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Before I get started, make sure you read about tonight’s 3-2 overtime win by the Penguins in the Sunday version of The Citizens’ Voice tomorrow at some point. I pinch hit for Jonathan Bombulie tonight and my words are in the paper.

Anyway, the Penguins probably don’t want the month of February to end. They go throughout the month without a single regulation loss, 7-0-1-1 to be exact and are on a tear.

There is a team about an hour south of Coal Street that is slightly hotter, and the best team in the AHL, but that’s for later.

An overtime game winning goal by Andrew Ebbett, a power play goal by Jayson Megna and Reid McNeill’s second goal of the season with 29 saves from Jeff Zatkoff was enough for the Penguins tonight.

The lineup was unchanged from last Sunday. Josh Archibald skated in warmups instead of Alex Boak. Bobby Farnham played after leaving last Sunday with injury. Jeff Zatkoff opposed Yann Danis.

First Period: Nothing happened. Hartford blocked shots. The Penguins did too. Goaltenders made saves.

Second Period: Penguins jumped out to a 1-0 lead with Reid McNeill’s second of the season setup by the nice forecheck of Dominik Uher. Penguins continued to make boneheaded exit passes that in the past have cost them but tonight they were lucky. Zatkoff stopped a three on one attempt by the Wolf Pack.

Megna took a penalty and seven seconds later Chris Mueller scored to tie the game at one. Mueller fumbled a pass from Chris Bourque, causing Jeff Zatkoff to overslide in the crease and giving Mueller enough room to score.

Wilkes-Barre responds with a power play goal from Megna with 8.6 seconds left off of a rebound that Danis left on an initial shot from Scott Harringtion.

Third Period: Looked as though the Penguins were going to cruise to a win, locking down the Wolf Pack. It didn’t happen. Mike Koska throws a shot on net that Mueller scores on to make it a 2-2 game. Zatkoff had been scattering rebounds all night and Mueller was in position to take advantage.

Penguins had two opportunities to score on the power play in the period but didn’t.

I don’t know if you listened to the Penguins Pit Podcast Friday afternoon or not, but I did. In it, Jonathan stated that the Penguins didn’t ask the AHL to review the hit that Dylan McIlrath laid on Bobby Farnham last Sunday. That didn’t stop McIlrath from having to answer to Pierre Leblond. The two threw down about halfway through the period for a long bout that lasted well over a minute.

Nothing of big significance happened after the fight, so with the game tied at two yet to be decided it was off to…

Overtime: Brian Dumoulin pinned his man against the near wall freeing a puck to Andrew Ebbett who was all alone and beat Danis stick side.

Of note, Ebbett’s goal in overtime was the 200th overtime goal scored in the AHL this season.

Three Stars: 3) Dylan McIrath (no idea, he had two shots, seven penalty minutes) 2) Andrew Ebbett (overtime game winning goal) and 1) Chris Mueller (two goals)

Around the Division: Hershey starts out listless and is in an 0-2 hole at home against Albany but then scored two goals in a franchise best five seconds and roll on to win 4-2. There is no two teams hotter than the Penguins and Bears right now. The only reason why it may appear to the common man that the Bears are the better team with the bigger lead is because of the games in hand situation. Hershey had three on the Penguins to open the month, and won two of them. The two teams meet in Wilkes-Barre a week from Wednesday…Binghamton lost to Lehigh Valley 3-2 in overtime and Norfolk lost 4-3 to Providence.

Standings: Hershey 75 — Penguins 68 — Lehigh Valley 57 — Binghamton 51 — Norfolk 50

Conference: 1) HER (75) 2) SYR (74) 3) MCH (73) 4) SPR (70) 5) WBS (68) 6) HFD (68) 7) WOR (66) 8) PRO (66)

The top eight are tight. St. John’s actually beat Worcester 2-0. The Sharks have games in hand that they have yet to play.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost 4-3 to the Greenville Road Warriors (who happen to be the ECHL affiliate of the Hartford Wolf Pack) J-S Dea had a goal and an assist. Eric Hartzell started in net for the Nailers and stopped 23 of 27.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens travel down the road a bit to Bridgeport for a 3 p.m. start against the Sound Tigers. Gameday setup for that will be up here on the blog at 11 a.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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A two goal game by Andrew Ebbett, where he notched his 100th and 101st AHL goals, and 22 saves on 23 shots and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeat the Hartford Wolf Pack Sunday afternoon by a 4-1 score.

