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Try and find a weakness on this team right now.

Go ahead. I have all night. Try and find one.

Right now, you can’t.

The Penguins come back from one goal deficits twice in this game and win 5-4 off of a Chad Kolarik hat trick game winning goal where Kolarik snaked through three St. John’s IceCaps defenders to zip a shot past goaltender Eddie Pasquale to win it for the Penguins.

Defense? Check. Good goaltending? Check. Penalty kill? Check. Power play? Coming around, but check. Consistent offense at the right times? Check.

The Penguins have something special going on right now. They are 8-0-1 in their last nine and are without a shadow of a doubt one of the best teams playing in the American Hockey League right now.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale — Reid McNeill was in for Cody Wild and Christiaan Minella was in for Chris Collins.

First Period: Penguins came out and attacked the IceCaps to start the period, they caught St. John’s flatfooted which led to two straight power plays for the Penguins. Chad Kolarik would score when Dylan Reese shot the puck wide to a pinching Alex Grant on the half wall. Grant passed to Kolarik, who was all alone in the slot and picked a corner on Pasquale. Late, the Penguins would get another power play but Jason Jaffray and Josh Lunden came in 2-on-1 and Lunden slid it under Thiessen with 1.8 seconds left in the period.

Second Period: Dominik Uher may never want to leave Newfoundland. He scored his third goal of the weekend when Warren Peters fights off two IceCaps defenders in the half corner, Adam Payerl comes near to sweep the puck around the cage and passes to Uher who backhands it home to make it 2-1. The IceCaps would immediately answer, Dean Arsene from the point where Ray Sawada was in front and tipped it in.

IceCaps really forced the issue on the Penguins, hemming them in their own zone and hitting them every chance they got. It pays off as Julian Melchiori receives a drop pass from Ben Maxwell and rips it past Thiessen. But, the Penguins would answer right back. Off the faceoff, Trevor Smith forechecks like a madman and gets the puck and skates in and slides it under Pasquale to tie things again at 3-3.

Whew. What a period. The Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™ was seen later but Gibbons made a few too many moves to score and I just like saying Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game ™ – ha.

Third Period: Really went back and forth, back and forth. Then the IceCaps score on what looked like to the broadcast booth an offsides play. You be the judge…

The puck is on the bottom there, where it was passed to the player in the middle. That player was Will O’Neill.

The Penguins apparently weren’t phased by the 50/50 call and methodically plugged along and eventually would even things at four again when Chad Kolarik dispossesses a St. John’s player, skates to the slot and scores. Late icings and timeouts by both sides happened but no goals scored so it was onto….

Overtime: Kolarik magic again. Snakes through three IceCap defenders and snipes from just below the blueline to cap off a perfect weekend for the Penguins and keep the wheels rolling in the right direction.

Three Stars: 3) Ray Sawada (goal, even) 2) Josh Lunden (goal, even) and 1) Jason Jaffray (three assists, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton loses to Adirondack 2-1 in a 15 round shootout in a game that featured everything. A waved off goal for Binghamton for a video review screen malfunction, the Phantoms tying the game with .3 left in the third. So yeah, everything. The Hershey Bears win 6-3 in a gotta have it game up in Portland vs. the Pirates. Joey Crabb had a hat trick and the Bears scored five power play goals. The Providence Bruins drop kicked the Norfolk Admirals 4-1.

Standings: Syracuse 93 — Binghamton 92 — Penguins 88 — Norfolk 79 — Hershey 77

Conference: 1) PRO (99) 2) SPR (95) 3) SYR (93) 4) BNG (92) 5) WBS (88) 6) POR (81) 7) NOR (79) 8) CT (79)

Penguins can’t get higher than the five seed. They could get caught by Portland, but I was actually cheering for Hershey to beat Portland tonight because it will be next to impossible for the Pirates now to catch and pass the Penguins at the five. Now, it boils down to who wins the East Division between the Crunch and B-Sens. The Penguins get the loser of that battle, where a point sit between the two teams heading into the final week of the regular season. Oh, Binghamton and Syracuse play their final game against each other next weekend.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Radio made mention that Derek Nesbitt may actually see a game for the Penguins in the final two games this weekend. Should be something worth keeping an eye on.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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We’re in.

