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Don’t let the result or the scoreline fool you, these two teams are very well built and very good hockey teams.

One was better tonight, a lot better.

Kerby Rychel’s first period power play goal holds up as the game winner as the North Division leading Toronto Marlies come to Wilkes-Barre and the home of the AHL’s best team and hand them a 3-0 defeat. Antoine Bibeau stopped just 19 shots, picking up his third shutout of the season. The Penguins see their four game winning streak and eight game point streak (15 of 16) come to an end. It’s the second regulation loss of the season for the Penguins and also the second time this season they were shutout.

No, don’t start the “fire Donatelli, this team is screwed” act yet. As I was trying to make sense of the fact that the Penguins were being run out of the gym tonight, I came up with these salient points:

-> The Marlies have 19 guys on their roster all over 6 feet tall. The Penguins only have 11.
-> Not a single Marlies defenseman is shorter than 6’1.
-> Every man on that Marlies roster can skate, well.

You can teach skating, but as my basketball coaches used to always say, you can’t teach height.

When a big, fast team runs over a team built with smaller-ish forwards and medium size defenders like the Marlies did to the Penguins tonight, the results are typical. It is really no wonder why Antoine Bibeau had two shutouts coming into tonight. He really wasn’t tested much at all by the Penguins.

Bibeau opposed Tristan Jarry. Jarry stopped 32 of 35 shots. It really could have been a 5, 6 or 7-0 shutout tonight.

Lines, then a brief recap of the game.

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Kevin Porter – Dominik Simon
Thomas DiPauli – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
David Warsofsky – Tim Erixon
Cameron Gaunce – Stuart Percy

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: David Warsofsky and Stuart Percy were both in the lineup for the Penguins for the first time since October 15 for Warsofsky and October 21 for Percy. Thomas Di Pauli made his pro debut for the Penguins and also Lukas Bengtsson is dangerously close to debuting as well. A strong team only gets stronger with these additions.

Someone forgot to tell Toronto. In the first, the Penguins would get the first power play and came close to scoring but Bibeau and the Marlies kill kept the Penguins off the board.

Then the Marlies got a power play and it was Kerby Rychel scoring his first goal of the season when Jarry came out of position to make a save, with the puck bleeding to the stick of Rychel who backhanded it into the net to give the Marlies the lead at 7:33 of the first.

Toronto would never look back. They caught the Penguins in on an icing call, kept the puck in below the face-off dots and Andreas Johnsson dug a puck out from behind the Penguins net and centered back to Rychel who scored his second of the game with just over three minutes to play in the first.

Penguins were basically getting throttled, but in a subtle way. They did a good job of keeping their top line featuring ex-Penguin Kasperi Kapanen off the score sheet but were getting run around and out chanced at every opportunity.

In the second, Frederick Gauthier swatted in a puck that Jarry made the initial save on that made it 3-0.

Penguins had a few chances after that. Josh Archibald tried to slip a puck five hole on a shorthanded breakaway but was stopped, later Bibeau stopped a Oskar Sundqvist redirect.

The Penguins tried to add the speed element to their game but Toronto was just that much faster.

Three Stars: 3) Frederik Gauthier (goal, +1) 2) Kerby Rychel (two goals, +1) and 1) Antoine Bibeau (19 save shutout)

Around the Division: Albany stops the Bears long point streak as well as they beat Hershey 6-3 in the Capital District….Bridgeport beats Syracuse 3-2 in a shootout. Two sneaky good teams featured there…Providence beats a bad Binghamton team 4-2 and Lehigh Valley beats a worse Utica side 4-1. Springfield rebounds after a bad last weekend and hand St. John’s a 3-1 defeat and Hartford’s struggles continue as they lost 5-2 in Rochester.

Standings: Penguins (.773 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.650) — Hershey (.636) — Bridgeport (.636) — Springfield (.591) — Providence (.458) — Hartford (.318)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers defeat the Reading Royals tonight 4-1 at home. Adam Krause scored a goal. Doug Carr stopped 25 of 26.

I doubt Coal Street will even bother with video highlights but if they do I will put the embed here. If not, check here Saturday for  the 3 p.m. setup for the Providence rematch from Sunday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I said Friday that once Garrett Wilson found himself his first goal of the season for the Penguins, that the floodgates would open and the wins would flow for Wilkes-Barre.

Wilson scored Friday, and the Penguins steamrolled the Senators 4-1.

Wilson scored Saturday, and the Penguins blew away the Sound Tigers 7-1.

