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It was one of those games that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are known for. Tight, aggressive hockey. Not a lot of offensive opportunities. Good goaltending. A break here and there and a score for or against.

Tonight, the Norfolk Admirals beat the Penguins by their own game by a score of 2-1.

Peter Mannino vs. John Gibson

Reid McNeill was in for Nick D’Agostino on the blue line for the Pens. It’s been a common occurrence where D’Agostino will get a game then McNeill. Tonight was no different.

First Period: Simon Despres springs Brian Gibbons on a home run pass Gibbons collected at center, skated in and put the Pens on the board 1-0 early on. I had a feeling at the time that 1) one goal wasn’t going to be enough to get by Norfolk because 2) John Gibson doesn’t give up many goals, a .952 SV% and a 1.53 GAA.

Turns out, I was right. Pens take their foot off the gas the last 12 minutes of the period, get outshot 9-0 and scored on when Rickard Rakell tied things on a power play late.

Second Period: Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond fought twice in the period. Zack Stortini and John Kurtz. That was all the excitement in the period, really.

Third Period: Norfolk pressures in the Penguins zone a good minute, Max Sauve scores in a pile. Pens have to kill consecutive penalties which stall any sort of a comeback, then get a 4:00 power play with 2:38 left to play. Then, for some unknown reason, the Pens get caught with too many men on the ice with 1:50 left. With Mannino pulled a short time after, Wilkes-Barre never found the equalizer.

Someone said this on Twitter…

(insert fart noise here)

Three Stars: 3) Brian Gibbons (goal, +1) 2) Rickard Rakell (gaol, +1) and 1) Maxime Sauve (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Syracuse blanks Bridgeport 5-0. Binghamton loses to Adirondack 3-1 and Hershey gives up two goals in the third period and lose to the Hartford Wolf Pack 4-3.

Standings: Penguins 13 — Norfolk 12 — Binghamton 10 — Syracuse 9 — Hershey 3

Conference: 1) MCH (15) 2) WBS (13) 3) HFD (13) 4) NOR (12) 5) SPR (11) 6) ALB (11) 7) BNG (10) 8) SYR (9)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in Toledo tonight and lost 2-0 to the Walleye.

SendToNews Highlights: Still being curated by Brian Coe and the video guys. I’ll have a link up here if I remember tomorrow.

That thing I said last night about which team between Binghamton and Norfolk I detest more? Call it a push. Now, how do Syracuse, Hershey and the rest of the league pick up on how to beat the Penguins at their own game is the question.

Probably won’t have anything here Sunday. Have to get to work on the Week 4 AHL Power Rankings which will be here on the blog sometime Monday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Ask me again in 24 hours, when the Penguins play the Norfolk Admirals, who the bigger rival is going to be for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

The Penguins, coming into this game a perfect 6-0, won all their games in all ways. They go to Binghamton and get handed their first loss of the season, a 4-3 setback in the shootout.

Hey, at least the Springfield Falcons lost in a shootout too tonight, losing 4-3 to the Providence Bruins. There are no more undefeated teams in the AHL. Break out the champagne.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Nathan Lawson

Delauriers debuted new pads, blocker and glove:

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With Tom Kostopoulos out with injury, and Jayson Megna called up to Pittsburgh, Harry Zolnierczyk and Chris Conner replaced those two up front. Reid McNeill took warmups but was scratched.

First Period: Penguins come out and miss on two opportunities to score. The first was Harry Zolnierczyk on the doorstep of Lawson and him fanning on a puck. The second was a 2-on-1 with Chris  Conner and Scott Harrington.

Pens would get a power play early but wouldn’t manage a single shot on goal at Lawson.

Then the Penguins found themselves in penalty trouble. All of a sudden, Binghamton was on a 5-on-3. They scored on all power plays enjoyed last Sunday in Bridgeport. It didn’t take them long to score two here. Stephane Da Costa under the glove of Deslauriers on a strong shot then Matt Puempel finished off the back end.

All of a sudden, the Pens were down 2-0 heading into the…

Second Period: The Pens would then get a chance on a 5-on-3. Tom Kuhnhackl scored to bring the Pens to one and the score was 2-1.

Then some hell broke loose. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond staples Mike Sdao to the boards. No call. Then Sdao skates up ice and cross checks Bobby Farnham. That was called. The Penguins would get a 5:00 power play and Sdao would get tossed from the game.

Five seconds later, Tom Kuhnhackl is whistled for a hook.

The two minutes pass with no scoring. Then, shorthanded, Cole Schnieder picks off a Brian Dumoulin exit pass and skates in shorthanded to make it 3-1. The next face-off, Paul Thompson appears to score but the goal was later washed out by referee Geoff Miller who ruled interference on the goaltender Lawson.

Third Period: I had a conversation with a nice man who was a B-Sens fan and informed him that the Penguins were the best third period team in all of the AHL. He didn’t believe me.

Harry Zolnierczyk and Brain Gibbons aggressively forechecked the B-Sens and forced a turnover on Lawson. Zolnierczyk scored to make it 3-2. Later, Adam Payerl crashes the net to tie the game at three. The Pens relentlessly forechecked like a pack of dogs the first 5:00 of the third and it showed.

After that, the play opened up. Lots of back and forth. Late, Brian Gibbons was denied by the pad of Lawson on a breakaway. Later, Jeff Deslauriers dives over to stop a B-Sens attempt. It was onto…

Overtime: Uneventful. I will use this space to say that the B-Sens only had four shots on goal in the second and scored on their second shot of the period, the Schneider shorthanded goal.

Shootout: The Penguins don’t score a goal. Stephane Da Costa scored in round one, Matt Puempel in round four. Tom Kuhnhackl, Paul Thompson, Nick Drazenovic and Andrew Ebbett were the shooters for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kuhnhackl (goal, even) 2) Cole Schneider (goal, +1) and 1) Stephane Da Costa (goal, even)

Around the Division: Tomorrow’s opponent Norfolk shuts out Adirondack 3-0. Syracuse needs a shootout to get by Utica, 2-1 and Hershey was off.

Standings: Penguins 13 — Binghamton 10 — Norfolk 10 — Syracuse 7 — Hershey 3

Conference: 1) WBS (13) 2) MCH (13) 3) SPR (11) 4) ALB (11) 5) HFD (11) 6) BNG (10) 7) NOR (10) 8) PRO (8)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers did not play tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: I am scrapping the package in favor of the B-Sens package that they put together which is easily embedded on YouTube, which plays nice with my blog:

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Norfolk is in tomorrow. Saw it on Twitter that the Anaheim organization has the best goaltender depth in the NHL, which certainly trickles down to the AHL, with John Gibson pitching a 38 save shutout for the Ads tonight. Gameday for that will be up at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!