vs.          

2                                              4

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It’s the case of two teams passing each other going in different directions. The Utica Comets came into this game having lost four in a row (0-3-1) and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins came into the game having won four in a row.

No one turned around to say hello tonight, as the losing streak continues for the Comets and the winning streak rolls on for the Penguins after a 4-2 win Saturday night at home.

Credit Utica for playing an equal style of hockey with the Penguins all night. Physical, in your face all night long that would knock another team off it’s game if that team wasn’t the Penguins who do the same thing night after night after night. The game was really decided via the power play, with the Penguins striking twice.

Tristan Jarry opposed Joe Cannata tonight. It was Jarry’s first appearance for the Penguins since December 16.

Lines were…

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

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Reid McNeill – Niclas Andersen
Will O’Neill – Adam Clendening

Tristan Jarry – Matt Murray

Changes Since Last Night: Kael Mouillierat and Tom Sestito were back from injury. Mouillierat missed about two weeks (December 27) and Tom Sestito missed about a month and a half (November 28) – the Penguins went back to the standard 12 forwards, 6 defensemen. Tim Erixon was scratched on defense. John McCarron skated the extra in warmups. Mouillierat was up with Wilson and Sheary on the top line, the second and third lines were untouched, J-S Dea centered Sestito and Loney. Oskar Sundqvist missed his second game due to illness.

First Period: Both teams opened with early, quality chances which were stopped by the goaltenders. Teams then settled in then the Penguins were off on a power play. Pens cycled the puck around and Tom Kostopoulos finished this feed from Conor Sheary…

[tweet https://twitter.com/TheAHL/status/685982256847024129]

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Kostopoulos became the third Penguins to reach double digits in goals this season, joining Dominik Simon (12) and Scott Wilson (16)

Utica responded with a long offensive shift. Hitting picked up a bit. Then, with 5 seconds left, Will O’Neill found the back of the net to double the Wilkes-Barre lead.

Had to think that was a bit of a crushing blow to the Comets, who were building something that may have resulted in a tie game, but they never did and trailed by two heading into the…

Second Period: If you weren’t aware of the hitting that went on in the first period, you started to notice it in the second period. Nearly every puck put deep or whistle blown led to bodies getting smashed into other bodies or into the wall. Then, late, the Penguins find themselves having to kill 1:27 of 5-on-3 time. With four seconds to go in the period, Hunter Shinkaruk scored to give the Comets life and it was a 2-1 game all of a sudden. The goal ended Tristan Jarry’s shutout streak at 183:59.

So how the Penguins responded going into the third period would be key.

Third Period: Penguins miss on the first power play given in the third period but not the second as Scott Wilson would score to give the Pens some breathing room and make it a 3-1 game. Conor Sheary won a face-off back to Derrick Pouliot who passed to Wilson who one -timed it home for the goal.

Tristan Jarry came up big for the Penguins as Utica was pressing. But with Cannata pulled, Alex Friesen scored with 1:45 left to bring the Comets to within one again. This was the first even strength goal allowed by Tristan Jarry since October 28.

Scott Wilson though iced the game away with an empty net goal with seconds left and the Penguins held on.

Three Stars: 3) Jordan Subban (two assists, even) 2) Conor Sheary (three assists, +1) and 1) Scott Wilson (two goals, assist, even)

Scott Wilson became the AHL league leader in goals scored tonight with 17 and 18.

Around the Division: The Portland Pirates are all the way up to second place in the division and are 8-2 in their last ten games after beating St. John’s 4-1 tonight in Newfoundland….Hartford beats Bridgeport at home 5-4….Albany beat Lehigh Valley 4-2….Providence beats Springfield 4-2….Syracuse beats Hershey 4-2.

Standings: (Penguins .757 percentage points) — Portland (.603) — Hershey (.568) — Bridgeport (.539) — Providence (.500) — Lehigh Valley (.487) — Hartford (.444) — Springfield (.429)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost 6-3 to the Orlando Solar Bears. Brian Foster took the loss. Matia Marcantuoni had a goal.

Here is the post game infographic….

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/686037335050448896]

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And the video highlights…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1xiV2_1ccA&feature=youtu.be]

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The Penguins travel tomorrow to St. John’s for the first of two starting Tuesday. The game is 7:30 Newfoundland time, which is a 6:00 start in Wilkes-Barre.

I’ll have the charts updated on the page Sunday sometime and the Week 14 AHL Power Rankings on the blog Monday at 4. Look for the Hall of Fame Announcement to come sometime Monday as well. When that happens, I will have a blog about the two newest enshrinees.

Let’s Go Pens!

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  4                                       3

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I have seen my fair share of hockey games where a team would go up by some crazy amount early on in a game only to see the other team gradually chip away and ultimately pull ahead and win the game.

I suppose you could say that this happened tonight, but all of the action happened in the first period, instead of the entire sixty minutes which is played in a hockey game.

