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The Penguins will probably be thankful that they will be able to get in their own beds and stay there for a while. A six game road trip ends in a loss to the Providence Bruins Sunday afternoon by a score of 5-2.

I can’t put my finger on this one other than the fact that the Pens were gassed at the tail end of a three in three having to drive into the remnants of a blizzard after last night’s 5-0 whitewash of Portland. The Pirates are a better team than the Providence Bruins when you look at the standings, but both teams are really good. The Penguins rarely get blown out of games, so to say that it was just being gassed from a ton of bus time these past two weeks is a probable result.

The Bruins, no slouches, were 6-0-3 in their last nine games coming into today’s matchup against the Penguins.

Matt Murray vs. Malcolm Subban.

Lines were…

Josh Archibald – Kael Mouillierat – Dominik Simon
Sahir Gill – Carter Rowney – J-S Dea
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Matia Marcantuoni – Ty Loney

Reid McNeill – Steve Oleksy
Will O’Neill – Clark Seymour
Niclas Andersen – Harrison Ruopp

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Obie was up front and said that the reason Scott Wilson was held out of the game today was to protect him from injury against the need for his services in Pittsburgh. Wilson has not been officially recalled and Pittsburgh does not play until Tuesday against New Jersey.

First Period: The Providence Bruins came into the game today with the AHL’s top ranked power play, so giving them two chances at the man advantage early on was probably not in Clark Donatelli’s game plan. The Penguins, however, were able to kill the penalties by the P-Bruins.

Matt Murray had a big save on Noel Acciari during the period…

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Apologies for the blur.

Penguins started to come alive with chances at and in front of Subban but then Reid McNeill tried to chip a puck out of his zone which was read perfectly by Frank Vatrano who wasted no time in going short side on Murray to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Second Period: Weird period. Back and forth she went with goals then a stoppage due to glass breakage.

J-S Dea quickly tied the game at 1:30 of the period on this nice shot…

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:50 later, Harrison Ruopp and Nic Andersen got crossed up and Colby Cave broke in and Colton Hargrove broke the tie and scored on the rebound.

1:31 after that, Josh Archibald floated in and picked a corner and the Penguins were even again…

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Later, Matia Marcantuoni blew a tire in his own end which led to an odd man rush the other way which saw Andrew Cherniwchan make it 3-2 Bruins. It was the first time in seven games that Matt Murray allowed a goal beyond the first period.

The period ended prematurely when Shair Gill broke a pane of glass.

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The teams headed to the locker room and added the remaining 5:43 on the clock to the…

Third Period: Technically still in the second period, the Bruins tacked on two quick goals. Anton Blidh led a rush up the ice and Colby Cave put the rebound in for a 4-2 lead.

Then the Bruins added a backbreaker when they scored shorthanded. Brandon DeFazio led a two on one with Austin Czarnik and Czarnik cashed to seemingly put the game out of reach for the Penguins as it was 5-2.

The Penguins had been outshot 14-3 since the score was 2-2.

The Penguins were unable to get anything going on the tail end of a three in three and the last of a six game road trip and Providence shut things down after that.

Three Stars: 3) Tommy Cross (+4) 2) Andrew Cherniwchan (goal, +1) 1) Colby Cave (goal, assist, +2)

Tom Sestito was a -4 today. Eech.

Around the Division: The only game in the division was Hartford, extending their winning streak to seven in a row with a 4-1 win at home against Portland.

Standings: Penguins (.720 percentage points) — Portland (.613) — Hershey (.607) — Providence (.547) — Hartford (.524) — Bridgeport (.512) — Lehigh Valley (.464) — Springfield (.439)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers game against Brampton was postponed due to snow.

Pens will bus home and we will await word on the status of Scott Wilson. My charts will update sometime later tonight and then the Week 16 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog at their usual 4 p.m. slot Monday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Here’s the deal tonight, a 5-0 Wilkes-Barre win that ended a bunch of streaks for the Portland Pirates.

