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In the hurry up because its Wrestlemania Sunday.

Penguins got a late power play goal by Oskar Sundqvist to drive their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to one pending the outcome of Lehigh Valley / Hershey ongoing. Don’t come back to this post to see if the Penguins are the first Eastern Conference  team to clinch a spot in the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs. That will get it’s own post if need be later.

I have people waiting for me at home for The Showcase of the Immortals so here’s a quick rundown of the action today in Wilkes-Barre, a game that the Penguins lost 3-2 in a shootout.

Tristan Jarry opposed Thatcher Demko in net. Only lineup change was Garrett Wilson for Jarrett Burton for Wilkes-Barre.

In the first, the Comets got on the board first at 2:28 when a shot from Jordan Subban was deflected by Cody Kunyk that got Utica the lead. Penguins were being badly outshot in the period when Utica fell into penalty trouble that saw them killing a five-on-three for more than two minutes. Penguins set up in the offensive zone but didn’t cash on a game tying goal or a go ahead one.

In the second, Tom Kostopoulos sets up Zach Aston-Reese on a power play goal that ties the game at one but Utica edged ahead when another shot from the point by Subban was put home by the Comets defenseman. Puck inadvertently went off of a piece of equipment belonging to Frank Corrado.

The third period brought the Penguins still trying to push to get the tying goal which took 19:02 seconds with Jarry pulled and the Penguins on a power play. Oskar Sundqvist pushed one home to force overtime.

Overtime came and went without a whistle.

Curtis Valk was the only skater to score in the three person shootout to give Utica the extra point.

Three stars wereDerrick Pouliot with two assists, Tom Kostopoulos with two assists and Thatcher Demko with 43 saves on 45 shots.

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley did the Penguins a solid beating the Bears 4-2 in Hershey tonight officially clinching the playoffs for Wilkes-Barre for the fifteenth straight year. The Bears lost all three games this weekend….Providence beats Hartford 4-1 to stay in third. Idle Bridgeport stays in fourth now with a game in hand over the Bears who are still a point out of a playoff spot.

Standings: Penguins (.700 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.657) — Providence (.650) — Bridgeport (.629) — Hershey (.613) Springfield (.493) — Hartford (.371)

Wheeling Update: The Wheeling Nailers were officially eliminate form Kelly Cup Playoffs today with a 5-3 loss to the Reading Royals. The Nailers have three games left before a caravan of Black Aces head to Wilkes-Barre. More Tuesday in the Wheeling Wrap.

Video highlights…

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Check out the Power Rankings Monday at 4!

Let’s Go Pens!

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A lot of things to get to so let’s not waste time.

The Magic Number to clinch a playoff spot to the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs is two after a Hershey regulation loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers which drops the Bears out of a playoff spot by open point.

The Magic Number for home ice for the first round of the playoffs (essentially a finish of no worse than second) is 6.

The Magic Number for the Atlantic Division Championship is 7. I don’t know what the magic number for the Eastern Conference Championship is, but since the North Division is a numbers fire, it’s probably 7.

Casey DeSmith picked up his first regulation shutout of his career with a 26 save shutout of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tonight.

Frank Corrado and Troy Josephs scored their first goals for the Penguins. For Josephs, it is his first professional goal. Derrick Pouliot scored a third period goal that put it away for the Penguins, who beat the Phantoms 3-0 to go seven clear of the Phantoms and second place in the division.

Points, second on fifth in case you are wondering, cannot be tighter.

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Penguins have a shutout streak of 155:38 over Lehigh Valley going back to Jarry’s shutout of the Phantoms and DeSmith’s tonight. The penalty kill is 14/14 during this time as well.

That should about cover it. As for the game, the Penguins and Phantoms went after each other hot and heavy in the first period with every stoppage leading to pushing and shoving. I thought that referees Evgenii Romasko and Micheal Mullen were outstanding tonight in controlling a powder keg situation. There is a time to call penalties and a time to let things sort themselves out. Running a guy for looking at a guy wrong in a game that has huge implications for both isn’t the best way to officiate in my opinion. These two did a great job of controlling a situation which looked out of hand, but was in fact, under control.

