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Said this in the Gameday setup earlier Saturday…

The Penguins need a win of any kind to get off of this skid that they are on. Look for the Penguins if they are to win tonight in Allentown, to do so in a dirty way. Shootout win or something crazy with a late goal is what I would classify as a dirty win.

They got one. A 4-3 overtime game winner from the unlikeliest of sources. Barry Goers, playing in his 300th professional game, scores his first goal in the AHL since April 18, 2015 and the Penguins four game losing streak is over.

Tristan Jarry went back in the net and opposed Alex Lyon.

Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Jarrett Burton – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Patrick McGrath – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Brett Stern – David Warsofsky
Stuart Percy – Barry Goers

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Ethan Prow is out with an upper body injury suffered yesterday in Utica. Interestingly, Head Coach Clark Donatelli told WBS media after the game that Prow is week to week with a lower body injury. So as with everything with hockey, give us your money and we won’t tell you anything when out comes to updates on players that you pay to see…Brett Stern took his place on the blue line. Patrick McGrath replaced Christian Hilbrich. Jarrett Burton moved to the second line replacing Hilbrich, Sestito moved back to the top line replacing Sahir Gill, who centered the fourth line.

First Period: Pens jumped out of the gate and nearly got a goal by Jarrett Burton but Alex Lyon made the save :08 in. Teams traded power plays with neither team doing anything memorable on them. Referee Jake Break gave Tim Sestito a 10:00 misconduct for either dissent or perhaps Brenk didn’t like the cut of Sestito’s jib.

T.J. Brennan tangled with J-S Dea behind Lyon’s net and Brennan was firing cross checks at Dea. Ref Brenk placed both players in the penalty box and while four on four, Kevin Porter found Tom Sestito and the Penguins had their first lead in 257:08 and their first even strength goal in 203:13….

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Kostopoulos’ 20th point in 20 games and his sixth 20 goal season in the AHL. Also, Kostopoulos is the 10th player in AHL history to score 20 goals in a season at age 38 years of age or older.

Second Period: Greg Carey scored :25 into a power play that gave him his league leading 17th power play goal that also tied it at one for the Phantoms.

Derrick Pouliot did not have a good period. He hit two posts and inadvertently put this puck into the net that was credited to Danick Martel which made it 2-1 Phantoms….

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Jarrett Burton got the goal back for the Penguins after a pass from Oskar Sundqvist hit his skate and redirected in. Brenk took a look at that to rule out a kick and his call of goal was confirmed and it was a 2-2 game.

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Third Period: J-S Dea, the Phantoms killer, scored to put the Penguins ahead 3-2 early in the third…

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Teddy Blueger won a race to a puck, slipped it along the wall to Dominik Simon who centered to Dea who put it past Lyon. His 18th point (11-7) in 25 games against the Phantoms, the most offense Dea has put up against any opponent.

Lehigh Valley responds on a power play when a big shot from the point rebounded past Barry Goers to Corban Knight and past Jarry for a tie game at 3.

Neither team found another regulation goal so it was off to…

Overtime: End to end action. Phantoms hit a post and Jarry was in the snow angel a few times. Then Barry Goers ended it with 1:15 left to give the Penguins the two points and broke the road losing streak…

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Dominik Simon shot it, the puck was dropped out of the glove by Lyon and Goers swept in and scored it to win it.

Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (goal, even) 2) Greg Carey (goal, assist, even) and 1) Barry Goers (overtime game winning goal, +3)

Around the Division: Providence sweeps Bridgeport this weekend with a 4-3 win tonight in Connecticut…Hershey battles back from 3-1 to beat Toronto 4-3…Springfield shuts out Hartford 2-0.

Standings: Penguins (.705 percentage points) — Providence (.664) — Lehigh Valley (.657) — Bridgeport (.642) — Hershey (.609) — Springfield (.491) — Hartford (.398)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost in overtime to the Toledo Walleye 4-3. Cody Wydo had a goal and an assist good for third star honors. The Nailers travel to Fort Wayne Sunday afternoon.

