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Tom Kostopoulos celebrated his 36th birthday today. He’s heading to Utica Sunday to captain the AHL’s Eastern Conference in the league’s All-Star Classic.

But before he could sit back and celebrate a birthday and reflect on accomplishments that led him to be named captain of the AHL’s Eastern Conference and named starter, he had business to attend to tonight in Virginia.

His overtime game winning goal assured a sweep of the Norfolk Admirals by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins by a 3-2 score.

Lines looked like this tonight…..

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

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers
Scott Harrington – Derrick Pouliot

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

J-S Dea took warmups but was scratched. Pierre Leblond served the third game of his three game suspension. So the lineup was unchanged from last night.

The Penguins opposed recent stone in the shoe known as Jason Labarbera.

First Period: Norfolk jumped all over the Penguins to start. Emerson Etem rang a post then later on a busted Wilkes-Barre clear, scored to put the Admirals ahead 1-0. Then, the Penguins started to push back and Jayson Megna scored when Brendan Bell snapped his stick attempting to maneuver the puck out of his own end.

Wilkes-Barre seemed ignited prior to the Megna goal after a fight by Bobby Farnham with Joseph Cramarossa after Etem scored.

Second Period: No scoring in this period. Penguins had a few cracks at the power play but Norfolk was great in blocking shots.

Third Period: Scott Wilson put the Penguins ahead with this shot from the high slot off of a nice feed by Bryan Rust to give the Pens a 2-1 lead. It was Wilson’s fourth game in a row where he has scored a goal. Norfolk was able to edge back even with a power play goal from Nic Kerdiles on a deflection. A frenetic pace by both teams to finish.

Quick observations, John Hynes told Mike O’Brien in the pre show that one of the focuses the Penguins were going to work on after the All-Star break was special teams. The Penguins had multiple chances this weekend to take a lead with power plays but never could connect….Jayson Megna is usually the butt of my sophomoric jokes on the blog and elsewhere, but he had a hell of a game tonight. Nearly every chance he had was a Grade A opportunity.

Overtime: Tom Kostopoulos scored this goal on a deflection. This came after a John Hynes timeout. Before this, the Penguins had an opportunity to score on a power play but let it pass.

Three Stars: 3) Nic Kerdiles (goal, -1) 2) Scott Wilson (goal, +1) 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey beat Binghamton 3-2 in overtime to stay ahead of the Penguins by a point in the standings and lead the East Division at the break….Lehigh Valley beat St. John’s 4-3.

Standings: Hershey 51 — Penguins 50 — Lehigh Valley 45 — Binghamton 39 — Norfolk 37

Conference: 1) MCH (58) 2) SYR (57) 3) HER (51) 4) SPR (56) 5) HFD (53) 6) WBS (50) 7) WOR (49) 8) POR (49)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lost 4-1 to the Fort Wayne Komets.

SendToNews Highlights: Here is YouTube…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB3KqXgqidM&feature=youtu.be]

So that’s the break. Pens are in action again next Friday in Springfield. Here’s what you have coming at you this weekend and this week…

— Week 16 AHL Power Rankings at a special time, 2 p.m. Sunday.
— My big board chart page is already updated for your perusal.
— I may throw in a quick blurb of who won what at the Skills Competition Sunday night.
— I am pinch hitting for Tom Venesky from The Times-Leader Monday night. So buy a paper Tuesday to see my name and a bunch of words put together about the All-Star Classic. I will have a blog of the goings on Monday night after my duties for the paper conclude.
— I am planning on getting audio of the AHL’s Yearly State of the League. Stay tuned. I will probably make a blog out of that.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have been slumping as of late. They just sloughed off a six game losing streak when they beat the St. John’s IceCaps at home back in Wilkes-Barre.

You don’t all of a sudden just snap out of a losing streak and look like world beaters again. You may have gotten lucky in the game that saw your losing streak end. A bounce here or there and, you got lucky. Usually, what plagued you in the losing streak rears its ugly head once again.

Well, for the Penguins, they almost got caught in the closet with the ghosts that brought them that losing streak.

Enter Andrew Ebbett. Down from Pittsburgh during the NHL All-Star break. Ebbett has been a point producer for the Penguins at the AHL level. That continued tonight as his two goals ignites the Penguins over the Norfolk Admirals by a score of 4-2.