Frank Corrado scored his first for Wilkes-Barre on a shot by Dominik Simon which went over Lehigh Valley Phantoms starting goaltender Alex Lyon and sat in the crease. Corrado swooped in and poked it across to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead….

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Penguins would extend the lead to 2-0 after a long offensive shift hemming the Phantoms deep in their own zone. David Warsofsky put one on net that Troy Josephs deflected in for his first professional goal…

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DeSmith made a skate save on Greg Carey to preserve the two goal lead and his shutout bid….

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Chris Conner had two chances on breakaway to bring the Phantoms back within one. On his first attempt he shot it into the chest of DeSmith and on his second he put the shot wide.

Derrick Pouliot would connect on a rocket that has Lyon screened which made it 3-0…

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DeSmith never had to make a tough save after that and Lehigh Valley put up the white flag replacing Lyon with Martin Ouellette.

Lineup wise, Josh Archibald was recalled to Pittsburgh earlier in the day when word came out that Chris Kunitz is down with a lower body injury. Garrett Wilson had the night off and will play tomorrow. Ethan Prow was in for Jeff Taylor on the blueline. Troy Josephs and Adam Krause were in for the recalled Archibald and Wilson who was held out as he’s just coming back from injury.

Three stars were Dominik Simon with two assists, Frank Corrado with a goal and an assist and Casey DeSmith with a 26 save shutout.

Around the Division: Bridgeport beats Hershey 4-2 to move into fourth place in the Atlantic. The Sound Tigers are off tomorrow as the Bears host the Phantoms. Springfield beats Providence 3-2. Hartford was defeated by Albany 4-3.

Standings: Penguins (.703 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.652) — Providence (.645) — Bridgeport (.629) — Hershey (.621) — Springfield (.493) — Hartford (.377)

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off. They host Reading tomorrow at 5:05.

Video highlights…

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Win and you’re in. Pens can punch a postseason ticket Sunday at 3 against Utica. Gameday setup hits the blog Sunday at 11.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Home Game: 33

AHL Game: 1019

Who: Lehigh Valley Phantoms

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 7:05 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game: In Springfield last night for the Penguins, they lost 3-1. Ryan Haggerty had the goal for Wilkes-Barre. At home against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Phantoms fared no better and lost 3-1 also. Colin McDonald had the goal for Lehigh Valley in the loss.

Last Meeting: Last Saturday in Allentown, the Penguins won 4-0. Tristan Jarry had a 35 save shutout to pick up the win.

Record: For WBS: 46-19-3-0 (95 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division) — For LV: 43-21-4-0 (90 pts., 2nd place Atlantic Division)

Why you should care: Penguins have a bit of a cushion on Lehigh Valley for first in the division. They can really pad that and cut down their magic number to clinch a playoff spot with a win tonight at home. The home team in this regular season series hasn’t done too well, so it’s a quirky trend that Wilkes-Barre will have to buck if they want the two points tonight.

Referee(s): Micheal Mullen

Linesmen: Tom DellaFranco / J.P. Waleski

Twitter: @WBSPenguins and @WBSGameDay / @LVPhantoms

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins / /LehighValleyPhantoms

Instagram: wbspenguins / lehighvalleyphantoms

Beat Writers: @CVSethLakso and @TomVenesky / @SteveGrossMCall

Broadcasters: WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS and @_NickHart / For Lehigh Valley: Bob Rotruck @BobRotruck

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep / @KRAM209

Radio: For WBS: WILK Newsradio / For Lehigh Valley: Fox 1470

Television: AHL Live and on WBRE locally in the Wilkes-Barre area.

Promotion(s): None.

Other Game to Watch: Huge one tonight in Hershey as the Bears host the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The Sound Tigers sit one point out of the playoffs. The team that occupies that spot is Hershey.

Next Five Games: UTI 4/2, @ LV 4/7, @ HFD 4/8, @ PRO 4/9, LV 4/12

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Good thing Springfield has been eliminated from playoff contention because if they were a playoff team, Wilkes-Barre would want nothing to do with them.

