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6                                         5

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These teams don’t like each other. That good old fashioned hate can sometimes make for ugly hockey games. Tonight was the exception.

In the third period of a 2-2 hockey game, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and Hershey Bears put on an offensive exhibition with each team taking a lead and the other team coming back to tie it. An instant, instant classic between these two sides and one that sees the Penguins win 6-5 in overtime, sweep the weekend, and win their fourth game in a row.

David Warsofsky was not named an All-Star when the teams were announced on Thursday. In the three games this weekend, Warsofsky has two goals and four assists. Warsofsky had a third period goal and the game winner in overtime to help the Penguins sweep the weekend.

Casey DeSmith vs. Vitek Vanecek

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea – Danny Kristo
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Patrick McGrath

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Cameron Gaunce – Barry Goers

Casey DeSmith – Doug Carr

Lineup Notes: Barry Goers was in for Ethan Prow who had a rough game last night against Binghamton…Patrick McGrath replaced Ryan Haggerty on the fourth line. Patrick’s first game in a while, he needs to play more in my opinion.

First Period: You are going to read this next sentence and realize that it doesn’t make any sense but that’s okay. The Penguins played like the better team in the first period but trailed 2-0 after it. But for losing Stan Galiev in front and Zach Sanford scoring on a low angle power play, Wilkes-Barre, I thought, played like the better team at even strength. I think that was evident late on in the period when the teams were 4-on-4 and the Penguins were dominating puck possession and offensive zone time. DeSmith wasn’t tested much but his counterpart Vanecek was and he shut the door on a lot of Penguins opportunities in the first period.

Second Period: Pens couldn’t do anything with a 4:00 double minor that saw Tom Sestito out there on the power play. Then they killed a penalty of their own. After that Tim Erixon with a bullet of a shot through bodies that made it 2-1 Hershey….

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After that, Goers took a tripping penalty and like before, the Penguins scored after the successful kill. Tim Erixon again took the same shot from the same spot that Vanecek saved but Tom Kostopoulos was there to poke the rebound across.

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I said that the Penguin splayed like the better team in the first but the scoreboard didn’t agree with me. They continued that play in the second period and were rewarded by the scoreboard.

Third Period: Hershey scores to edge ahead 3-2 when the Bears won a defensive zone face off, raced up the ice and scored. Nathan Walker with the nice dish to Stan Galiev to give the Bears the lead.

Derrick Pouliot with candidate for early goal of the year….

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Allen Iverson-esque crossover by Pouliot there, crossing his man up and throwing in the puck via backhand to tie the game at 3 a piece.

Pens couldn’t stop taking penalties. Eventually, Hershey scored to edge back ahead 4-3 on a Christian Thomas goal that gave the Bears a 4-3 lead.

But the Penguins respond again on a power play of their own when David Warsofsky scored his first of the night with this blast from the point that made it 4-4….

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Back and forth, the struggle consumes us all.

Wilkes-Barre found itself on a late power play with 3:04 left to play in the game. Derrick Pouliot looks off his man in the corner, dishes to Garrett Wilson alone in front, Wilson wastes no time in giving the Penguins their first lead of the game….

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But the Bears would have last regulation time laugh when a pin balling pick found its way in with 8 seconds left to play with Vanecek pulled for an extra attacker. Zach Sanford scored the goal to ensure that Hershey would at least take a point heading into….

Overtime: It’s so hard to get two points clean out of Hershey, the Bears always find ways to take points out of home ice at Giant Center.

Casey DeSmith with a ten bell stop on this Aaron Ness attempt in the overtime period….

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David Warsofsky ended it with this goal that concluded this instant classic of a hockey game….

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Three Stars: 3) Stan Galiev (two goals, +2) 2) Zach Sanford (two goals, even) and 1) David Warsofsky (two goals, even)

Big time game by Derrick Pouliot, possibly his best in a Penguins sweater this season. Pouliot had a goal and two assists.

Around the Division: The Lehigh Valley Phantoms stay in lockstep behind the Penguins for second and aren’t giving the Pens any ground to start expanding a lead with a 4-1 win over the Utica Comets at home this afternoon…Providence shuts out Hartford 3-0 with a 21 save shutout by Anton Khudobin. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Penguins (.757 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.706) — Providence (.681) — Hershey (.643) — Bridgeport (.561) — Springfield (.515) — Hartford (.389)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fell in overtime to the Cincinnati Cyclones 3-2. Garrett Meurs and Gage Quinney scored in regulation, Sean Maguire stopped 16 of 19 to take the loss. More this week in the Wheeling Wrap.