But the thing that may be remembered most will be a vicious, unpenalized hit that Dylan McIlrath laid on Bobby Farnham in the second period of this afternoons game. Farnham left the game with an apparent injury and did not return.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Yann Danis

Lines were…

Conor Sheary – Andrew Ebbett – Tom Kostopoulos
Scott Wilson – Jayson Megna – Bobby Farnham
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dominik Uher
Pierre Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni – Adam Payerl

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Scott Harrington
Nick D’Agostino – Barry Goers

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Alex Boak took warmups but was scratched. Bryan Rust was out with what was termed a, “lower body injury.” Tom Kostopoulos took Rust’s spot on the top line. Adam Payerl drew in for Rust on the fourth line.

First Period: Hartford opens up with early pressure, but Scott Wilson gets a step on the Hartford defense and passes to Andrew Ebbett who scores his 100th AHL goal. Tom Kostopoulos picked up the secondary assist, good for his 400th AHL point…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/569590885735931904]

Teams trade power plays with no one taking advantage. Late, Justin Vaive takes a long shot from the blue line that is deflected by Nick Tarnasky and just past Jeff Zatkoff to tie the game at a goal a piece.

Second Period: Nothing much happened in the opening minutes, then business picked up.

Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond with his first of the season off of this nice pass from Matia Marcantuoni to put the Pens ahead 2-1…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/569603693487792128]

Then all hell broke loose.

Bobby Farnham got absolutely smashed on this hit by Dylan McIlrath…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/569604783998431232]

Scott Wilson made the pass that looked behind Farnham that caught Bobby with his head down. No penalty was called on McIlrath on the hit.

Off of the ensuing face-off, Pierre Leblond wanted to fight McIlrath for the hit but McIlrath didn’t engage. Leblond was assessed a misconduct penalty. Out of the fracas, the Wolf Pack were given a power play. The Pens killed it though. Then Wilkes-Barre went on a power play of their own, got close, but weren’t able to get anything past Danis.

Third Period: :10 in, Andrew Ebbett made sure that there wasn’t going to be any comeback in the minds of the Wolf Pack…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/569615226330595328]

Teams swapped power plays, neither capitalized.

Mat Bodie slashed a Penguin and Wilkes-Barre was headed to the power play. They had yet to score a power play goal in the game until…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/569621369375330305]

Carter Rowney scores off of a nice pass from Tom Kuhnhackl.

Penguins did the same thing they did last night to the Providence Bruins. They kept the Hartford wingers in check. Zatkoff made the saves necessary and the Penguins got two goals in the third period to skate away.

That’s points in 12 of the last 13 games for the Penguins. 10-1-1-1 in the last 13.

Three Stars: 3) Nick Tarnasky (goal, even) 2) Tom Kostopoulos (two assists, +2) 1) Andrew Ebbett (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey beats Providence 5-4 in overtime. The P-Bruins rallied from down two goals to force overtime. Norfolk beat Bridgeport 3-2. Binghamton and Lehigh Valley were off.

Standings: Hershey 71 — Penguins 66 — Lehigh Valley 55 — Binghamton 50 — Norfolk 50

Conference: 1) SYR (72) 2) MCH (71) 3) HER (71) 4) HFD (67) 5) WBS (66) 6) SPR (66) 7) WOR (64) 8) PRO (62)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers won 4-1 in Kalamazoo against the Wings. Josh Archibald had a hat trick and an assist and was named first star of the game.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Week 20 AHL Power Rankings hit the blog Monday at 4. Pens are off until next Saturday when they are again in Hartford. If there is any fallout from the AHL on the McIrath hit, I’ll have a blog piece about it. I’ll try to have content in the week ahead. Check out the chart stat board here, just updated.

Let’s Go Pens!