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The Penguins may only lose games to teams that play the way the Norfolk Admirals played tonight.

The Admirals, winners 2-1 tonight, bottled up the Penguins at requisite times, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and Norfolk Admirals starting goaltender Jason LaBarbera made the necessary saves late to preserve the big win for what was a floundering Admirals team and sweep the Penguins on Hampton Roads this weekend.

Matt Murray vs. the aforementioned Jason LaBarbera

Lines were….

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Tom Kostopoulos
Conor Sheary – JS Dea – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – Adam Payerl – Dominik Uher
Pierre Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Philip Samuelsson
Reid McNeill – Alex Boak

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

Sheary’s first appearance since October 12 vs. Manchester and Boak’s first appearance since October 18 at St. John’s.

Anton Zlobin and Barry Goers are the two latest names on the injury list. Goers took a shot in the game late and is out with an upper body injury. Zlobin is week to week with an upper body injury. The others are still the status quo.

First Period: Two things happened in this period that happen in nearly every Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins game this season:

1) Tom Kostopoulos took a dumb penalty (a cross-checking minor, his 10th minor penalty which leads the entire AHL)
2) On the ensuing Norfolk power play, Andrew Ebbett led a shorthanded rush up ice with Tom Kuhnhackl and DID NOT SHOOT. Rather, he tried to pass it to Kuhnhackl and over passed, on the ensuing odd man rush up ice, Jesse Winchester fired a low wrist shot that beat Murray five-hole.

Kostopoulos takes dumb penalties every game and Ebbett never shoots. Like clockwork.

Oh, the Penguins were held to just one shot on goal in the period.

Second Period: Not much happened the Penguins way. They had a sustained offensive rush of shots on net about halfway through the second, but that was about it. The teams traded power plays but neither capitalized. Late, Matt Murray turned a puck over behind his net that Dave Steckel picked off. Steckel centered a pass to Nic Kerdiles, who picked his spot and doubled the Admirals lead at 2-0.

Third Period: Penguins didn’t do themselves any favors in taking two penalties in the period to put themselves in a further hole. They would get the kills and started to chip away. Finally, Tom Kostopoulos steals an Admirals clearing bid and puts a shot on net that rebounds to a wide open Conor Sheary who scored to put the Pens on the board. LaBarbera would make two huge saves, one on his rump and the other with Murray pulled, to preserve the 2-1 win for the home team.

The Penguins, as fate would have it, manage to outshoot the Admirals 15-6 in the period, and 23-19 for the game.

I wouldn’t pin this loss on Matt Murray as much as I would the overall lack of team effort to generate anything resembling a solid offensive chance. Credit the Admirals, who came into the weekend with a game plan of limiting Wilkes-Barre shots, and sticking to it.

Three Stars: 3) Conor Sheary (goal, +1) 2) Jason LaBarbera (22 saves on 23 shots) and 1) Brad Winchester (goal, even)

Around the Division: The Penguins passed up a golden opportunity to pass the Hershey Bears for first in the division as the Bears lost 5-4 in Worcester in a wild one….Binghamton lost 6-3 to Syracuse and Lehigh Valley lost 4-2 to Hartford.

Standings: Hershey 12 — Penguins 11 — Lehigh Valley 9 — Norfolk 8 — Binghamton 8

Conference: 1) ALB (13) 2) HER (12) 3) WOR (11) 4) PRO (11) 5) HFD (11) 6) BRI (11) 7) WBS (11) 8) LV (10)

Wheeling Update: Nailers hold on and win 3-2 at home against the Reading Royals. Clark Seymour was a +1. Harrison Ruopp cancelled him out with a -1.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Make sure you turn your clocks back Sunday.

Pens are back in action again Friday at home vs. Hershey. Monday will see the Week 4 AHL Power Rankings. Tuesday I will have a blog piece about my Chart that I have a dedicated page on. Check that out if you haven’t already and see me Tuesday here on the blog for some thoughts once I update it from this weekends action on Tuesday.

But for breaking news, talk to you again Monday. Latest always on Twitter.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I really won’t know what to diagnose of this game, a 3-2 Penguins overtime loss to the Norfolk Admirals, until I see the two teams rematch tomorrow night.

The Admirals have been playing really poor hockey as of late. They went on a trip through New England last weekend and lost all three games played and were shutout twice. Not exactly a team that’s lighting the league on fire at current.

The Penguins meanwhile, jumped out to 1-0 and 2-1 leads and let them slip away, but earn the overtime loser point.

They do it over again at 7:15 in Virginia.

Matt Murray vs. Jason LaBarbera

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Anton Zlobin
Tom Kuhnhackl – JS Dea – Bryan Rust
Dom Uher – Zack Torquato – Tom Kostopoulos
Pierre Leblond – Adam Payerl – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Philip Samuelsson
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

Yes, that’s Reid McNeill’s name, on the third D pairing with Barry Goers. We all thought following the Lehigh Valley game Wednesday that McNeill for sure broke his hand blocking a shot. We were all wrong.

Derrick Pouliot is day to day with an upper body injury and did not make the trip. Obie said on radio that Pouliot could be ready to go next week….Alex Boak took warmups…..Conor Sheary took the morning skate but is still day to day. Sheary is apparently closer to a return than Josh Archibald who is skating but still listed as day to day. Archibald is closer than Nick Drazenovic, who is still week to week.

