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Let me know if at the end of this game, a 3-2 Penguins victory, you stood up out of your seat at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza or out of your chair at home or apartment and breathed a sigh of relief.

The Penguins were badly outclassed the night before in Hershey and couldn’t get out of their own way. They soundly beat the fluttering Springfield Falcons Friday night but you just weren’t sure.

With Eric Hartzell back in net for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton today, more uncertainty. Hartzell has been bad in your recent memory, was shipped to Wheeling late last year and wasn’t seen at all when the Penguins went through the Calder Cup Playoffs last Spring.

You weren’t alone. As I got up out of my seat at the Arena, that feeling of a ton of bricks off your shoulders kicked in. Not just for me, but more likely for the man in goal tonight for the Penguins, that being Eric Hartzell.

This past weekend, the Penguins were 2-1. Not the greatest, but better than most.

Wilkes-Barre peppered Binghamton Senators goaltender Andrew Hammond, firing 40 shots at the netminder. They looked sound for a good majority of the game and controlled a great portion of it.

Hartzell, for what it’s worth, looked steady. He got beat twice, one by Chris Wideman as he drove to the slot and whipped a shot past Hartzell’s glove to cut the B-Sens deficit to one late in the first and again in the second, while Binghamton was on the power play. A rebound popped high in the air and was batted in the net legally by Cole Schneider.

The Penguins raced to a 2-0 lead in the first period when Matt Rust powered past a Binghamton defender and fired a shot on net that Penguins captain Tom Kostopoulos cashed in on to make it 1-0. Later, on a power play, Derrick Pouliot would score his first professional goal to extend the lead to 2-0.

The Penguins were furious in the third period, outshooting Binghamton 16-5. Andrew Ebbett was camped out on Hammon’ds crease and popped home a rebound of his own shot to extend the lead to 3-2.

Wilkes-Barre had to kill a late Binghamton penalty with Adam Payerl in the box for interference on the goaltender. The B-Sens hit the post on the power play but never found the equalizing goal.

Bobby Farnham served his one-game suspension from his instigator penalty in the final five minutes of the Hershey game Saturday night. This topic was well covered here, so no need to rehash any of that.

Nick Drazenovic did not play either, he is week to week with a lower body injury, per Tom Venesky.

Essentially it was Adam Payerl and Anton Zlobin in for Farnham and Drazenovic.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal) 2) Derrick Pouliot (goal, assist) and 1) Andrew Ebbett (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: The Hershey Bears defeated the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 3-0. Norfolk was shutout in Hartford, 3-0. That is the second shutout the Admrials have suffered this weekend.

Standings: Hershey 10 — Lehigh Valley 8 — Penguins 8 — Binghamton 6 — Norfolk 4

Conference: 1) ALB (11) 2) HER (10) 3) WOR (9) 4) PRO (9) 5) HFD (9) 6) BRI (9) 7) STJ (9) 8) LV (8) 9) WBS (8)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They are in Reading Thursday.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

My Power Rankings hit the blog tomorrow at 4. I will have the Charts refresh Tuesday too. Pens travel to Allentown for the first time ever when they take on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Wednesday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Penguins lost this game, a 4-1 setback to the Hershey Bears, by way of special teams. Plain and simple.

The Hershey Bears go 3-for-9 on the power play tonight, and that was your ballgame. The Penguins were 0-for-5 on the power play themselves. No need to read anymore or get upset over the struggling Penguins losing another game or to place blame. But, since you are already here, may as well stay for the story, right?

Matt Murray vs. Philipp Grubauer

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – Andrew Ebbett – Jayson Megna
Dominik Uher – Zack Torquato – Bryan Rust
Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Derrick Pouliot – Philip Samuelsson
Reid McNeill – Scott Harrington

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

So essentially Matia Marcantuoni and Pierre Leblond for J-S Dea and Anton Zlobin.

First Period: Grubauer and Murray trade early big saves. Pens get a power play but don’t score. Bears get a power play and do. A diving Uher clear banks in off of Tim Kennedy and in. Then, :40 later, a Dane Byers pass ticketed for Chandler Stephenson hits a sliding Brian Dumoulin and in for a 2-0 Bears lead. Pens never established anything after that.