Gotta be honest, after this showing from earlier in the season, didn’t think the Pens had it in them.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have made the playoffs for the 11th consecutive year.

Could this be the year?

Penguins won tonight 3-0. Jeff Zatkoff another shutout. That’s 126:44 of shutout hockey for Zatkoff. Stink can be made for Zatkoff not making first or second team in the AHL. Defense is rock solid. Penalty kill has been the best in the AHL all season long and oh, by the way, there’s a new toy waiting back at Coal Street when the Penguins return from The Rock named Derek Nesbitt.

Penguins clinch playoffs where theirs ended last season. Talk about full circle.

Never ever take for granted this feeling of playoffs in the American Hockey League. This is unprecedented, what the Penguins have done. Eleven straight seasons.

Getting to this point is something that, for me at least, starts in July and free agency. Goes on from there. Who did the competition sign? Oh, they got that guy. How will they matchup against the Pens? Then the season starts. Constantly monitoring other teams feeds, scoreboards, NHL counterparts. Call-ups. Send downs. Watching Pittsburgh play praying no one gets hurt. Getting here is half the battle. The other half is the Calder Cup. That, is the ultimate goal.

Could this be the year?

Time, always tells.

IceCaps were 7-2-1-0 in their last ten and playing much better than their divisional and conference standings would indicate.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Mark Dekanich — no lineup changes for the Penguins for this game. Steve MacIntyre was among the “names you know” scratches.

First Period: IceCaps come out in the first minute or so and hit a post after a Wilkes-Barre turnover at the blue line. Pens get two separate chances at a power play, but the IceCaps completely shut down any efforts. It seemed, in jest, like the power play was left at the border and didn’t clear customs. Shots at one point were 6-1 IceCaps. It seemed like the Pens were sleepwalking through this period. The IceCaps, having played back-to-back home games this week, looked sharper. Then, the line of Bobby Farnham, Zach Sill and Dominik Uher start hitting guys and forechecking like beasts. Sill digs a puck out of the corner to Farnham who throws it at the net where Uher is parked and the Penguins rookie tips one in.

Good teams find ways to win?

Second Period: Had more action in the opening five minutes then all of the first twenty minutes. Trevor Smith and Chad Kolarik on a two on one. Wide open net for the IceCaps followed by a wide open net for the IceCaps all in a twenty second span. Then, Dominik Uher gets another tip-in goal, this time off of a Brian Dumoulin shot from the blue line. 2-0 Penguins. IceCaps come out and nearly get a goal on a Jason Jaffray backdoor offering but Zatkoff got over. Then Trevor Smith finds Paul Thompson on a long outlet pass from the Pens defensive blue line. Thompson accepts the pass and scores on Dekanich. Penguins really looked out for blood this period, shots were 11-4 for the Pens in this span of twenty minutes.

Third Period: Completely uneventful for the fan that enjoys offense. Really eventful for the fan that enjoys fisticuffs. Zach Sill and Matthew Tousignant fight early. Then Kael Mouillierat elbows Brian Gibbons and hell breaks loose. Cody Sol and Joey Mormina get thrown out of the game. Then Jeff Zatkoff steals the show with the IceCaps, knowing they are going to lose the game throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Zatkoff but the Penguins goaltender keeps them out and preserves the clean sheet.

From the AHL Communications Department, this is the fourteenth time the Penguins have held an opponent to under 20 shots on goal.

The motto this year is all in….

Three Stars: 3) Adam Lowry (no idea) 2) Bobby Farnham (two assists, +2) and 1) Dominik Uher (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: Syracuse wraps up home ice for at least the first round by thumping the Rochester Americans 5-1. Nathan Lawson and the Binghamton Senators shutout the Albany Devils 5-0. The Norfolk Admirals beat the Worcester Sharks 4-3 in overtime. The defending champions are making a strong push and are getting hot at the right time, tied for seventh in the conference now. Then there is the Hershey Bears, who are going completely in the wrong direction, losers 4-3 in regulation to the Manchester Monarchs. The Bears have lost four in a row in regulation and are out of playoff contention as things break Saturday night.