– The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins ended the Portland Pirates six game win streak.
– Mike McKenna’s thirteen game win streak is over.
– The Penguins struck three times on the power play.
– Tristan Jarry picked up his third shutout of the season for his 11th win of the season.

Last night, the Penguins power play could not come alive for them in a tight game and it cost them. Tonight? The Penguins power play struck twice, back to back in the first period and this spring boarded the Penguins to the win tonight.

Tristan Jarry opposed Mike McKenna.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Kael Mouillierat – Dominik Simon
Sahir Gill – Carter Rowney – J-S Dea
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito -Matia Marcantuoni – Josh Archibald

Reid McNeill – Steve Oleksy
Will O’Neill – Clark Seymour
Niclas Andersen – Harrison Ruopp

Tristan Jarry – Matt Murray

Lineup Notes: Matia Marcantuoni was in for Ty Loney…top line was unchanged…Sahir Gill replaced Josh Archibald on the second line, Archibald was dropped down to the fourth line.

First Period: The open of the game felt like a chess match. Then the Pirates went on the power play and nearly scored. The best sequence the Pirates had was Rocco Grimaldi blasting out of his own zone down the far wall, passing to Shane Harper for a shot but Jarry was there to make the save. Then the Penguins went on the power play and scored when Kael Mouillierat, with the patience of a saint, stickhandled around McKenna’s net and found Scott Wilson in the high slot for a shot and a goal that put the Penguins up 1-0.

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Two milestones with this goal. First, Scott Wilson was the first AHL player to 20 goals on the season and with an assist on the Wilson Goal, Will O’Neill collected his 100th AHL point.

John McFarland put an elbow into Steve Oleksy and the Penguin went straight back to the power play. This week in practice, Clark Donatelli had Tom Sestito out on the power play unit this week to put the big bodied Sestito out in front of the net. The plan worked. Clark Seymour wound up and took a shot, Tom Sestito had a tip-in goal that put the Pens up 2-0.

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Penguins nearly cashed a third time as they had :44 of five-on-three time, but the Pirates third ranked penalty kill was able to not allow the Penguins to triple or quadruple the lead.

Second Period: Pens had to kill 1:01 of a five on three of their own and did so. Then Tom Sestito found Josh Archibald for this long breakaway and the puck slid across the line and in which made it 3-0 Penguins.

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First two point game for Tom Sestito since January 14, 2012.

J-S Dea was snakebit by McKenna twice in the period with a big glove save on one high slot on one sequence then again on a one timer from Carter Rowney left all alone in front.

Tristan Jarry was great again in the period, making this memorable stop on Portalnd bearing down trying to muscle one past him.

The Penguins scored three or more power play goals in a game for the third time this season.

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Third Period: What Dea wasn’t able to get in goals he was able to create in turnovers. He stripped Brett Regner trying to exit and Carter Rowney pounced on it and dished to Sahir Gill who scored to make it 4-0…

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The Penguins made it 3-for-6 on the power play when Will O’Neill took the shot and Tom Kostopoulos tipped it in for a 5-0 Penguin lead.

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It was the tenth time that the Penguins have scored five goals or more this season.

Jarry stopped all 10 Portland shots sent his way in the period picked up his 11th win of the season.

Three Stars: 3) Will O’Neill (two assists, +1) 2) Tom Sestito (goal, assist, +1) 1) Tristan Jarry (34 save shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey, Lehigh Valley, Hartford and Bridgeport were all snowed out tonight. Springfield beat Providence in overtime 5-4.

Standings: Penguins (.738 percentage points) — Portland (.628) — Hershey (.607) — Providence (.536) — Hartford (.512) — Bridgeport (.512) — Lehigh Valley (.464) — Springfield (.439)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose 4-1 to Kalamazoo. Sunday’s game with the Brampton Beast was postponed due to snow and was rescheduled to March 8.

Pens bus to Providence tonight for a 3 p.m. start against the Bruins Sunday. Gameday for that will hit the blog Sunday at 11.

Let’s Go Pens!

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You probably don’t hear as much about the Portland Pirates as much as you do about the Lehigh Valley Phantoms or the Hershey Bears.

