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Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth. — Mike Tyson

For the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, the plan was working in the first two periods.

But the Toronto Marlies largely kept their hands in their pockets.

A four goal barrage by the Marlies in a span of 15:28 in the third period sees the Toronto Marlies defeat the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins by a score of 4-2.

The Toronto Marlies are a complete team. Yeah, the Penguins have been hit severely by the injury bug, but so have the Marlies of recent. This was a heavyweight battle between the two best teams in the American Hockey League.

Toronto dominated a scoreless first period. Wilkes-Barre dominated the second period and scored two goals in a span of :47. Toronto took over in the third period and hooked in and ran away with things.

It was Matt Murray vs. Antoine Bibeau in goal.

I don’t run ads on my blog. I pay WordPress to keep it that way, so consider this a commercial break as you jump through if you didn’t link in direct because I am going again with the visual eye candy tonight in the post game recap with amateurish video highlights.

Read more of this post

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I don’t know about your job, but a salaried guy like me would always tell my straggling co-workers at 5 o’c lock on a workday that they don’t pay us overtime. You could work for two more hours but you wouldn’t get paid for it by the employer.

I don’t know exactly where I am going with this one so let’s get to the point. The Pens lost again to the Portland Pirates in overtime. 3-2 was the final. The Pens had a 2-1 lead with a power play until 18.2 seconds to play in regulation when Kyle Rau snuck one past goaltender Matt Murray to tie it then Dylan Olsen ended it in overtime when Tom Kostopoulos broke a stick.

The optimist tells you that the Penguins took four out of a possible six points out of a weekend and six out of a possible eight with the week with half their regular lineup either injured or in Pittsburgh.

I really don’t know what a pessimist will tell you when given those results. That person probably expects the Penguins to win every game by 20 goals.

The only question I would have if I got to talk with Clark Donatelli after the game is why did the Penguins go into prevent defense with a power play for the remainder of the third. They played not to lose the game and lost the game. After a rabid start to the third period when down 1-0, the Penguins rattled off two goals in the period to take the lead.

Matt Murray vs. Mike McKenna. A battle of all-star goaltenders. McKenna replaced Murray in Syracuse.

Lines were…

Josh Archibald – Kael Mouillierat – Dominik Simon
Sahir Gill – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – J-S Dea – Derek Army
John McCarron – Jarrett Burton – Tyler Biggs

Reid McNeill – Steve Oleksy
Niclas Andersen – Harrison Ruopp
Tim Erixon – Will O’Neill

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: In were Harrison Ruopp, Tyler Biggs and Sahir Gill for Ryan Parent, Patrick McGrath and Anton Zlobin.

First Period: Penalty filled period with both teams going on the power play three times each. Neither team took advantage. Pirates were the better team even strength. Shots were 12-6 Portland after one. Penguins had most of those shots on the power play but weren’t able to convert.

Second Period: While the Penguins were on the power play, a linesman got crossed up with Will O’Neill and Wade Megan scored a shorthanded goal…

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Inadvertent, unfortunate cross up by the official.

Period was pretty even otherwise with the shots a narrow 21-20 for the Pirates. Penguins were matching the Pirates and catching up but had nothing to show for it when you looked at the scoreboard.

Third Period: In the third, the Penguins not only caught up, they raced ahead.

A Tom Kostopoulos power play goal off this nice setup from Sahir Gill…

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Penguins continue to pressure. Had a few chances to score but couldn’t crack McKenna until…

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A Will O’Neill blast from the point tipped in by Sahir Gill screening at the doorstep of McKenna and the Penguins were ahead 2-1. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins looked angry. They looked hungry. They were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it anymore. They were forcing Mike McKenna into save after save, big time stops by McKenna to keep his team behind by just one.

Then Chase Balisy took a slashing penalty with 1:58 left. Portland Head Coach Scott Allen called a time out to draw something up. It had the look and feel that the Penguins were sitting back and playing prevent rather than trying to attack and force McKenna to stay in net and make saves.

It didn’t work. Wade Megan dug a puck out of the wall behind Murray’s net and found Rau at the doorstepped who tapped it past Murray for a tie game with 18.2 left and it was off to…

Overtime: Penguins had a few chances early on but they either all sailed wide of McKenna or the Pirates netmider stopped them. Then Dylan Olsen wheeled around Tom Kostopoulos who lost his stick in close and stuffed it past Murray to win the game for the Pirates.

The Penguins allowed two shorthanded goals in the game, up to nine on the season, and have been to overtime five times in their last eight games.

Pessimist will tell you that the Pens can’t complete and finish in overtime. Optimist will tell you these are points that the Hershey Bears, who are two games ahead of the Penguins in the games played department, can’t achieve.

