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  7                                         1

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So many directions I can go with this open. Let’s start with this.

The Penguins are a good team with Jake Guentzel on their team. He leads all AHL rookies in scoring. He added four more points tonight and the Penguins rolled a Sound Tigers team I honestly expected to give the Penguins a better run tonight. Wilkes-Barre wins 7-1. They are the best team in the AHL right now. On top of all that, this…

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This is the eighth straight game where the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have held their opponents to one regulation goal.

Points in seven straight games for Wilkes-Barre. It’s a train that keeps rolling.

If Jake Guentzel isn’t in the running for AHL Player of the Week honors this week, I would love to see who did better.

Anyway, Casey DeSmith opposed Stephon Williams.

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

Casey DeSmith — Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Tim Erixon was out last night with the flu, but was recovered enough Saturday night to slot in with Barry Goers on the second defensive pairing. Patrick McGrath replaced Jarrett Burton on the fourth line up front.

First Period: Penguins found the back of the net early and often to start. First, Tom Kostopoulos forces a turnover and Jake Guentzel capitalizes to make it a 1-0 Penguin game. Then, the Penguins would double their lead when Reid Gardiner put his first puck in the net as a Penguins when he cleaned up the rebound of a Steve Oleksy shot.

Bridgeport would get one back when Devon Toews collected a juicy rebound left by DeSmith from a Kellen Jones shot and Bridgeport cut the lead in half.

Undeterred, after a bit of a run and gun session after the Toews goal, Jake Guentzel returned the favor to his captain and Tom Kostopoulos made it a 3-1 game.

Penguins would score on the only power play awarded in the period from the whistle of referee Breet Iverson when Carter Rowney rifled a shot past Williams that made it 4-1 Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. It was the first power play goal allowed by Bridgeport in 18 straight kills.

Jake Guentzel was already up to three points. (1-2)

Despite all the Penguins scoring, Bridgeport was outshooting the Penguins 16-13 after the first.

Second Period: The Penguins continued to pour in the goals. This time on Christopher Gibson, who replaced Stephon Williams in net. Jake Guentzel scored his second goal of the game, his fourth point of the night, off of a Cameron Gaunce shot that the rookie Guentzel legally tipped in. It’s a career high in points in a game for Guentzel, who you would have to think is gunning for AHL Player of the Week.

Here’s a look at the Guentzel goal. Sorry for not having all of them, the Bridgeport replay feed was iffy, and I didn’t want to miss any in-game action…

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Garrett Wilson scored on a penalty shot. The play looked offside to me, and the infraction to Wilson looked ticky-tack, but Wilson scored to extend the lead to 6-1 Penguins…

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Back to back penalty shot goals for the Penguins and Garrett Wilson is warming up, having scored last night against Binghamton.

Penguins and Sound Tigers would trade penalties to close out the second heading into the…

Third Period: Steve Oleksy scored with one second left on the power play leftover from the second period and it was 7-1 Penguins.

Remainder of the game was an effort to get Patrick McGrath his first AHL goal or Jake Guentzel his hat trick. Patrick Nullity managed to not let the latter happen, diving over to stop a Guentzel attempt.

Three Stars: 3) Steve Oleksy (goal, assist, +1) 2) Casey DeSmith (28 saves on 29 shots) 1) Jake Guentzel (two goals, two assists, +3)

Around the Division: Hershey is warming up. They shutout Albany 4-0 on home ice… Springfield was up 4-2 in Allentown against the Phantoms but Lehigh Valley scores four and rallies for the 6-4 win against the Thunderbirds. That’s two straight for Lehigh Valley and a really bad loss for Springfield. Have to see how that affects them if at all going forward…Providence beat up a bad Hartford Wolf Pack team and won 6-2.

Standings: Penguins (.833 percentage points) — Springfield (.688) — Hershey (.667) — Bridgeport (.600) — Lehigh Valley (.563) — Providence (.400) — Hartford (.350)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers extract some revenge from the Toledo Walleye and win 5-2 in Ohio. Jordan Kwas had two goals. Doug Carr stopped 23 of 25. Nailers host Kalamazoo Sunday afternoon at 5.

Pens travel to Providence for a 3:05 matinee against the P-Bruins. Gameday setup will hit the blog Sunday morning at 11.

Please do not forget to set your clocks back one hour after you read this.

