No such luck for Justin Schultz, who was hit along the boards by Dustin Byfuglien. Still don’t know if it’s upper or lower body or what the timetable is.
With Pittsburgh playing again tonight against Columbus, Sunday against Detroit, Tuesday against Carolina, Pittsburgh took two players from Wilkes-Barre.
Out of available players, Gaunce and Oleksy are probably the easiest for Pittsburgh to recall and Wilkes-Barre afford to lose. Derrick Pouliot, David Warsofsky, Tim Erixon and Stuart Percy remain in the AHL. Warsofsky is too valuable to recall, then possibly lose to waivers like he was last year. In the Gaunce / Oleksy recall, you are recalling one player to play with Chad Ruhwedel already in Pittsburgh and one player to sit. It’s probably Oleksy again.
If you haven’t realized yet, 50+ games into the season, Wilkes-Barre’s greatest strength is defense and goaltending. Pittsburgh can recall all the Jake Guentzel’s or Carter Rowney’s they want to, the defense is what gets the AHL Penguins to the best record in the AHL and a 10 point lead on the second place overall team in the league.
Penguins of all levels will be fine, provided no other injuries hit in the coming days. Wilkes-Barre should be seeing some combination of Josh Archibald or Carter Rowney back in town soon with Carl Hagelin and Conor Sheary making progress.
Wilkes-Barre recalled Christan Hilbrich from Wheeling before the defenseman recalls. They haven’t announced a move for another player from Wheeling in light of the recalls from Pittsburgh as of noon Friday.
In other news, the AHL Playoff Primer is out. Wilkes-Barre’s magic number is currently 37. A new twist this season is strength of schedule, listed in purple. The Penguins current strength of schedule is .576, third in the Atlantic Division. That number will change daily.
More later with the 3 p.m. Gameday setup against Albany and the post game recap later tonight.
Morin was only given a cross checking penalty. 28.1 in the rule book is supplemental discipline in which a team asks the league to review a sequence. I think in order for there to actually be a suspension, the other player involved had to have sustained an injury. There are other factors involved, such as whether the player has a history and Morin hasthat.
Wilson is currently week to week with an upper body injury. Penguins will be leaving later today for their thee game trip through the North Division beginning Friday night in Albany.
The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins conclude their six game home stand with a 5-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Tuesday night. The lead for the Penguins now is 11 on the second place Phantoms team.
Oskar Sundqvist had gone cold for a bit then caught one and missed practice yesterday. He came to the rink ready to roll and scored twice tonight as the Penguins easily beat a Lehigh Valley team that never really were able to get going Tuesday night.
Taking the veteran option on the lines tonight because, if you didn’t know already, I do not like work night home games. A 72 game schedule would be aces for this blogger. Anyway, here’s tonight’s lines…
Teams trade power plays after then later Sahir Gill throws a hit to make a play. Players spill into the boards, J-S Dea comes over to collect the puck and finds Dominik Simon cutting to the net unabated and Simon scores to make it 2-0:
Shots were 15-7 Penguins after the first in a period that they were ready for. Lehigh Valley didn’t register a shot on goal till 7:59 and were making bad passes all over the place.
Second Period: Pens had to kill a carry over penalty to begin, Oskar Sundqvist scored shorthanded on this move…
Phantoms appeared to have scored right back but the puck popped up over Jarry and onto the net where it was re-directed in via Colin McDonald high stick.
Tristan Jarry was really on point in the period making some excellent post to post stops on the Phantoms. He made two stellar saves on a penalty kill.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel finally solves Jarry following up his own shot post to post from behind the net that broke up the goose egg on the board for the Phantoms.
Nic Aube-Kubel collected his own rebound, went around the net and banked the puck in for the #LVPhantoms first goal of the game. pic.twitter.com/HxRQQF3Bva
Phantoms played a good majority of that period as the better team but the Penguins manage two goals in the period anyway to maintain a three goal lead heading into the…
Third Period: Sundqvist made it 5-1 on this impossible goal from the corner you need to see to believe:
Pretty blah period with the Penguins protecting a lead against a Lehigh Valley team that is dynamite in the third period and continued to press for more goals at the same time. It’s a beautiful balancing act when executed properly and Wilkes-Barre pulled it off nicely. Penguins nearly doubled up the Phantoms in shots in the period.
Three Stars: 3) Tristan Jarry 2) Dominik Simon (goal, assist) 1) Oskar Sundqvist (two goals)
Wheeling Update: The Nailers host the Brampton Beast tomorrow.
Postgame, Penguins Head Coach Clark Donatelli advised Tom and Seth and other WBS media that Garrett Wilson is week to week with an upper body injury and is having x-rays tomorrow. He also stated that he and his coaches are reviewing the hint to see if they will send it to the League for review and Supplemental Discipline.
I wanted to look up the Phantoms third period goal differential. Against the rest of the AHL teams except that Penguins it’s +34. Against Wilkes-Barre it’s +1. That’s remarkable and a testament to the coaching staff on game preparation.
Video highlights…
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Pens are off on the road now until a March 8 home date with these Phantoms beginning this weekend in Albany on Friday. But for breaking stuff, look for the next blog update to come then.
Last Game: Saturday at home against the Binghamton Senators, the Penguins won 4-2. Sahir Gill scored two goals for the Pens inserted into the top line with Tom Sestito out of the game with an injury. For Lehigh Valley, the Phantoms hosted the St. John’s IceCaps and lost 4-3. Mark Zengerle and Colin McDonald both scored a goal and added an assist.
Last Meeting: February 4 in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins crushed the Phantoms 7-1. Tom Kostopoulos scored two goals, Josh Archibald did too, and Tristan Jarry stopped 30 of 31. Chris Conner scored the only goal for the Phantoms in the loss.
