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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!!!

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Penguins with a much needed 4-2 win in Hamilton tonight. Your best players need to be your best players. Andrew Ebbett is certainly one of them. His 2-1-3 tonight and Wilkes-Barre’s bend-but-not-break defense in the third period help the Pens skate out of the Canadian version of the Steel City on a Saturday night.

How about Peter Mannino? As the games go by the Wilkes-Barre goal crease looks firmer and firmer. Only three goals allowed on this road trip (I don’t think they count shootout goals scored in goals against average) and some stability returning to the crease.

Mannino opposed Robert Mayer. The Pens scratched Barry Goers for Nick D’Agostino and Anton Zlobin for Adam Payerl.

First Period: Balanced period for both teams. Shots were 10-9. One of those for Hamilton went in when born set-up man, Martin St. Pierre assisted on a Gabriel Dumont goal late in the third.

Second Period: Pens had a carryover power play from the first. They must have spent the entire first intermission talking about it and drawing up a play as Andrew Ebbett got his first of the night to tie the game at 1-1.

Then, a Marty St. Pierre hook at 2:18. Penguins power play. :03 later, on a face-off win from Ebbett, Tom Kostopoulos whips one home for a 2-1 Penguins lead.

Later, Denver Manderson stuffs in a puck on the post to put the Pens ahead 3-1.

Much needed shot of offense for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, who only had one goal to show for the road trip when stepping on the FirstOntario Centre ice for the second period.

Third Period: Mike Blunden scores on a power play and it was a 3-2 game. Penguins were on their heels all game long, being outshot in the period 11-5 and it felt like it.

But time became the canine’s enemy. With Mayer pulled, Tom Kostopoulos intercepts a pass at center ice and skates in and dishes to Ebbett who deposits the empty net goal, sending the Penguins to victory.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, assist, +1) 2) Gabriel Dumont (goal, assist, even) 1) Andrew Ebbett (two goals, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton yaks up a 5-2 lead to lose in a shootout to the Utica Comets 6-5….Norfolk wins a wild one at Scope over Hershey 3-1…and Syracuse loses 5-3 to Rochester at home.

Standings: Norfolk 72 — Binghamton 71 — Penguins 70 — Hershey 67 — Syracuse 53

Conference: 1) MCH (84) 2) SPR (76) 3) NOR (72) 4) STJ (76) 5) BNG (71) 6) WBS (70) 7) PRO 70 8) ALB (69)

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Wheeling Update: Nailers win in overtime up in Elmira, 3-2.

Pens travel to Toronto for a 3 p.m. start. Gameday will be up here 11 a.m.

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward.

Let’s Go Pens!!!