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Here’s a game that if the Penguins would have lost, it would have been a deserved loss.

With about 10 minutes to play in the second period, Josh Archibald picks off a D to D pass and springs Conor Sheary. Sheary breaks in and finishes on the backhand to make it 4-1. At that point, the Penguins were running away.

But the Pens forgot to take that next step in order to run, and Binghamton finally found the gas pedal. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. In soccer they call it possession time, well that’s all Binghamton had was possession time. Finally, they made it a 4-3 game thanks to two power play goals. But the time ran out in the second period, the Penguins clamped down in the third, and it was a 6-4 final tonight at the Broome County Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena.

Wilkes-Barre’s penalty kill was awful. Every power play that Binghamton had, they scored on. Largely due in part to Matt Puempel and Chris Wideman, who were a combined 3-4-7

Matt Murray vs. Andrew Hammond.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Jayson Megna
Josh Archibald – JS Dea – Tom Kostopoulos
Conor Sheary – Carter Rowney – Bryan Rust
Bobby Farnham – Dominik Uher – Tom Kuhnhackl

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Philip Samuelsson – Derrick Pouliot
Reid McNeill – Alex Boak

Murray – Hartzell

Lineup Notes: Beau Bennett had a planned night off in the three in three. He will likely play tomorrow vs. Syracuse….Andrew Ebbett was playing in his 300th AHL game and 500th game as a professional.

First Period: Crisp first period by both teams. Bryan Rust tipped in a Derrick Pouliot shot on the power play and Binghamton returned fire in a similar way minutes later when Patrick Mullen tipped in a Chris Wideman shot to even the score at 1.

Second Period: Pens poured it on later then got poured on late. Bryan Rust scored his second of the contest on a busted play by Binghamton, which looked like a crossed up, “hey you have that guy, no you do” play. Josh Archibald tipped in a Brian Dumoulin shot that made it 3-1, then Archibald sprung Sheary who made it 4-1.

Chris Wideman made it 4-2 on the power play. Matt Puempel made it 4-3 on another power play. Interestingly enough, all power play goals to this point scored by Binghamton came when Reid McNeill was whistled for some type of infraction.

Third Period: Penguins came out and played defense. Also, much, much more disciplined. Finally Andrew Ebbett scored on a rebound of a Jayson Megna drive to the net to make out 5-3 and give the Penguins breathing room. A big goal at the time. Carter Rowney busted in and made it 6-3 which sealed it. Binghamton pulled Hammond late and scored a power play goal when the Pens were skating with three men due to penalties. Guess who? Matt Puempel again.

Three Stars: 3) Josh Archibald (goal, assist, +2) 2) Chris Wideman (goal, three assists, -1) and 1) Bryan Rust (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Norfolk coughed up a 4-1 lead and lost 5-4 in Syracuse….Hershey fights back from being down 2-0 and beats Hartford 4-2…Lehigh Valley was shutout in Portland 3-0.

Standings: Hershey 15 — Penguins 15 — Lehigh Valley 11 — Norfolk 10 — Binghamton 10

Conference: 1) HFD (15) 2) WOR (15) 3) HER (15) 4) BRI (15) 5) WBS (15) 6) ALB (14) 7) POR (14) 8) PRO (13)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 4-3 in Cincinnati over the Cyclones for Clark Donatelli’s 100th win as a head coach. Zack Torquato had a goal and Matia Marcantuoni had an assist.

SendToNews Highlights: Packaged here.

Pens look for a perfect weekend when they host the Syracuse Crunch at 4:05. Gameday for this will be at noon Sunday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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It would have been a shame if the Penguins lost this game tonight.

Wilkes-Barre badly outshot and outplayed the Hershey Bears tonight through two periods of hockey and faced a 2-0 deficit on the scoreboard despite the 19-9 shots advantage through 40 minutes.

The Bears, to this point though, were capitalizing on opportunities in the game. The Penguins were too, they just couldn’t get anything by starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer.

Then, in the third period, the luck changed.

Taylor Chorney would get the Penguins on the board first with a power move to the net and slipped one past Grubauer to put the Penguins on the board at about the 10 minute mark.

The Pens knocked, and knocked, and knocked some more.

Then, with under 1:17 left and starting goaltender Matt Murray vacated from his crease, Taylor Chorney put a shot on net that went through bodies and Jayson Megna got the last of it to tie the game at two.

Then, at 1:01 of overtime, Megna ended it to give the Penguins the thrilling and much deserved 3-2 overtime come back win. The play was set up by a nice down low cycle by Beau Bennett who passed to Derrick Pouliot who found a wide open Megna at the far post who buried the game winner.

Prior to all of this, the two teams skated to a scoreless draw in the first period where the Penguins held the Bears to just two shots on goal. In the second, Hershey got their two goals when they started the second period full of vim and vigor. A Jon Landry cannon shot from the blue line eluded Murray with traffic in front of him. The Bears later doubled the lead with a laser by Casey Wellman.

There was a play in between Bears goals where Beau Bennett rang the pipe loudly. The puck must have popped in the air and hit Grubauer’s back and slid in the net. Referee Ryan Murphy had, “intent to blow” because he must have lost the puck and the would be goal didn’t count and wasn’t reviewable.

The Penguins stayed disciplined tonight. Hershey was held to just one power play, and that came with a minute of four on four before it. My keys to the game were stay out of the box and limit Hershey’s big guns. The Penguins did just that.

Three Stars were: 3) Derrick Pouliot (two assists, +1) 2) Taylor Chorney (goal, assist, +3) and 1) Jayson Megna (two goals, +3)

I thought Philipp Grubauer played well enough to garner at least third star honors. But circumstances being what they were, he gets left out.

Bobby Farnham, Pierre Leblond, Nick D’Agostino and Conor Sheary were your healthy scratches. Carter Rowney, Josh Archibald and Beau Bennett made their WBS debuts. Bennett played on a line with Andrew Ebbett and Jayson Megna. How many points would those three put up in a 76 game AHL season? 100? 125? 150?

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley won up in New Hampshire 3-2….Norfolk beat Syracuse in overtime 4-3 and Binghamton’s losing streak is over as they beat Rochester 3-1.

Standings: Hershey 13 — Penguins 13 — Lehigh Valley 11 — Norfolk 10 — Binghamton 10

Conference: 1) HFD (15) 2) WOR (13) 3) HER (13) 4) ALB (14) 5) PRO (13) 6) BRI (13) 7) WBS (13) 8) SPR (13)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost to the Evansville IceMen 6-3 in Indiana tonight. Matia Marcantuoni had all three goals for the Nailers in the loss.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here in YouTube fashion:

Pens head up I-81 for a date with the Binghamton Senators tomorrow. Gameday for that will be here on the blog at 3 p.m. I’ll be making the journey also. I’ll have pictures of the newly renovated place with new video boards and stuff.

* – ran a pun contest on Twitter off of the Megna goals and Kaitlyn won two tickets to an upcoming Penguins game with the headline suggestion. And apparently a Megalodon was an actual thing. It was a shark. We here at Chirps from Center Ice strive to educate and humor at the same time.