But this team is a divisional rival and the last opponent the Penguins have yet to play this season on the matrix. They are a damn good team as noted in my blog post from early Friday.

The Pirates beat the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins by a score of 2-1 tonight, and could not score more than one goal against veteran Mike McKenna who is playing probably the best hockey of his career. McKenna won his thirteenth straight game and had not allowed more than one goal in now five straight starts.

So the first place Penguins run into a hot team in second place and an even hotter goaltender. Looking at the stats in the newspapers tomorrow, the Penguins went 0-for-3 on the power play and you could say that this cost them the game, but they were a better team at even strength and couldn’t beat McKenna more than once, firing 39 shots at the Portland netminder.

Matt Murray vs. Mike McKenna.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Kael Mouillierat – Dominik Simon
Josh Archibald – Carter Rowney – J-S Dea
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Sahir Gill – Ty Loney

Reid McNeill – Steve Oleksy
Will O’Neill – Clark Seymour
Niclas Andersen – Harrison Ruopp

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Sundqvist was back in the lineup from illness for the first time since January 8 … Matia Marcantuoni, Brian Foster and Ryan Parent were the healthy scratches while Tim Erixon, Tyler Biggs and Barry Goers were the injury scratches.

First Period: Brett Regner won a board battle with Josh Archibald, floated to the high slot and backhanded a shot at Murray that Brett Olson tipped in for a 1-0 Pirates lead at just 1:57 into the period. The Penguins tried the same thing with Tom Kostopoulos the other way, but McKenna held the Penguins at bay. McKenna looked shaky to start, but settled in for the period.

Wade Megan scored on a seemingly harmless, low angle shot that he fired through a tight window that doubled the Pirates lead. The Penguins seemed to carry the play, but you would never get anyone to buy that statement from you looking at the scoreboard.

Second Period: Clark Seymour made it a one goal game with a blast from the point…

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Assists to Will O’Neill and Dominik Uher, who drew the delayed penalty that Seymour scored on. That was Clark’s third goal in nine games with the Penguins and extended Uher’s little point streak to 4-2-6 in his last seven games.

Pens had two consecutive power plays but could not score on either. They continued to roll with chance after chance at McKenna but were unable to solve the Pirates goaltender, who had only allowed just one goal in his last four starts.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre started the period on a power play but were unable to cash in on the man advantage and were 0-for-3 on the night. Pens then needed to kill a Scott Wilson high sticking penalty and did. Portland nearly made it 3-1 but Murray made this weird save off of a carom of the wall…

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Seth mined a gem during the game which was that Murray hasn’t allowed a second or third period goal in his last six, now seven, games.

Pens did all they could, outshooting Portland 12-7 and 39-29 overall, but were not able to solve McKenna at all after nearly getting to him in the first period and finally getting to him in the second.

Three Stars: 3) Matt Murray (27 saves on 29 shots) 2) Wade Megan (goal, +1) and 1) Mike McKenna (38 saves on 39 shots)

Ice Chips: Just the second time all season that Matt Murray lost two games in a row. Also, the first time that the Pirates beat the Penguins in three years. The Pirates power play goal streak was snapped, Portland had scored at least one goal on the man advantage in five straight games coming into tonight but were 0-for-2 Friday.

Around the Division: Well, the Bears got four players back from injury and recall and pounded Binghamton tonight 4-0. They are off now as their game with Lehigh Valley Saturday was postponed to Monday….Providence beats Springfield 4-1, Frank Vatrano had two goals to continue his torrent pace here at the AHL level after his reassignment from Boston…Lehigh Valley, Hartford and Bridgeport were off.

Standings: Penguins (.731 percentage points) — Portland (.645) — Hershey (.607) — Providence (.537) — Hartford (.512) — Bridgeport (.512) — Lehigh Valley (.464) — Springfield (.425)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win in overtime 2-1 over the Kalamazoo Wings, Andrew Cerretani scored the game winner. Casey DeSmith picked up the win.

Pens are back at it again in Portland at the same time, 7 pm, up in Maine. Gameday will hit the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!