vs.      

  1                                       4

–

A 4-1 statement win by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight and statements made by three players who, ironically, were the three stars tonight. Let’s have a look:

3) Jeff Zatkoff: 26 saves on 27 shots for Zatkoff who picks up the win tonight, his first in 2015. Zatkoff has slipped to number two in the goaltending rotation with the stellar play of Matt Murray. His saves came at key moments of the game tonight when the B-Sens were pressing for a goal to swing the momentum. He was beat late in the second on an Aaron Johnson breakaway that broke up any hope for a shutout. You could argue that he was the reason the Penguins won the game tonight.

2) Bobby Farnham: a goal, an assist and a +3 rating for Farnham who buried the B-Sens when Binghamton was building momentum. After the Penguins scored their first goal, Binghamton was pressing in the offensive zone and you could feel the goal coming. But Farnham intercepts a pass in his defensive zone, races out at breakneck speed and sets up a fast developing two on one with Dominik Uher. Uher scored it, making it 2-0 at the time and you could feel some of the air being let out of the Senators sails at that moment.

The other moment that Farnham setup was this time late in the third period with a goal on a two on one with Marcantuoni. It was 3-1 at the time and all the momentum at this moment was with the Senators. His goal that made it 4-1 basically ended any comeback chances the B-Sens had.

1) Dominik Uher: two goals, an assist, and a +3 rating. Uher has been the thirteenth forward more often than not lately. His two goals in the first period jumpstarted the Penguins and that was all Zatkoff and the defense needed to put away Binghamton.

I called this game in my Gameday setup a trap game for the Penguins. Binghamton is in on a Wednesday night, you get lax here and there and your mistakes end up in your net. That didn’t happen, the Penguins were prepared, and the results show.

Penguins fourth line of Dominik Uher – Bobby Farnham – Matia Marcantuoni was 3-3-6 and a +8 combined tonight. If you get that kind of production out of your fourth line, chances are you win 100% of your games.

Penguins played disciplined tonight against Binghamton, allowing them just two power play opportunities.

Conor Sheary scored on a power play off a nice setup by Tom Kostopoulos in the second period that made it 3-0.

In case you missed it, Matt Murray was named AHL Player of the Week on Monday.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Hershey 61 — Penguins 59 –Lehigh Valley 49 — Norfolk 43 — Binghamton 42

Hershey has three hames in hand again on Wilkes-Barre. The division isn’t probably high on the minds of the Penguins right now with the way that the Bears are playing at current but the Conference probably is. The Penguins have played 50 games. Just one other team (St. John’s, 51) has played more. So everyone in the Conference pursuing the Penguins in the race has games in hand.

Conference: 1) SYR (65) 2) MCH (64) 30 HER (61) 4) SPR (60) 5) HFD (59) 6) WBS (59) 7) WOR (55) 8) POR (55)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube instead…

[youtube http://youtu.be/9q6tKng9g0c]

Penguins next host the Portland Pirates Friday then the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Saturday. Unless I can think of anything to blog about on Thursday, look for the next update here on the blog Friday at 3 for the Portland Gameday setup.

Let’s Go Pens!

          @       

  3                                         1

–

Another nice bounce back win by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, a 3-1 win Sunday afternoon in Bridgeport after bussing overnight from Hershey in a thrilling and gut wrenching at the same time overtime loss to the Bears.

Matt Murray started this afternoon and was stellar again. It’s beginning to look a lot like a number one goaltender is emerging for the Pens. You put Murray in net and he gives you a chance to win. That’s what a number one goaltender does.

Penguins shook off any doubts from the night before and pounced on the Sound Tigers early and set the tone. They rode their defense and Murray the rest of the way and come back to Pennsylvania with two points and a three point weekend.

It was Murray vs. David Leggio in nets.

Lines were….

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Conor Sheary – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Jayson Megna
Dominik Uher – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers
Nick D’Agostino – Harrison Ruopp

Alex Boak took warmups but was scratched. Adam Payerl was out for Dominik Uher. Pierre Leblond was the other scratch. It was the first game played for Ruopp since October 11 season opener against Lehigh Valley.

First Period: The third line of Kuhnhackl, Megna and Rowney established their presence early and often. Carter Rowney fed Jayson Megna from behind the net and Megna cashed in at 1:10 off of this shot…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/564515863353888768]

The Penguins would go on the power play a few times but would not cash. There was a stretch of 5-on-3 for the Penguins and Bryan Rust fanned on an open net and David Leggio had a split second to get over and make a toe save. Later, off of a face-off, Jayson Megna puts a puck on net that Carter Rowney cleans up past Leggio and in for a 2-0 Penguin lead…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/564521214899924994]

Replay will show you that Megna’s shot went off of a Sound Tigers defenseman and right to the stick of Rowney and in. Leggio was asking for interference but his other defensemant was pushing the Penguins player into him and no interference was called.

Sound Tigers made a pushback after that. Murray made a toe save, back the other way Drazenovi fanned on a one time attempt setup by Conor Sheary.

Second Period: Sound Tigers open with a power play. Penguins kill that, then Carter Rowney takes a heavy hit from Scooter Vaughn, Rowney ended up in the locker room for a bit but returned. The two teams traded power plays after. Bridgeport outshot the Pens 13-6 in the period but Murray stayed perfect.

Third Period: Penguins tack on another off a nifty two on one rush with Drazenovic and Kostopoulos. Bridgeport defenseman Aaron Ness was back, blocked the initial pass from Drazenovic to Kostopoulos but not the second and it was then 3-0…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/564546298314244099]

So the issue was whether Matt Murray would back-to-back shutouts. He wouldn’t. Penguins would take two penalties on the same play and Kael Mouillierat would score to break up the shutout for Murray on a nice shot from the slot. Not before Murray made many saves down and out with his team on a two man disadvantage. Murray’s shutout streak officially ends at 114:12.

