but I will do it anyway.

No points for Tim Erixon, Josh Archibald, Teddy Blueger, Frank Corrado, Christian Hilbrich, Tom DiPauli and Ryan Haggerty. Hell, even starting goaltender Casey DeSmith picked up an assist in this game.

For Hartford, Every single player on the team was a minus, except for the line of Marek Hrivik, Taylor Beck and Michael Joly, who scored on DeSmith to break up his shutout bid in the second period. No Wolf Pack players was an even.

But you can’t play Hartford every night and the real test to see if the Penguins are indeed back to shredding teams will come tomorrow when a rested Providence Bruins team comes in hungry to get at it with the division leading Penguins.

The aforementioned Casey DeSmith opposed Mackenzie Skapski, who allowed all eight goals tonight. God love him.

Lines were…

Thomas DiPauli – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Adam Krause
Christian Hilbrich – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty

David Warsofsky – Frank Corrado
Derrick Pouliot – Barry Goers
Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Oskar Sundqvist was recalled earlier in the day to Pittsburgh. It’s his first callup of the season. Sundqvist has 9 points in his last 25 games. Regardless, the lines were all shook up for the Penguins.

Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period with goals by Derrick Pouliot (from the blueline with Skapski screened) Jarrett Burton (after a nice end to end rush by Pouliot and a ridiculous pass setting up Burton for the goal) and Kevin Porter (on a rebound left by Sakpski with 17.2 left)

Here they are, in order, courtesy of the GIF skills of Taylor Haase…

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Casey DeSmith assisted on the Jarret Burton goal giving the Penguins netminder his first assist in the AHL. Who knew that it would be DeSmith’s first point to come rather than his first shutout in the regular season.

In the second, J-S Sea scored in close on this shot from Barry Goers and it was 4-0 Penguins…

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I thought, and still believe, that the goal should be credited to Sahir Gill. Anyway, that second assist by Goers gave him 100 points in the AHL.

Taylor Beck busted up the DeSmith shutout that made it 4-1. Hartford was starting to make a push but DeSmith was holding them out.

Sahir Gill scored for sure and made it 5-1. Adam Krause, who was recalled earlier in the morning in the wake of the Sundqvist recall, picked up his first assist of the season on the Gill goal here…

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That was the turning point in this one. Hartford was trying to push after the Beck goal but the Penguins step up and score another to re-establish their four goal lead and continue to rout the Wolf Pack.

18th time this season that the Penguins have scored five or more goals. Who is slumping? Who is in danger of losing the division lead and miss playoffs? Who? Who? Who?

In the third, Hartford couldn’t get anything going on a DiPauli double minor for high sticking and gave the Penguins several chances to get a shorthanded goal.

Bad to worse for Hartford, Garrett Noonan scored an own goal which was credited to Dominik Simon, who finally gets his 10th goal of the season that made it 6-1 Penguins…

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All that was left was the Penguins scoring a power play goal and they got one via a Tom Kostopoulos tap in that made it 7-1. Kostopoulos tied Jake Guentzel for lead on the Pens with 21 goals….

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Barry Goers scores on a ridiculous dangle that made it 8-1. What Nick said….

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Notes: Wilkes-Barre is the first team to 10, 20, 30, now 40 wins in the AHL….Derrick Pouliot’s first four point game in the AHL….Wilkes-Barre’s magic number Saturday morning will be 23 with the win and coupled with Hershey’s regulation loss to Lehigh Valley.

Three Stars: 3) Kevin Porter (goal, two assists, +1) 2) J-S Dea (goal, two assists, +4) 1) Derrick Pouliot (goal, three assists, +4)

Here is who did what point wise….

Warsofsky 2A
Prow 1A
Dea 1G 2A
Porter 1G 2A
Burton 1G
Gill 1G
Krause 1A
Kostopoulos 1G
Goers 1G 2A
Simon 1G
Pouliot 1G 3A
DeSmith 1A

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley beats Hershey in a close one 3-2 over Hershey. Phantoms stay 4 back of the Pens for the division lead….Springfield beats Syracuse 3-2 and Utica beats Bridgeport 2-1. Providence was off.

Standings: Penguins (.692 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.669) — Providence (.653) — Bridgeport (.636) — Hershey (.608) — Springfield (.475) — Hartford (.398)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout by the Quad City Mallards 3-0.

Video highlights….

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Crumble this laugher up and get ready for Providence tomorrow. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

      vs.      

  3                                       0

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Every coach draws up a game plan pregame with a formula to beat the opponent. Happens in every sport.

For the Penguins opponents, its simple, force them into penalties.

Lehigh Valley went 1-7 on the power play tonight, the Penguins went 0-1.

Now were referees Pierre MacDougall and Pierre Lambert the reasons the Penguins lost this game 3-0 tonight to Lehigh Valley? Hardly. The Penguins played from behind from the opening moments and weren’t able to convert any offense in front of Alex Lyon and, coupled with having to kill penalties seemingly every five minutes, lost the game.

Lazy legging lines again because the common theme on this blog is that I do not like games where I have to get up the next morning for my real job. So here they are…

Tristan Jarry started and was opposed by Alex Lyon and was backed up by Casey DeSmith.

Lineup Notes: Derrick Pouliot was sent down from Pittsburgh earlier in the day as the Penguins recalled Tom Sestito and Cameron Gaunce for insurance on their Western Canada trip. Patrick McGrath took warmups but was scratched. Thomas DiPauli was back in the lineup after being a precautionary scratch Sunday in Hartford. Christian Hilbrich was recalled from Wheeling Tuesday and was in the lineup on the fourth line.

First Period: Lehigh Valley jumped all over the Penguins and used that hot start to jump out to a 1-0 lead when Ryan Haggerty wasn’t able to clear the zone and Chris McCarthy scored his first of the season to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead.

Pens seemed to settle after that. They played the period better shorthanded where they found themselves twice, and didn’t allow the Phantoms a shot on goal. Shots after one were 11-8 Wilkes-Barre.

Second Period: No scoring this period. Kevin Porter was stopped for the second time in the game on a breakaway. Wilkes-Barre continued to find themselves in penalty trouble but were able to manage to get away unscathed. Wilkes-Barre finally got a power play but weren’t able to score.

Third Period: Penguins were still desperately searching for a goal and staying in lockstep with the Phantoms on the shot board but it was Colin McDonald shooting one past Jarry at 12:02 through a screen that doubled Lehigh Valley’s lead and seemingly was the death knell for the Penguins chances in the game.

For good measure, Mark Zengerle poked one in far post in a scramble in front of Jarry that made it 3-0. Colin McDonald put the shot on net and Zengerle corralled the rebound and pushed it in.

Three Stars: Colin McDonald (goal, assist, +1) 2) Chris McCarthy (goal, +1) 1) Alex Lyon (31 save shutout, his fourth)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins (.686 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.664) — Providence (.653) — Bridgeport (.647) — Hershey (.619) — Springfield (.466) — Hartford (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off as they prepare for a big weekend of games against Quad City twice and Toledo on Sunday.

If there are video highlights, look for them in a later edit.

Let’s Go Pens!