Let’s Go Pens!

          vs.      

  1                                       4

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This game was a tale of two hockey games.

For the first thirty minutes of the game, the Penguins played bad. They trailed on the scoreboard and were getting run around by an undermanned Binghamton team in a classic trap style game. A lot of guys on the Senators side were stepping into bigger roles and were showing that the faith in the coaching staff bestowed upon them in a road game against a premier opponent.

For the final thirty minutes of the game, you would swear that there was only one hockey team playing. The Penguins rip off four goals, including two more points for Tom Kostopoulos and the Penguins win 4-1. Wilkes-Barre has held their opponents to just one goal in the last seven straight regulation contests. We all knew that the defense was going to be good going into the season, but this good?

Oh, if you are struggling with the headline, as you can see, so am I. The Roman Numeral for 400 (as in points scored by Tom Kostopoulos in a Penguin uniform) is CD.

Some times the puns flow. Sometimes they don’t.

Anyway.

Tristan Jarry opposed Matt O’Connor.

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 – Jarrett Burton

Reid McNeill – Chad Ruhwedel
Barry Goers – Steve Oleksy
Cameron Gaunce – Ethan Prow

Tristan Jarry – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: First time for Jarrett Burton in the lineup since October 26 against Albany. Patrick McGrath took warmups.

First Period: Pens had a goal disallowed on a Jake Guentzel interference  incidental contact with the goaltender call. Referee Mike Mullen was right on top of the play and washed it out immediately. Explanation to Clark Donatelli’s bench was not met with much opposition. But you can tell in the way that the rest of the game unfolded that the call bothered the Pens.

Binghamton came out and started running around on the Penguins. Mike Blunden then stole something from Tristan Jarry of value to him…

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And it was 1-0 Binghamton.

This is a better pun.

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Second Period: Penguins had a power play and looked terrible in the process. It was shaping up into a classic trap game. The undermanned, underdog team, comes into the living room of the big bully and slaps him around.

If Jarry lets in this Triston Grant would be goal, it’s probably a different outcome…

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Shots at this point was something like 13-13 at this point. Then the Penguins took over.

A Chad Ruhwedel shot from the point was deflected in by Jake Guentzel and it was a tie game. Tom Kostopoulos had the secondary assist here for his 399th point in a Penguins uniform.

Exactly two minutes later, on a power play, Tom Kostopoulos whacked in a rebound through the pads of O’Connor for his 400th point and a 2-1 Penguins lead and a power play goal.

Third Period: They weren’t done.

Garrett Wilson had yet to find a goal yet this season but erased that in fine fashion on an odd man rush. Wilson waited and froze O’Connor and sniped one past him for a 3-1 Penguins lead. Now watch Wilson get hot now. Could be the start of something great.

O’Connor was needed agains stoning Kevin Porter after the face off else it would have been 4-1.

Oskar Sundqvist made sure it would get to 4-1 on a cannon of a shot that deflected off of O’Connor, off the post and into the net that extended the Penguins lead to three.

Late, Binghamton had a long 1:56 of five-on-three power play time after back-to-back penalties by the Penguins. Binghamton’s inability to score on a two man advantage Saturday in Hershey led to their undoing. The B-Sens lost that one 7-1. Back to the present, the B-Sens weren’t able to get anything past Jarry as he saw everything.

Three Stars: 3) Garrett Wilson (goal, assist, +2) 2) Oskar Sundqvist (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley wins 4-2 in Providence. I think that the Bruins are bad more than Lehigh Valley is good….Hershey battles back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Springfield 3-2 in overtime. I think that the Penguins inability to win over the Thunderbirds is a style thing more than it is anything….Bridgeport beat Hartford 5-4 in overtime. That’s a surprise because Hartford is awful, but it’s a rivalry for these two teams so maybe the Wolf Pack got up for that one but still lost.

Standings: I better start doing these by percentage points if I want these to be accurate, so here goes… Penguins (.813 percentage points) — Springfield (.668) — Bridgeport (.667) — Hershey (.625) — Lehigh Valley (.563) — Hartford (.389) — Providence (.333)

Wheeling Update: Bad night for the Nailers who lose 6-1 to Toledo. Cody Wydo scored the only goal for Wheeling.

Video highlights…

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Pens will bus now to Bridgeport for the second of their three in three. Gameday setup will hit the blog Saturday at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!