@          

3                                              2

–

Kind of had the feeling when it was announced after yesterday’s 4-1 win against Springfield that Matt Murray would not make the trip to Hartford, Connecticut for Sunday afternoon’s game that Casey Desmith would get the start over Brian Foster.

Foster has been anything but a question mark in net for the Penguins at the AHL level, so with Matt Murray back from Pittsburgh and the status of Tristan Jarry getting closer and closer to a return, with the benefit of a cushion at the top of the Atlantic Division standings, Head Coach Clark Donatelli penciled in Casey Desmith’s name as the starting goaltender this afternoon.

The plan worked.

A 22 save performance for the undrafted Desmith, who wins in his AHL debut 3-2 and the Penguins have their first AHL winning streak under Donatelli.

It was the aforementioned Casey Desmith vs. Magnus Hellberg

No lineup changes for the Penguins this afternoon in Hartford, the only change being Desmith making his first AHL start.

First Period: Nothing really doing early on with the teams trading chances back and forth. The Penguins easily killed a Hartford power play and out shot the Wolf Pack 13-5 in the period. What Hartford did generate in chances were few and far between but quality overall.

With 8.8 seconds left in the period, Dominik Simon did this…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/683748870245986304]

–

It was Simon’s team leading 29th point for the Penguins.

Second Period: Penguins would get two quick goals in the first minute of the period kicked off by this rocket of a shot by J-S Dea…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/683753368955695104]

–

Exactly 15 seconds later and off of the ensuing face-off, the Penguins would score again…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/683753872284766208]

–

Bryan Rust would get credit when he banked the puck off of a prostrated Tommy Hughes.

The Wolf Pack called time out after that goal.

Then there were some penalties which ended up being a long overlapping power play for Hartford. They managed one shot on goal at Desmith and the rest of the time the Penguins just cleared everything and had a bunch of shorthanded rushes.

There are two automatic goal scorers that I know of that whenever they play the Penguins, you can pencil them in for a goal against Wilkes-Barre. One is defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer in Hershey and the other is Nick Tarnasky on the Hartford Wolf Pack. Tarnasky softly swept this puck past Desmith that spoiled the would be shutout and got Hartford on the board…

[tweet https://twitter.com/TheAHL/status/683757622302912513]

–

Desmith looked settled in as the game wore on and made some big saves. The game starting to unfold into another methodical Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins game. That is, get a lead, sit on it, try to build on it and give the opponent nothing. An example of this was about three or four face-offs in the Penguins offensive zone that they won and just fired pucks at Hellberg.

Third Period: Physicality picked up and all ends of the ice were being used. The Wolf Pack would outshoot the Penguins 9-6 in this period and with Hellberg pulled, Chad Nehring would score with 6.1 seconds left in the game that made it 3-2 but there wasn’t enough time for the Wolf Pack to get the equalizer and the Penguins would hold on.

Desmith is probably packing his bags for Wheeling this week no matter what happens with Jarry this week just because, but I think that he has definitely earned a second look with another AHL team, whether that’s Wilkes-Barre or some other team. If not, he should definitely get some more starts in the ECHL.

Three Stars: 3) Nick Tarnasky (goal, -1) 2) Bryan Rust (goal, +1) and 1) J-S Dea (goal, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey blanks Bridgeport on the road by a score of 5-0. Dan Ellis had a 32 save shutout…Lehigh Valley beat Portland in Maine by a score of 2-1 and Providence beat Rochester 5-2.

Standings: Penguins (.734 percentage points) — Hershey (.600) — Portland (.578) — Bridgeport (.578) — Lehigh Valley (.514) — Providence (.471) — Hartford (.441) — Springfield (.424)

Here is the post game infographic from the Penguins…

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/683791227452522496]

–

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost at home to the Norfolk Admirals by a score of 5-3. Anton Zlobin had two goals and an assist.

My Week 13 AHL Power Rankings return to their normal 4 p.m. Monday release time. I’ll also have a refresh of the big board sometime Sunday evening also.

Penguins are back on the ice on Tuesday for a date with the Binghamton Senators in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05.

Let’s Go Pens!

          vs.          

1                                                4

–

I think there were three things that led to the outcome tonight, a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre win over the Springfield Falcons.

1. The Penguins are just too good of a team collectively to lose any more than two or three games in a row. There are a lot of bad teams in the AHL and despite these last three games, the Penguins are not one of them.
2. The Return of Matt Murray. Say what you want, the Pens are a different, more confident team, when he is back there tending the nets.
3. The Patrick McGrath Factor. The Shavertown native and local grown product was on the ice tonight and was the fuse that sparked the dynamite which was the Wilkes-Barre offense with a big time tilt with Springfield’s Eric Selleck. Selleck is five inches and 18 pounds heavier than the 5’10, 200 pound McGrath.

