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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!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had won seven straight games coming into Saturday night in Syracuse and were the toast of the Atlantic Division and held the current longest winning streak in the American Hockey League.

No one in a Syracuse Crunch jersey was impressed or cared enough to notice.

Playing from behind didn’t seem to matter midweek in St. John’s but it finally caught up to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins on Saturday as they lose 4-2 in Syracuse against the Crunch. The last team to beat the Penguins before the streak beat them again. Thankfully for the Penguins, this is the last regular season meeting between the two teams.

Matt Murray vs. Adam Wilcox

Lines were…

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

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Reid McNeill – Niclas Andersen
Will O’Neill – Harrison Ruopp

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Conor Sheary was recalled to Pittsburgh Friday in the wake of the Nick Bonino injury….Dominik Simon jumped up to the top line wing spot in place of Sheary….Dea took Simon’s spot on the second line wing….Matia Marcantuoni centered Loney and Sestito on the fourth line. On defense, Ruopp was in for Clark Seymour. No Oskar Sundqvist again who was with the team but technically a healthy scratch.

First Period: Physical period. Nearly every stoppage led to pushing and shoving. The Penguins found themselves on a double minor penalty kill when Derrick Pouliot was called for hooking, didn’t like the call from referee Keith Kaval, and was assessed an unsportsmanlike penalty for disputing the call. The Crunch scored twice on both ends of the power play and were up 2-0. Adam Erne scored his third goal of the season against the Penguins with a tip-in then Tye McGinn then stuffed the second Crunch goal past the pad of Murray that doubled the Crunch lead.

Here are the goals, that occurred :49 apart…

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Penguins got one back when Steve Oleksy lowered the boom on Philippe Paradis with a big hit. Dominik Simon picked up the puck, dished to Josh Archibald who zipped the puck past Wilcox and in which brought the Penguins to within one…

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Then in the final minute, Kael Mouillierat tried to force a pass deep into the Penguins offensive zone which caught the Penguins defensive corps deep and the Crunch capitalized.

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Matt Peca set up Mike Blunden on the two on one and the Crunch were able to bring a two goal lead into the…

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre took three penalties in the period and trailing by two goals is never a recipe to mount a comeback. However, the Penguins were able to generate a lot of shorthanded chances and actually outshot the Crunch 10-6 in the period despite being on the penalty kill three separate times in the period. No scoring in the period, but the trailing Penguins started to pick the pace up on the Crunch heading into the…

Third Period: J-S Dea cashed on a Carter Rowney shot and a rebound that brought the Penguins within one on the power play…

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The Penguins were on the come seemingly all period, but Wilcox was more than up to the challenge, in this instance stoning Sahir Gill in close then later robbing Kael Mouillierat on a Penguin power play. But the penalties and undisciplined play by the Penguins handcuffed them, as they kept taking penalties.

With Murray off, Wilcox continued to make big stops on Penguins furious rushes and chances. Wilkes-Barre weren’t able to find the equalizer and Tanner Richard hit an empty net to seal it.

Three Stars: 3) Mike Blunden (goal, assist, +2) 2) Matthew Peca (assist, +1) and 1) Adam Wilcox (25 saves on 27 shots)

Around the Division: Hershey beats Springfield in a shootout 4-3….Portland continues their tear and sweep Bridgeport at home 3-1 tonight and Hartford beat Lehigh Valley 2-1. Providence was off.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Portland (.625) — Hershey (.600) — Providence (.526) — Bridgeport (.526) — Hartford (.487) — Lehigh Valley (.451) — Springfield (.421)

Wheeling Update: Nailers fall 4-3 to the Toledo Walleye in Ohio tonight. Anton Zlobin had a goal and an assist and was a +1 and extended his point streak to 7 games.

Pens now have a week to regroup and prepare themselves for what is brewing as a big, big test in Portland against the second place Pirates next Friday and Saturday.

I’ll have my big board chart refresh on the blog sometime Sunday afternoon and the Week 15 AHL Power Rankings on a special time on Martin Luther King Day, at noon Monday. Check them out then.

Let’s Go Pens!