Last Game: Wednesday at home vs. the Syrause Crunch, the Penguins lost 4-2. Philip Samuelsson had both Penguin goals. For Adirondack, the Phantoms hosted Albany last Saturday and won 4-0. Goaltender Cal Heeter had a 33 save shutout, his second such shutout of the weekend.
Last Meeting: November 27 in Glens Falls, the Pens lost 3-1. Tom Kostopoulos scored the only goal for the Penguins.
Record: For WBS: 20-11-1-3 (44 pts., 2nd place East Division) — For ADK: 18-13-0-2 (38 pts., 3rd place Northeast Division)
Why you should care: How do the Penguins respond after one of their worst games played in recent memory Wednesday to a team in the Phantoms coming off of two consecutive shutouts?
Other Game to Watch: Syracuse is in Providence tonight for the front end of a home-and-home with the P-Bruins. Providence is a good club. If Syracuse can beat them, look out.
Next Five Games: HFD 1/11, @ PRO 1/17, @ POR 1/18, @ PRO 1/19, @ NOR 1/24
Comments Off on That’s All-Star Brian Gibbons to You
Posted by nafsnep on January 9, 2014
The AHL announced its AHL All-Star team today. The format is a bit different in years past. Instead of West vs. East, it’s a 20-man team comprised of All-Stars playing against Färjestad BK, one of the top professional teams in the Swedish Hockey League.
So, 20 players selected in a league with 30 teams, there were going to be some teams with no representation.
A high honor for Gibbons and the other 19 guys named, because of instead of 48 players selected and every team represented, you have a more exclusive group of players spotlighted and nominated to go and play against a team from overseas, something that has never been done at this level of professional hockey.
No one from Adirondack, Albany, Hartford, Hershey, Norfolk, Portland or Worcester was elected on the East’s side. Manchester and Springfield will send two each, Binghamton, Bridgeport, Providence, St. John’s and Syracuse will each have a player from their team sent.
On the West side, Abbotsford and Texas will send two each, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Rochester, Rockford and Toronto each send one with Charlotte, Hamilton, Iowa, Lake Erie, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Utica shutout.
Players with Wilkes-Barre connections include Ben Street for Abbotsford and Jason Jaffray for St. John’s. Jaffray will serve as Team Captain representing St. John’s.
Two other minor things to mention, the Penguins and Albany Devils announced today that the time for March 1 game vs. the Devils at Atlantic City has been changed from 7 p.m. to 5 p.m. Adjust your schedules accordingly…..Also, the Pens released CJ Severyn from his PTO. I’m guessing he goes back to ECHL Orlando since that’s where we got him from.
Comments Off on Gudlevskis is Latvian for Brick Wall, Unless You’re Swedish — Pens LOSE 4-2
Posted by nafsnep on January 8, 2014
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If you go to work tomorrow morning and are asked how the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins fared the night before against their division rival Syracsue, you can tell your co-worker that they lost to an Olympic goaltender and not be wrong.
I’m referring to Kristers Gudlevskis, who will represent Latvia in Sochi, Russia next month. He was good for the Crunch tonight. I think the Crunch scouting and defense was a bit better and of course the scoring, but telling yourself that you lost to an Olympic goaltender takes the sting away a bit, doesn’t it?
Lineup Notes: The Penguins sent Cody Sylvester, Peter Merth and Nick D’Agostino to Wheeling this afternoon. Bobby Farnham returned from injury. Harrison Ruopp took warmups, but was scratched in favor of Reid McNeill.
First Period: A couple of early chances for both teams. All of a sudden, the Pens found themselves defending a 5-on-3. They block many shots, but not all of them as Vlad Namestikov scores to make it 1-0. Then, Jon DiSalvatore tips in a Brett Connolly shot and it’s all of a sudden 2-0. Prior to, the Pens were letting the Crunch get some spark.
