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Where were you on February 26, 2011?

Why is that date significant? It’s because it is the last time that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeated the Norfolk Admirals at home. A 3-2 shootout win.

Tonight, changed that. Resoundingly.

Four goals by the Penguins and a twelve, yes, twelve save shutout by Peter Mannino and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins crush the Norfolk Admirals by a score of 4-0.

I’d say, the Penguins are back. Back from their funk when they couldn’t do anything right, back from having a big question mark in goal for them with Mannino’s stellar play and back at the top of the East Division.

The aforementioned Mannino opposed John Gibson. Here were Gibson’s numbers coming into this contest tonight against Wilkes-Barre: 4-0 in 4 games played, a 1.00 GAA and a .960 SV%.

Some regression to the mean was had tonight.

Spencer Machacek was back in tonight for the Pens. He was on the top line with Andrew Ebbett and Chuck Kobasew. Brendan Mikkelson was the veteran scratch and Mike Carman was the extra forward scratched for the Pens. Barry Goers went in for Mikkelson.

First Period: Two great chances on early power plays by the Penguins but Gibson closed the door. Finally, Harry Zolnierczyk scored on a wraparound to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Later, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond scored on a nice, close cross ice dish from Adam Payerl to put the Penguins ahead 2-0.

The one save Mannino made that stuck out to me was on Devante Smith-Pelly, who dangled through everyone and got a shot on that was stopped by the Penguins net minder right after Wilkes-Barre had scored the first goal.

Second Period: Brian Dumoulin scored on while the Penguins were on a 5-on-3 to put the Pens ahead 3-0. Then lots of penalties. I tweeted a picture at one point of the madness. Andrew Ebbett had a long breakaway which was stopped by Gibson. You got the sense at this moment that the wheels were off for the Admirals. Later, Bobby Farnham feeds Andrew Ebbett who scores his second goal in as many nights and the Penguins were ahead 4-0.

Third Period: Norfolk starts Brad Thiessen in goal to begin the period. The Penguins put 14 shots on the ex-Penguins net minder, many coming when they had a full 2:00 of 5-on-3 to work with but the Game 6 hero vs. Providence last year stopped them all. I don’t know what I would have done had the Penguins actually gotten a goal on Thiessen. Laughed, cried, clapped or just sat there. I know you always hear and see me say that I cheer for the front of the jersey and not the back, but Thiessen’s time and heroics here in Wilkes-Barre cannot and should not ever be overlooked.

Norfolk only managed 2 shots on goal for the period and were outshot badly 40-12 in the game, an all time franchise low for the club.

Three Stars: 3) Peter Mannino (12 save shutout) 2) Bobby Farnham (two assists, +2) and 1) Harry Zolnierczyk game winning goal, +1)

Of note, Zolnierczyk did not come out for his first star mention. He took a hit on the boards in the third and did not return.

Around the Division: Hershey beats Adirondack at home 4-1 in front of their largest crowd of the season, 10,995. Syracuse loses in a shootout to Hamilton 2-1 and Binghamton defeats Rochester at home 2-1.

Standings: Penguins 76 — Binghamton 75 — Norfolk 72 — Hershey 70 — Syracuse 58

Wheeling Update: The Nailers shutout the Cincinnati Cyclones at home 2-0. Christiaan Minella and Cody Sylvester scored the goals for the Nailers.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Alright, so the Binghamton Senators have two games in hand on the Penguins. They will burn one of those tomorrow when they face-off with the Rochester Americans again up in Rochester in the make up game from this week when that game was cancelled because of snow. A B-Sens win puts them ahead of the Pens by one point. A loss obviously keeps the Penguins as the division leaders. It all may not matter, the Pens and B-Sens play each other three more times, all at the critical time they call the month of April.

I’ll have a tweet of the final score of that game tomorrow on Twitter. The Week 24 AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday at 4 p.m. Until then…

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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It’s coming together.

