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Normally, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins alternate goaltenders on back to back game nights.

They needed to out of necessity in last December with Tristan Jarry on recall for the injured Matt Murray. It was the first time and only time that the Pens did it this season.

Fast forward to tonight, and it was Tristan Jarry leading the team out of the tunnel for warmups. First time all season for him.

Now there is a reason for that. The Penguins stunk Friday night and lost 5-2 to the St. John’s IceCaps. Four of those five goals were credited to Tristan Jarry and he would probably tell you that it wasn’t his best performance.

I don’t have locker room access nor would I want it really, cause I like having free reign over what I do as a fan and a blogger, but one of my first questions for Clark Donatelli tonight would have been why he went back to Tristan Jarry over Casey DeSmith in a game like this.

The answer is a layup. He was looking to bounceback. So were the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins as a whole, really. A 7-1 pasting of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tonight in Wilkes-Barre.

Here’s the thing about the Phantoms. Are they a good team? Depends on who you ask. If you are asking me, I say they are just good. Remember that I have three tiers of teams in the AHL. Great teams, good teams and bad teams. The League is loaded with bad teams. There are more good teams than great teams and only a few great teams.

The Phantoms have been pasted by the Providence Bruins 9-1 on January 21 and again by the Penguins tonight 7-1. Great teams occasionally lose games 5-2 like the Penguins did to the IceCaps Friday. Great teams don’t get pasted 9-1 then 7-1 a month later. Sorry, you aren’t going to sell me on the Phantoms being anything more than a good team right now.

The way that the Penguins continued to skate and outwork Lehigh Valley up big late with the game iced away really drove that point home I made above. Normally it is the other way around. Play for pride or some other cliche.

Tristan Jarry opposed Anthony Stolarz

Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Danny Kristo – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Cameron Gaunce – Barry Goers

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Tom Kostiopoulos played in his 600th game for the Penguins tonight. He is defying Father Time leading the Penguins in points at 38 years of age…Ethan Prow was a scratch in favor of Barry Goers. I didn’t notice Prow much in the second half of Friday’s game against the IceCaps. Ethan’s stock has been going down for a bit so the scratch should help him more than hurt him.

First Period: Kostopoulos scores on a quick 2-on-1 with Kevin Porter that put the Pens on the board early…

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Provided Taylor does the GIFs when the Penguins don’t, she will be the go to anymore when it comes to goals and stuff. I don’t have any money to pay her, but if someone is doing work like this on Twitter, I have to pick up on it an include it in the blog recaps. Plus, I asked her directly if I could use her GIFs in the game recaps and she said yeah so it’s a win win for you guys.

Josh Archibald scored his first of two that made it 2-0. Garrett Wilson tried to make a move on a Phantom and was stopped. He collected the puck and found Archibald streaking down the slot for the goal…

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During a break, Tom Kostopoulos acknowledged the crowd when the Pens ran a tribute video for 600 games played in their uniform…

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With Barry Goers off for a tripping call, Josh Archibald made it 3-0 shorthanded on this goal…

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The Penguins continued to frustrate the Phantoms, who took a penalty at the end of the period. The first intermission whistle probably came at the right time for Lehigh Valley, who were on tilt.

Second Period: Anthony Stolarz could only keep his team in the game for so long to start the period before Garret Wilson scored to make it 4-0 on this death defying move….

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:59 later, Sahir Gill scored through Stolarz’s five hole to make it 5-0 Penguins.

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So 200 pro games for Sahir Gill. Another milestone!

Lehigh Valley would finally get on the board when the Penguins took some penalties when ex-Penguin Chris Conner deflected a Greg Carey shot that made it 5-1 Penguins.

Phantoms still had a power play and instead of trying to get back into the game, TJ Brennan roughing a Penguins player after a routine Tristan Jarry save.

Wilkes-Barre re-established a five goal lead on a goal via a nice feed from J-S Dea.

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T.J. Brennan didn’t have a good game. He and Tom Sestito briefly engaged in a tussle, Sestito didn’t want to waste another fight on him. Brennan was giving referee Pierre Lambert an earful after the altercation, Lambert heard enough and gave Brennan a 10 minute misconduct. It was all falling apart for the Phantoms.

Third Period: Game summed up for the Phantoms in one tweet:

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Oskar Sundqvist left the game with an injury but is expected to be fine. It looked a lot worse to me than it apparently was as Sundqvist was down for a bit and needed help off.

Tom Kostopoulos with the extra point…

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The GIF doesn’t do the play justice. Sahir Gill made a heck of a play with a delicious pass to Kostopoulos.

