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I used to dread when the Penguins played the Bears, It used to be one way traffic with the team in Chocolate and White usually having all the fun.

Not anymore.

Face it, the Penguins play their best hockey when they play the Bears. Undermanned or not, call ups be damned, these games between these two teams are fun to watch.

Yesterday, it was all about Norfolk goaltender John Gibson getting the two points for the opposing Admirals. Tonight, Eric Hartzell ground out at least a point and lost his first ever pro shootout, and the Bears skate away with the 2-1 shootout win Saturday night at home.

Eric Hartzell vs. David Leggio, who has appeared in 13 of the last 14 Bears games.

On the blue line, Dustin Stevenson was a scratch, Reid McNeill was back from injury for the Pens so Nick D’Agostino sat in his place. The Pens returned to the more formal 12F-7D format, so Tom Kuhnhackl was back in the lineup.

First Period: More penalty minutes (54) in this period than in all last nights game vs. Norfolk (52). Pens subdue an offensive bombardment by Hershey, then all of a sudden are 2-on-1 the other way and hit a post. Then, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond skates in on a breakaway about six feet behind center ice. In between the fights and fisticuffs in this period, the game had nearly a powder keg feel to it.

Second Period: Mike Carman seems to score some big goals against his former team. He cashed on a rebound from a blast from the point to put the Pens up 1-0.

All of a sudden though, it seemed that the a penguins seemed disinterested in pursuing further action against the Bears. Hershey felt the opposite, and scored from a David Kolomatis boms from the point to make it 1-1. Then the Pens get two power plays handed to them in a row and are unable to convert.

Third Period: Felt like it was all Bears. Both Leggio and Hartzell made some ten bell saves on shooters. Both teams fail to score on power plays and it was onto…

Overtime: For as much as it was all Hershey in the third period, in the overtime period it was all Wilkes-Barre, outshooting the Bears 6-0 at one point. No scoring, so it was onto the…

Shootout: Tom Kostopoulos scores the only goal for the Pens, who roll with Zack Torquato, Brendan Mikkelson, Drazenovic and Anton Zlobin with half their big guns in the NHL. Bears win the shootout 3-1 and get the extra point in the standings.

Three Stars: 3) Mike Carman (goal, even) 2) David Kolomatis (goal, even) and 1) David Leggio (30 saves on 31 shots)

Around the Division: Norfolk beats Syracuse 6-3. Binghamton was off. Big time meeting between the Admirals and Senators looming on New Years Eve.

Standings: Binghamton 39 — Penguins 38 — Norfolk 37 — Hershey 31 — Syracuse 30

Conference: 1) MCH (47) 2) SPR (46) 3) BNG (38) 4) ALB (41) 5) WBS (38) 6) NOR (37) 7) PRO (36) 8) STJ (35)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout tonight by the South Carolina Stingrays 3-0.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Content wise, bodies are finally starting to heal up top in Pittsburgh, so I am expecting some help for the Pens New Years Eve game vs. Syracuse. We will see. If anything major happens, I will have a blog about it when it does. If not, Week 13 AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday at 4. Then the Gameday setup vs. Syracuse Tuesday at 1 p.m., for the 5:00 special start at Mohegan Sun Arena on New Years Eve.

Let’s Go Pens!

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No third period magic tonight.

Rather, it was Norfolk who had it late, and skate out of town with a 3-1 win.

Are the call-ups to Pittsburgh starting to show? I don’t really think so. Every game so far has been close, for the most part. It’s not like Wilkes-Barre is losing games 5-0 or 6-1. They have been close. But you need offense to win games and it just isn’t happening.

I’m actually doing a disservice to Admirals goaltender John Gibson, who was outstanding this evening. He was the reason that Norfolk won the game tonight. He kept his club in it, preserved their lead and made saves when called upon.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. the aforementioned John Gibson.

Personnel wise, Tom Kuhnhackl found himself a healthy scratch, Brad Thiessen for Norfolk was an injury scratch. CJ Severyn was an injury scratch for the Pens as well.

First Period: Nice back and forth between the two teams as it settled into a defensive battle. Then, Ric Rackell shoots from the point and Max Friberg collects the rebound and jams it home for a 1-0 Norfolk lead. Other than two fights, Joe Cramarossa vs. Paul Thompson and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond vs. Zack Stortini, a pretty uneventful period.

Second Period: Nolan Yonkman shoots from the point. As the puck was headed toward the net it deflects off of Cody Sylvester’s stick and changes the angle on Jeff Deslauriers and goes in for a 2-0 Norfolk lead. Nothing you could do about that one.

Then, the Pens stepped on it. Tom Kostopoulos steals a puck from Chris Wagner and scores to make it 2-1.