Second Period: Crunch come out and pressure like hounds on a steak, McNeill breaks a stick. Crunch pound the puck off the back wall which banks to Connolly for Syracuse and into the net and it’s 3-0. John Hynes takes a time out. It wasn’t good enough as later, Deslauriers can’t quite corral a puck, Philip Samuelsson misplays it, the Crunch crash the net and score and it’s 4-0 Syracuse.
That sequence would spell the end for Deslauriers, enter Eric Hartzell.
Two things here. One, while the loss will go on Deslauriers record, this one was not on him at all. Two, message received by the Penguins as the Crunch only took five more shots at the net the rest of the night that Hartzell stopped.
Pens get their first power play of the night. Mud. Then Philip Samuelsson takes a delay of game, puck over the glass penalty. Uh oh…
Well, the Penguins kill it, and at the time that Samuelsson hit the ice out of the box, Denver Manderson hits him for a breakaway that Samuelsson cashes on to cauterize some of the bleeding addend Gudlevskis shutout bid.
Third Period: My amateurism is showing through here, as I totally forgot to explain my elongated headline in my lead. Samuelsson would add another goal, his second of the night and the season, on a nifty pinch in on a rebound chance. He seemed to be the only nationality (Swedish) that the Latvian goaltender (Gudlevskis) was not able to figure out as he stoned Harry Zolnierczyk (Canadian) multiple times and even stopped Mike Carman (American) twice.
Okay, I’m stretching it with that last one, I don’t really remember any memorable shots from Carman tonight, but the scoresheet says he had two and he’s American, so let’s just go with it.
You get the point. Gudlevskis was good when he had to be, and his Crunch team did the rest.
Three Stars: 3) Philip Samuelsson (two goals, +1) 2) Brett Connolly (goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Jon DiSalvatore (goal, two assists, +1)
Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost to the Reading Royals in Reading tonight 6-2. Peter Merth and Nick D’Agostino were both -2.
SendToNews Highlights: Pens put the YouTube package up this Thursday morning, so here’s the video:
Pens practice tomorrow and will probably bud up to Glens Falls tomorrow afternoon for Friday’s game against the Phantoms. If there is anything worth blogging on, I will have something here. If not, Gameday for that will be up Friday at 3.
Last Game: Sunday at home vs. Binghamton, the Pens won 4-1. Barry Goers and Zack Torquato both had a goal and an assist to aid the Penguins to the victory. For Syracuse, they played Binghamton on Saturday in Binghamton and lost 6-5 in overtime. Brett Connolly had two goals and an assist in the losing effort.
Last Meeting: December 31 in Wilkes-Barre, the Pens won 5-2. Five different Penguins scored goals and Jeff Deslauriers stopped all 21 shots faced in relief of Eric Hartzell.
Record: For WBS: 20-10-1-3 (44 pts., 2nd place East Division) — For SYR: 14-14-2-3 (33 pts., 5th place East Division)
Why you should care: The Crunch seem to still be a floundering, yet dangerous team. If the Penguins give a Manchester-like effort, they will likely lose. They will need a Binghamton-like effort if they want to take the two points home this evening.
Week 14 of the AHL Power Rankings are here, and boy, is there some ridiculous travel coming up for some teams.
Springfield, your new number one this week, host Albany Friday then are in Hershey Saturday then have to go all the way back to Massachusetts for an afternoon home game with Norfolk.
Hershey, all of a sudden hot, are in Binghamton Friday, host the aforesaid Falcons Saturday then go all the way to Albany Sunday.Edit: No, they go to Atlantic City to play the Devils, not all the way up to the Capital District of New York. My error.
Portland is in St. John’s to start the week for two games, then return to the States for a home game Friday, then two road games Saturday and Sunday.
Providence and Syracuse have a home and home. There’s no easy way in and out of Providence.
So yes, tough slogs ahead for some teams.
Anyway, your highest climbers this week are Adirondack, Charlotte and Oklahoma City, up seven spots this week. The biggest drops belong to Albany and Adirondack, both down eight.
If you didn’t link through, hit the jump to see where everyone else landed and safe travels!
