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When the Hershey Bears went to Charlotte this week, they scored 13 goals, including 8 in one game.

Not tonight.

The Bears go 0-for-7 on the power play, and score just one goal.

For the Penguins, after being down a goal early 1:55 in, they played a much smarter game after that and got goals by Brian Gibbons shorthanded, Nick Drazenovic and Jayson Megna. They go on to win tonight, 3-1.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. David Leggio

Nick D’Agostino took the place of the injured Reid McNeill and Adam Payerl rotated in to the fourth line, replacing Paul Thompson.

First Period: Derek Whitmore took a pass from below the Penguin goal line to put the Bears ahead 1:55 into the game. A sloppy start leads to a quick goal from the Bears. Things settled from there.

Bobby Farnham takes a penalty and the Penguins are shorthanded. Brian Gibbons steals a Dmitry Orlov pass and skates in for the Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™ and scores shorthanded for a tie game. Then a bunch of penalties, including 5-on-3s both ways. Nothing doing tonight for either club on special teams. Finally in the final three minutes, Nick Drazenovic takes a pass from Chris Conner, gets Leggio to go down and scores a goal past the fallen Bears net minder for a 2-1 lead.

Second Period: Goaltenders put on a clinic. More special teams, some bad giveaways. The goalies stopped all of them.

Third Period: Really a wide open period. Good chances both ways. The final shots on goal were 22-21, I honestly think that both teams matched each other shot for shot.

Finally, Jayson Megna throws a knuckled on net at Leggio that somehow eludes him in the final two minutes. Bears pulled Leggio after that for the extra man but they never scored.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (21 saves on 22 shots) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Nick Drazenovic (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: The Binghamton Senators keep rolling, hanging seven on the Rochester Americans and rolling them 7-3. The Syracuse Crunch lose in a shootout at home to the Albany Devils in another goaltender clinic 2-1 and the Norfolk Admirals fall short in Manchester losing tonight 3-2.

Standings: Penguins 22 — Binghamton 22 — Syracuse 20 — Norfolk 19 — Hershey 14

Conference: 1) MCH (25) 2) WBS (22) 3) SPR 21 4) BNG (22) 5) SYR (20) 6) ALB (19) 7) NOR (19) 8) HFD (18)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers won 5-4 over the Elmira Jackals tonight. Five different Nailers with goals.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube version is right here. I didn’t have time for an embed, sorry.

Pens off until a Wednesday game vs. Rochester. The Week 7 AHL Power Rankings will be up back at their normal time here on the blog at 4 p.m. Monday.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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The Crunch are missing some key pieces which got them to first place in the division.

No one in a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton sweater cared tonight.

Anchored by a strong performance by Simon Despres, the Penguins roll the Crunch 5-3 in Syracuse tonight.

I was “out” and didn’t tweet the game in its entirety. If you were in the blog earlier, you saw that I amassed a list of those who did and I will build this postgamer off of that.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Riku Helenius.

Two roster moves today. Anton Zlobin to Wheeling and Zach Sill to Pittsburgh.

Adam Payerl was the lone “healthy” scratch.

First Period: Simon Despres gets the party going for the Penguins with a low shot that beat Helenius to give the Pens a 1-0 lead.

Then, a strange sequence. The Pens would take a penalty and Brian Gibbons on the next face off would draw the Crunch into a penalty. This happened twice in the period. Wilkes-Barre would get a goal on the first part of 4×4 when Jayson Megna, fresh from the NHL, would score to put the Pens ahead 2-0. Then, on the late back half of a Pens power play, Despres would throw it at the net ant it would deflect off of Gibbons for a 3-0 lead.

Second Period: Pens get some pushback from the Crunch when Vlad Namestnikov scored to put the Crunch in the board at 3–1. Then, Tom Kostopoulos would score to re-establish the three goal lead for the a Penguins. Late, with :18 left, Evan Rankin would score to cut the deficit in half for the Crunch. 4-2.

Third Period: Brian Gibbons scores top shelf to put the Pens back up three. Then Danick Gauthier scores to put the Crunch behind two. Felt like at this point time was not ticking down as much as the Pens would like. The a Pens also got caught standing, watching the Crunch battle and score their third goal.

Teams would trade power plays late. No dice. Crunch would pull Helenius but couldn’t capitalize.

With the win, the Penguins are back in front of the East Division.

Three Stars: 3) Vlad Namestnikov (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, two assists, even) and 1) Simon Despres (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Binghamton gets by Adirondack 4-2 and Norfolk beats Providence 4-3. Hershey was idle.

Standings: Penguins 20 — Binghamton 20 — Syracuse 19 — Norfolk 19 — Hershey 14

Conference: 1) MCH (23) 2) WBS (20) 3) SPR (19) 4) BNG (20) 5) SYR (19) 6) NOR (19) 7) ALB (17) 8) PRO (16)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 5-1 over Elmira. Chaz Johnson scored a hat trick.

SendToNews Highlights: Aren’t up yet. If I remember tomorrow morning I’ll throw a link up if ones available.

Hershey tomorrow. Should be a blast. Gameday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!!