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It’s not so much that the Manchester Monarchs came into Wilkes-Barre tonight and won.

It’s not so much that they possessed the puck like fiends early, whipped it around and jumped out to a 2-0 goal lead early only to win 4-2 late.

It’s not even the fact that they exposed literally every weakness on this Penguins team. This Penguins team is a one line team (Drazenovic Kostopoulos Zolnierczyk) and the rest a bunch of checking lines.

It’s the fact that the Penguins were in this game late, and should have won. If you were at, listened to, or watched this game, you probably left saying one thing….

Man.

For a time, it did look like the Manchester Monarchs were going to steam roll the Wheeling Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. It was 1-0 after one and really should have been 4-0. Then, it was 2-0 when the second period wasn’t even a minute old. Pens rally late in the second when Tom Kuhnhackl scores right off a face-off win to bring the Pens within one and tie about midway through the third on a Nick Drazenovic rebound of a Nick D’Agostino shot off the pads of starting goaltender J-F Berube.

Manchester responds with a furious rush right off the next face-off but starting goaltender Jeff Deslauriers was solid. All game really, even despite being down 2-0. The first goal was a puck off the back wall that Nick Shore collects and banks in off of him to put the Monarchs up 1-0. The second goal was a bloop shot by Brian O’Neill that doubled the Monarch lead.

The third Manchester goal? Let’s flashback to last year. Failed clear out by Wilkes-Barre and the other Deslauriers, first name Nick, scores to put the Monarchs ahead 3-2.

Pens nearly score off the opening face-off but Tom Kostopoulos was robbed by Berube. Tanner Pearson hits an empty netter in the final minute to make it 4-2.

Despite being what would seem badly outclassed by the big bad Monarchs, the shots were dead even at 26 a piece.

Personell wise, same lineup as last night.

Man. We should have had this one.

Three stars were Nick Drazenovic (goal, even) Brian O’Neill (goal, assist, +2) and Nick Deslauriers (goal, +1)

Divisionally, Binghamton beat Syracuse in a real barnburner up on the Southern Tier 6-5 in overtime. That’s 7 straight wins for the B-Sens, after losing a bunch before that before winning a bunch before that. Ex-WBS Penguin Captain Joey Mormina had two goals for Syracuse in the contest…..Hershey defeats Rochester 5-1 and scored three power play goals in the process……Norfolk sweeps Bridgeport this weekend by winning 3-2 in overtime.

Standings look like this: Binghamton 45 — Penguins 42 — Norfolk 41 — Hershey 34 — Syracuse 33

Conference? Like this…. 1) SPR (52) 2) MCH (52) 3) BNG (45) 4) ALB (43) 5) WBS (42) 6) PRO (42) 7) NOR (41) 8) ADK (38)

Let’s for a second concede the conference to either Springfield, Manchester or hell, Albany. So the best the Pens can finish is third as an East Division winner. But, slip, and let a few teams catch you and the margin for error is razor, and I mean razor thin. Three back of the lead for the division but in essence four ahead of eighth. There is some separation between eight and nine, but it isn’t much and those holes can close in the span of a Friday-Saturday.

Wheeling lost to Elmira up in New York 4-3.

Here is your SendToNews highlight package.

Pens and B-Sens square off for a 4:05 battle in Wilkes-Barre. A regulation win puts us right back where things were Friday afternoon. Gameday for that will hit the blog at high noon.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Couple things about this game.

First, I don’t know how anyone will be able to write anything other than what happened late in the third period and beyond in this game. Scoreless after two periods, the Wolf Pack break the ice then the Penguins respond late to tie it, the shootout goes six rounds and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins squeak out a 2-1 shootout win in Hartford.

Second, the headline is a play on the Wolf Pack’s “Howl Yeah” motto for this year and was contributed by defacto correspondent Michael Cignoli, whom you may remember covered the Adirondack Phantoms las year and is now a Copy Editor for the Citizens’ Voice. Some more of his work follows.

Third and finally, I don’t think that the Pens ever “deserve” to win a game, but it would have really been a travesty if they didn’t walk away winners tonight against a downtrodden Hartford team. It was the Pens first shootout win of the season, which I found extremely surprising at first but then realized that half of the offense is still on recall and hurt with Pittsburgh.

Personell wise, Bobby Farnham must be hurt because he was an injury scratch again tonight. Jeff Deslauriers opposed Dov Grumet-Morris.

Pens had to kill an extensive 5-on-3 against early in the first. The first period breezed by.

Pens got close in the second, but weren’t able to score. Hartford didn’t really do much either.

In the third, Sam Klassen unleashes a bomb from the point that Deslauriers gets 95% of. The other 5% goes over his shoulder, deflects off of Brendan Mikkelson and into the net for a 1-0 Hartford lead.

Pens then had a power play, and to fill space, here’s how that went:

— Win face-off in offensive zone. Two passes, intercepted and out.
— Retrieve, entrance pass missed and cleared out.
— Another entrance pass misses.
— Finally in, Nick D’Agostino fans on a one-timer. Out.
— Back in, Tom Kostopoulos near miss. Out again, :30 left in power play.
— In, cycled, pass to defenseman misses. Cleared and killed.

And that was one of the better ones, because there was actual substance rather than the Pens chasing a setup opportunity.

