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In a game delayed about 30 minutes for an ice issue (a zamboni ran over a puck after warmups during the flood and put a rink long gash in the ice) about 6″ of snow in Wilkes-Barre and Nick D’Agostino’s first pro goal and Eric Hartzell’s second AHL shutout, this 1-0 Wilkes-Barre win made for a nice birthday present.

But the eyes of the Wilkes-Barre world will be turning to Pittsburgh again, rather the eyes of the Pittsburgh world will be turning to Wilkes-Barre again, most likely taking two defensemen and possibly a forward.

Wait, huh?!?

Kris Letang was a late injury scratch, Deryk Engelland has an in-person hearing this week for a hit in Pittsburgh’s game against Detroit on Justin Abdelkader and Evgeni Malkin left the game with an apparent leg or lower body injury.

Great. Just great.

But I am taking a stance that I don’t care if injuries or suspensions occur. I don’t. What can you do about them? Nothing. Just let it happen and pray that it doesn’t.

Eventually, bodies heal. All of this time spent in the NHL will be excellent experience for the key elements of this Wilkes-Barre team and we will be better than ever.

Wait. We lead the East Division by four points now.

Bring it on.

As you can see, I’m stalling for space because there really wasn’t a whole heck of a lot to write about tonight. Nick D’Agostino scored on the tail end of a power play for the Penguins just past midway of the third period. The Penguins, in the third, doubled their shot total through the previous 40 minutes of play. The 21-18 shot comparison was a lot farther in favor of the Comets than it looked because the Pens only had 9 shots through two periods. They finally snapped out of what ever it was that it was keeping them from taking control of the game in their best period of hockey.

Hartzell, who is turning out to be a fiery competitor, stopped 21 shots for his second shutout of the season. He may be playing himself into the #1 role here in Wilkes-Barre.

Personnel wise, Reid McNeill injured himself in last nights game and is out again so Barry Goers made his WBS debut. CJ Severyn took warmups but was scratched.

Around the Division: Binghamton is heading in the wrong direction, losing 7-4 to the Hershey Bears. Syracuse wins by its own 1-0 score tonight against Rochester and Norfolk loses 5-2 to Springfield.

Division: Penguins 35 — Binghamton 31 — Norfolk 30 — Syracuse 27 — Hershey 25

Conference: 1) MCH (41) 2) SPR (39) 3) WBS (35) 4) ALB (36) 5) STJ (33) 6) PRO (32) 7) BNG (31) 8) NOR (30)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose in a shootout to the Florida Everblades by a score of 5-4. Zack Torquato had a goal and two assists. Carter Rowney had three assists for the Nailers.

SendToNews Highlights: I like the YouTube embeds better, but you can click here for the SendToNews package, which in essence is the same thing.

Pittsburgh plays again Monday, so if recalls are made, I’ll have a blurb about it here Sunday. Week 11 AHL Power Rankings out Monday at 4 pm also.

Let’s Go Pens!!

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3                                                5

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What’s the D for?

Well, a few things.

1) Tom Kostopoulos scored his 500th professional point tonight.
2) The Pens rode “D”efense to another victory, this time a 5-3 win over the Hershey Bears.
3) The Bears are back to .500.

D is the Roman numeral for the number 500.

Get it?

Anyway, a thriller tonight in Wilkes-Barre. After going up 3-0 in the first period on three power play goals (yes, I wrote “three” then “power plays” and mean in all one period) the Penguins slowed a bit in the second then played a pretty even third, got some puck luck and won the game and sit in sole possession of first place in the East Division.

Eric Hartzell vs. David Leggio. Michal Neuvirth, sent to Hershey for conditioning yesterday, did not make the trip.

Penguins signed Barry Goers from Wheeling to a PTO before the game. He’s a defenseman. With the recall of Brian Dumoulin to Pittsburgh and now apparently Peter Merth injured again, Goers got the call. Other scratches were CJ Severyn, healthy.

First Period: Pens get a quick power play and cash even quicker, a Scott Harrington shot from the point that Toim Kostopoulos deflects for a 1-0 Pens lead. Then the Pens go on a power play, don’t score, then a fight between Harrison Ruopp and Dane Byers after Byers boarded Harry Zolnierczyk. Paul Thompson at the net front receives a nice pass from Anton Zlobin cutting to the net to Thompson for the virtual empty netter. Then, Penguins headed right to the power play again and Brian Gibbons would finish off a nice back door pass to make it 3-0.

I then said this, at the time:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/411656063923277825]

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Moving on…

I mixed in something shortly thereafter that mentioned the Penguins not letting off because they were in a trap at this stage of the game. Turns out, I was almost right….

Second Period: Penguins get outshot 11-3 in the period and 2-0 on the score sheet. Much back and forth to open the period, then finally the Bears got on a bit of a run: Ryan Stoa from the slot, a laser that goes in. 3-1. :55 later, Nic Deschamps deflects a lazy Peter Leblanc shot from the blue line and in. 3-2. If the Bears would have come all the way back to tie and then win the game, the tweet above would have lead and the headline would have been, “Nafstradamus – Pens LOSE….”

Thankfully, we didn’t have to go there.

