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Let’s get something out of the way quick. The answer to the question in the headline is in the slug. If you don’t know what the slug is, open this post on its own window, bereft of anything else as far as content on the blog, and tell me what you see. Hint: I leave the occasional easter egg from time to time in the slug.

Now, to the game, a 6-2 Penguins win over the rival Hershey Bears. Oskar Sundqvist scored four goals, tying a franchise high for goals in a game by a player.

It looks like the Penguins were going to get housed again by Hershey when the game just turned on a dime in the Penguins favor in a big, big way.

The win puts the Penguins back to first place in the Atlantic Division and drops the Bears, with wins by Lehigh Valley and Bridgeport, to fourth place. That’s how ultra competitive this Atlantic Division is. Hershey’s ten game point streak comes to an end as well.

Casey DeSmith opposed Joe Cannata.

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jake Guentzel – J-S Dea – Danny Kristo
Ryan Haggerty – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Stuart Percy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Swap Percy for Lukas Bengtsson on defense and the entire fourth line from last night (Teddy Blueger, Tom Sestito and Reid Gardiner) f0r Haggerty, Burton and McGrath.

First Period: Pens had the pop going early but it was Hershey that found the back of the net first when Christian Djoos scored when Casey DeSmith lost his stick to make it 1-0 Bears.

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Not tonight.

On that goal, Chris Bourque collected his 600th AHL point. It feels like half of those have come against the Penguins, but I congratulate Bourque on the milestone nevertheless.

Chandler Stephenson scored when a pass setup for a guy in front was whiffed on. Stephenson was there as the safety net and scored it to make it 2-0 for the Bears. You could feel the rout coming again. It was setting up as another lifeless performance for the Penguins.

Oskar Sundqvist doesn’t speak that language.

He literally put the team on his back tonight. He scored to cut it to one late in the first period. A big hit led to the goal and it was 2-1 Bears.

Second Period: Oskar Sundqvist tied the game off a bad rebound that was left by Cannata. Then Jake Guentzel scored because it wouldn’t be a Penguins game if not for a Guentzel goal that made it 3-2 for the Penguins. That goal happened :29 after the Sundqvist goal.

Sundqvist completed his hat trick on a power play that made it 4-2. It was all Penguins and they were pouring it on. Wilkes-Barre limited the Bears to just six shots in the period.

Third Period: Sundqvist netted his fourth of the game off a breakaway that made it 5-2 Penguins. Then the Bears had a power play that DeSmith stopped. The Bears sling the puck around on the man advantage with sickening pin point accuracy but DeSmith read it all like a comic book and squelched any seedlings of a comeback by the Chocolate and White.

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The last time that an opponent scored four goals against Hershey? The year was 1993.

– The player was Steve Konowalchuk of Portland on October 10, 1993.
– Oskar Sundqvist wasn’t even born.
– The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were six years from being born.
– You were paying about a dollar for a gallon of gas.
– This blogger was a freshman in high school.

Josh Archibald left the game after a nasty knee on knee hit by Joey Leach. It was his right knee, but it wasn’t his right knee that was injured as told to the WBS media post game by Clark Donatelli. He is considered day-to-day.

Off the ensuing major power play, Tom Kostopoulous banked in a pass intended for Jake Guentzel off of Colby Williams’ skate and in to make it 6-2.

Tux missed the extra point. There would be no seventh goal tonight.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, even) 2) Jake Guentzel (goal, assist, even) and 1) Oskar Sundqvist (four goals, +2)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley sweeps Rochester with a 4-2 win in Allentown….Bridgeport gets two goals in the third period on the road in Binghamton to tie it, remain perfect past regulation and win 4-3 in overtime. Eamon McAdam is now 7-0 for the Sound Tigers this year….Toronto beats Hartford in Connecticut 5-3…Springfield beats St. John’s on the Rock 2-1 and Providence runs their point record to 11 straight games, best in the AHL right now with a 3-1 win over the suddenly slumping Albany Devils.

Standings: Penguins (.717 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.700) — Bridgeport (.696) — Hershey (.688) — Providence (.604) — Springfield (.521) — Hartford (.370)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video highlights…

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One more deep mined stat for the road from the desk of color man Nick Hart….

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Pens will bus to Bridgeport overnight for the 5 o’clock game with the Sound Tigers, who will be the more rested team having not played Friday. Gameday setup for that one hits the blog Sunday at 1.

Let’s Go Pens!

