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They didn’t clinch on the ice that their season ended on like they did last year in St. John’s, but the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins got closer to doing so with a 3-2 shootout win in Syracuse Friday night.

Chuck Kobasew scored two power play goals. Tomas Vokoun, facing his first live fire since June of last year while with Pittsburgh, stopped 23 of 25 shots.

Brian Dumoulin took a hard shot from Dalton Smith in the third period, took one shift afterwards but wasn’t seen again. You hope, with the injury to the other top defenseman Philip Samuelsson, that Dumoulin’s injury isn’t that bad or else Wilkes-Barre could be in a bind sooner rather than later. Edit: Jonathan tweeted that the injury is believed to be minor.

Tomas Vokoun vs. Cedrick Desjardins

Lineup Notes: Harry Zolnierczyk was recalled to Pittsburgh before the game. Bryan Rust made his pro debut on the Penguins third line with Dominik Uher and Carter Rowney. Injury scratches were Jeff Deslauriers, Philip Samuelsson and Zach Sill. Veteran was Tom Kostopoulos and healthies were Nick D’Agostino, Josh Archibald, Conor Sheary, Matia Marcantuoni and Scott Wilson.

First Period: Nice opening jump from both clubs. Chuck Kobasew scores on a power play goal to put the Penguins ahead 1-0. Andrew Ebbett assisted on the goal, extending his point streak to twelve games. Shots were 8-1 Penguins.

Then the Crunch took over.

Vlad Namestnikov on a power play goal with Adam Payerl setting an unintentional screen beats Vokoun near post. Wilkes-Barre gets a power play and do nothing with it. Carter Rowney slashes a guy to break up a Crunch rush. On the ensuing power play for Syracuse, Jonathan Marchessault centers to Jon DiSalvatore on a bang-bang play that puts the Crunch ahead 2-1.

The Penguins outshot the Crunch 8-1 in the games first 6:44 and then were outshot 11-0 by Syracuse the final 13:16 of the period.

Second Period: It was a Wilkes-Barre power play clinic. The Pens were given four consecutive power plays in the period, but scored on only one of them. Chuck Kobasew (again) scored on a backhander as he cashed in on a rebound of a shot from the point. Brett Connolly nearly scored on a penalty kill as he snaked around the Pens defenders and wrapped around and missed a wide open net. Of note, Bryan Rust had some late power play time.

Third Period: Penguins were really looking for the killshot, but never found it. No power plays in this period for either side. During the turn of events, Brian Dumoulin took a hard clean shot from Dalton Smith. Late, Desjardins made a couple of really nice saves to keep it square at two heading into….

Overtime: More Desjardins heroics. A stop on a Wilkes-Barre odd man rush up ice on Carter Rowney then a save on a Nick Drazenovic one timer.

Shootout: Anton Zlobin in Round 1, Spencer Machacek in Round 5. Tomas Vokoun stops all four Crunch players and Wilkes-Barre skates away with the two points.

Three Stars: 3) Vlad Namestnikov (goal, even) 2) Cedrick Desjardins (29 saves on 31 shots) and 1) Chuck Kobasew (two goals, even)

Around the Division: Hershey loses to Binghamton 5-4 in overtime…Norfolk does the same in Providence 2-1.

Other Games that Matter: Albany beats Bridgeport 2-1 in regulation. St. John’s was idle tonight.

Magic Number: One. Any point tomorrow by Wilkes-Barre should, conceivably, seal a twelfth straight trip to the dance.

Standings: Binghamton 90 — Penguins 90 — Hershey 83 — Norfolk 82 — Syracuse 70

Conference: 1) MCH (100) 2) SPR (96) 3) BNG (90) 4) STJ (93) 5) WBS (90) 6) PRO (88) 7) ALB (85) 8) HER (83)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in Cincinnati tonight and lost 6-3. Eric Hartzell was in net for this one and took the loss for the Nailers.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens / B-Sens face-off tomorrow in what will likely be the biggest game of the season for both. East Division Championship up for grabs. A trip to the playoffs. Loser probably having to travel to St. John’s for Round 1 of the playoffs. Just tons of story lines. The Gameday setup will be here for you Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!!

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Couple things with this game, a 6-2 Binghamton thumping, which was over before the game was 10 minutes old.

1) The Pens were gassed last night and emptied the reserves in last night’s 1-0 win vs. the Albany Devils. You could tell it from the looks on the players faces last night and, obviously, the start today.

2) Really nothing much to lose for the Penguins with a two point lead in the Division. They still have a game more played than Binghamton, had been playing well while Binghamton hadn’t, and were playing their third game in less than three days.

3) The young defenseman were exploited tonight. Nick D’Agostino was a -3 in the first period. He wasn’t seen much thereafter.

4) Eric Hartzell, making his first appearance since February 25, still has some things to work on. He was a disaster in the first period, 5 goals on 15 shots.

5) Binghamton had just been destroyed at home the night prior by a fumbling Norfolk Admirals team that scored three unanswered goals in the third period and rolled the B-Sens. So to think that the B-Sens, who have been at the top of the East Division for months now, would take the Penguins coming in a whooping the home team again just wasn’t going to happen.

That’s just how hockey goes in the AHL.

Eric Hartzell vs. Andrew Hammond.

Lineup Changes: Adam Payerl was recalled to Pittsburgh this morning. With Pittsburgh locked in at the two seed with nothing left to play for in the final two weeks of the NHL season, why not call up your prospects to get them a look in a live NHL game? Josh Archibald was back in for Conor Sheary and Harrison Ruopp was out for Nick D’Agostino.