Comments Off on The Streak Ends Here — Pens WIN 4-1
Posted by nafsnep on January 5, 2014
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John Hynes said last night that there were too many “passengers” on the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins team last night after a tough 3-2 setback to the Manchester Monarchs.
He was right. You can’t simply rely on Tom Kostopoulos / Nick Drazenovic and Harry Zolnierczyk to score all of your goals.
Well tonight, the message was received. Goals by Anton Zlobin, Drazenovic, Zack Torquato and Barry Goers helped the Penguins defeat the East Division leader Binghamton Senators tonight by a score of 4-1. The B-Sens seven game winning streak ends in Wilkes-Barre.
Eric Hartzell vs. Nathan Lawson
Lineup Changes: I didn’t think it was so much a defensive flatline last night as it was just a lack of offense, but Barry Goers and Harrison Ruopp were in for Nick D’Agostino and Reid McNeill. Cody Sylvester was scratched in favor of Zack Torquato, who drew back into the lineup.
First Period: You usually know that the Penguins are in for a good night when they come out and, at the first media timeout (anytime past 14:00 to go in the period) they have something like a 7-2 shots advantage. It usually means that they are aggressively trying to get pucks on net and in them, as well as shutting off any offense by the opposition.
Tonight was an example. But, Nathan Lawson was everywhere for the B-Sens, making saves no mortal should make. Lawson makes saves against AHL opponents. When a line of ECHL guys bears down on him? Different story. Anton Zlobin scored a nice goal from Barry Goers and Zack Torquato to put the Pens up 1-0.
Second Period: Mike Sdao blocks a shot with his hand and is in pain. As he is slowly skating off, the Pens score when Harry Zolnierczyk centers Nick Drazenovic at the doorstep to double the Pens lead at 2-0.
Then a play that shows the coaches that you are fully committed to the team. Andre Petersson splits two Penguins and looks like he’s getting a one-on-one chance with Hartzell. Harrison Ruopp was one of the D-men split. He dives, and poke checks the puck into the near wall. Petersson pursues the puck and is stapled to it by Ruopp with a huge hit. A nice sequence for Ruopp.
Cole Schneider scores on the back end of a double minor to Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond for high sticking to cut the B-Sens deficit in half.
Zack Torquato scores from a low angle after chasing a face-off win into the corner. Big goal at the time because the ice was slowly tilting to the B-Sens side.
Third Period: Torquato had a shift where he was everywhere, dogging the B-Sens in their own end and keeping the puck in the Pens zone for a good :40. Then, Barry Goers scores his first AHL goal on a nice setup by Paul Thompson to extend the Wilkes-Barre lead to 4-1.
Pens had a 5:00 power play to work with when Ruopp was boarded by David Dziurzynski but could do nothing with it.
Three Stars: 3) Eric Hartzell (23 saves on 24 shots) 2) Barry Goers (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Zack Torquato (goal, assist, +2)
Around the Division: Hershey stomps Manchester 6-3, and scored three more power play goals in the process. It’s official, the Big Bear Machine is warming up.
The Week 14 AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday at 4 p.m. Pens probably will have off tomorrow, so if there is any update Tuesday, I’ll piggy back off of whatever news is out there. Pens host Syracuse at 7:05 Wednesday.
Last Game: Last night at home, the Pens lost to the Manchester Monarchs 4-2. Nick Drazenovic scored for the Penguins. For Binghamton, they defeated Syracuse at home for their seventh straight win.
Last Meeting: November 29 in Wilkes-Barre, the Pens won 1-0. Eric Hartzell had a 25 save shutout and Harry Zolnierczyk scored the only goal.
Record: For WBS: 19-10-1-3 (42 pts., 2nd place East Division) For BNG: 21-9-0-3 (45 pts., 1st place East Division)
Why you should care: The B-Sens come to town as the division leaders looking to extend their points lead to five and their win streak to eight. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, hungry to get the point lead trimmed back to one, stand in their way.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 