But Gibson was up to the task. 3 on 1? Save Gibson. Torquato feeding Farnham to a wide open net, right? Tie game you say? No, you’re wrong! Save Gibson. The last 10 minutes was the John Gibson Show.

Third Period: Strong start for the Pens, but Norfolk weathered whatever was thrown at the Penguins. I am half out of my seat waiting for a goal to come but never got up as Dave Steckel rushes down ice along the near board, waits for the traffic to pass, finds Steven Whitney all alone in the slot who scores late to push the Admirals to a 3-1 lead. Ballgame.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +1) 2) Nolan Yonkman (game winning goal, +2) and 1) John Gibson (26 saves on 27 shots)

Around the Division: Syracuse beats Hershey 3-2, Binghamton gets a late power play goal to push past Utica and win 4-3.

Standings: Binghamton 39 — Penguins 37 — Norfolk 35 — Syracuse 30 — Hershey 29

Conference: 1) MCH (47) 2) SPR (44) 3) BNG (39) 4) ALB (39) 5) WBS (37) 6) PRO (36) 7) NOR (35) 8) STJ (33)

There is little room for error. 9 and 10 are Adirondack and Syracuse respectively with 30 points. Binghamton is off until New Years Eve. With a win tomorrow in Hershey, the Pens will tie the Sens in points again and may lead the division.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are in the Carolinas this weekend and lost 4-1 to the Gwinnett Gladiators.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens go to Hershey tomorrow for what I am expecting to be a very interesting matchup. Hershey seems to be reeling, and the Penguins are slowing down and / or feeling the effects of the call-ups hard. 7 pm start in Chocolatetown which means the Gameday setup drops on the blog at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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In Pittsburgh, they have a motto. It’s, “next man up” meaning that the next guy behind you in the depth chart is supposed to step up and fill your role and not look out of place.

Suffice to say, with the rash of injuries and such to the Pittsburgh organization, “next man up” is being tossed around a lot.

The situation applies, of course, to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, where all the “men” come “up” from.

The trickle down effect hits Wheeling. Sometimes hard.

Their leading scorer, Zack Torquato, was signed to an AHL contract today by the Penguins and had an immediate impact in the Penguins game vs. the Syracuse Crunch tonight, a 2-1 Wilkes-Barre win. Torquato’s power play goal in the first period was seemingly all the momentum the Penguins needed to get by the Crunch tonight.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Cedrick Desjardins

Torquato was in for CJ Severyn, who did take warmups but was scratched.

First Period: A lot more pop in the skates of the Penguins, who were flat last night in the first two periods vs. Worcester. Finally, Torquato lets it rip from the top of the near side to give the Pens a 1-0 lead on the power play.

Second Period: Pens seemed to keep the Crunch off the scoreboard via stingy defense and some jumbo saves by Jeff Deslauriers all night long. Many times Syracuse would bear down, make a move and I thought that they would score to tie it, but Deslauriers played outstanding all game. The most interesting thing to happen this period was Dustin Stevenson handily winning a fight with Syracuse Captain Mike Angelidis.

Third Period: With the feeling that one goal would not be enough vs. Syracuse, Brendan Mikkelson scores from a shot from the point while the Pens were on a power play. Yes, that’s right, two power play goals tonight from the Penguins whose special teams unit with the man advantage was 20th in the League, overall. Anyway, Evan Rankin scores on a slam dunk with 1:43 left to spoil any aspirations of a Deslauriers shutout. With a time out by Crunch Head Coach Rob Zettler and Desjardins pulled, Syracuse never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (25 saves on 26 shots) 2) Zack Torquato (goal, even) 1) Brendan Mikkelson (goal, -1)

Not listed was Barry Goers, who assisted on both goals.

Around the Division: Binghamton wins 3-2 in overtime over the Albany Devils. Norfolk wins 3-1 over Adirondack and Hershey loses 3-2 to Worcester.

Standings: Penguins 37 — Binghamton 35 — Norfolk 33 — Syracuse 28 — Hershey 27

Conference: 1) MCH (47) 2) SPR (43) 3) WBS (37) 4) ALB (37) 5) BNG (35) 6) PRO (34) 7) STJ (33) 8) NOR (33)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers win 3-2 in overtime at home vs. the Evansville IceMen.

SendtoNews Highlights: Are here. The Pens may run a YouTube highlight package, which I like better anyway because it plays nicer with my blog than the Java mess that is the SendToNews packaging. If they do and I remember to go back and look, I’ll throw up an edit.

Pens all split and head home for the Christmas break. Next game for Wilkes-Barre isn’t until next Friday at home when they host the Norfolk Admirals. There may not be a lot to blog about until then. The Week 12 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankins will be on the blog Monday at 4. That may be the only thing this week unless I get some kind of content that I feel would be good fodder for the blog during the downtime.

Let’s Go Pens!