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Apologies to anyone who relies on me for coverage of the Penguins on a full time basis tonight. I was out at dinner with my big boy job and thus unable to tweet the Penguins game tonight in Allentown, a 4-0 Wilkes-Barre win, another Matt Murray shutout, his fourth of the season and just one off the all time WBS team lead in shutouts held by Brad Thiessen.

The Penguins went 7-for-7 on the penalty kill tonight and fixed their power play woes by scoring two, one by Dominik Simon and the other by Scott Wilson. The duo had a pair of goals total.

I’ll do my best to piece all of this together from the top so here goes….

Matt Murray opposed Anthony Stolarz, who has been playing some really great hockey as of late. Stolarz stymied the Penguins last weekend and the Phantoms as a whole were on a bit of an uptick, 8-4-1 in their last 13 games coming in. The Penguins had the feeling of, “what if” tonight with what happened last weekend. Not to discount anything that the Syracuse Crunch are about, but the Penguins were, are and will be the better team however you slice that matchup.

Lines were….

Scott Wilson – Kael Mouillierat – Conor Sheary
Carter Rowney – Kevin Porter – Dominik Simon
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – J-S Dea – Bryan Rust

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

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Josh Archibald was scratched again along with Tyler Biggs and Clark Seymour.

Tom Kostopoulos appeared in his 500th game for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton…

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/675467647329415168]

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First Period: Dominik Simon got the first of his two goals with a redirection of a Tim Erixon shot from the point that went in for a 1-0 Penguins lead. Wilkes-Barre would double the lead about twelve minutes later when Scott Wilson got the first of his two goals of the night with a one time shot on a power play that broke an 0-for-24 skid for the Penguins. Shots after one were 8-6.

Second Period: Pens would continue the parade to the penalty box but not allow the Phantoms to score; then Dominik Simon scored again even strength to make it 3-0. Prior to, Murray was making some big time stops with the defenders in front of him gassed. The Penguins were outclassed in the period, thanks in large part to constantly going on the kill in the period, and the Phantoms outshot Wilkes-Barre 12-6 in the period.

Third Period: Scott Wilson collected his second goal of the night, this time on the power play. Conor Sheary made a spin pass to Kostopoulos, who found Wilson on the redirect for a 4-0 Penguins lead. Lehigh Valley tried to press, but the Penguins limited them to just three shots late through the third, and outshot them 6-5 in the period.

Total shots were 23-20 Phantoms.

Random Stuff: 11 goals total for Dominik Simon, 4 in the last two games….Four of Matt Murray’s 16 shutouts have come against Lehigh Valley. I think he has three against Springfield.

Three Stars: Scott Wilson (two goals, even) 2) Matt Murray (23 save shutout) and 1) Dominik Simon (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: Bridgeport beat Portland 3-1…Springfield beat Binghamton 4-3…Providence beat Hartford 3-1…Hershey was the lone Atlantic Division team off tonight.

Standings: Penguins (.783 percentage points) — Bridgeport (.635) — Hershey (.625) — Lehigh Valley (.481) — Springfield (.479) — Providence (.479) — Portland (.477) — Hartford (.440)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost to the Toledo Walleye 2-1 in a shootout. The two team space back to West Virginia to pay off the back end of the home and home tomorrow night.

Here is the post game infographic:

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/675526764974768130]

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Albany is in tomorrow for what is shaping up to be a good one. The Devils have won seven in a row. The last team to beat them? The Penguins on November 21 in Albany. Gameday setup for that will hit the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins floundered through three divisional games last weekend and couldn’t wait for the weekend of woe to end, one where they only scored three goals total.

But the schedule wears on. Teams keep rolling in now that we are a quarter of the way into the season.

The Syracuse Crunch were exactly what the doctor ordered.

The Crunch have been crushed by injuries, call-ups and just a general lack of cohesiveness and direction of late. Ask any Crunch fan. If there ever was a perfect opponent to cure whatever it was that was ailing the Penguins as a team, it was a rudderless Crunch team.

The Penguins dominated tonight and rolled to an easy 6-2 win.

Matt Murray opposed Kristers Gudlevskis.

With this being a work night for me, I am again taking the veteran option on the line rushes:

[tweet https://twitter.com/MikeOBrienWBS/status/674734619711901696]

[tweet https://twitter.com/MikeOBrienWBS/status/674735096990142465]

Tristan Jarry backed up Murray. Josh Archibald skated the extra body in warmups.

Tom Kostopoulos was back into the lineup, after missing Sunday’s game in Hershey with a lower body injury. Sullivan told the media yesterday that the Penguins captain was not day to day but not week to week either. He played tonight.

First Period: Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Bryan Rust stole a puck at the Crunch blueline, danced around a few Syracuse defenders and dished to Tom Kuhnhackl who wrested one home for a 1-0 Penguins lead. :40 later, Tom Kostopoulos steals a puck and scores to double the Penguins lead. Crunch were on their heels and called a time out.

Conor Sheary with the nastiest goal of the season. Two angles here, essentially the same, my amateurish video and a GIF from the AHL. Mine first…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/674747569390690306]

[tweet https://twitter.com/TheAHL/status/674749007441346561]

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Sheary walked through four Crunch defenders and went bar down on Gudlevskis. Absolute filth.

[tweet https://twitter.com/CVSethLakso/status/674747840179118081]

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Second Period: Jeff Tambellini scored on the front end of a Kostopoulos double minor for high sticking and the Crunch were on the board. This was the best period Syracuse played because the Penguins were not able to cash on their own double minor. Crunch seemed to inch closer and the feeling in the building was that the next goal would be big.

Third Period: Started out with end to end action with plenty of chances both ways. Finally, Kevin Porter, playing in his 500th professional game, walked a puck from behind the Crunch net, found a lane and shot the puck at Gudlevskis who made the save but spilled a rebound right to Dominik Simon who, in close quarters, roofed the puck over the Crunch netminders shoulder for a 4-1 Penguin lead.

So the Penguins exceed the goal scoring total from three games in one weekend in one game on a Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre. Hockey is a funny sport.

Dominik Simon scored on a breakaway when the puck hit the post behind Gudlevskis and bounced off of him and in for a 5-1 Penguin lead.

Dominik Uher added his first of the season when he sprung free of the Crunch defenders and went upstairs on Gudlevskis to make it 6-1. Uher was really working on trying to score all game and finally it clicked for him.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +2) 2) Matt Murray (30 saves on 32 shots) and 1) Dominik Simon (two goals, +2)

Nice bounce back game for everyone, notably Derrick Pouliot, who was +4.

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley fights back from a 0-2 deficit in Allentown and wins in overtime 3-2 over the Bears….Portland blasted Springfield 5-1.

Standings: Penguins (.773 percentage points) — HErshey (.625) — Bridgeport (.620) — Lehigh Valley (.500) — Portland (.500) — Hartford (.458) — Springfield (.457) — Providence (.457)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off, they are in Indianapolis tomorrow for a game against the Indy Fuel. I will have coverage of that here on the blog.

Here is the post game infographic….

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/674808261875507200]

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And the post game highlights…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv-8WHAdnI4&feature=youtu.be]

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Pens are on the road Friday against Lehigh Valley then back home Saturday against Albany.

Let’s Go Pens!!