Record: For WBS: 36-11-3-0 (75 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division) — For LV: 32-14-2-0 (66 pts., 2nd place Atlantic Division)
Why you should care: These two teams are the exact opposite of Valentines on this day for love. Can Lehigh Valley overcome the throttling the Penguins gave them he last time these two teams met? Have they shaken off the loss that the IceCaps gave them Saturday? Will the Penguins be more disciplined than they were on Saturday against Binghamton?
Other Game to Watch: Late game. Two of the hottest teams in the Western Conference meet tonight in San Diego when the Iowa Wild visit the San Diego Gulls.
Next Five Games: @ ALB 2/17, HER 2/18, @ PRO 2/19, @ UTI 2/24, @ LV 2/25
Comments Off on Wheeling Wrap 2/14
Posted by nafsnep on February 14, 2017
It’s Tuesday afternoon and time to take a look back at how the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers did this past week.
The Nailers traveled out West to the capital of Idaho in Boise, and took on the Idaho Steelheads for a trio of games.
Wheeling won once, by way of a shutout, on Friday.
Game 1 was Wednesday and the Nailers only scored one goal and lost 4-1. Tyler Currier scored for Wheeling. Sean Maguire took the loss in net, stopping 36 of 40. Wheeling went 0-for-5 on the power play and the Steelheads struck just once.
Game 2 was Friday and this was a shutout for Doug Carr. Carr stopped all 26 shots against him and the Nailers won 3-0. Garrett Meurs scored a pair of goals and Tyler Currier added the other. All of the scoring was done in the first period.
Game 3 was Saturday and the Nailers lost that one 5-1. Anthony Luciani had a hat trick for the Steelheads and an assist to go with ten shots. Doug Carr took the loss in net for the Nailers and Gage Quinney scored the only goal for Wheeling.
Wheeling dropped to fifth in the North Division with a 25-17-5-0 record good for 55 points.
The Nailers return home for a pair of games against the Brampton Beast on Wednesday and Friday and then welcome in the Kalamazoo Wings to WesBanco Arena on Saturday.
Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 18
Posted by nafsnep on February 13, 2017
No changes at the very top in the Week 18 AHL Power Rankings. While, yes, I am a blogger that follows the number one team, I think that my explanation as to why the Penguins are still the top team this week is enough to convince you that Wilkes-Barre should remain at the pinnacle in this weeks AHL Power Rankings.
A couple of changes in the top five, ten and on back, so click through the jump if you didn’t link in direct to see where your favorite team ended up this week.
Tom Sestito went down Friday night against Hershey with injury. He was playing every bit like a top line player and his absence going forward is a huge hole to fill from a Penguin offensive perspective.
Sahir Gill has been for the most part an often forgotten about player on the Penguins when they had the services of Jake Guentzel and Carter Rowney in town. Most weekends you’d never see him, other weekends you’d forget about him.
So of course this combination of the top line forward in Tom Sestito going down and Sahir Gill filling his spot on the Penguins top line was going to be a home run.
Save the “fire Donatelli” complaints. The man is a genius and has proven, time and again this season, that he knows how to coach at the AHL level. Seth had a tweet postgame that I’d like to add to…
The WBSPens are the first team in the AHL to reach 75 points this season.
The Pens are the first team in the AHL to a lot of things. 10 wins. 20 wins, 30 wins, 75 points and now 20 wins on home ice. No other team will go higher than 18 home wins in the League tonight.
All because of one man. Clark Donatelli. No matter what you throw at the guy, he and his cadre of available players are going to make it work.
Now Donatelli is not going to be pleased tonight at his teams discipline. Up 4-0 in the second period, Binghamton chips away and makes it a 4-2 game by the end of the second period. The Penguins continue to shoot themselves in the foot and take silly penalties in the third, but Casey DeSmith and the Penguins defense batten down the hatches and hold on to win the game.
DeSmith was opposed by Matt O’Connor.
Lines were…
Sahir Gill – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Danny Kristo
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Ryan Haggerty – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath
Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
David Warsofsky – Tim Erixon
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow
Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry
Lineup Notes: Jarrett Burton was recalled from Wheeling and flew cross country overnight from Boise, Idaho where the Nailers are this weekend and made it in time for the game. Tom Sestito was not listed as an injury scratch and Donatelli told WBS media after the game that he should be fine for Tuesday against Lehigh Valley.
First Period: Pens made it 2-0 before Binghamton even knew what hit them. David Warsofsky’s slap shot from the blue line made it 1-0…
Binghamton would call timeout to collect themselves and it worked. Normally the time out just delays the inevitable, but this time it worked. They started chipping away and finally solved DeSmith on a knee drop one timer by Casey Bailey just as a power play expired for the visitors which made it 4-1…
The best thing that could have happened to the Penguins was the whistle that ended the period because the Senators were firing on all cylinders and the Penguins weren’t able to respond.
Third Period: No one scored. The Penguins are built from the goal out and try as they might, Binghamton was never able to get the third or fourth goals because in large part of the play of Casey DeSmith and the Penguins defense. You need to play a perfect game as an opponent to beat a great team like the Penguins and the Binghamton Senators did play this game perfectly in spurts but were down 4-0 before they knew what hit them.
With an open net and seeking his first AHL goal, local product Patrick McGrath put it off of a Binghamton stick and the puck deflected into the crowd.
Wheeling Update: Nailers are in Idaho for the last time this weekend. Here is the box.
Video highlights….
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But for breaking news Sunday, here’s how the week sets up here on the blog….Power Rankings are here Monday at 4. Wheeling Wrap at noon Tuesday followed by the Gameday setup for the Valentine’s Day game against Lehigh Valley at 3 followed by the recap here on the blog after.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 