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5                                         2

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I thought about this headline on the drive home tonight. A lifeless effort by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight and a 5-2 pasting from the rival Bears.

Part of me thought it was too harsh. After all, Hershey came into tonight’s game on a nine game point streak. The Bears are no pushover.

The other half of me, and I think that’s where this one is going, stuck with the headline because of the star power that the Penguins brought with them tonight. 13 forwards and 7 defensemen skated today in Florida for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have no injuries to report and thus, no need for a recall to from the farm leaving the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins as strong as they can be with the likes of Jake Guentzel, Derrick Pouliot, Kevin Porter and Oskar Sundqvist in the lineup only missing Carter Rowney to injury and Steve Oleksy to recall to Pittsburgh as that seventh defenseman.

At home, on a Friday, against your biggest rival after a week of practice and you go and get your ass kicked. That’s pretty bad, no matter how you try to paint it.

Tristan Jarry opposed 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 – Reid Gardiner

Derrick Pouliot – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Lukas Bengtsson
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Healthy scratches were a mile long. Tim Erixon, Stuart Percy, Patrick McGrath, Sahir Gill, Jarrett Burton, Ryan Haggerty and Barry Goers with Carter Rowney and Thomas DiPauli the injured. Home debut for Danny Kristo, season debuts for Blueger and Sestito. Obie said pregame that Percy and Erixon will cycle in defensively this weekend. You may also see Patrick McGrath tomorrow as well.

First Period: Felt like it was all Bears to open despite either team having one shot on goal in the games first 6:30. Tristan Jarry stopped Christian Thomas on a breakaway, but later the Bears scored on a three on one when Nathan Walker put one past Jarry on an easy tap in. Said this at the time…

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Chandler Stephenson doubled the Bears lead about a minute later. That goal came after a questionable icing call on the Penguins. It appeared that a Wilkes-Barre player had beat Hershey back to the line but the linesman called it anyway.

Jake Guentzel, fresh off of NHL assignment, would score on the power play to cut the Bears lead in half and made it 2-1.

Second Period: First 12 minutes absolutely flew by with end to end action. Hershey came out of the game without receiving a single penalty from the whistle of referee Andrew Thackaberry, who I thought called an outstanding game. As an aside, because there wasn’t any rough housing our stupid stick fouls, that made this game all the more frustrating to watch because the Bears straight up beat the Penguins clean.

Hershey transitioned up ice using all of I think it was three passes and Zach Sanford cashed on a nice cross ice feed by Nathan Walker and it was 3-1 Bears.

Third Period: Pens couldn’t cash on a carryover penalty from the second on fresh ice. Danny Kristo blew a tire in front of Vanecek and fell trying to get a shot off then Vanecek robbed Oskar Sundqvist in close later on. But it was a nice pass at even strength by Guentzel setting up Jean-Sebastien Dea that brought the Penguins back within one and it was 3-2. Three gals in four games for Dea.

Undeterred, old buddy Zach Sill scored a big goal in front of Jarry on another blown assignment that pretty much iced the game away and made it 4-2.

If that didn’t, a Penguins power play where they failed to gain entry into the offensive zone to register even a shot at Vanecek surely did, as the Wilkes-Barre faithful booed their power play unit off the ice as Hershey easily killed the penalty.

Hershey iced the game away on yet another quick developing odd man rush and made it 5-2 Sill fed Garrett Mitchell who scored and it was all over.

Three Stars: 3) Nathan Walker (goal, assist, +1) 2) Jake Guentzel (goal, assist, -1) 1) Zach Sanford (goal, assist +2)

Around the Division: St. John’s beats Springfield in a run and gun affair 6-5 on The Rock…Lehigh Valley beats Rochester 4-3. Those two teams rematch tomorrow…Providence is a team you need to start paying attention to, they beat Toronto at home tonight in Rhode Island by a 5-3 score. Hartford and Bridgeport were off.

Standings: Hershey (.717 percentage points) — Penguins (.705) — Lehigh Valley (.688) — Bridgeport (.682) — Providence (.587) — Springfield (.500) — Hartford (.386)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fell in Canada to the Brampton Beast by a 4-2 score. Milos Bubela scored and so did Garrett Meurs for the Nailers. Doug Carr started and stopped 21 of 24. Have to think that Sean Maguire gets the start Sunday in the rematch in Brampton.

Pens and Bears will rematch tomorrow in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05. Expect a bevy of lineup changes and honestly a different result. Gameday setup is yours Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!