It was almost scripted the way that the Selleck-McGrath fight came to be, which I will get to in the story.

Matt Murray opposed Niklas Treutle.

Line were…

Josh Archibald – J-S Dea – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Simon
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Ty Loney – Sahir Gill – Patrick McGrath

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

Matt Murray – Casey DeSmith

McGrath took the spot of John McCarron on the fourth line as the only lineup change.

First Period: Falcons jumped out ahead at 1:17 when ex-Penguin Dustin Jeffrey knocks home a puck that Derrick Pouliot failed to clear out of in front of Murray’s crease. Later, the Falcons were pressuring in the offensive zone when the puck skipped over a defenseman’s stick and barely out. During the confusion of the fact that everyone needed to get back onsides again, J-S Dea found Josh Archibald for a breakaway that Archibald finished to even the game at one a piece. It was Archibald’s first goal of the season and long overdue.

Then, late, Eric Selleck and Tom Kostopoulous got tangled up in front of the Penguins bench. Pushing and shoving occurred. You knew what came next, eventually McGrath was going to fight Selleck.

Second Period: After another penalty by Derrick Pouliot which was killed by the Penguins, Tim Erixon shot the puck from the point and Tom Kostopoulos deflected it home for a 2-1 Penguins lead.

Then off the face-off, Eric Selleck made a bad choice:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/683455111805464576]

–

Back to my scripted analogy, you have the bad guy (Selleck) messing with the good guy / legend (Kostopoulos) in the backyard of the hero (McGrath) who also happens to be and play for the local hockey team. The hero pummels the bad guy and the Penguins go on to score two more goals, a Sahir Gill rebound goal of a Reid McNeill shot and then a Bryan Rust power play goal after the Falcons had called a timeout after the Gill goal and the rout was on.

The Penguins were running circles on the Falcons and having fun again. Three goals in the span of 3:17. The local kid playing for the local team with the spark to get it all going. Happy days are here again.

Third Period: Nothing really of substance to note. Wilkes-Barre killed two power plays. Clark Donatelli collected his first AHL win.

Three Stars: 3) Carter Rowney (two assists, +1) 2) Matt Murray (30 saves on 31 shots) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, even)

Worth noting the following:

[tweet https://twitter.com/CVSethLakso/status/683484050846253056]

And more importantly…

[tweet https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/683485757181407232]

–

So it will be either Casey DeSmith or Brian Foster in net Sunday in Hartford. I have a feeling it may be DeSmith. Who knows, though.

Around the Division: Hershey beats Binghamton 6-5 in overtime after overcoming a 5-1 deficit….Bridgeport beat Rochester 4-3 in overtime….Albany beat Hartford 4-3 and Portland beat Lehigh Valley 4-3 in overtime up in Maine.

Standings: Penguins (.726 percentage points) — Portland (.597) — Hershey (.588) — Bridgeport (.586) — Lehigh Valley (.500) — Providence (.455) — Hartford (.455) — Springfield (.424)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers Thunderbirds beat the Brampton Beast on Throwback Night by a score of 5-1. With Fort Wayne beating Toledo tonight 2-1, that draws Wheeling 4 points behind the Walleye for the North Division lead.

Here are the video highlights from Coal Street:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEyzao6gIS4&feature=youtu.be]

–

Pens travel to Hartford for a 3 pm start, with the Gameday setup hitting the blog here Sunday at 11 am.

Let’s Go Pens!

        vs.        

4                                             2

–

Tonight’s game, a 4-2 loss to the Syracuse Crunch, was won and lost by the goaltenders tonight.

Brian Foster for Wilkes-Barre stopped just 13 of 16 shots at him tonight and looked generally awful. I had a concern at the start of the year that if the Penguins ever needed to rely on him at any point that they would be in trouble and this is proving to be true. Seth dug this stat up during the game tonight:

[tweet https://twitter.com/CVSethLakso/status/682702943653605381]

–

Also…

[tweet https://twitter.com/CVSethLakso/status/682691592210247681]

[tweet https://twitter.com/CVSethLakso/status/682678874161967108]

–

I will get to my point that he wasn’t very good tonight and cost the Penguins at a real shot at winning the game.

Andrei Vasilevskiy on the other hand, was outstanding. He wasn’t one of the three stars of the game, but he won the game for Syracuse tonight, stopping 28 of 30 and all 16 shots in the third period by the Penguins as they were chasing a one goal deficit. His best work came in the third period and again, I will get to the evidence of that visually in a second.