A wild, 4-3 Wilkes-Barre win in Lehigh Valley where all the goals were scored in the first period, the Penguins remain undefeated in 2016 and have now won four in a row under Clark Donatelli.

Matt Murray opposed Anthony Stolarz.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – J-S Dea – Comor Sheary
Josh Archibald – Carter Rowney – Dominik Simon
Dominik Uher – Sahir Gill – Tom Kostopoulos
Ty Loney – John McCarron

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Reid McNeill – Niclas Andersen
Will O’Neill – Adam Clendening
Tim Erixon

Lineup Notes: Penguins skated 11 forwards and 7 defensemen. With Tom Kuhnhackl and Bryan Rust recalled to Pittsburgh, the lines were jumbled. Here are the cliff notes:

– Wilson and Sheary on the top line centered by J-S Dea.
– Josh Archibald replaced Tom Kuhnhackl on the Rowney / Simon line.
– Sahir Gill centered Uher / Kostopoulos
– Patrick McGrath took warmups but was scratched.

Oskar Sundqvist was out of the lineup because he was sick. With all of the travel that the Penguins will be on (to St. John’s, Newfoundland next week) the Penguins told him to stay home and get better. Makes sense. Obie stated that everyone has been upgraded to day-to-day but for Tyler Biggs and Barry Goers who are still month-to-month.

First Period: This was supposed to be a battle of the two Atlantic Division AHL All-Star goaltenders. At the end of the period, it sure didn’t look like it. Seven goals were scored in the period.

In sum, the period was all goals.

Josh Archibald with a pretty redirect of this shot by Niclas Andersen…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/685616745026052096]

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:51 later, Dominik Uher scored on this odd angle re-direct of a Tom Kostopoulos shot…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/685617142729981952]

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Yes, I know that none of my captions are right in those videos.

Lehigh Valley got on the board when Taylor Leier scored when the Penguins were in the middle of a line change. Leier’s shot hit two posts and went in. It was the first Phantoms goal scored at home against the Penguins this season. Derrick Pouliot mishandled a pass from his D partner Steve Oleksy which led to the goal.

Sam Gagner scored a few minutes later to tie the game at two a piece at 8:23. :23 later, a shot by Cole Bardreau went off of the pads of Murray right to Sam Morin who slammed it home for a 3-2 Phantoms lead.

Clark Donatelli called his time out, and the Penguins didn’t allow the Phantoms a single shot on goal for the remainder of the period.

Conor Sheary floated a puck harmlessly past Stolarz that the Phantoms netminder never tracked and Scott Wilson swept in and tied the game at three at 11:50…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/685621119878053888]

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Penguins would go on the power play but not score. However, they dominated time in the offensive zone. After the penalty expired, Josh Archibald beat Stolarz on a low angle shot that hit the far post before going in…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/685622513225863168]

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That was all for Anthony Stolarz, who stopped just 4 of 11 shots. Enter Jason LaBarbera.

Seth had this nugget:

[tweet https://twitter.com/CVSethLakso/status/685622059100188672]

Second Period: No scoring this period but the chances were there. Penguins had to kill 1:40 of 5-on-3 and did so with both Tom Kostopoulos and Reid McNeill breaking their sticks. Lehigh Valley used their time out, but almost looked like they were looking for the perfect shot.

Then Jason LaBarbera was beat by a backhand shot by Josh Archibald for a hat trick, or was he?

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/685636765793824768]

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[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/685637108892078080]

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Ref Jake Brenk waved off the goal, and either he or the other ref Terry Koharski looked at it on the replay and ruled no goal.

[tweet https://twitter.com/BobRotruck/status/685639143297265669]

[tweet https://twitter.com/BobRotruck/status/685639279717027841]

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I don’t know why there isn’t more consistency in the AHL to have all feeds available to the officials no matter the building. I get that there has to be some type of uniformity, but isn’t the goal by the officials and the League to get the call right at the end of the day?

Besides that, both Murray and LaBarbera were sharp in the period with Murray stopping eight Phantoms shots and LaBarbera stopping five Penguin shots.

Third Period: Game ended up being another methodical performance by the Penguins. After the wild first period, the Phantoms outshot the Penguins 16-10 the rest of the way. Both the Penguins and the Phantoms had looks but neither could find the back of the net in the period.

Three Stars: 3) Jason LaBarbera (12 saves on 12 shots) 2) Scott Wilson (goal, even) 1) Josh Archibald (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Rochester beats Hershey 5-4…Portland beat St. John’s 5-1…Providence beat Bridgeport 5-4 and Springfield beat Hartford 3-2.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Portland (.591) — Hershey (.583) –Bridgeport (.554) — Lehigh Valley (.500) — Providence (.486) — Springfield (.441) — Hartford (.429)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lost 5-2 at home to the Orlando Solar Bears. Anton Zlobin had a goal in the loss.

Gameday setup for the last home game before the longest road trip of the season for the Penguins vs. Utica will be up on the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!