Video highlights…

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The Week 13 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog Monday at 4.

The Wheeling Wrap goes up Tuesday at noon.

Pens are back on the ice Wednesday in Toronto. Gameday setup hits the blog at 3 Wednesday with the recap afterwards.

So a lot to read about this week.

Let’s Go Pens!

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  4                                       5

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His name is Bill. He sits in front of me at the Penguins games. He has been coming since Day 1 in 1999. He has a lot more hair than I do, too.

After Tom Sestito scored in the second period to bring the Pens back tied with the Senators and made the game 3-3, he turned to me and said to me that Tom Sestito should be AHL Player of the Week.

He was joking, of course, but if Sestito turns in another performance Sunday afternoon like he did tonight and yesterday, we will have to watch carefully Monday afternoon when the AHL usually announces these things.

Penguins win 5-4 in a game against Binghamton that saw the Penguins go up 2-0, the Senators rattle off three straight, then the Penguins adding three more before Binghamton getting one back with a minute left on a power play.

Something about those B-Sens, always playing the Penguins tough.

Danny Kristo broke out of his drought and scored two goals. Jake Guentzel continued his tear in the American Hockey League with three assists. Doug Carr got the start tonight and impressed stopping 33 of 37.

Carr opposed Chris Driedger.

Lines were….

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

Derrick Pouliot – Tim Erixon
Stuart Percy – David Warsofsky
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Doug Carr – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Danny Kristo was back in for Sahir Gill and Lukas Bengtsson was out for Stuart Percy.

First Period: Wilkes-Barre jumps out to a quick two goal lead in the games first 2:32 with goals :44 apart. Tom Kostopoulos went bar down and in to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead, then Danny Kristo netted his first of two on the night that made it a 2-0 lead.

Binghamton gets one back on a play I thought was offside. Jack Rosewald followed a rebound and cashed that put the Senators on the board.

I’d throw in a paragraph here about the officiating, where referees get all the hate, but the linesmen of late have been particularly awful. But it’s late.

Second Period: It took just :12 for the Senators to tie the game on a dart of a shot by Nick Paul. Later, Binghamton would edge ahead on a shot that deflected on its way in that gave the visitors a 3-2 lead.

Pens saw a power play come and go. Head Coach Clark Donatelli was shortening up his bench, Ethan Prow wasn’t seen much after the third Binghamton goal.

Dave Warsofsky takes a shot, Tom Sestito goes to the dirty area and deflects it in past Driedger that tied the game.

Tale of two halves for both teams to this point. Penguins started the first gangbusters and coasted, then Binghamton took the reigns and got three goals. Then they let off and the Penguins edge ahead.

Third Period: Danny Kristo scored his second of the night that gave the Penguins the lead for good on a shot that found its way in.

:39 later, the Penguins got another goal by Ryan Haggerty. Haggerty cleaned up a rebound in front.

Binghamton scored on a late, 6-on-4 power play when All-Star Casey Bailey scored on a shot from the point on a screened Carr.

Binghamton never got the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Sestito (goal, assist, +2) 2) Jake Guentzel (three assists, +3) and 1) Danny Kristo (two goals, +3)

Notes: Last time Sestito had back to back multi-point games was November 24 and 25 when he was with the Adirondack Phantoms….I thought Doug Carr played great, he was active with the glove and stopped what he saw as any capable AHL goaltender should at this level.

Around the Division: Utica beats Hershey 3-2 in overtime in Hershey. The Bears will be angry when they take the ice Sunday at 5 against the Penguins….Lehigh Valley shuts out the Albany Devils 2-0 in Allentown tonight….Providence beats Springfield 4-1 and Bridgeport beats Hartford 2-1.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.697) — Providence (.671) — Hershey (.647) — Bridgeport (.561) — Springfield (.515) — Hartford (.400)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They play the Cincinnati Cyclones Sunday.

Video highlights….

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Pens finish off their three in three with a Sunday afternoon visit to Hershey. Game day setup for that game hits the blog at 1 Sunday. Game is at 5.

Let’s Go Pens!

