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I almost wanted to use the headline, “Evil Twin” tonight because the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and Providence Bruins are so evenly matched. But on a night where one twin was so much better than the other, the headline accurately describes what the Bruins did to the Penguins tonight.

A 5-2 loss tonight by the Penguins which ends the seven game losing streak and finally sees a regulation loss go up in the column for Casey DeSmith. Third straight game where an opponent scores at least one power play goal and the second time this season that an opponent scores two power play goals in a game. Also, the first shorthanded goal of the season was allowed by the Penguins who were the last team in the AHL to allow a shorthanded tally.

If you read the second paragraph and though, “boy, sounds like a disaster on special teams,” it was. Sitting here trying to dissect it all, special teams is what cost the Penguins any chance in the game tonight because the two sides were pretty even at even strength.

All is not lost though…

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Casey DeSmith opposed Zane McIntyre

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 – Reid Gardiner

Tim Erixon – Stuart Percy
Derrick Pouliot – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Doug Carr

Lineup Notes: Tom Sestito returned to the Penguins lineup after a two game absence. He had been dealing with migraines.

First Period: Penguins had an early power play which came and went which really would set the tone on how the night would go on special teams for Wilkes-Barre. After the kill, Zac Rinaldo fires a fallaway shot at Casey DeSmith which the Penguins netminder makes the save on, but dropped it in his glove and Justin Hickman in the right place at the right time, pushes it across to give the Bruins an early 1-0 lead.

Soon thereafter, Alex Grant hits Jake Guentzel late. Guentzel didn’t like that and slashed the ex-Penguin. Referee Terry Koharski sees this and puts Guentzel in the box. The Bruins score on the power play to double the lead when Colby Cave scored.

Providence was flying. They jumped all over the Penguins off the drop of the puck and had a two goal lead and led in shots 11-5 halfway through.

But the Penguins turned the tables and scored to cut it to one, the closest they would get the remainder of the night, when Oskar Sundqvist left a drop pass of Josh Archibald who scored on a bad angle shot that made it 2-1.

Pens couldn’t connect on another power play late, hit a post in the final minute at even strength, and it was off to the…

Second Period: It took just :19 for Providence to re-establish their two goal lead, when Rob O’Gara wired in a shot to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead. In the rush after the goal, O’Gara cross checked Kevin Porter. Remember this for later.

Pens sat back, let the rush come to them, Cameron Gaunce fell down and O’Gara sniped home his second of the season.

If you want to call that the turning point of the game, I wouldn’t blame you.

If you want to call these next couple paragraphs the turning point, I wouldn’t blame you either.

The aforementioned O’Gara took a cross checking penalty he didn’t like and while skating to the box let Koharski know about it. Koharski had enough of his dissenting opinion and added on an unsportsmanlike penalty giving the Penguins a 4:00 double minor.

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Then the Penguins had :53 of 5-on-3 power play time when Kevin Porter ate a high stick which cut him.

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Not only did Providence kill off the two man disadvantage, when they did, Zac Rinaldo exited the box and was fed a pinpoint pass by Tommy Cross. Rinaldo beat DeSmith to give Providence a 4-1 lead. It was the first shorthanded goal the Penguins allowed this season.

Bad to worse, Peter Cehlarik scored on a cross ice pass from Danton Heinen on a power play made it 5-1 Providence and that was all she wrote at the end of the second.

Third Period: Doug Carr relieved DeSmith in net, the Penguins allow Providence just two shots on goal, Kevin Porter got his pound of flesh on Rob O’Gara with a 5:00 major penalty and game misconduct for a boarding call. I don’t think it’s suspension worthy, but that remains to be seen. Penguins get one back on the power play when Jake Guentzel set up Oskar Sundqvist for a power play goal. Wilkes-Barre kept pushing for the next goal but Providence wasn’t having any of it.

Three Stars: 3) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, assist, even) 2) Zac Rinaldo (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Colby Cave (gola, assist, +1)

Notes: Five goals allowed tie a season high for the Penguins…Zane McIntyre improved to 10-0 on the season for Providence.

Around the Division: Hershey crushes a listless Bridgeport team 6-2. Bears connected twice late in the third on a 5:00 slew-footing major assessed to Bridgeport….Rochester beats Lehigh Valley 4-3 in overtime. The Phantoms scored late to force overtime….Springfield beats Hartford 3-2.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) –Lehigh Valley (.710) — Hershey (.694) — Providence (.672) — Bridgeport (.567) — Springfield (.500) — Hartford (.419)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fell 4-2 in Reading tonight to the Royals. Mike Webster and Derek Army scored goals for Wheeling. Sean Maguire took the loss in net, stopping 24 of 28.

Video highlights…

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Please note the special start time Saturday in Binghamton. The game begins at 6:05 so therefore the Gameday setup for that game will hit the blog Saturday at 2.

Let’s Go Pens!

vs.     

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Home Game: 15

AHL Game: 452

Who: Providence Bruins

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 7:05 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game: Tuesday in Wilkes-Barre against the Springfield Thunderbirds, Jake Guentzel recorded a hat trick and the Penguins won their seventh straight game. For Providence, they defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack 4-3. The Bruins scored two third period goals en route to victory.

Last Meeting: November 12 in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins won 3-1. J-S Dea, Oskar Sundqvist and Jake Guentzel all found the back of the net for the Penguins and Casey DeSmith stopped 28 of 29.

