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If you follow the Penguins, even casually, you know that Head Coach John Hynes and Assistant Coach Alain NAsreddine are all about defense. The Penguins as a team, pride themselves on it.

Well, for the fourth time in five years, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will have the best defense in all the American Hockey League.

And it was, interestingly enough, a defenseman, that stole the show today. Sean Escobedo had a career day today, scoring a goal and assisting on two others. The Penguins close out the regular season on a winning note, with a 5-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Penguins now turn their attention to the Syracuse Crunch, and open up the Calder Cup Playoffs Friday night in Wilkes-Barre.

Jeff Zatkoff opposed Rob Zepp. Here was a look at the lines….

Conor Sheary – Jayson Megna – Josh Archibald
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Uher
Bobby Farnham – J-S Dea – Adam Payerl
Pierre Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni

Nick D’Agostino – Barry Goers
Sean Escobedo – Alex Boak
Danny Syvret – Clark Seymour
Steven Shamanski

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

The Penguins gave Tom Kostopoulos and Andrew Ebbett the afternoon off and went 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.

Prior to the game, the Pens made official the signing of Ryan Parent. Parent is a veteran defenseman with a lot of experience and experience is what the Penguins need, especially on the back end with all of these ECHL guys playing defense. Parent is a great add.

First Period: The Penguins, with pretty much nothing to play for, probably wanted to get a quick lead and give the ECHL rich defense some run. It worked.

Penguins found themselves on a 5-on-3 power play. After a few cycles with nothing, John Hynes called his time out.

J-S Dea cleaned up this rebound….

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/589901400878014464]

… that made it 1-0.

Then Tom Kuhnhackl zipped this shot past Zepp as the 5-on-4 power play expired…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/589902069546536960]

It was the first AHL assist for Sean Escobedo.

Pens would successfully kill two consecutive penalties.

Second Period: Bobby Farnham made it 3-0 with this nice side step and back hand off of the wall…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/589915632726048769]

Sean Escobedo had his second assist of the day with that Farnham goal.

Phantoms got on the board with an Olivier Lauridsen shot that beat Zatkoff short side.

Penguins got a power play, but it came and went. Wilkes-Barre bottled up the neutral zone. Jason Akeson tried a shot through bodies that hit too many that deflected away.

Third Period: Escobedo would finish a perfect cross ice pass from Carter Rowney on this power play…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/589928036176437248]

The Penguins continued to pile on the offensive pressure. Josh Archibald took a puck in the corner that drew two men to him. Jayson Megna picked up the loose puck and zipped one home for the 5-1 Penguin lead…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/589932306376351744]

Penguins would have to kill an Adam Payerl double minor for high sticking and did so perfectly. At this point, with the game decided, it was all about not getting hurt and the Penguins came out of it unscathed.

Notes: Tom Kuhnhackl is 5-6-11 in his last nine games. What a surge to end the season by Kuhnhackl….The Penguins ended the season with a 45-24-3-4 record, good for 97 points. That is better than last year when they were 42-26-3-5 and 92 points and was a 6 seed.

Three Stars: 3) Oliver Lauridsen (goal, even) 2) Jeff Zatkoff (28 saves, 29 shots) 1) Sean Escobedo (goal, two assists, +1)

Around the Division: Everyone else was off.

Standings: Hershey 100 — Penguins 97 — Binghamton 76 — Lehigh Valley 74 — Norfolk 64

Conference: 1) MCH (109) 2) HER (100) 3) HFD (95) 4) WBS (97) 5) SYR (92) 6) PRO (91) 7) WOR (88) 8) POR (87)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers come home for Game 3 of the Kelly Cup Playoffs Wednesday with the series tied 1-1.

SendToNews Highlights: May be up later and I may link in then.

Content wise, busy week. Final AHL Power Rankings hit the blog tomorrow. Fourth Quarter Grades will go up at some point this week. Western Conference and Eastern Conference Previews and a Preview of the Syracuse series all coming this week.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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That was dangerously close.

The Penguins, up 5-1 at one point and Jayson Megna scoring the first Penguins home hat trick since 2012, see Norfolk rattle off three straight goals and narrowly hang on to win 5-4 and lock up the four seed and a first round date with the Syracuse Crunch in Round 1 of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Here is a look at the schedule:

Friday 4/24
Saturday 4/25
Wednesday 4/29
Thursday 4/30
Saturday 5/2

Home games in bold. Penguins release here. All games in Wilkes-Barre start at 7:05. The games up in Syracuse start at 7.