Three Stars: 3) Carter Rowney (goal, assist, +2) 2) Jayson Megna (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Matt Murray (36 saves on 37 shots)

Around the Division: Binghamton lost a fight filled affair up in Utica, 7-4. Norfolk was off. Hershey lost to Lehigh Valley at home in overtime, 5-4. That one was back and forth also, the Bears battled back from four one goal deficits.

Standings: Hershey 61 — Penguins 57 — Lehigh Valley 49 — Norfolk 43 — Binghamton 42

Conference: 1) SYR (65) 2) MCH (64) 3) HER (61) 4) SPR (60) 5) HFD (58) 6) WBS (57) 7) WOR (55) 8) POR (55)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the Elmira Jackals 3-1 at home. Josh Archibald scored twice and Eric Hartzell stopped 19 of 20 shots.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Penguins are resume play on Wednesday with a home game against the listless Senators. Before then, you can click here to see the updated stat chart through games this weekend and come back Monday at 4 p.m. for the Week 18 AHL Power Rankings.

        @       

3                                         4

–

You knew coming in to the night that the Hershey Bears were the East Division leaders. Up four points on the Penguins coming into tonight, the Bears are probably one of the hottest teams in the AHL. Let’s look at a quick rundown of some key points.

— 7-0-0-1 in their last eight games.
— 17 wins at home, leads the AHL.
— Have lost just once in regulation in 2015. (A 4-2 loss to Norfolk on January 11)

So you know coming into tonight that the Penguins were heading into an uphill battle tonight.

A 4-3 overtime loss to the Bears. You can add one to the first two points above. Hershey, down 3-1 to start the third period, get a shorthanded goal by Kris Newbury :17 in and build and build momentum until ex-Penguin Chris Conner scores with under five minutes left to tie the game then Mike Moore scores his first as a Bear to win it in overtime.

Jeff Zatkoff hasn’t won a game since beating the Bears on December 31. He opposed Philipp Grubauer.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Conor Sheary – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Jayson Megna
Bobby Farnham – Matia Marcantuoni – Adam Payerl

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers
Nick D’Agostino – Alex Boak

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Harrison Ruopp took warmups but was scratched. The other healthy scratches were Dominik Uher and Pierre Leblond.

First Period: Penguins came right out and bltizkrieged the Bears with a long offensive zone setup and caught Hershey on their heels. They had two power plays that looked excellent, nothing like the mess that has become synonymous with power plays of Wilkes-Barre’s past. Conor Sheary had two misses of seemingly wide open nets….

Shots were somehow 8-8 in the period, but if you asked someone that watched the period that didn’t look at a shot board, it felt like the Penguins had more shots.

Second Period: Penguins came out sluggish to start but recovered nicely. Stan Galiev scored :57 in after lax neutral zone puck play by Wilkes-Barre. Ex-Penguin Chris Conner is the fastest guy on the ice and set the whole thing up perfectly to Galiev.

But the Penguins needed a response and respond they did.

Taylor Chorney took a cross checking penalty about three minutes after the Galiev goal. Bears to the power play. The Penguins haven’t scored a shorthanded goal all season.

Until….

There is only one team left in the AHL that hasn’t scored a shorthanded goal yet. It’s Oklahoma City.

Then the Penguins would head to a power play of their own. Conor Sheary found Nick Drazenovic in the slot. All Drazenovic did was angle his stick out and redirected the puck past Grubauer to make it 2-1 Wilkes-Barre…

Mike O’Brien said afterwards that finding time and space in the slot on the power play was something that the Penguins have worked on in practice recently. It paid off.

Penguins continue to pressure. I couldn’t remember anything resembling a Hershey chance after their opening goal by Galiev in the first minute. The Pens had late offensive zone time. Reid McNeill shot….

… Tom Kuhnhackl finish.

Third Period: The Bears prove to all why they lead the East Division. They were not going to lose this game. :17 in, Kris Newbury gets a breakaway and scores to make it a 3-2 Penguin lead. You knew that at some point the Bears would make a push, but didn’t expect it to be that quickly.

The turning point of the game was when the Penguins found themselves on a 5-on-3 for 1:17. Penguins nearly score one on the two-man advantage, but they made too many passes and Grubauer got to it. Then They took it too the perimeter and that was it.

Bears then get a power play. They get close, but don’t score. Penguins didn’t mount anything that resembled offense and tried to kill off Hershey’s momentum by constantly icing the puck.

It didn’t work. Conner found space in the slot and tied it, forcing…

Overtime: Mike Moore scored 3:24 into overtime sending the Bears fans home happy and Hershey a five point lead over the Penguins in the East Division race with two games in hand over the visitors.

Three Stars: 3) Kris Newbury (goal, assist, +2) 2) Stan Galiev (goal, assist, +2) 1) Chris Conner (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Binghamton wins 4-1 against Lehigh Valley at home, snapping a five game losing streak….Norfolk shuts out Worcester the night before but is shutout by the Sharks 4-0 tonight.

Standings: Hershey 60 — Penguins 55 — Lehigh Valley 47 — Norfolk 43 — Binghamton 40

Conference: 1) SYR (65) 2) MCH (64) 3) HER (60) 4) SPR (60) 5) HFD (58) 6) WOR (55) 7) WBS (55) 8) POR (55)

Wheeling Update: Blown leads must be rampant in the organization tonight as the Wheeling Nailers were up 3-1 in the third, but lost 4-3 to the Cincinnati Cyclones. J-S Dea had a goal for the Nailers. Eric Hartzell took the loss.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens bus to Bridgeport tonight. Game is at 3 tomorrow. Gameday for this will be up here on the blog at 11.

Let’s Go Pens!