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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!

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Penguins utterly dominate the Albany Devils tonight in all facets and roll to a 4-0 victory this evening. Jeff Zatkoff was in goal and netted an 11 save shutout. Probably the most unimpressive shutout in the history of 11 save shutouts.

Shout out to Jason Chaimovitch at the League headquarters for finding the last time there was an 11 save shutout. It was back in 2008.

Penguins now sit in fifth place in the conference, one point ahead of the Portland Pirates, who were off tonight. The Pirates have three games in hand on the Pens. They are five behind the Binghamton Senators for home ice in round one. If playoffs started tomorrow, Round 1 would be Wilkes-Barre at Binghamton. How exciting would that first round bloodbath matchup be?

Divisionally, the Pens sit five back of Binghamton tonight who lost 3-0 in Norfolk tonight and seven back of Syracuse, who won 2-1 in Hershey tonight. The Crunch and B-Sens have one game in hand each.

I know I conceded the division to the Crunch and B-Sens, but I may be taking that back, depending on how the next week or so goes. There is still an, albeit slim chance, that the Penguins can still be at the top of this division when it is all said and done. Who would have even imagined this a month ago?

Speaking of imagining things, that’s what I thought I was doing tonight when I saw the Penguins score the first three goals on the power play this evening. Chad Kolarik scored on a rebound of a Trevor Smith shot in the opening minute of the first period and Trevor Smith scored on a long outlet pass from Alex Grant, fighting off defenders in the final minute of the first period.

Alex Grant scored on a Riley Holzapfel screen in the third then Paul Thompson got a tip on a Jayson Megna backhand even strength to seal it, as if it hadn’t already been sealed.

Albany had just one shot on goal in the first period. They responded with a flurry to open the second period, then tailed off and only managed two shots in the third period. So yeah, a pretty dominating game from wire-to-wire for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Magic number to clinch playoffs was eight at the start of the day. The win puts things at six. With help, I think that number could get to five, but I need help in the math department in order to explain to you what that help is.

That pretty much covers things. Alex Grant was your third star with a goal and an assist. Jeff Zatkoff was the second star with his 11 save shutout and Chad Kolarik was your first star with a goal and an assist. Kolarik is two points away from the overall AHL scoring lead.

Have to enjoy when the Penguins staffers put up the highlights on YouTube. YouTube plays nicer with the blog then a link to the SendToNews package. anyway, here are the highlights:

Penguins get back at it tomorrow afternoon at three o’clock vs. the Hershey Bears for the final time this season. Gameday for that will be up at 11 a.m.

Let’s Go Pens!