Ebbett wasn’t the only player down from Pittsburgh. Derrick Pouliot and Scott Harrington were down too. It was the strongest lineup in months for the Penguins. Lines looked like this…

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

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers
Scott Harrington – Derrick Pouliot

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

Injured G Jeff Zatkoff’s status is “officially week-to-week” per Obie. Adam Payerl started skating this week and is still, “week to week” and is on the trip with the Penguins.

Josh Archibald took warmups but was scratched. Other healthy scratches were J-S Dea and Nick D’Agostino. Pierre Leblond served the second of his three game suspension.

First Period: Penguins really jumped on the Admirals from the start, getting pucks and bodies behind the Norfolk defense. Finally Nick Drazenovic chipped this pass to Conor Sheary who had John Gibson out of position and backhanded it by him for a goal and a 1-0 Penguins lead. Wilkes-Barre was the beneficiary of two power plays, but failed to score. Bobby Farnham was in the middle of everything early on and drew the second penalty called on the Admirals.

Second Period: Felt like an exact opposite of the first period for the Penguins, who looked lifeless at times during the period. They got scored on. Twice. The first goal was a weird one. The Penguins just killed a penalty and the Admirals were streaking up ice, Chris Wagner tries a cross ice pass that deflects off of Scott Harrington and in past Murray and in.

Teams traded some more power plays. Late, Barry Goers goes into the box for a high stick and Andrew O’Brien slams home a big rebound left by Matt Murray to put the Admirals up 2-1.

In the final minute, with 37.1 left, Andrew Ebbett scored this goal to bring the Penguins even again. It was a nice shot that went cross bar and in.

Wilkes-Barre was lucky to come out of the period tied. Just a forgettable period by Wilkes-Barre standards.

Third Period: Penguins had to kill about 1:45 of a Norfolk power play to open and nearly got scored on. Louis Leblanc appeared to have scored a goal, but referee Mark Lemelin lost sight of the puck and ruled that the puck had entered the net after the whistle had blown.

Huge break for the Penguins there. Wilkes-Barre had to go back on the kill again and Norfolk came dangerously close to scoring again, but the Penguins killed the penalty successfully.

Then, the Penguins edged ahead on a Norfolk turnover. Scott Wilson was looking for a streaking Carter Rowney but instead found the stick of Andrew O’Brien who inadvertently directed the puck into his own net past Gibson to give the Penguins the lead. 

Penguins had a late power play. I have said it on a number of occasions before, but if Wilkes-Barre had anything that resembled a decent power play, they could use that to put teams away. Tonight would have been a prime time to do so.

With under a minute to play, the Penguins possessed the puck for a good :30. Norfolk finally got Gibson out of the net, but Ebbett won a neutral zone face-off that went the length of the ice and into the empty net to extend the lead for the Penguins to 4-2 with about 10 seconds left to play.

Three Stars: 3) Mark Fistric (-1) 2) Andrew Ebbett (two goals, +2) and 1) Scott Wilson (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey was idle tonight, so the Penguins have played now three more games than the Bears. St. John’s beat Binghamton 5-2 and Syracuse beat Lehigh Valley 4-2.

Standings: Hershey 49 — Penguins 48 — Lehigh Valley 43 — Binghamton 38 — Norfolk 36

Conference: 1) MCH (58) 2) SPR (56) 3) HER (49) 4) SYR (55) 5) HFD (53) 6) POR (49) 7) ALB (48) 8) WBS (48) 

Wheeling Update: Nailers win at home 5-4 over the Fort Wayne Komets. Riley Brace had 4 assists.

SendToNews Highlights: Admirals put out a YouTube package, so let’s run that instead…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W3xeWCTGd0&feature=youtu.be]

These two teams rematch tomorrow at 7:15 in Virginia. Gameday for that will be up at 3:15.

Let’s Go Pens!

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It had to end sometime. It did tonight. Penguins win 5-1 against a good St. John’s team that plays better than its last-in-the-Atlantic-Division record indicates.

Goals from the veteran leader, Tom Kostopoulos, two from rookie Conor Sheary, one from Bobby Farnham, on a breakaway of all things. 25 saves by Matt Murray and the Penguins are back to their winning ways.