Record: For WBS: 21-5-3-0 (45 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division) — For PRO: 17-7-4-3 (41 pts., 4th place Atlantic Division)

Why you should care: Two of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference meet Friday night in Wilkes-Barre. The Penguins come in winning seven straight games, Providence comes in with a 13-1-2-2 record in their last 18 games and have only lost one game in regulation in the month of December. Expect a battle tonight, either defensively, something like 2-1 or 3-2, or an offensive explosion, 6-5 of 8-7 in overtime, something like that.

Referee(s): Terry Koharski

Linesmen: Ryan Knapp / Bill Lyons

Twitter: @WBSPenguins / @WBSGameDay / @AHLBruins

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /providencebruins

Instagram: wbspenguins / ahlbruins

Beat Writers: @CVSethLakso and @TLTomVenesky / @MarkDivver

Broadcasters: WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS and @_NickHart / PRO: The P-Bruins announcers are per diem.

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep 

Radio: For WBS: WILK NewsRadio / For Providence: WNRI 1380 AM

Television: AHL Live

Promotion(s): WBRE Fan Friday ($14 Tickets), Sticky Smart Wallet (First 5,000), Postgame Autographs, $2 Draft Beers (6-7:30 p.m.)

Other Game to Watch: Chicago hosts Milwaukee in a game between second (Milwaukee) and third (Chicago) in the Central Division.

Next Five Games:  @ BNG 12/31, HFD 1/3, HER 1/6, BNG 1/7, @ HER 1/8

          vs.          

3                                              5

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I’ll come right out and say it, Jake Guentzel has nothing left to prove at the AHL level.

Since returning from his first NHL assignment, and coming into tonight’s game, Guentzel had seven goals in seven games. Add on three more tonight for Guentzel, a hat trick, and its ten goals in eight games.

These numbers are ridiculous.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, as a whole, have benefitted greatly from the rookie Guentzel’s return. They have won their seventh straight game tonight, beating the Springfield Thunderbirds by a score of 5-3. In the seven game winning streak, the Penguins have scored four or more goals in every single game.

You would think that with all of what I just wrote there, that the Penguins would be leading the Atlantic Division by a mile. It’s not the case. To be at the top of this division you have to be a great team like the Penguins are, but it’s a tight lead the Penguins own on the second place Lehigh Valley Phantoms and two versions of bear in the form of Hershey and Providence.

Taking the veteran option regarding the lines tonight because I despise home work night hockey games. Here they are:

Notes: Gardiner and McGrath for Jarrett Burton and Ryan Haggerty up front with Goers for Ethan Prow on the blue line.

Tristan Jarry, backed up by Casey DeSmith, opposed Mike McKenna.

In the first, Springfield would score twice on the power play in the span of 9:18 to give the Thunderbirds a 2-1 lead.

Then Jake Guentzel started building his hat trick with a ridiculous, nearly end to end play where he bounced the puck off of the boards and beat McKenna five hole for his first act.

For his second act, Guentzel would bat in a puck laying in the crease that McKenna wasn’t able to control for a tie game.

Here’s a look at Guentzel’s two first period goals…

Couple things here. First, watch the video highlights below of the first tow goals by Guentzel for better looks but on the first goal, he throws a changeup at McKenna and beats him. On the second goal, he eats a crosscheck to the face and still scores.

Guentzel completed his hat trick when the Penguins were on a 5-on-3 power play, the second one where Guentzel drew the penalty to put the Penguins on the two-man advantage. He batted in a puck through McKenna’s legs to put the Penguins ahead 3-2…

Garrett Wilson made it 4-2 soon after when a puck went in off of a Thunderbirds player in front, it was Wilson’s third goal in three games and fourth in five games. David Warsofsky picked up the assist, giving him 15 points (3-12) in his last 10 games.

Pens had it on cruise control from there, smothering Springfield and not allowing the Thunderbirds a shot on goal for a very long stretch.

But if you have ever been on a long trip before and used cruise control, you know you can’t use it for the entire journey. Eventually Springfield scored to bring it to within one. I say that because the Thunderbirds had an initial goal washed out on account of goaltender interference. But later, a Mackenzie Weegar shot that hit the post, counted and made it a 4-3 game heading into the third.

In the third, which was the most even period of the night between the two sides with each club putting nine shots on the board and neither team scoring on two power plays in the period, the Penguins would hold on and tack on a Cameron Gaunce empty net goal from behind his own goal line in the final minute for good measure.

Coal Street didn’t GIF the Wilson or Gaunce goals in case you were wondering.

Note: Wilkes-Barre is a point away from clinching Clark Donatelli a spot at coaching at the All-Star Classic in January.

Three Stars: 3) David Warsofsky (three assists, +4) 2) Mackenzie Weegar (two goals, -1) and 1) Jake Guentzel (hat trick, +3)

Around the Division: Providence snaps Hartford’s four game winning streak with their tenth win in the month of December with a 3-2 win over the Wolf Pack tonight in Hartford. Every other team was off.

Standings: Penguins (.776 percentage points) –Lehigh Valley (.707) — Hershey (.690) — Providence (.661) — Bridgeport (.571) — Springfield (.482) — Hartford (.433)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose in Toledo 4-3. Seven different Wheeling skaters recorded a point in the losing effort.

Video highlights…

But for breaking stuff, look for the next blog post to come Friday when Providence pays a visit.

Let’s Go Pens!