About two weeks ago, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were a lifeless, effortless bunch on the outside of the playoffs and leaving a marginal blogger scratching his head and asking himself why. But it made for clicks! Let’s blog about other teams scores and hope that this team wins and this team loses and this team loses and this team wins!

When you are out of control, you can’t hope that others control what you can’t.

Or something.

Anyway, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins finally turned it around with a 6-5 win at home against Hershey on a Tuesday in Wilkes-Barre.

Since, they haven’t looked back.

It’s actually been a forgotten man that has gotten them not only back into playoff contention but back into sole possession of first place in the East Division after a 5-1 win Friday night against Hamilton.

His name is Peter Mannino.

In the month of March alone, Mannino has gone 4-1, with a 2.05 GAA and a .922 SV%. Not bad for a guy who didn’t take his assignment to Wheeling in the Fall the right way and was suspended by the team.

With a 3-1 Binghamton win against Norfolk up on the Southern Tier, the Penguins sit in sole possession of first place in the East Division. For now. Binghamton has two games in hand and Norfolk comes to town tomorrow. Norfolk owns the Penguins at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza as of late. Something like 12 straight wins or something like that.

Anyway. The game.

Mannino opposed Devan Dubnyk. Chuck Kobasew made his first AHL start in a long, long time. Spencer Machacek was the veteran scratch. Jayson Megna was called up to Pittsburgh before the game. Normally I get upset whenever a player gets recalled from Wilkes-Barre to Pittsburgh, but not in this case. Megna had four points for the Pens since being re-assigned at the Olympic break. Not exactly setting the AHL world on fire, there.

First Period: Long period of green flag hockey. That is, non-stop, end to end hockey. Then, a Penguins penalty kill. Andrew Ebbett dogs the Bulldogs defensemen and steals a puck and skates in on a breakaway and is hauled down and is awarded a penalty shot. He scores. 1-0 Penguins. Probably the first ever shorthanded penalty shot goal in team history.

Later, Anton Zlobin steps up and scores on a power play to put the Penguins ahead 2-0. Hamilton responds when Mike Blunden cleans up a rebound left by Mannino to cut the lead in half.

Second Period: You’ll probably see this one in the SendToNews Package. Peter Mannino with a glove save while going in the splits robbing Sven Andrighetto in the slot.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Chuck Kobasew, banished by the Pittsburgh Penguins and the scorn of the fan base and placed on waivers, scores in his first game as a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguin to make it 3-1.

:23 later, Brian Dumoulin waits out a Bulldog and pumps one on net for a 4-1 Penguin lead. That goal would end Dubnyk’s night.

Third Period: Anton Zlobin with his second of the night on a nifty backhand and it’s 5-1 Wilkes-Barre, who, for all intents and purposes just played defense the entire period and didn’t let anything funny happen the Hamilton way.

Three Stars: 3) Peter Mannino (26 saves on 27 shots) 2) Andrew Ebbett (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Anton Zlobin (two goals, assist, +2)

So, wait. Anton Zlobin was sent to Wheeling a week or so ago, responds with a three point night. Meanwhile Jayson Megna, who scored only four points his entire stay here since the Olympic break, gets the call up? Okay……..

Around The Division: You know about Binghamton beating Norfolk 3-1 from my lead. Click there for the box if you are so inclined. Hershey, battling for a playoff spot, loses to Syracuse 3-2 in overtime, done in by ex-Bear Jon DiSalvatore. The good news for the Bears is that their trade deadline acquisitions in Chris Brown and Kris Newbury had an immediate impact, with Newbury assisting on a Brown goal.

