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Anyone with any kind of hockey sense will realize that this type of outcome and this type of performance was inevitable, with the injuries that are crippling the Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Let’s look around. Pittsburgh lost tonight to the Washington Capitals by a score of 3-0 with a lineup full of AHL caliber talent.

Wilkes-Barre meanwhile, loses this one by a score of 5-0 with a lineup full of ECHL caliber talent.

Wheeling finally, loses 3-1 to South Carolina with a lineup full of what’s left of an ECHL team and filled in with guys off the street and talent from the Southern Professional Hockey League.

Suffice to say, the results were typical and expected tonight.

You just hope that when the injury bug does hit, that you have build up yourself enough of a lead to sustain the rough times and endure the fall. For the Penguins, a five point lead coming into the weekend has been trimmed to two.

That’s the way that I as a fan looks at it. That’s the way anyone who doesn’t think that the Penguins of the NHL, the Penguins of the AHL or the Nailers of the ECHL should win every single game by ten goals should look at it.

Coaches are paid to win. So of course Mike Johnston, John Hynes and Clark Donatelli are going to give the Seth Rorabaugh’s, Jonathan Bombulie’s and Shawn Rine’s of the world some talk like, “we didn’t execute” or, “we don’t look at the lineup, we look at guys that can play and execute the system.” That’s what they are paid to say. Do you honestly expect John Hynes to say to Tom Venesky, “Tom, what they hell did you expect with half my team in Pittsburgh?” No.

Pittsburgh got Robert Bortuzzo and Bobby Farnham back from injury tonight but may have lost Patric Hornqvist and Kris Letang to injury in tonight’s setback to the Capitals. The hits keep on coming.

Anyway, this game. Wilkes-Barre has been scoreless now for 166:16 going back to their first period goal in Binghamton last Saturday night.

Personnel wise, Zack Torquato and Patrick McGrath joined the team today via PTO last night. Jayson Megna and Jeff Zatkoff were recalled to Pittsburgh this morning. Adam Payerl missed tonight’s game and is out, “a while” according to John Hynes as told to by Tom Venesky and Reid McNeill and Nick Drazenovic are, “sick.”

Bridgeport scored their first goal in the first period after an end-to-end start that resulted in Kael Mouillerat scoring off of a one timer that beat staring goaltender Matt Murray at 8:25.

Colin McDonald scored at the tail end of a Bridgeport 5-on-3 to make it 2-0 in favor of the Sound Tigers in the second period.

Then, Bridgeport scored two goals within :50 of one another.

Scott Mayfield shot the puck at the net but it deflected off of Barry Goers skates right to Sebastian Collberg in front to make it 3-0.

Scooter Vaughn then scored from a ridiculous angle to make it 4-0 fifty seconds later.

Penguins opened the third with a power play, closed with a power play but Wilkes-Barre was unable to capitalize. Late, with eleven seconds left, Colin McDonald scored to make it 5-0.

Three stars were, Sebastian Collberg with a goal and an assist and a +2, David Leggio with a 19 save shutout and Colin McDonald with two goals, an assist and a +3.

Bridgeport has shutout the weekend. Leggio tonight, Kevin Poulin last night against Providence.

Binghamton beat Hershey 4-3 in overtime and Lehigh Valley beat Norfolk in a shootout 3-2. Points for everyone in the division except Wilkes-Barre.

Division looks like this: Penguins with 37, Hershey with 35, Lehigh Valley with 33, Binghamton with 31 and Norfolk with 25.

Conference is Manchester with 46, Springfield with 44, Wilkes-Barre with 37, Syracuse with 43, Hartford with 38, Hershey with 35, Albany with 34 and Bridgeport with 34.

The Sound Tigers are in last place in the Northeast Division yet hold down the eight spot in the Conference. The East Division is no longer the best division in the AHL. The Northeast Division holds that distinction.

It could be worse. We could be all Iowa Wild fans and this blog could be named “Chirps from the Cornfield” or something. The Wild lost 9-2 in Grand Rapids tonight.

Back at it Sunday at 4 vs. the Norfolk Admirals. Gameday setup hits the blog at noon.

Let’s Go Pens!

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He didn’t get a star of the game tonight, but he should have. Jeff Zatkoff kept the Penguins in this game for about 50 minutes before Ryan Dzingel scored twice in 3:33 as the Binghamton Senators defeated the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in a bit of a role reversal by a score of 3-0.

The Penguins recalled Eric Hartzell and signed Paul Cianfirni to a PTO this morning. The initial thought with that move was that Jeff Zatkoff was heading to Pittsburgh, but that was not the case. He started tonight and opposed Scott Greenham.

Lineup looked like this…

Tom Kostopoulos – Carter Rowney – Adam Payerl
Conor Sheary – J-S Dea – Josh Archibald
Tom Kuhnhackl – Nick Drazenovic – Jayson Megna
Pierre Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni / Sahir Gill and Dominik Uher

I know what you are saying, that’s 13 skaters there. But, Drazenovic fell ill during warmups and was a late scratch.

Taylor Chorney – Barry Goers
Nick D’Agostino – Alex Boak
Clark Seymour – Paul Cianfrini

Add Reid McNeil to the ones who were ill that missed the game. Obie didn’t even tweet Cianfrini as part of the line rushes, so unless he was befuddled by who was in / out, he may not have taken warmups, thinking that McNeill was in.

Other news of the day was that the Penguins had signed center Jim O’Brien to an AHL deal out of the KHL, but it was announced at around 3 p.m. today that the Hershey Bears had claimed him off of AHL waivers. O’Brien, late of Binghamton, would have obviously helped the Penguins but he needed to stay on waivers for 72 hours for any other AHL team to get him. The Bears had been struggling of late to score goals so they claimed him. It is what it is.