Lines were as follows…

Josh Archibald – J-S Dea – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Simon
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Ty Loney – Sahir Gill – John McCarron

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

Brian Foster – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Adam Clendening was sent down by Pittsburgh to Wilkes-Barre Thursday morning on a conditioning assignment. He took the place of Clark Seymour paired on the top defensive unit with Derrick Pouliot….John McCarron was called up to Wilkes-Barre yesterday as Matia Marcantuoni was sent down and was in on the fourth line reunited with his Wheeling line mates Ty Loney and Sahir Gill. J-S Dea centered the top line with Kael Mouillierat out with an upper body injury.

First Period: Pens had the games first power play and brought in a unit which was on a long dry spell on power play success. Clendening pumped a shot at net that was tipped in by J-S Dea for a goal and a Penguins lead for the first time in a while, as it was the first goal scored under the Clark Donatelli Era and the first lead too.

Here is a look at it…

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682688422633455616]

–

Penguins continued to control the offensive zone. They would set up shop, and just stay there and cycle the puck and pump shots at Vasilevskiy.

But it was becoming apparent that the Crunch were doing a decent enough job at getting sticks in the lanes of where the shots were headed, as seemingly 60% of the shot attempts were either blocked or deflected.

Josh Archibald would then take a questionable goaltender interference penalty and the Crunch would quickly cash on power play when Adam Erne finished off a tic tac toe play in front of Foster for a 1-1 game.

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682692050232422402]

–

After the Penguins were so dominant to this point, I said this at the time…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/682691184117039104]

–

My very next tweet…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/682692280566833152]

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682693228269809665]

It was actually a reversal of the way I called it at the time on Twitter. It was Mike Blunden who scored and Tanner Richard who won the draw. Regardless, it was a 2-1 Crunch lead after what was a pretty good period by the Penguins.

Second Period: Sahir Gill would score on the power play and the terms were even again. Dominik Simon set the whole thing up with a nice pass to Gill who shot it home. Simon collected his AHL leading 28th point for rookies.

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682701543406178304]

–

1:19 later, Syracuse edged ahead again when Nic Andersen got dumped into the Syracuse bench, turned the puck over. Adam Erne broke down the wing, centered to Cameron Darcy who missed the net entirely, but shot it off the wall where Erne collected and put it past Foster for a 3-2 Crunch lead.

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682702301438570496]

–

Someone needs to explain to me what the hell Foster was doing in that situation. Syracuse scored three goals on ten shots. Look, I know that the Pens are down their top two goaltenders, but you have to have the ability to make saves at the American Hockey League level. Right now, Foster isn’t that guy.

Saw people clamoring on Twitter for Penguins backup goaltender Casey DeSmith. Here’s his story. He is in his rookie season and is the third goaltender in Wheeling, playing behind Foster and Franky Palazzese. If you aren’t good enough to play your way into a a few games here and there in the ECHL, you aren’t good enough to be relied upon in the AHL for a good team like the Penguins.

Third Period: Here is one of Vasilevskiy’s two monster saves in the third period. This one is on Oskar Sundqvist.

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682714009968185344]

–

Here is the second one, on J-S Dea. Two looks. Two angles.

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682717593162100736]

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682717934729490432]

–

Larceny.

Penguins really brought everything they could at the Crunch and Vasilevskiy. They did a good job of insulating Brian Foster but could not solve Vasilevskiy at all. With time dwindling and Foster vacated, the Penguins never found the equalizer and had to watch this shot by Slater Koekkoek drift harmlessly into their net…

[tweet https://twitter.com/JGHoughtaling/status/682719667656495105]

–

[tweet https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/682718388985159682]

–

Derrick Pouliot was awful tonight. He may be hurt, discouraged, or slumping. He had three turnovers tonight that led to rushes up ice for the Crunch the other way. I think he misses Steve Oleksy, who he was paired with before Oleksy’s injury…

[tweet https://twitter.com/CVSethLakso/status/682711013532262400]

–

Three Stars: 3) Mike Blunden (goal, assist, +1) 2) Sahir Gill (goal, even) and 1) Adam Erne (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: The silver lining in the current losing streak that the Penguins is on is that it is being matched by the Hershey Bears, who drop their third straight game, this time a 3-1 setback at home to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Portland beat Providence 4-3.

Standings: Penguins (.717 points percentage) — Bridgeport (.591) — Portland (.583) — Hershey (.576) — Lehigh Valley (.500) — Hartford (.469) — Providence (.465) — Springfield (.419)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost in overtime to the Brampton Beat by a score of 4-3. Anton Zlobin had a goal and an assist, Matia Marcantuoni had a goal.

I don’t think that the Pens will put a postgame infographic up or video highlights. You aren’t missing much that you haven’t seen already here.

Pens are in action again Saturday against Springfield. Look, Syracuse is a good team that has been pillaged by injuries and call-ups. They are resilient and play that way and I think that was full on display tonight. If the Pens lose to the last place Falcons, then I think you will see fans start to get desperate and start demanding answers.

Anyway, Happy New Year and Let’s Go Pens!