Second Period: :24 in, Jayson Megna scores to cut the Hershey deficit to one on a nice Andrew Ebbett pass of the Grubauer pads play. Pens get another power play immediately after the Megna goal but fail to cash. The Penguins would continue to pressure but would not crack Grubauer. Casey Wellman would score on a Bears power play to make it 3-1. Later, Dustin Gazley would get hooked down by Brian Dumoulin and cash on the penalty shot to make it 4-1.

Third Period: Bears don’t manage a single shot on goal for about fifteen minutes in, but they weren’t focused on tacking on more goals as much as they we’re about stopping any kinds of a comeback by Wilkes-Barre. The Bears let three quick goals get scored on them late yesterday against the Phantoms and lost a game that they otherwise controlled. The strategy worked and the Penguins didn’t get any closer.

Note: Nick Drazenovic did not finish the game. Tom Venesky of The Times Leader made mention that Drazenovic had been skating gingerly all night long. I saw on the AHL Live feed Drazenovic get hooked down on a face-off in the first period and he really wasn’t the same since. He did try to comeback in the second period but was not out for the third. Hynes told Venesky post game that Drazenovic will be evaluated on the bus ride back and they will know more tomorrow.

Also, Bobby Farnham was assessed an instigator penalty in the last five minutes of the game, which carries an automatic one game suspension. From the AHL Rule Book…

46.12 Instigator in Final Five Minutes of Regulation Time (or Anytime in Overtime) – A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime shall be assessed an instigator minor penalty, a major penalty for fighting, and a game misconduct penalty, subject to the conditions outlined in 46.22.

…

46.22 Fines and Suspensions – Instigator in Final Five Minutes of Regulation Time (or Anytime in Overtime) – A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime (see 46.12), shall automatically be suspended for one game. The length of suspension will double for each subsequent offense. This suspension shall be served in addition to any other automatic suspensions a player may incur for an accumulation of three or more instigator penalties.

When the one-game suspension is imposed, the player’s Coach and Club shall each be fined five hundred dollars ($500) – a fine that will double for each subsequent incident.

Three Stars: 3) Dane Byers (goal, +1) 2) Philipp Grubauer (26 saves on 27 shots) 1) Tomas Kundratek (three assists)

Around the Division: Binghamton gets two late goals real quick to force overtime against Lehigh Valley but ultimately lose in overtime, 5-4. Phantoms are looking like the real deal early….Norfolk loses 6-3 to Springfield, ex-Penguin Brian Gibbons was named first star of the game with a goal and an assist.

Standings: Lehigh Valley 8 — Hershey 8 — Binghamton 6 — Penguin 6 — Norfolk 4

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

Wheeling Update: The Nailers rebound from last nights 5-0 loss to Gwinnett with a 5-1 win in South Carolina against the Stingrays.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens are at it again tomorrow against Binghamton. Gameday for this will post to the blog at noon, with game action coming at you at 4 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Away Game: 4

AHL Game: 82

Who: Hershey Bears

Where: Giant Center

When: 7:00 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game: Last night at home vs. the Falcons, the Pens won 5-0. Nick Drazenovic and Bryan Rust both had two goals. Matt Murray stopped all 21 shots faced… For Hershey, the Bears were in Allentown last night against the Phantoms and lost 4-2. The Phantoms scored three goals in the final 1:53 of the third period to steal victory away from the Chocoalte and White.

Record: For WBS: 3-3-0-0 (6 pts., 3rd place East Division) — For HER: 3-2-0-0 (6 pts., 2nd place East Division)

Why you should care: First of 12 meeting against the Bears this season and it’s Hershey’s home opener. So you know the Bears and their fans are going to be ready for the Penguins tonight. Pens need to play a sound 60 minutes of hockey in order to spoil the festivities tonight.

Referee(s): Mark Lemelin

Linesmen: Shandor Alphonso / Bob Fyrer

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @WBSGameDay / @TheHersheyBears

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /TheHersheyBears

Instagram: wbspenguins / thehersheybears

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie / @TLTomVenesky // @timleone

Broadcasters: WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / HER: Scott Stuccio @ScottStuccio

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep / @ChocHockey

Radio: For WBS: Sports Hub 102.3 / For Hershey: 1460 The Ticket 

Television: AHL Live

Other Game to Watch: Binghamton hosts Lehigh Valley. It’s the Phantoms first visit to the Southern Tier this season.