Before the game, a bunch of news items were announced. First, Bobby Farnham and Derrick Pouliot switched places. Eric Hartzell was recalled to Wilkes-Barre in place of Jeff Zatkoff who was hurt in practice Tuesday. Also, the AHL announced starters for the AHL All-Star Classic to be played in Utica on this coming Monday. Both Tom Kostopoulos and Derrick Pouliot were named starters. There hasn’t yet been an announcement or a final decision on whether Jeff Zatkoff will participate in the events or if a replacement will be named. If I am the Penguins and Zatkoff, I call Springfield and tell them to look for a replacement and let Zatkoff have the time off. Who knows what will happen.

I wrote that last paragraph this afternoon so I didn’t have to throw the links in at 10:30 on a work night, but Tom Venesky from The Times-Leader tweeted after the game that Zatkoff is out till after All-Stars. Jonathan also had more here. I stand by what I crossed out, Zatkoff shouldn’t play. Let someone equally deserving and healthy go to Utica.

Matt Murray vs. Connor Hellebuyck

Taking the veteran option on handwriting out the lines tonight, as I have to get up for my big boy job Thursday morning. So here are Mike O’Brien’s tweets of the line rushes…

[tweet https://twitter.com/MikeOBrienWBS/status/558043646629380099]

[tweet https://twitter.com/MikeOBrienWBS/status/558043928541147136]

With Jeff Zatkoff and Bryan Rust injured and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond serving the first of his three game suspension, the Penguins has no healthy scratches.

First Period: Penguins killed an early penalty, then Nick Drazenovic won an offensive zone faceoff to Tom Kostopoulos who blasted it past Hellebuyuk and in for a 1-0 Penguins lead.

Moments later, Bobby Farnham scored on a breakaway. I wish I had a Vine of this, I am sure that Coal Street will have that as part of the highlight package. Farnham picked up the puck at center ice and zipped down the ice and put the puck over Hellebuyuk’s glove and in.

Penguins must have gotten the message. Jump on them. Finish your chances. The shots were 12-5 Wilkes-Barre.

Second Period: Penguins manufactured a goal out of thin air. Literally. Drazenovic passed it straight to Sheary who put the puck past Hellebuyuk and in for a 3-0 lead. This was a play that didn’t look like it was going to develop into anything and Sheary got the goal.

After that, St. John’s picked it up. To this point, the IceCaps had just 6 shots on goal. They began to pepper Murray and forced him into some rapid fire saves from all angles. Late, with Nic Blanchard in the penalty box for an elbowing call, the IceCaps quickly transitioned into a two on one rush and Keaton Ellerby scored a shorthanded goal against the Penguins, the second allowed this season by Wilkes-Barre.

Third Period: Felt at the time that the next goal, whenever it was scored, would be a huge goal. Penguins got a power play and the IceCaps turned it over tight to Conor Sheary who wasted no time and scored to make it 4-1 Wilkes-Barre. Penguins clamped down from there, time melted off and Scott Wilson tacked on an empty net goal to put it away for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Bobby Farnham (goal, +1) 2) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Conor Sheary (two goals, even)

Around the Division: The Bears keep it three ahead of the Penguins with a 7-2 drubbing of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Allentown….Josh Manson’s goal at 7:00 of overtime (don’t know how that’s possible) give the Norfolk Admirals a 3-2 overtime win over the Charlotte Checkers at Scope tonight. The Penguins travel there tomorrow. Binghamton was off.

Standings: Hershey 49 — Penguins 46 — Lehigh Valley 43 — Binghamton 38 — Norfolk 36

Conference: 1) MCH (57) 2) SPR (56) 3) HER (49) 4) SYR (53) 5) HFD (51) 6) WOR (47) 7) POR (47) 8) ALB (46) 9) WBS (46)

Penguins still are out of a playoff spot as virtually everyone ahead of them won a game or got points.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are off on the All-Star break for the ECHL.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube instead….

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZYSC9KcmI4]

Pens travel to Norfolk tomorrow for the 7:30 start Friday against the Admirals. Unless there is anything major Thursday, expect the next blog update to be your Friday Gameday setup against the Admirals at 3:30 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!