Penguins still have a game left tomorrow in Lehigh Valley. Hynes told Tom that he doesn’t plan on resting many guys with the Penguins cemented in the four seed with nothing more to play for. We will see tomorrow.

Before we get ripping on the post game recap, the Norfolk Admirals played their final AHL game tonight.

Norfolk has been an up and down team from my memory. They have either been really really good (28 was in a row and a Calder Cup) or really really bad (this year) – they will play in the ECHL next year as an Edmonton Oilers / Bakersfield Condors affiliate. I have a lot of people that read the blog, shared the blog and linked to the blog. A lot of good people in Virginia. I think that the Admirals of the ECHL will be a force that will need to be reckoned with. Who knows, with all of this shuffling that goes on, maybe you see Norfolk back on the AHL landscape like you saw Winnipeg in 2015. Who knows. No one can take that Calder Cup away from the fans of the Norfolk Admirals. Fans in Wilkes-Barre would give you an eyeball for one. Be proud of what you accomplished and be happy that you still have hockey to watch on Hampton Roads.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Ryan Faragher

Lines were…

Conor Sheary – Andrew Ebbett – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Uher
Josh Archibald – Jayson Megna – J-S Dea
Pierre Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Nick D’Agostino – Barry Goers
Danny Syvret – Steve Shamanski
Sean Escobedo – Alex Boak

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Kasperi Kapanen took warmups and was scheduled to skate on the third line with Archibald and Megna but must have been injured because after the game, Hynes told the WBS media that he is day to day. Sean Escobedo was in for Clark Seymour.

Also a report out of St. Johns, Ryan Parent is on his way to Wilkes-Barre. Parent is a defenseman with over 100 NHL games, that was on a PTO with the St. John’s IceCaps. Stability for the Pens vs. dressing a bunch of ECHL guys.

First Period: Jayson Megna would score a power play goal early in front of Faragher that put the Penguins on the board early. The Pens needed this jump because of the clunker they laid last night vs. Albany.

The parade to the penalty box continued for the Admirals, yet they managed to outshoot the Penguins 11-10 in the period and tied the game on a Brandon Montour shot from the point that deflected off of a Penguins player and in for a tie game heading to the…

Second Period: Penguins were in trouble. The entire first four minutes were played in front of Jeff Zatkoff. He held the Admirals out of the net and this was your turning point.

Barry Goers blast at the top of the point. 2-1 Penguins.

Alex Boak breaks up a would be John Kurtz breakaway.

Jayson Megna cashes on a  power play goal. 3-1 Penguins.

At this point, with the Penguins defense and the way that Norfolk wasn’t converting, it was over, right?

Third Period: Wrong.

Tom Kuhnhackl finishes a Dominik Uher pass to make it 4-1. Megna gets hit hat trick that makes it 5-1. The rout is on. The Penguins are clinching home ice and everything is turning up roses….

LOL at you. These are the Cardiac Penguins.

Louis Leblanc roofs one over Zatkoff to make it 5-2 on a power play.

Mike Sgarbossa snakes through everyone and slips one past Zatkoff that makes it 5-3 on another Norfolk power play goal.

Time dwindling, Joe Cramarossa scores with Faragher pulled that makes it 5-4.

Time ultimately won and the Penguins held on for the win.

I bet John Hynes will not be happy with the way that the Penguins almost lost that game.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kuhnhackl (goal, even) 2) Barry Goers (goal, +1) and 1) Jayson Megna (hat trick, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey wins 5-1 over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and get to 100 points….Binghamton shuts out Rochester 5-0.

Standings: Hershey 100 — Penguins 95 — Binghamton 76 — Lehigh Valley 74 — Norfolk 64

Conference: 1) MCH (109) 2) HER (100) 3) HFD (93) 4) WBS (95) 5) SYR (92) 6) PRO (89) 7) WOR (88) 8) SPR (86)

Wheeling Update: Nailers are all tied up at a game a piece 1-1 as the Toledo Walleye win 2-1 in overtime in Game 2 of the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Game 3 is in Wheeling on Wednesday.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube instead:

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

Gameday for the regular season road finale against Lehigh Valley will be up at 1 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!!!