Next Five Games: BNG 10/26, @ LV 10/29, @ NOR 10/31, @ NOR 11/1, HER 11/7

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If you don’t know who goaltender Matt Murray is yet, you will soon.

The rookie, making just his second professional regular season start, pitched a 21 save shutout against the Springfield Falcons and the Penguins did the rest and rolled to a 5-0 win.

The bottom line is this, anyone who was worried about losing goaltender Jeff Zatkoff to injury and worry about losing a bunch of games and not being relevant and get upset about it, need not be. Matt Murray is back there. He knows what he is doing. The Penguins will be fine.

Bobby Farnham looked good. He was his usual self, flying everywhere and agitating the other team. He had two quality scoring chances in the game, and nearly scored on both.

Bryan Rust was the team leader in goals coming into this game with three. He tacked on two more tonight.

Nick Drazenovic really put the game away for the Pens in the first period against his old team with two first period goals.

The defense looked solid, only allowing the Falcons four shots in the second and four shots in the third. Whatever got to Murray was stopped without much problem.

Special teams finally kicked it into gear with two power play goals. Yes, two! The Penguins could not convert on 1:14 of 5-on-3 time in the second period however.

I don’t really know what to make of this win against a team like Springfield who, like the Penguins, are struggling to find their legs to start the season. They have ex-Penguins in Ryan Craig and Brian Gibbons and blue-chippers like Jerry D’Amigo and guys like Corey Cowick and Sean Collins and Brett Ponich. Osacr Dansk is a great goaltending prospect. We’ll find out more as this weekend goes on with Hershey tomorrow and Binghamton Sunday, I guess.

It was the aforementioned Messieurs Dansk and Murray in goal tonight for their respective teams.

Lines liked like this:

Scott Wilson – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Anton Zlobin – Andrew Ebbett – Jayson Megna
Tom Kuhnhackl – J-S Dea – Bryan Rust
Dominik Uher – Zack Torquato – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Derrick Pouliot – Philip Samuelsson
Reid McNeill – Scott Harrington

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

Oh, the official word on Jeff Zatkoff is “week to week” per Hynes, as told to Jonathan Bombulie.

First Period: Great back and forth to begin between the two sides. Then Bryan Rust steps by the Falcons defense and cuts to the net and scores to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Farnham had the first of his two chances with a shorthanded breakaway but was stopped by Dansk.

Pens would double the lead on a Springfield failed clear when Nick Drazenovic buried his first of the game. He’d get his second of the period on the doorstep on a Penguins power play. Wilkes-Barre had been the last of two teams (Toronto) to not have a power play goal scored yet this season.

I feel that the game was lost for the Falcons in the final ninety seconds of the period, when Springfield tried everything it could to get one past Murray and on the board with a goal scored before the period ended. No dice.

Second Period: Pens fail to cash on a 1:14 of power play time up two men. Falcons didn’t really do anything memorable here.

Third Period: Derrick Pouliot had a great game for himself, his first on Wilkes-Barre ice, breaking up what would have been a shorthanded bid for Brian Gibbons. Pouliot must be not be a fan of the old Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™.

Bryan Rust tacked on his second of the game with a wraparound stuff shot past Dansk to make it 4-0.

For good measure the Penguins added a second power play goal when Pouliot, in the corner, set up J-S Dea in the slot who just zipped one past the glove of Dea to make it 5-0.

At this point it was about preserving Murray’s shutout bid and the Penguins were successful in doing so.

Three Stars: 3) Nick Drazenovic (two goals, +1) 2) Bryan Rust (two goals, assist, +2) and 1) Matt Murray (21 save shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey coughs up three goals in 1:53 late in the third to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and lose 4-2. The Phantoms only had four shots on goal in the third period….Norfolk got shutout 4-0 in Providence. Binghamton was off.

Standings: Lehigh Valley 6 — Hershey 6 — Penguins 6 — Binghamton 5 — Norfolk 4

Conference: 1) ALB (9) 2) WOR (7) 3) LV (6) 4) HFD (7) 5) SYR (7) 6) PRO (7) 7 STJ (7) 8) MCH (6) 110 WBS (6)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout 5-0 in Gwinnett, South Carolina. The Nailers play the South Carolina Stingrays tomorrow night in Charleston.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Gameday setup for the 7 p.m. start in Hershey tomorrow hits the blog at 3 p.m. Saturday!

Let’s Go Pens!!!