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The Albany Devils came in to Wilkes-Barre Wednesday night as the only undefeated team in the American Hockey League.

All good things come to an end.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins hand the Devils their first loss of the season. A goal and an assist by Jake Guentzel, 19 strong saves by Tristan Jarry and a perfect 5 for 5 penalty kill by the Penguins and the Devils go down by a score of 3-1.

The aforementioned Tristan Jarry opposed Scott Wedgewood.

Lines were…

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Sahir Gill – Reid Gardiner
Scott Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Jarrett Burton – J-S Dea – Ryan Haggerty

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Tim Erixon – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Season debut for Ethan Prow. Kevin Porter was listed as injured. As told to the WBS media after the game, he is day to day with an upper body injury, not caused by game action.  Pat McGrath, Adam Krause and Barry Goers were listed as the healthy scratches. McGrath took warmups.

First Period: Two good teams usually means that you will see pretty even hockey and this was the case the puck dropped tonight. The Penguins jumped out to an early shot lead, whether by design by the Devils or something else.

Penguins saw two power plays come and go, but then John Quenneville took a high sticking and interference call at the same time and the Penguins finally broke the dam and scored a power play goal when Chad Ruhwedel unleashed a snap shot that beat Wedgewood blocker side that put the Penguins on the board with a 1-0 lead.

Notable tidbit: This first period result was the first time all season the Albany Devils trailed heading into an intermission.

Second Period: Pens had all the power plays in the first, it was Albany who enjoyed them in the second.

It didn’t matter.

Josh Archibald scored a shorthanded goal unassisted that made it 2-0 Wilkes-Barre.

The Penguins took the lead in the AHL in shorthanded goals with three.

Albany’s woes continued, as even with power plays being handed to them left and right, they struggled. Defensive woes continued. Sahir Gill takes advantage and finds Jake Guentzel open and Guentzel buries his third of the year that made it 3-0.

Pens took control after that. Face off, they take it in and possess and cycle for a good 90 seconds. Devils can’t clear. They wear down and are visibly gassed and are just standing there and take a penalty.

Third Period: Albany replaced Wedgewood with Mackenzie Blackwood to start the period. Devils would get one back in the period when Nick Lappin crashed the net and scored to break up any hopes of a Tristan Jarry shutout bid at 8:05 of the period.

Pens had a long period of 5-on-3 for 1:41 but were unable to ice the game away at that point.

But time became the Devils enemy and with Blackwood vacated for an extra attacker, Albany was never able to put another puck past Jarry.

Three Stars: 3) Chad Ruhwwedel (power play goal even, seven shots) 2) Josh Archibald (power play goal, +1) and 1) Jake Guentzel (goal, assist, +1)

Guentzel has been on fire.

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Around the Division: Two other games in the Atlantic Wednesday. Hershey was in Hartford and lost 3-2 in overtime. Box here. Providence was in Toronto and also lost in overtime by a score of 4-3. Box here.

Standings: The Penguins will lead the Atlantic with 8 points, Springfield and have Hartford 6, Hershey 5, Bridgeport 4, Providence 4, Lehigh Valley 3. That order may be off because the League orders teams on percentage points. I am bad at math and its a work night, I have to get home to be at my desk at Thursday morning at 8:30. Close enough.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They open a home and home with the Kalamazoo Wings on Friday.

Infographics and video….

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Video highlights…

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Pens will skate again competitively Saturday in Springfield. If any newsworthy items worth a post are made pubic, I’ll have a piece here. If not, see you Saturday at 3 for the pregame setup.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Three things I always want when doing this blog.

1) Thoughtful, original, content to provide you the reader. If I struggle putting words together then I know that people will struggle in reading it and probably not come back. 2,000 posts and climbing here on the blog, I’d say that’s not a problem.

2) Internet connection to see me through what I am trying to do in “covering” the team.

3) Silly pun headlines. Tonight I will admit is a bit of stretch.

Dominik Simon’s overtime game winning penalty shot goal is enough to give the Penguins the 2-1 overtime win over the rival Hershey Bears. It caps off a four point weekend (out of a possible six) where the Penguins only allowed a sum total of three goals all weekend. The defense is spectacular right now and the goaltending, excellent. This is what wins hockey games and ultimately championships.

Goofy puns and reasons for why I do things aside, Tristan Jarry opposed Vitek Vanacek Sunday afternoon.

Lines were…

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

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Tim Erixon – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Barry Goers

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: No changes to the blue line. Patrick McGrath and Oskar Sundqvist were in for Reid Gardiner and Adam Krause. I don’t know why they took Gardiner out of the lineup, I said last night that there was no real reason to take him out.

First Period: Back and forth period between the two teams. Shots ended up 11-8 Bears due to in large part of the Bears dominating offensive zone time in the games first sequences. Both goalies made great saves on attempts by the other side.

The biggest play in the period was this disallowed goal by Tom Kostopoulous:

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Referee Pierre Lambert was right there and immediately washed out the goal. The Penguins would challenge the call to no avail and if you look at the video (referees look at the overhead view) you could see Kostopoulos bend his leg to kind of redirect the puck into the net. Really sneaky play by Kostopoulos there, but the correct call of no goal was made by the officiating staff.

Second Period: Pens failure to cash on the power play bit them in this period. They had a regular power play then :55 of full five on three and were unable to score. So, as Hershey is able to dodge those bullets, they take the lead with this play:

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That was Riley Barber. Play described by color man Nick Hart:

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So the Pens were looking for any kind of spark, with the offense struggling this weekend getting shut out by Springfield Friday and sputtering along a bit Saturday in a win against Syracuse going into the…

Third Period: They got it. In the form of their big players.

First, Jake Guentzel tipped in this Chad Ruhwedel shot that tied the game at one:

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Then, with the game clock winding down, Tristan Jarry made save after save keeping his team in it. You could tell that the Penguins were gassed in the third period of their third game in as many days. Jarry made the saves necessary to force…

Overtime: In overtime, both teams possessed the puck in the 3-on-3, but it was Dominik Simon that won the game when he was fouled from behind by Madison Bowey giving the Penguins an overtime penalty shot…

Bada boom.

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Realest guy in the room!

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How you doin’?!

So the Penguins allow just three goals all weekend and are by far the best defensive team in the Eastern Conference. They take home 4 out of a possible 6 points with two of their prized defensemen (Warsofsky and Percy) out of the lineup. Season is off to a bright start.

Three Stars: 3) Vitek Vanacek (33 saves on 35 shots) 2) Dominik Simon (overtime game winning penalty shot goal, +1) and 1) Tristan Jarry (30 saves on 31 shots)

Around the Division: The Albany Devils will come to town Wednesday night 5-0 after beating the Providence Bruins 4-3 in overtime today… St. John’s beats Hartford 5-2.

Standings: Springfield and Wilkes-Barre with 6 points a piece, Bridgeport and Hartford with 4, Lehigh Valley, Hershey and Providence all with 3.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off, they open a home and home with Kalamazoo next weekend.

Video highlights…

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I’ll have my “Wheeling Wrap” feature Tuesday at noon here on the blog looking back at the weekend that was for our ECHL affiliate. Please check that out then. The Week 2 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!