First Period: Pens get two tries on the power play but don’t score. Bryan Rust takes this hard hit from Bryan Allen for some Bryan on Bryan violence but was fine. No penalty was called on the play.

Later, Barry Goers scored this goal, his first in 10 months to put the Penguins on the board. Edit: The goal was changed to Dominik Uher.

Norfolk responded with their first real threat of the game with some shots towards Murray, but nothing came of it.

Later, Nathan McIver issued this hit on Anton Zlobin in the corner which only drew a 2:00 minor. Zlobin went to the dressing room and did not return.

Brandon Yip scored his first goal of the night off of a rebound which handcuffed Murray.

All of the action that was present in the first period was pretty absent in the….

Second Period: This fight between Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Steve MacIntyre highlighted an otherwise average second period. Here’s the embed of the fight…

Please let me know on Twitter or here in comments if you can see the video of the fight on your device. Whether it’s mobile or computer.

Oh, this 2-on-1 save by Matt Murray was another highlight of the second period.

Third Period: Tom Kostopoulos scored this goal to put the Penguins ahead 2-1. But :34 later, Chris Wagner scored to tie the game again. After a review, referee Geno Binda confirmed the call on the ice. It looked at first pass that Wagner kicked the puck in but Binda took one look at the replay and confirmed his call.

In hindsight, that goal took all the wind out of the WBS sails. I can’t recall another good scoring chance after the Kostopoulos goal.

Overtime: Yip ended it rather quick. A Penguin blocked a shot on net that they never tracked, the puck was passed over to Yip who buried it for the game winner.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +1) 2) Chris Wagner (goal, assist, +2) 1) Brandon Yip (two goals, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey cruises in Manchester with a 4-0 win. The Bears have not allowed a goal in 159:36, when Jayson Megna scored a goal for the Penguins last Saturday….Binghamton wins in overtime against the Utica Comets 4-3. Comets goaltender Jacob Markstrom did not get the AHL all time shutout streak tonight. Lehigh Valley was off.

Standings: Hershey 12 — Penguins 11 — Lehigh Valley 9 — Binghamton 8 — Norfolk 6

Conference: 1) ALB (13) 2) HER (12) 3) WOR (9) 4) WBS (11) 5) HFD (9) 6) LV (9) 7) PRO (9) 8) BRI (9)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight. They host the Reading Royals tomorrow at WesBanco Arena.

SendToNews Highlights: Aren’t up yet. Check back soon.

The two teams rematch tomorrow. Gameday will be up Saturday at 3:15.

Let’s Go Pens!

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So this Penguins / Phantoms rivalry is going to be a great one. I’ve been following this team for the better part of five years and haven’t witnessed a regular season game that had such high tension and drama. If there were instant classics in the AHL for games in October, this game, a 2-1 Penguins overtime thriller, certainly would take the cake.

The Phantoms spoiled the party for the Penguins in their home opener two and a half weeks ago. The Penguins dealt the Phantoms their first loss on home ice tonight. J-S Dea had the game winner in overtime.

Matt Murray opposed Rob Zepp tonight. Murray is a rookie appearing in just his fifth pro start. You couldn’t tell tonight. Murray played like a seasoned veteran and kept the Penguins in the game all night long. Murray stopped 42 of 43 shots.

The Penguins may be dealing with more injuries as Reid McNeill left the game blocking a shot on the penalty kill and Derrick Pouliot left the game later when he was checked and tumbled into the boards. It looked almost like a whiplash of sorts.

Wilkes-Barre was 9-for-9 on the penalty kill including several Phantoms 5-on-3s that referees Mike Mullen and David Banfield handed out like Halloween candy.

Lehigh Valley was without its top three defensemen on recall to Philadelphia. Brandon Manning, Mark Alt and Shayne Gotisbehere to name two.

The Penguins scored on a five on three when Derrick Pouliot twirled around in the slot to a wide open Andrew Ebbett who pushed the puck across to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead in the first.

Murray made what was probably the banner save of the night diving across to deny Scott Laughton on a 2-on-1 in the first period.

Then with about five minutes left in the second period, Zack Stortini tied the game at one a piece with a trailing roof shot on Murray as part of a 2-on-1.

The third period felt like it was spent entirely on the penalty kill as the the Penguins were whistled for three infractions. They managed to kill them all with relative ease. What did get to Murray was stopped without much trouble, as Murray didn’t allow many rebounds.

Overtime didn’t stop the penalties. The Phantoms didn’t score on theirs thanks to more big time saves by Murray. The Pens did on theirs after a John Hynes time out.

J-S Dea ended it off of a face off play that came immediately after the timeout.

Three stars were 3) Rob Zepp (30 of 32 saves) 2) Matt Murray (42 of 43 saves) and 1) Zack Stortini (goal, +1)

Binghamton lost to Utica 3-2 in regulation. Hershey and Norfolk were off.

Wilkes-Barre heads to Norfolk Thursday. Hynes did not have an update on the conditions of McNeill and Pouliot after the game and Jayson Megna was recalled to Pittsburgh Thursday morning.

Here are the highlights from last night’s game…

Let’s Go Pens!