Three Stars: 3) Will O’Neill (two assists, even) 2) Sahir Gill (goal, assist, -1) and 1) Dylan Olsen (overtime game winning goal,. +1)

Around the Division: Bridgeport’s eight game winning streak is over, they lose 3-2 to Albany in New York…Hartford beats Rochester 4-2 and Providence beat Springfield 3-2. Lehigh Valley and Hershey were off.

Standings: Penguins (.680 percentage points) — Hershey (.635) — Portland (.615) — Providence (.592) — Bridgeport (.580) — Hartford (.520) — Lehigh Valley (.480) — Springfield (.448)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in Manchester, New Hampshire for the very first time and lost to the Monarchs by a score of 6-2.

Here is the infographic from Coal Street…

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And the video highlights…

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I’ll have my chart refreshed later on tonight and tweet the link Tuesday at noon. You ca always check out the chart by clicking on the, “Charts!” link at the top of the page.

My Week 19 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!

Optimism tells you that to fee good that the Penguins took four out of a possible six points out of a weekend in an Atlantic Division title race with the Hershey Bears and the Portland Pirates. 

Pessimism would be sitting on a lead late with the Penguins up 2-2 on a power play only to have Portland tie the game with 18.2 and then to win in overtime 3-2. 

More in a bit. 

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Hey, if you don’t like the headline, you try coming up with puns related to what happens during a game for an entire AHL season and get back to me.

Anyway, the story of this game, a 2-1 Penguins loss in overtime to the Portland Pirates can be divided into a few parts.

– The Penguins inability to score on an early 5:00 match major as a result of a Sena Acolatse / Patrick McGrath fight early in the first period. The Penguins were never able to find momentum to build on the long power play, took a holding penalty which allowed for four-on-four, Portland killed it and it propelled them onwards.

– A relentless barrage by the Portland Pirates after that which led into the second period. The Penguins were held without a shot until the 12:31 mark of the period.

– With no goals becoming apparent and the Pirates dominating offensive zone time, Tristan Jarry was becoming the story. He had stopped 25 shots through two periods but can’t play defense nor offense, so he was left sort of on an island by his team as the only thing keeping them in the game. I normally ask around to other fans at the game what they think of the nights action and one guy I respect a ton told me that the Penguins were simply hanging on. It felt like it.

Jarry was beat by a Rob Flick shot in the third period when Flick pounced on a Penguins clearing attempt and put his team ahead 1-0. Penguins respond with Dominik Simon, back from injury, scoring on a low tight corner on Pirates goaltender Sam Brittain to make it a 1-1 game.

Jarry remained on point, gloving a Corban Knight shot while Knight was left all alone in the slot as the Penguins defenders were chasing.

Another turning point if you will would be a Carter Rowney penalty shot as he was tugged down by Mike Matheson with 59.5 to play in the third period. Rowney skated in slowly, lost control of the puck briefly for a second and tried a weak backhander that Brittain tracked all the way.

In overtime, the near goat in Matheson was minted a hero as he would break in from center ice unabated as the teams were three-on-three and scored at 1:29 to give the Pirates the win.

So you have the inability to score on the power play in the first, the inability to score at all when your goaltender is stopping everything then the inability to score on a penalty shot in a big moment that ultimately cost you two points in the standings.

Oh, on the incident that led to Acolatse’s dismissal, McGrath was cut by Acolatse who had tape on his hands and cut McGrath in the fight. Rule 46.15 of the AHL Rulebook does not allow for that. Acolatse is suspended pending review of that incident, but it should only be a game.

If you want to see that fight in it’s entirety, here it is, courtesy of me:

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The lines were as follows:

Dominik Simon – Kael Mouillierat – Derek Army
Anton Zlobin – Carter Rowney – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – J-S Dea – Josh Archibald
John McCarron – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Reid McNeill – Steve Oleksy
Ryan Parent – Niclas Andersen
Tim Erixon – Will O’Neill

Tristan Jarry – Matt Murray

Lineup Notes: Dea, Simon, McGrath and Parent replaced Sahir Gill, Tyler Biggs, Ty Loney and Harrison Ruopp respectively.

Three Stars: 3) Sam Brittain (23 saves on 24 shots) 2) Tristan Jarry (34 saves on 36 shots) and 1) Mike Matheson (overtime game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey wins a shootout against Springfield in Massachusetts by a score of 4-3…Bridgeport has won eight in a row, beating Hartford 7-3…Utica beats Lehigh Valley 5-2. Providence was off.

Standings: Penguins (.684 percentage points) — Hershey (.635) — Portland (.606) — Providence (.583) — Bridgeport (.582) — Hartford (.510) — Lehigh Valley (.480) — Springfield (.457)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. Their next game is Sunday against the Manchester Monarchs.

Here is the post game infographic from Coal Street…

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And the video highlight package:

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Pens and Pirates rematch tomorrow at 4:05 in Wilkes-Barre. Gameday setup will hit the blog Sunday at noon.

Let’s Go Pens!