If the Phantoms or Penguin put a highlight package up I’ll run an edit and put it here.

I’ll have the Third Quarter Grades up sometime Sunday with the AHL Power Rankings Monday at 4 and the Wheeling Wrap Tuesday ta noon blog wise. Check them out then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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This is not a good road trip for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

In the four games now on the road for Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins have not led at all and are 0-4 after tonight’s 2-1 setback in Utica.

I still haven’t put my finger on what it is that’s been crippling the Penguins. Remember that the loss in Albany that set off this losing streak was a game that the Devils blocked a ton of shots. The Penguins ran into Reto Berra in Springfield who always plays the Penguins good and played run and gun in the third game in less than three days in Providence Sunday.

If you have a solution, please, leave me a comment here on this blog piece.

Tristan Jarry opposed Thatcher Demko.

Lines were…

Sahir Gill – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Christan Hilbrich – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Tom Sestito – Jarrett Burton – Ryan Haggerty

Derrick Pouliot – Barry Goers
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Brett Stern and Patrick McGrath were the scratches. Obie listed Lukas Bengtsson as ill, with Garrett Wilson and Thomas DiPauli among the injury scratches.

First Period: Jarry and this counterpart Demko traded some big saves to open. Pens controlled offensive zone time in bursts but were unable to solve Demko for the period. Utica chipped the puck out, transitioned and found Jordan Subban who ripped one past Jarry to make it 1-0 Comets…

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Pens had two cracks at the power play which came and went.

Second Period: The Utica Comets came into the game with the worst goal differential in the second period and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins came into the game boasting the best goal differential in the second period.

That’s a stat that didn’t matter at all in this period.

Shots at the end of the second were 15-13 favoring the Utica Comets, but if you watched this game you would have sworn that it was more like 28-0 Comets with the way that the Comets dominated the offensive zone percentage this period, moreso than the Penguins in the first period.

Ryan Haggerty got a step on a guy and couldn’t score on an excellent Demko save. Referee Furman South reviewed the call on replay and confirmed his initial call on the ice of no goal.

Utica had the Penguins on their heels. Nick Hart described on color commentary that the Comets were playing the Penguins with a playoff like intensity.

Darren Archibald works Stuart Percy to put the Comets yup a pair…

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Ethan Prow, who had his left arm injured in the first period, finally exited to the locker room right after the Archibald goal.

Penguins just couldn’t get anything going in the period.

Third Period: Prow did not rejoin the team for the third period.

Tom Kostopoulos scored on a power play that put the Penguins on the board. I don’t have a GIF of this, sorry. Dominik Simon assisted on that Kostopoulos goal and has three goals and two assists over his last six games and I would argue that he was the lone bright spot for the Penguins of late.

Penguins get a late power play and pull Jarry for an extra attacker in the games final minutes but were unable to score at all in a theme that I am picking tip here in this four game losing streak.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, even) 2) Thatcher Demko (27 saves on 28 shots) and 1) Darren Archibald (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Springfield pays the Penguins a favor beating the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at home 5-3. The Phantoms will now bus back to Allentown for Saturday’s matchup against the Penguins….Providence ends the Bridgeport Sound Tigers winning streak by beating them 2-1 in regulation and Hershey thumps last place Hartford 6-1.

Standings: Penguins (.700 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.660) — Providence (.657) — Bridgeport (.654) — Hershey (.602) — Springfield (.481) — Hartford (.406)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are currently trailing the Toledo Walleye 6-0. Box here.

If the Comets put up YouTube video of highlights of tonight’s game that I see I will run the edit here.

Pens will bus back to Wilkes-Barre, stay over night then catch a bus to Lehigh Valley Saturday afternoon for tomorrow night’s big matchup against the Phantoms at 7. Gameday drops here on the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!