Third Period: Pens would kill an early penalty. Then Tom Kostopoulos benefits from a Derek Whitmore turnover to score his 500th professional point.

Then the Pens get a power play. Time to pile on, right? No, you’re wrong!

Nic Deschamps scores on a breakaway. Hartzell stopped the initial shot, lost the rebound, Deschamps found it and he stuffed it past and cut the deficit to one again.

Pens kill a bonehead Bobby Farnham goalie interference call then Nick Drazenovic scores in a pile to extend the lead to 5-3 for the Penguins. It was too much, too late for the Bears.

Three Stars: 3) Scott Harrington (two assists, -1) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, assist, -3) 1) Tom Kostopoulos (two goals, -1)

I should note that Gibbons is three points back (27) of the active leaders (30) for the AHL scoring lead. Depending on call-ups, production and such, I may start mentioning it on the blog from time to time.

Around the Division: Binghamton loses again, this time to the Utica Comets by a score of 5-2. Norfolk beats Springfield in a shootout 5-4. Syracuse had the night off.

Standings: Penguins 33 — Binghamton 31 — Norfolk 30 — Syracuse 25 — Hershey 23

Conference: 1) MCH (39) 2) SPR (37) 3) WBS (33) 4) ALB (34) 5) PRO (32) 6) BNG (31) 7) STJ (31) 8) NOR (30)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: Better than a link to the SendToNews package, the YouTube highlights!

There’s snow in the forecast tomorrow. 4-6 inches. Hershey is already saying that they will make a determination on their game (home, vs. Binghamton) by mid-afternoon. Utica, in case you were wondering, is about an hour north of Binghamton. Basically, if you get the opposing team in, with the officials (Ryan Fraser scheduled to work the game, he’s a Central PA resident if I remember right, linesmen are local guys) it’s game on. If the roads are treacherous, the team may, for the safety of the fans, cancel the game. Anyway, check the Pens website or stick with me on Twitter if you are planning on going tomorrow but use your judgement. Push come to shove, watch it on TV. It’ll be on MyNetwork TV.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The season series may be over, but I have a funny feeling that this won’t be the last time we see this Springfield Falcons team this season.

The Falcons are essentially a mirror image of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Flashy guys who can score, bangers that can mix it up combined with solid D and good goaltending.

The better team won tonight, 3-2. The Falcons sweep the two game series between these two teams and are off to Norfolk to play the Admirals this weekend.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Jeremy Smith

Nick Drazenovic returned to the lineup so to make room, even though there aren’t roster limits in this league, Carter Rowney was sent back to Wheeling.

First Period: Patrick McNeill used to terrorize the Penguins while a member of the Hershey Bears. He scored the first of two goals in the game in the first period when Broc Little had a puck in the corner that drew the attention of the Pens. Little passes to McNeill who snaps a shot past Deslauriers for a 1-0 Springfield lead.

The Penguins would get their chances on the power play tonight but just would not convert.

Mike O’Brien had a tweet in first intermission that pretty much summed up the evening in general:

[tweet https://twitter.com/MikeOBrienWBS/status/410933782833672193]

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To this point, yeah, Springfield had the better of the chances and made the most of them.

Second Period: Cody Bass and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond fought in a great battle that I hope the Pens YouTube feed puts up so I can straight link on here. Pens had a power play, Harry Zolnierczyk flubs a one timer destined for the back of the net otherwise but the Falcons kill it. Then, Cody Sylvester and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault tangle in the far corner and Audy-Marchessault throws a punch but Sylvester is the only one taken off the ice. The Falcons win a face-off and get the puck to McNeill who scores quickly on a shot that Deslauriers was screened on.

Third Period: Harry Zolnierczyk is awarded a shorthanded penalty shot. He scores on it to bring the Pens within one. I think, if memory serves, that was the second successful regular season penalty shot in team history. I could be wrong though. Anyway, later, whole four-on-four Paul Thompson takes a nice centering pass on a rush up ice from Drazenovic and scores (finally) to tie the game at two. For Thompson, it was his first goal of the season and long, long overdue.

But, the momentum was snuffed away as Tom Kostopoulos takes a penalty and Jonathan, don’t call me Audy anymore, Marchessault scores off the face-off to put the Falcons ahead 3-2.

Springfields power play is thing of beauty. 1) Win face-off. 2) Pass to guy. 3) Shoot 4) Celebrate with teammates.

Penguins with a furious rush in the final minute with Deslauriers pulled never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Paul Thompson (goal, even) 2) Harry Zolnierczyk (shorthanded penalty shot goal, +1) and 1) Patrick McNeill (two goals, assist, even)

Around the Division: Hershey rallies to get by Binghamton in a shootout 4-3. St. John’s has their way with Syracuse and win 5-1. Norfolk was off.

Standings: Penguins 31 — Binghamton 31 — Norfolk 28 — Syracuse 25 — Hershey 23

Conference: 1) MCH (37) 2) SPR (36) 3) WBS (31) 4) ALB (32) 5) BNG (31) 6) STJ (31) 7) PRO (30) 8) NOR (28)

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: Not up yet. I prefer the Wilkes-Barre YouTube embed anyway.

Pens welcome Hershey Friday. But for breaking news Thursday, Gameday for that will hit the blog Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!