Penguins would go on to win 7-1 after some more extracurriculars between players. Tom Sestito was assessed an instigator penalty after Sam Morin stapled J-S Dea to the boards and was crushed like a fly on a windshield after answering Sestito’s challenge…

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Three Stars: 3) Tristan Jarry (30 saves on 31 shots) 2) Tom Kostopoulos (two goals, +2) 1) Josh Archibald (two goals, assist, +3)

Around the Division: Springfield ends Bridgeport’s eight game winning streak with a 5-2 win in Connecticut tonight…Hershey beats St. John’s 5-2. Those two teams rematch again Sunday…Rochester beats Hartford 4-2…Providence was off.

Standings: Penguins (.755 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.689) — Providence (.652) — Bridgeport (.614) — Hershey (.609) — Springfield (.467) — Hartford (.415)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose in overtime 4-3 to the Reading Royals. Reading struck three times on the power play tonight.

Video highlights….

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Power Rankings will be up Monday ta 4. Wheeling Wrap Tuesday at noon. Gameday setup for Wednesday’s rematch against St. John’s at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Here is a tweet from Seth that sums up the night well.

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That’s your ballgame right there, as the Penguins fall 5-2 to the hands of a very good St. John’s IceCaps team who is playing some great hockey as of late. Wilkes-Barre sees their five game winning streak at home come to an end and suffer just their tenth loss in regulation in the first weekend of February.

Tristan Jarry opposed Charlie Lindgren

Lines were…

Tom Sestito – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – Ryan Haggerty
Danny Kristo – Sahir Gill – Patrick McGrath

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: J-S Dea was out tonight battling an illness. He skated the extra in warmups. Steve Oleksy was back in the lineup for the Penguins for the first time since November and this was his 500th game as a professional.

First Period: Both teams would score on their first shots of the game. Ryan Johnston would score for the IceCaps at 1:02 to give St. John’s the lead and 1:45 later Ethan Prow scores his first as a professional that made it a tie game at one.

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Oh, yes. The Penguins are playing on pink ice this weekend. Do not adjust your computer screens.

St. John’s hit three posts in the period. Derrick Pouliot scored this goal on the power play that made it a 2-1 Penguins lead.

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Its would be the last power play that the Penguins would score for the remainder of the game.

Second Period: The St. John’s IceCaps were playing a song and lulling the Penguins monster to sleep. Wilkes-Barre registered its first shot on goal 6:06 into the period. The game was getting almost boring, with both teams transitioning back and forth up and down the ice. I don’t think I have seen another team counterpunch as well as St. John’s does.

Finally, the IceCaps tied it on a Daniel Carr shot through a screen that beat Jarry that made it 2-2.

The Penguins were then gift wrapped a 4:00 double minor and were not able to score on it.

Third Period: Penguins think that they score on a puck that goes in the net through a scrum but referee Terry Koharski, right on top of the play and standing on the net loses sight of the puck. In the mass of bodies crashing the net, Koharski has to maintain his balance to keep from falling down and washes out the goal which would have tied the game. Koharski invoked the intent to blow rule which means that if the referee loses sight of the puck but can’t get whistle to mouth in time before the puck crosses the line and goes in the goal is disallowed. Fairweather fans don’t undertstand that rule and neither do some of the fans that come to every game. I, personally, thought it was the right call under the circumstances.

Michael McCarron, who seemingly always scores big goals against the Penguins, scored to give St. John’s the lead at 3-2 when he scored on a bad Jarry rebound.

All of a sudden after, the Penguins found themselves on a 1:35 of two man advantage. St. John’s killed it, but not for lack of puck movement by Wilkes-Barre.

Dan Carr scored on a laser beam shot that extended the IceCaps lead to two.

Wilkes-Barre had yet another power play come and go after that goal. Since the Pouliot first period goal, the Penguins went 0-for-6 on the man advantage.

Old buddy Bobby Farnahm, who was up to his old antics again tonight, scored an empty net goal that made it 5-2 St. John’s.

Three Stars: Daniel Carr (two goals, +2) 2) Tom Kostopoulos (two assists, +1) and 1) Michael McCarron (goal, two assists, +2)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley continues to score third period goals, getting three tonight in Almaty and winning 4-3….Bridgeport has won its eighth straight game with a 3-2 win against the Rochester Americans at home….Hershey wins in Binghamton 5-3. Stan Galiev had a hat trick for the Bears in the win….Providence beats Springfield 3-1 and Hartford beats Utica 4-3.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.705) — Providence (.652) — Bridgeport (.628) — Hershey (.600) — Springfield (.455) — Hartford (.424)

Wheeling Update: Jordan Kwas, Darryl Lloyd and Gage Quinney score goals, Doug Carr stops 26 of 28 and the Wheeling Nailers beat the Kalamazoo Wings tonight in Michigan by a 3-2 score.

Video highlights….

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Penguins are back on home ice again Saturday night against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the first time all season. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday afternoon at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!