This afternoon in Providence, the P-Bruins gave the Penguins a heck of a fight, but it was the AHL’s league best Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins skating away with a 5-4 shootout win over the Providence Bruins. Penguins sweep the weekend three in three.

Wait, where were you going with the Garrett Wilson angle? He scored the game winning goal in the bottom of the fourth round to salt the game away for the Penguins.

Tristan Jarry opposed Dan Vladar.

Lines were…

Jake Guentzel – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Dominik Simon – Kevin Porter – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Josh Archibald
Sahir Gill – J-S Dea – Patrick McGrath

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

Tristan Jarry  — Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: There were none. First time for the Penguins this season I think there hasn’t been any lineup changes other than just the goaltender.

First Period: Relentless pressure by the Penguins to start the game. Wilkes-Barre had put 7 shots at Dan Vladar and he stopped them all. Then the Penguins found themselves on a quick developing 2-on-1 and Reid Gardiner scored his second in as many nights when this shot banked off of a P-Bruins defender and in…

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Bruins would then find themselves on a power play and started to mount the pressure at Jarry and the Penguins. Later, a Jordan Szwarz shot from a ridiculously low angle beat Jarry for a tie game. I mean look at this shot…

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Penguins would score on a power play when Oskar Sundqvist, parked just outside the crease of Vladar, scored on a nifty redirect that reestablished the Penguins lead at 2-1…

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On that play, Garrett Wilson picked up his 100th AHL point.

Undeterred, the Bruins did something that teams haven’t done to the Penguins in eight straight games in regulation.

They scored a second goal.

A Danton Heinen shot from the high slot with Tim Erixon unintentionally screening Jarry made it a 2-2 game.

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Felt like, at least to me, that Jarry seemed a bit uncomfortable in goal as some of his saves looked odd and it appeared that he was fighting the puck at times.

Second Period: Through some power plays that came and went, Tom Kostopoulos scores this goal at even strength that re-established the lead for the Penguins…

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That clip doesn’t show the whole rush that started deep in the Penguins zone.

On that goal by Kostopoulos, Carter Rowney would join Garrett Wilson in the Century Club with his 100th point in the AHL. Four goals in four games for the Penguins captain.

Then the Penguins caught the P-Bruins on a sloppy line change. Providence chipped one in, Jarry raced up out of his crease and hit Sahir Gill who found a streaking J-S Dea breaking in alone at Vladar and scored to double the Penguins lead…

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Ahh, but the Bruins would not go away quietly as ex-Penguin Alex Grant shot this puck that went in. It may have deflected on the way in but it counted nonetheless…

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It was the first time all season (this is the tenth game) that the Penguins have allowed three goals against in a game. Shots were a healthy 33 for the Bruins and just 23 for the Penguins heading into the…

Third Period: The Bruins were steamrolling the Penguins from the jump of the third and again scored to tie the game at four a piece. Wayne Simpson scored a power play goal for the Bruins.

Pens only had two shots on goal about 15 minutes into the third then were awarded a power play. It was a good power play by Wilkes-Barre but a better kill for Providence. Time ran out and it was on to…

Overtime: A few chances both ways with the Penguins getting the better chances, but it was on to the…

Shootout: Garrett Wilson’s goal in the bottom of the fourth round was the only goal scored in the shootout and was enough to win it for the Penguins.

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Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +1) 2) Peter Cehlarik (goal, assist, -1) 1) Jordan Szwarz (goal, two assists, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey beats Rochester 5-3 at home Sunday afternoon. As good as the Penguins have been, the Bears have been just as good. Hershey has won five straight and have points in their last eight games…Springfield hosted Binghamton and lost 2-1. The Thunderbirds took only one point out of the weekend and are teetering in the wrong direction at this juncture.

Standings: Penguins (.850 percentage points) — Hershey (.700) — Lehigh Valley (.611) — Bridgeport (.600) — Springfield (.550) — Providence (.409) — Hartford (.350)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 3-0 at home and shut out the Kalamazoo Wings. J.P. Anderson had a 24 save shutout. Nick Sorkin scored twice. I will have much more on the weekend that was for the Nailers in my Tuesday, “Wheeling Wrap” feature.

Pens have off Monday and will get back to work Tuesday most likely as they prepare for the Toronto Marlies who make their only stop of the season to Mohegan Sun Arena.

The Week 4 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog Monday at noon, Wheeling Wrap follows Tuesday at noon, followed by anything else deemed bloggable (Jake Guentzel made get Player of the Week, watch out for that Monday) I can find in the buildup to the Marlies matchup Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!