Standings: Syracuse 93 — Binghamton 91 — Penguins 86 — Norfolk 79 — Hershey 75

Conference: 1) PRO (93) 2) SPR (93) 3) SYR (93) 4) BNG (91) 5) WBS (86) 6) POR (81) 7) NOR 79) 8) CT (79)

SendToNews Highlights: Are packaged here.

Rematch tomorrow on The Rock vs. the IceCaps. Gameday for the 2:30 Wilkes-Barre start will be here on the blog at 10:30 a.m.

All in.

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Penguins close out East Division play today with a hold-onto-your-butts 4-3 win against the Hershey Bears.

Penguins were up 4-1 with about ten minutes left in the third, the Bears get two goals and almost a third, which would have made a lot of people in Norfolk mad. Just look at some of the tweets I got today from some Norfolk fans:

So this is basically a lesson in what I like to call, “co-opetition” a mash between competition and cooperation. The Admirals fans were happy that the Pens beat the Bears, because they are tied in points with one another. I am happy that the Springfield Falcons beat the Portland Pirates today, keeping the Pirates back of the Pens by three points.

Brad Thiessen vs. Philipp Grubauer – no lineup changes for the Penguins today.

First Period: Dmitry Orlov opens up the scoring by peeling off a Penguin, spinning and firing at the net. The puck hit something on the way in and the Bears were on the board. Then, with just under ten minutes to play, Jayson Megna backhands a pass through a Hershey defenseman’s legs to Paul Thompson, who had a wide open cage to shoot into to tie the game. Then the Penguins, with the benefits of the referee’s whistles, score again on the power play when Brian Dumoulin scored from the point on a screen to put the Pens ahead 2-1.

Second Period: Chad Kolarik is a goal scorer. Goal scorers know how to score goals. Goal scorers go to areas where goals are scored. Kolarik cut to the net where Trevor Smith found him for the score to push the Pens ahead 3-1. Then the Bears had an extended power play of 5 on 3 time.

Remember a few years ago when the Bears would get a power play it wasn’t a matter of if they would score, it was when? That didn’t happen today for the Bears, whose power play in this sequence looked like a shell of itself in days of old. It frustrated the Bears. You could see it on their faces and hear it in your ears with all the bench doors slamming. A timeout by head coach Mark French proved futile. The Penguins were able to kill it all off.

Third Period: Penguins opened the period on the power play. Who scored it you ask? Chad Kolarik. Goal scorers score goals that bury the opposition. Turns out, this goal would be a huge one. Bears roar back in the final ten minutes on a power play goal by Ryan Potulny. Head Coach John Hynes called timeout, seemingly upset with the Pens efforts. It did seem to me that the Pens were in la-la land, up 4-1 on a Sunday afternoon to the Bears who are fighting for their playoff lives. Peter LeBlanc scores with just over six minutes left to play to make it 4-3.

Penguins clamped down after that and hung on to win, with Grubauer pulled.

The Penguins almost lost this game today. But they didn’t. They are getting hot at the right time. Goal scorers are scoring goals. Power play is all of a sudden hot, defense is always a rock. The penalty kill is the tops in the American Hockey League. We have arguably the two best goaltenders in the League. Getting hot at the right time?

What was it that Bombulie said a few weeks ago? Buy the ticket. Take the ride.

Buckle up.

Oh, by the way, Saturday and Sunday were played without Beau Bennett, who was recalled to Pittsburgh today.

The magic number is four. I don’t see that diminishing any with the lack of games this week.

No one else played in the division. Your Penguins have 84 points. They are five back of the Crunch, three back of the B-Sens, nine ahead of Hershey and Norfolk.

The conference looks like this: 1) PRO (93) 2) SPR (91) 3) SYR (89) 4) BNG (87) 5) WBS (84) 6) POR (81) 7) CT (78) 8) HER (75)

Wilkes-Barre has 72 games played, by far the most in the Eastern Conference. Portland has three games in hand. Binghamton and Syracuse have two. Maybe I will do a “strength of schedule” blog post this week to help on content. Stay tuned.

Let’s Go Pens!