Standings: Penguins 74 — Binghamton 73 — Norfolk 72 — Hershey 68 — Syracuse 57

Conference: 1) MCH (88) 2) SPR (80) 3) WBS (74) 4) STJ (78) 5) BNG (73) 6) PRO (73) 7) NOR (72) 8) ALB (70)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers defeated the Reading Royals by the same 5-1 score as the Penguins did tonight. Tom Kuhnhackl (1-2-3, +4) Carter Rowney (1-3-4, +5) and Cody Sylvester (3-1-4, +3) all with HUGE nights to help the Nailers in the race for playoffs in the ECHL.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens take on the Norfolk Admirals tomorrow at 7:05. Gameday for this will be up at the usual 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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If the Penguins lose out on a playoff spot in a month or an East Division Championship by one point, they will know exactly where to drive to find it.

That location is the Utica Memorial Auditorium. With 7.2 seconds left and the Comets net minder pulled, Utica scores on Peter Mannino to tie the game and go on to win in the shootout Friday night.

Okay. The Penguins lick their wounds over the border, and hand Hamilton a 4-2 loss on Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon in Toronto, the roles of Friday were reversed.

Ol’ buddy Trevor Smith picked Scott Harrington’s pocket as the Penguins defenseman was exiting the zone. We saw first hand last season what Trevor Smith does with time and space. He does not miss. 3-2 Marlies late.

Wilkes-Barre, in scramble mode, later pull starting goalie Jeff Deslauriers for the extra attacker. Andrew Ebbett, cool as a cucumber, makes a blind cross crease pass to Nick Drazenovic who buries it to tie the game at three again.

Overtime proved uneventful, and the Penguins get goals from Tom Kostopoulos, Drazenovic and Ebbett and skate out of Canada winners 4-3 and back to the top of the East Division in a tie with the Norfolk Admirals, after the Binghamton Senators coughed up another late lead to the Syracuse Crunch in Central New York by a score of 4-3 as well. The B-Sens have lost six straight.

Lineup wise, Mike Carman was out and is day to day with a “needs to be evaluated” upper body injury. Defenseman Brian Dumoulin, coming off of injury, was given the day off. Anton Zlobin and Barry Goers filled in respectively.

Drew MacIntyre was in net for the Toronto Marlies, an extremely tough nut to crack as MacIntyre leads or is at the top of just about every statistical goaltending category in the AHL.

Scott Harrington scored this fluky goal to put the Pens up 1-0 late in the first.

Then the Penguins took the second period over, outshooting the Marlies 19-4 in the period. Toronto got tremendous goaltending by Drew MacIntyre which seemed to have glue on his jersey as everything stuck to him.

The only blemish was a Jerry D’Amigo pick off of a Wilkes-Barre D to D pass while the Pens were on a power play. D’Amigo passed to Kenny Ryan who whipped one in from between the rings to tie the game at one.

But Wilkes-Barre’s inability to score on a power play, all eight of them, proved to be the difference in why this game was not a Wilkes-Barre blowout.

Finally Anton Zlobin crashed the net late in the second and pushed the Penguins ahead 2-1. It was an earned goal for Wilkes-Barre, who seemingly did everything but score in this period.

The third period was a role reversal for both teams seeing Toronto outshoot the Penguins 13-5. Toronto gets a power play in the third period in what seemed like forever for them and Spencer Abbott makes the Penguins pay. Jeff Deslauriers was screened badly.

I really wrote this post game recap with the best stuff, which was the last stuff to happen in the game, first. Go back to the top and look again, if you haven’t. Ha.

Standings: Norfolk 72 — Penguins 72 — Binghamton 71 — Hershey 67 — Syracuse 55

Conference: 1) MCH (86) 2) SPR (78) 3) NOR (72) 4) STJ (76) 5) WBS (72) 6) PRO (72) 7) BNG (71) 8) ALB (70)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Penguins will probably get a few much needed days off and will have a full week of practice to prepare for an important weekend with Hamilton and Norfolk. Both dangerous games for the Pens and here is why. Look past the Bulldogs to focus on the Admirals who own the Mohegan Sun Arena as of late. Lose to the Bulldogs and then to the Admirals. Binghamton finds its sea legs and a bunch of other teams win and Wilkes-Barre may be on the outside looking in again. That’s why it’s a dangerous weekend.

Let’s Go Pens!!!