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1                                         5

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Confession: I’ve been pining for weeks to get onto Snapchat. It’s the last social media frontier I have yet to conquer. So naturally, I have been trying to come up with ways to make it fun on Twitter and see if there was any possibility for me to join. So, before the game tonight, I tweeted this poll:

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Let’s look at each one individually, shall we?

– A Penguins shutout anytime is sweet. Doing it against your biggest rivals is sweeter. If that would have happened, I would have gladly joined Snapchat.

– Tom Sestito is a stone in the shoe for Hershey Bears fans going back to the playoff series last year and his wars with Liam O’Brien. Sestito is known more for his fists than his goal scoring prowess. Easy choice to make to completely avoid joining Snapchat.

– No Penguin has every scored five goals in the history of the franchise. Come on, I’m being far fetched.

– A bench clearing brawl would end up on Puck Daddy and would be the talk of the hockey world. Also, the blog numbers would explode cause you know I would get video.

Sestito scoring two goals won the vote. So let’s get right into game action and see how this one went down, shall we?

After initial pressure from Hershey to open the game, Teddy Blueger and Tom Sestito found themselves on a quick developing two on one. Blueger fed Sestito and Tom scored to make it 1-0 Penguins…

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:19 later, Sestito repaid the favor to Blueger and the Penguins doubled their lead before the Bears knew what hit them.

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Sestito already had a goal and an assist. To think, in the back of my mind, I would actually have to join Snapchat with loads of game left….

Casey DeSmith was on point tonight. He came up big with some stops on the Bears to open the game then continued as Hershey continued to press before the end of the second period.

Garrett Wilson scored off a Hershey turnover that made it 3-0 Penguins.

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That goal chased Bears starting goaltender Vitek Vanecek, who stopped just 9 shots.

Later, I tweeted this.

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That’s because….

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😱

I am a man of my word….

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No idea if his formal name is Thomas and if his middle initial starts with an F or not.

Sestito’s first two goal game game since February 2013 in the NHL with the Flyers and the last time he did it in the AHL was November 2011 was with the Adirondack Phantoms.

Jake Guentzel scored because the day ended in y to make it 5-0….

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Penguins continued to press. Oskar Sundqvist nearly scored off a feed from Wilson which would have made it 6-0. Penguins had a full offensive zone cycle hemming the Bears in their zone.

Tom Sestito got his Gordie Howe Hat Trick with a fight against Tyler Lewington. Here’s the end of it:

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Sestito was tossed on account of throwing an extra punch after the linesmen broke him and Lewington up. This sequence put Sestito over 1,000 penalty minutes in the AHL.

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Darren Dietz busted up the shutout bid with a goal in the third period. Pens would not allow a second goal to bring back the ghosts of the last game against Hartford.

Wilkes-Barre wins 5-1.

Longest. Lede. Ever.

News du jour from the day was Tristan Jarry and Chad Ruhwedel going back to Pittsburgh with Matt Murray still day to day and Brian Dumoulin still recovering from his broken jaw. Marc-Andre Fleury was sick and did not practice and with Pittsburgh playing four games next week you have to assume that Jarry will get his first NHL start.

Other news included Reid Gardiner mutually parting ways and returning to juniors, playing with his brother with Kelowna of the Western Hockey League. I think this is a case of a good player just not getting enough playing time on account of happenstance with more established NHL-contracted players ahead of him on the depth chart. When Gardiner does expire his junior eligibility, it sounds like, at least from the vibe I am picking up, that he would be welcome back in Wilkes-Barre.

Three stars in the game were Garrett Wilson with a goal and an assist, Teddy Blueger with a goal and an assist and Tom Sestito with two goals, an assist and a fight. Also a blogger on a social media platform he knows nothing about.

Around the Division: Three of the top four in the Atlantic Division lost. Lehigh Valley to Hartford 2-1, Providence to Springfield 4-1. Bridgeport was off.

Standings: Penguins (.742 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.688) — Providence (.662) — Hershey (.652) — Bridgeport (.547) — Springfield (.531) — Hartford (.412)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the best team in the ECHL which is the Toledo Walleye by a score of 6-0. Sean Maguire with a 25 save shutout, his first as a professional. Nailers strike twice on the power play. Nick Sorkin and Garrett Meurs with two goals each.

Video highlights….

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Pens are back on home ice again Saturday against the Binghamton Senators. Gameday setup for this will hit the blog Saturday at 3.

Add me on Snapchat and teach me how to use it.

Let’s Go Pens!