Anyway, Danny Kristo tries to slide a loose puck back to Grumet-Morris, Harry Zolnierczyk reads it like a book and scores to bring the teams even at 1-1.

Pens would outshoot Hartford 16-4 in the third, and it really showed late as it did not appear as if anyone in road black was interested in wanting to fool around with overtime and definitely not a shootout.

Overtime comes and goes. Deslauriers had to fight off a furious Hartford rush.

Pens score in Rounds 3 (Nick Drazenovic) and Round 6 (Paul Thompson) and get out of dodge with the extra point in the standings.

Before we get to Three Stars, Mr. Cignoli snapped this rather hilarious picture during the National Anthem:

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Anyway….

Three Stars: 3) Harry Zolnierczyk (goal, +1) 2) Sam Klassen (goal, even) and 1) Paul Thompson (shootout game winning goal, even)

Around the Division: Binghamton beats Manchester 5-4 in overtime. Adirondack does the same to Hershey by a score of 1-0. Syracuse beats Toronto 6-3 in Canada and Norfolk beats Bridgeport at home 3-1.

Standings: Binghamton 43 — Penguins 42 — Norfolk 39 — Hershey 32 — Syracuse 32

Conference: 1) SPR (50) 2) MCH (50) 3) BNG (43) 4) ALB (43) 5) WBS (42) 6) PRO (42) 7) NOR (39) 8) ADK (36)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win in overtime 3-2 over Elmira at home.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens travel home for a 7:05 face-off against the Manchester Monarchs, who are going to be sore from losing tonight to Binghamton in overtime. They’ll probably get to Wilkes-Barre around midnight while the Pens may not get in sometime early Saturday morning. Regardless, Gameday for that will be up on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins ring out 2013 with a win, 5-2 over the Syracuse Crunch.

After Syracuse scored on two of their first three shots, they chased starting goaltender Eric Hartzell and led 2-1. This was after they had something like nine shots to Syracuse’s three with all the momentum, Hartzell just let in some tough goals.

Put the Penguins persisted, and finally cracked the dam that was the Syracuse defense and starting goaltender Cedrick Desjardins.

Gritty, hard-nosed, tough hockey. That’s what you come to expect when you buy the ticket.

Eric Hartzell vs. Cedrick Desjardins

With Brian Dumoulin and Harry Zolnierczyk back from recall yesterday, the lines looked like this:

…and defensively…

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Bobby Farnham was listed as an injury scratch, despite Coach Hynes telling Jonathan yesterday it was a, “maintenance day.” Also, Wheeling call-up Carter Rowney was a scratch as well.

First Period: Philip Samuelsson chips a puck out of his own zone, lasers a cross ice pass across the ice and banks it off the far boards to Paul Thompson, who zooms in and puts the Penguins on the board early. At one point, the shots were 6-0 in favor of the Penguins, who were all over the place early on. Then, the Crunch score two bang-bang goals. First on a power play then later on a seemingly harmless wrist shot from the point. Both shots seemed to confuse Hartzell. At this point, Jeff Deslauriers name was called.

As a professional goaltender, you always have to be ready, no matter if you are the starting goaltender or coming in cold, at any point of the action. When Deslauiers number was called, he did not let Syracuse score on him, stopping all 21 shots that came his way.

Second Period: The Harry Zolnierczyk / Nick Drazenovic / Tom Kostopoulos was dynamite all night long for Wilkes-Barre. A Philip Samuelsson blast from the point was deflected in front by Nick Drazenovic. It was really a neat deflection. Even neater, was a Tom Kostopoulos goal, on his stomach, sweeping the puck in at Desjardins goal crease.

Essentially, this was all that the Pens needed. Any Syracuse rush was short-lived and snuffed out promptly.

Third Period: Tom Kuhnhackl and Anton Zlobin come in on a 2-on-1. Kuhnhackl shoots, Desjardins leaves a big rebound (he was leaving them everywhere all night) and Zlobin stuffs in the rebound for his first AHL goal of his career for a 4-2 lead.

Another furious Syracuse rush, this time it dies on the pad of Deslauriers who could not be beaten tonight. Cody Sylvester pots an empty netter for a 5-2 win and that was all she wrote.

Three Stars: 3) Anton Zlobin (goal, +2) 2) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +1) 1) Jeff Deslauriers (21 saves on 21 shots)

Around the Division: Binghamton beats Norfolk 3-2 in the only other divisional action tonight.

Standings: Binghamton 41 — Penguins 40 — Norfolk 37 — Hershey 31 — Syracuse 30

Conference: 1) MCH (49) 2) SPR (48) 3) BNG (41) 4) ALB (42) 5) WBS (40) 6) PRO (40) 7) NOR (37) 8) STJ (35)

Wheeling Update: Nailers have been pillaged by call-ups, and it’s starting to show. A 4-1 loss to the Reading Royals.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens will probably skate Thursday before boarding a bus to Hartford for their Friday game vs. the WolfPack. I don’t know if there will be any blog updates till then, Happy New Year! I got my year end report from WordPress this year and my humble blog was viewed nearly 50,000 times during the year. I maintain that if the blog was only viewed by just 10 people all year, I’d still do what I do, so thank you, thank you, thank you for reading, sharing and interacting with me this year. I’m getting a feeling that 2014 will be the best year yet for the Penguins.

Let’s Go Pens!