The Thunderbirds sweep the Penguins on home ice up at MassMutual Center and beat Wilkes-Barre 3-1. For a place that the Penguins used as an offensive playground not too long ago, the goals have certainly dried up big time from a Wilkes-Barre perspective.

It was a bad night overall for the Pennsylvania teams in the AHL in general. Lehigh Valley and Hershey both lost tonight. The Penguins lead on the Phantoms remains at 5 but the magic number to clinch playoffs remains at 5 as well because the Bridgeport Sound Tigers beat the Phantoms. Also with Hershey getting shutout in Hartford to the Wolf Pack 3-0, that puts the game tomorrow between Hershey and Bridgeport basically as a must win for the Bears if they really want to get serious about a trip to the playoffs.

Anyway, Tristan Jarry opposed Sam Brittain.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Thomas DiPauli – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty

David Warsofsky – Frank Corrado
Derrick Pouliot – Barry Goers
Jeff Taylor – Tim Erixon

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Tons. Oskar Sundqvist, Josh Archibald and David Warsofsky were returned to Wilkes-Barre Thursday afternoon from Pittsburgh. Archibald, Sundqvist and Garrett Wilson skated on a line for the first time since February 14, which was the last time that Garrett Wilson played any game of significance of the Penguins before his injury. Jeff Taylor made his pro debut on the third pairing with Tim Erixon.

First Period: If you missed most of the first period like I did, you didn’t miss much. The most significant thing to happen in the period was this fight Zach Aston-Reese had with Mackenzie Weegar after Aston-Reese freight trained Tim Bozon at center ice. Here is the whole thing…

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Both teams traded power plays, no one scored, the Thunderbirds outshoot the Penguins 9-7.

Second Period: Matt MacKenzie capitalized off of a Wilkes-Barre turnover and scored at 10:18 to give the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead. Wilkes-Barre’s biggest problem was that they placed a paltry six shots at Sam Brittain that he disposed of quickly which a majority of came shorthanded. The Penguins were locked into yet another low scoring affair with the Thunderbirds and were on the wrong end of referee Keith Kaval and Andrew Wilk’s whistles. Usually in games like these, it’s very hard to generate offense let alone get a goal.

Third Period: Thunderbirds double their lead on a goal by Anthony Greco. Springfield on a power play went for a dump in and Jarry vacated his net to corral the puck but before he touched it, it hit off of a stanchion and popped right in the slot to Greco who had the easy tap in for the goal….

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Penguins started to push back but couldn’t get one past Brittain. Springfield did the same and got another past Jarry that made it 3-0. Kyle Rau…

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Penguins would finally get one past Brittain and get on the board on this nice face-off win by Jarrett Burton to Ryan Haggerty for a goal that would bust up the shutout bid Springfield had going…

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Penguins wouldn’t get any closer with Jarry vacated for an extra attacker.

Three Stars: 3) Sam Brittain (27 saves on 28 shots) 2) Matt MacKenzie (goal, even) and 1) Anthony Greco (goal, +1)

Around the Division: As noted in the open it was a bad night for the Pennsylvania teams in the AHL and a good night for pretty much everyone else. Hershey gets shutout by the Wolf Pack in Hartford 3-0…Lehigh Valley loses at home to a desperate Sound Tigers team 3-1 and Providence beats Albany 4-1.

Standings: Penguins (.699 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.662) — Providence (.654) — Hershey (.630) — Bridgeport (.623) — Springfield (.486) — Hartford (.382)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the Brampton Beast 4-3. Daniel Leavens had a pair of goals for the Nailers in the win. Sean Maguire picked up the win in net stopping 32 of 35.

Sprong Watch: Blogged Thursday that Daniel Sprong’s Charlottetown Islanders are onto the second round of the QMJHL Playoffs after a sweep of Baie-Comeau. Sprong and the Islanders won’t know who they play until all of the other series in the first round are complete.

If Springfield puts out a video highlight package that I see and am able to edit in here, I will do so at this spot.

Pens are home Saturday to host the Phantoms. Both teams will be looking for redemption after bad losses. Gameday setup hits the blog here Saturday afternoon at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!