First Period: Blitzkrieg. Hartzell doesn’t control a rebound of a Patrick Mullen shot and Matt Puempel scored to put the B-Sens up 1-0. Dave Dziurzynski on a softie. 2-0. Wacey Hamilton grabs a gear and gets around Barry Goers and burns Hartzell on the post. 3-0.

Spencer Machacek got one back on the power play to make it 3-1.

Garrett Thompson scores his first pro goal as Nick D’Agostino was stripped of a puck from a Binghamton defenseman. 4-1. Cole Schnieder finishes off a tic tac toe setup and it’s 5-1 on a power play goal for the B-Sens.

Second Period: Binghamton scores another power play goal, more give and go passing by the B-Sens and Matt Peumpel gets his second of the night. Furious, furious rush by the Pens after that sequence and it’s 5-2. Guess who? Spencer Machacek again.

Things finally settled after that. But it was too late. Here’s something I mined off of the scoresheet. After the Machacek goal, the Pens were given five consecutive power plays by refs Darcy Burchell and Chris Brown.

Third Period: I got nothing. But here’s a stat for you. The Binghamton Senators ate 11-31 on the power play this season vs. the Penguins. Please keep reading…

Three Stars: 3) Alex Grant (three assists, +1) 2) Patrick Mullen (three assists, +1) 1) Matt Peumpel (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Bears battle with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and win 5-4….Norfolk loses a heartbreaker to Hartford 3-2….Syracuse was off.

Standings: Binghamton 88 — Penguins 88 — Hershey 82 — Norfolk 81 — Syracuse 69

Other Games that Matter: The only other game was Providence crushing Portland 7-2.

Conference: 1) MCH (98) 2) SPR (94) 3) BNG (88) 4) STJ (90) 5) WBS (88) 6) PRO (86) 7) ALB (83) 8) HER (82)

SendToNews Highlights: Are here. Unless your name is Leah, not much to look at from a Penguins perspective.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers did not play tonight but are in the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Details on that here.

My Week 27 AHL Power Rankings will be completed tonight and will be here Monday at 4 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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Nick Drazenovic hadn’t scored since March 9 when his goals up in Toronto helped the Penguins get by the Marlies in a shootout that Sunday afternoon.

A lot happened since then. A Wilkes-Barre resurgence. Peter Mannino. Chuck Kobasew. A veteran issue.

Tonight, Drazenovic made people remember who he was.

A 60-minute stalemate between the Albany Devils and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins ended at 1:02 of overtime when Tom Kostopoulos capitalized on a Devils turnover and passed to Drazenovic who collected his own rebound and backhanded one over the shoulder of starting goaltender Keith Kincaid to give the Penguins the 1-0 win and vault them to sole possession of first place in the division after a Binghamton loss tonight, which I will get to.

And Penguins starting goaltender Peter Mannino? A 25 save shutout again. A streak of 136:05, 10-3-1 record, with 4 shutouts.

Some changes to the lineup tonight. Conor Sheary made his pro debut tonight skating in place of Josh Archibald. He didn’t look overwhelmed in an April game which meant so much to both teams. Carter Rowney was in for Adam Payerl also and Harrison Ruopp for Nick D’Agostino. Eric Hartzell backed up Mannino tonight.

Not much in the way of a recap here. Pens controlled opening fifteen minutes. They had a goal waved off when Harry Zolnierczyk kicked the puck in the net. Long first period with a lot of whistles.

Second didn’t offer much either, other than the fact that the roles were reversed and the Devils were taking it to the Penguins. I recall a sequence of about three minutes where the Devils did pretty much whatever they wanted and kept the Pens hemmed in and not able to make a change. I think turn of events sealed the deal for the Pens because if they get scored on, it’s chase time against a Devils team that plays defense, defense and more defense.

Third had a big Penguins penalty kill in it and a Kincaid pad save on a shot ticketed for the back of the net.

Felt like both teams played like they deserved a point. Enter Drazenovic, who ended it on his nice backhand shot.

Three stars were Keith Kincaid with 17 saves on 18 shots, Nick Drazenovic with the overtime game winning goal and Peter Mannino with his 25 save shutout.

Around the Division: Norfolk beats Binghamton 6-3. The Pens are now in sole possession of first place in the East. Binghamton still has a game in hand. Hershey needs overtime to get by Worcester 3-2 and Syracuse gets three goals in less than 1:39 to play in the third to defeat Utica 6-5 in overtime at home.

Other Games that Matter: St. John’s beats Springfield 3-1. IceCaps will remain in fourth in the Conference. Hartford beats Providence in a shootout 2-1. P-Bruins just two back of now the Binghamton Senators for the fifth spot.

Standings: Penguins 88 — Binghamton 86 — Norfolk 81 — Hershey 80 — Syracuse 69

Conference: 1) MCH (96) 2) SPR (94) 3) WBS (88) 4) STJ (90) 5) BNG (86) 6) PRO (84) 7) ALB (83) 8) NOR (81)

Don’t be surprised if the Pens look gassed in the second half of tomorrow’s game. I’d also look for the guys that were scratched tonight to play tomorrow.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers could have punched a ticket to the Kelly Cup Playoffs with a win over the Orlando Solar Bears. They did not, rather losing 3-1.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Gameday for the Penguins game up in Binghamton will be at 11:00 a.m. for the 3:05 start.

Let’s Go Pens!!

* – recycled headlines are considered poor form. Example. Hey, you try coming up with goofy headlines 76 times a year!