First Period: Penguins played a strong period, but made one mistake. A Barry Goers exit pass to Matia Marcantuoni never connected and Max McCormick intercepted, snaked in and scored on a backhand shot that beat Zatkoff. Binghamton bent but didn’t break in the period. Dea led a charge with Sheary and he slid the puck on the goal line but not across and Jayson Megna found himself free for a second but fired high.

Second Period: As the period wore on, it was becoming more and more evident that Jeff Zatkoff was keeping the Penguins in the game. Wilkes-Barre was being outshot 14-5 this period and 31-14 aggregate for the game. What shots Greenham did face, he saved with ease. The one power play of the period was awarded to the Pens and Binghamton dealt with it handily.

Third Period: Pens could not manage to score on an early power play. Zatkoff made some more big saves before Dzingel sprung into action. Barry Goers fell down trailing him and he scored on to make it 2-0. Penguins would have to kill a Binghamton penalty and nearly scored their first shorthanded goal of the year with Dominik Uher and Jayson Megna doing work on the penalty kill. Later, Binghamton would lead an odd man rush up ice that developed into a 4-on-2 and Dzingel cashed again to ice the game at that point and make it 3-0.

Three Stars: 3) Darren Kramer (two assists, +3) 2) Ryan Dzingel (two goals, +2) and 1) Scott Greenham (31 save shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey defeats Lehigh Valley 4-2. Norfolk was idle.

Standings: Penguins 37 — Hershey 34 — Lehigh Valley 31 — Binghamton 29 — Norfolk 24

Conference: 1) MCH (44) 2) SPR (43) 3) WBS (37) 4) SYR (43) 5) HFD (36) 6) HER (34) 7) BRI (32) 8) PRO (32)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They play in South Carolina this weekend, meaning that Wilkes-Barre will likely need to look elsewhere for reinforcements if McNeill and Drazenovic are not healthy enough to go tomorrow or beyond.

SedToNews Highlights: Are packaged here.

No rest for the weary. Bridgeport is in tomorrow for a 7:05 start. Gameday for that will be up here on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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When I woke up to the news that the Pittsburgh Penguins had recalled Taylor Chorney and Derrick Pouliot from the Wilkes-Barre blue line, I thought that the Penguins were in trouble.

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The Binghamton Senators lead the AHL in goal scored with 3.41 goals scored a game. The Penguins were left with defensemen Reid McNeill, Alex Boak, Nick D’Agostino, Clark Seymour, Barry Goers and a guy they just signed to a PTO from Wheeling by the name of Paul Cianfrini who all have a combined number of NHL games as you or I have. Zero.

Suffice to say, Shimes didn’t have much to say tonight.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins scored three goals in the first period and got 35 saves from Jeff Zatkoff and cruised to victory tonight by a score of 3-0. It was Zatkoff’s third shutout and ties him for second overall in the AHL in that department.

They also killed off all five Binghamton power plays that referee Geno Binda awarded them tonight, including a 5-on-3 penalty late in the game with less than two minutes to play.

I’m convinced that Head Coach John Hynes can win with a pile of sand and a bunch of frayed rope.

Everything happened tonight in the first period. The Penguins had just gone 0-for-2 on consecutive power plays when Alex Boak put the puck on net. It deflected off of a Binghamton defenseman’s stick in front and rainbowed over the body of goaltender Scott Greenham and in for a 1-0 Penguin lead.

About four minutes later, the Penguins scored twice in the span of less than a minute. Nick Drazenovic and Conor Sheary scored. Drazenovic snaked through Binghamton defenders and Sheary scored his on a three on two rush. Goals came from nearly the same spot.

In the second, the B-Sens made a push to get on the board a few times but Zatkoff held them out with some dazzling pad stops.

In the third, the Pens held the B-Sens at bay and didn’t really take too many chances with the puck. That’s a nice way to say that they played a boring period. The final two minutes were anything but boring with fights everywhere, including a line brawl that washed out leaving the Penguins having to kill a 5-on-3.

Three stars were, all Penguins, Conor Sheary (goal, +1) 2) Alex Boak (goal, assist, +2) and Jeff Zatkoff (35 save shutout)

Worth noting here that the only lineup changes the Penguins made were Clark Seymour and Paul Cianfrini for Taylor Chorney (who was scratched tonight for Pittsburgh) and Derrick Pouliot (who scored his first NHL goal on his first NHL shot) Sahir Gill was the only healthy scratch the Penguins made.

Around the Division: Hershey lost 2-1 in overtime to the Springfield Falcons….Lehigh Valley did the same in Hartford by the same score and Norfolk beat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers by the, you guessed it, same score only not in overtime but in regulation.

Standings: Penguins 37 — Hershey 32 — Lehigh Valley 31 — Binghamton 27 — Norfolk 24

Conference: 1) MCH (42) 2) SYR (41) 3) WBS (37) 4) SPR (41) 5) HFD (35) 6) PRO (32) 7) HER (32) 8) ALB (31)

Wheeling Update: You know, your heart goes out to Nailers fans and the team itself. A shorthanded Wheeling side lost 5-3 to the Greenville Road Warriors. Zack Torquato had two assists in the setback.

SendToNews Highlights: Are packaged here.

Penguins are off until December 26 when they face-off against Binghamton again in Binghamton. My Week 11 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog at 4 p.m. on Monday. Check those out then.

Let’s Go Pens!