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The following tweets by the men that write about this team for a living in the papers should tell you all you need to know about how this one went…

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So it was predictable. A 5-0 shutout, blowout loss ushers in the Clark Donatelli Era for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Nothing went right tonight. Let’s get right to it.

Lines were…

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

Derrick Pouliot – Clark Seymour
Tim Erixon – Will O’Neill
Reid McNeill – Niclas Andersen

Brian Foster – Casey DeSmith

Injury Updates: Mike O’Brien stated that Matia Marcantuoni was off of injured reserve and was the healthy scratch as well as Harrison Ruopp. Steve Oleksy and Tom Sestito were, “close” and Tristan Jarry was, “week-to-week.” Tyler Biggs jobs Barry Goers in the, “month-to-month” category.

First Period: Bad first period for the Penguins, who 1:23 into the game, were down 2-0, then later 3-0 on another Bears goal, this time on the power play and the rout was on. Aaron Ness with a bomb of a shot at :34, Chris Brown from high slot at 1:23 then Madison Bowey skating in unmarked on the power play for Hershey. Wilkes-Barre only registered one shot on goal in the games first eight minutes, and the game conceivably could have been 5-0 with the Bears hitting two posts in the process.

Things settled in the games last five minutes and the period ended with the Bears outshooting the Pens 15-7.

Second Period: Penguins couldn’t cash in on their only power play of the period and the Bears cashed on theirs when Paul Carey swept in a rebound left by Foster that made it 4-0. Erik Burgdoerfer scored his goal against the Penguins (all of his goals this year have come against Wilkes-Barre) and it was 5-0.

Donatelli called time out and was very animated on the bench with his team which was in a 5-0 hole on the ice at their biggest rival.

Third Period: Casey DeSmith came in on relief for Brian Foster, faced a power play to open the period then a brief 5-on-3 but was able to keep the Bears out of his net. It was the most settled that the Pens looked all game, but at this point the game was lost.

Pens couldn’t score on a power play, the Bears were blocking tons of shots. Wilkes-Barre later hit a post when Reid McNeill narrowly missed breaking up the Ellis shutout.

Dan Ellis was in some pain with about two minutes to play in the period, but gutted it out for his first shutout of the season, a 22 save performance, and the first time all season that Wilkes-Barre has been shutout all season.

Three Stars: 3) Madison Bowey (goal, assist, even) 2) Carter Camper (three assists, +1) and 1) Dan Ellis (22 save shutout)

Around the Division: Binghamton beat Hartford at home 4-2…Lehigh Valley lost at home to Bridgeport 2-1…Albany beat Providence 4-1…Syracuse beat Springfield 3-1 and Portland was off.

Standings: Penguins (.768 points percentage) — Hershey (.633) — Bridgeport (.578) — Portland (.574) — Lehigh Valley (.467) — Providence (.467) — Springfield (.448) — Hartford (.433)

Wheeling Update: It was Dave Gove’s head coaching debut and that too was a sour one as Gove’s Wheeling Nailers were defeated by the Toledo Walleye in Toledo 4-1. That will cost the Nailers as they will now be seven back of division leader Toledo in the North Division.

Penguins are back in action tomorrow against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at home. Gameday for that will be up on the blog at noon for the 4:05 start.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Looking at the standings in this league, I can tell you that there are a lot of bad teams in the American Hockey League.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are not one of them.

Don’t believe me? The Toronto Marlies came into Wilkes-Barre last night as the second best team in the League and needed a shootout to beat the Penguins. They scored three shorthanded goals to even get to the shootout but how often do you see teams in professional hockey give up three shorthanded goals? It doesn’t happen often.

Anyway, that same Marlies team short of AHL points leader William Nylander and short Antoine Bibeau who was recalled to the parent Maple Leafs today rolled into Hershey tonight with Ray Emery in goal, who just signed his PTO an hour and a half before the start of the game Friday and beat the Bears 6-2. Hershey had won seven in a row at home coming in and were bolstered by the addition of Chris Brown who had cleared waivers earlier Saturday.

A 3-0 shutout in Syracuse tonight against a Crunch team decimated by call ups and injuries. Brian Foster, up from Wheeling and forced into the starting goaltender position with the injury to Tristan Jarry earlier this week in Allentown, recorded his first shutout at the AHL level, the Penguins recorded their fourth shutout in five games and the Penguins have not allowed an even strength goal in 305:29.

Again, there are a lot of bad teams in the AHL. The Penguins aren’t one of them.

Foster was opposed by Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Scott Wilson was recalled by Pittsburgh earlier today as a result of Daniel Sprong getting sent back to his junior team, so it was an all hands on deck situation forward wise for the Penguins. Here is a look at the lines:

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

Derrick Pouliot – Clark Seymour
Tim Erixon – Will O’Neill
Reid McNeill – Niclas Andersen

Brian Foster – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: With Wilson recalled to Pittsburgh, Josh Archibald was slotted into the top line. The second and third pairs were left untouched and Sahir Gill, making his WBS season debut, took Archibald’s spot in the fourth line. The defense pairing was also untouched.

First Period: Penguins muster not much offense in the period but for this Oskar Sundqvist centering attempt to Tom Kostopoulos that went in:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/678368288213237760]

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The Crunch would outshoot Wilkes-Barre 17-3 in the period and go 0-for-2 on the power play, threw everything but the kitchen sink at Foster but were unable to score. It’s the microcosm of the Crunch’s season, really, one that has been crippled by injuries and call ups.

Second Period: Sleepy periods by both teams. Penguins had this would be be power play goal taken away when referee Garrett Rank ruled that the net was knocked free of the moorings before the puck had crossed:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/678383092709593088]

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Brian Foster stayed active in net, denying Jeff Tambellini and Philippe Paradis Grade A scoring attempts. The Pens outshot the Crunch 11-6 thanks to an 8-0 headstart to begin the period.

Third Period: Feeling going into the third was that the 1-0 lead was not safe. So what do the Penguins do? Score twice in a span of 1:46.

First, Will O’Neill scored from the blue line when the Crunch turned it over right to him…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/678395131460980737]

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Then Carter Rowney with a strong forecheck which forced a turnover which resulted in Tom Kuhnhackl which made it 3-0:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/678396189046349824]

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Tampa Bay prospect Anthony DeAngelo is going to have nightmares on the bus to Hershey tonight of Brian Foster. Foster denied him with the pad about halfway into the period…

…then in the dying seconds of the game with Vasilevskiy pulled:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/678403112093229057]

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Three Stars: 3) Matthew Peca (no shots, -1) 2) Will O’Neill (goal, +1) and 1) Brian Foster (30 save shutout)

Around the Division: I gave you the Hershey final in the open. The other finals were Hartford beating Utica in a shootout 2-1…Portland beat Bridgeport 2-1…Springfield beat Providence 4-2 and Binghamton beat Lehigh Valley 2-1, speaking of bad teams.

Standings: Penguins (.796 points percentage) — Hershey (.607) — Bridgeport (.583) — Portland (.540) — Providence (.500) — Lehigh Valley (.483) — Springfield .464) — Hartford (.429)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers battled back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game at three all late but lose 5-3 in Moline, IL against the Quad City Mallards. Riley Brace had a goal and two assists, John McCarron had a goal and an assist. Toledo beat Manchester 2-0 at home tonight to expand their lead on the North Division by 4. The Walleye are in Indy tomorrow.

Pens are now off until December 26 in Hershey against the Bears. I’ll have my chart refreshes Sunday and the Week 11 AHL Power Rankings up Monday.

Let’s Go Pens!