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In an utter reversal from last night’s 4-1 loss, the Penguins win tonight by a 4-1 score of their own in Norfolk tonight led by a two assist effort by Chad Kolarik.

Wait. What’s that you say? Why are two, seemingly insignificant assists that important? Kolarik didn’t have any coming into what is his seventh game played for Wilkes-Barre tonight. He already leads the team in points overall. He is a rare, dynamic player, the kind that you just don’t see that often in Wilkes-Barre.

Look, after last nights loss, raise your hand if you thought that the Penguins were fitting to spiral back into what happened to them in December. Bad loss bred bad loss after bad loss. Tonight, the Penguins righted the ship and came out and pretty much dominated Norfolk for large parts of his game.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Igor Bobkov – Mark Eaton had a “tweak” so Cody Wild took his spot on the WBS blueline making his debut. No other lineup changes were made.

First Period: Alex Grant and Josh Brittain get any animosities festering from last night out of the way :03 in a fight. Penguins and Admirals would trade power plays but would not score. Then, about halfway into the first period, Jeff Zatkoff would find Trevor Smith on a long pass that Smith would fire goal-ward. The puck would deflect off of Admirals defenseman Jordan Hendry and go into the net putting the Penguins up 1-0. It was a pretty back and forth period by both teams with each making long outlet passes to each other. Almost felt like a track meet.

Second Period: On a carryover power play from the first period, Chad Kolarik would find Beau Bennett in the slot and the rookie would score a power play goal putting the Penguins up 2-0. The Pens in the first half of the period relentlessly forechecked, smothered on defense and won races to pucks and looked to run the Admirals out of the rink. On a power play, Joe Morrow would turn a puck over and the Admirals would come in two on none. Peter Holland would score to put the Admirals on the board. It would be the fifth shorthanded goal allowed by the Penguins this season. Much different hockey game from there for the remainder of the period as the Penguins almost looked stunned from the goal and Norfolk desperately looked to even the score.

Third Period: Norfolk continued to pressure, nearly score on a power play then finally Chad Kolarik finds Riley Holzapfel wide open in the slot where Holzapfel has all day to pick a corner and score. Big goal at the time as the Penguins were on their heels. Turns out that it would be all the run support that the Penguins would need as they wouldn’t allow the Admirals any more Grade A chances and scored an empty net goal when Warren Peters scored from about 100′ away.

Three Stars: 3) Beau Bennett (goal, even) 2) Trevor Smith (goal, assist, +2) 1) Chad Kolarik (two assists, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey betas Binghamton at home 4-3. Syracuse coughs up a three goal lead in the third and lose to Albany 4-3.

Standings: Binghamton 60 — Syracuse 58 — Penguins 53 — Hershey 51 — Norfolk 41

Conference: 1) SPR (60) 2) BNG (60) 3) POR (56) 4) SYR (58) 5) PRO (53) 6) WBS (53) 7) HER (51) 8) WOR (50)

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout by the Reading Royals 3-0 at home.

Penguins bus home tonight, are off Sunday, practice Monday and host the Binghamton Senators Tuesday.

I will probably run a Sunday recap on scores tomorrow night, as every team in the division except Wilkes-Barre has a game. Just something to keep things fresh on the blog until Tuesdays Gameday setup for what is shaping up to be a big game vs. the Binghamton Senators.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Jay Rosehill and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond are known more for their fists than they are for their scoring prowess.

Rosehill scored two goals and assisted on one (Letourneau-Leblond’s goal) and Letourneau-Leblond had a goal and two assists (on Rosehill goals) and the Penguins get rolled by the last place Admirals 4-1.

Yuck.

Brad Thiessen vs. Jeff Deslauriers

Personnel: Paul Thompson and Philippe Dupuis are not on the trip. Chris Barton, Cody Wild and Dominik Uher were scratched. Beau Bennett returned from his injury.

First Period: The Penguins looked rusty. Plain and simple. Jay Rosehill finds himself in front of Thiessen’s net and scores off of a feed from Letourneau-Leblond of the wall for a 1-0 Admirals lead. It was the type of goal that the Penguins simply have not been allowing in recent memory and one that Thiessen would like to have back. Penguins would get a few cracks at the power play, but it was obvious that they miss Dylan Reese, on recall to Pittsburgh, as they were 0-fer all night on the man advantage.

Second Period: Penguins would benefit from a few power plays but would not score on any of them. Warren Peters would score a goal when Peter Holland dumps a puck into the corner but it hits a stanchion right to Warren Peters who scores to even the game at one.

Third Period: Nightmare period for Wilkes-Barre. Three goals for the Admirals in 4:57. Philip Samuelsson has his pocket picked by Devante Smith-Pelly who feeds Josh Brittain for a 2-1 Norfolk lead. Then Letourneau-Lebond scores to  make it 3-1. Before the shock of that series of events even set in, Jay Rosehill scored his second, from Letourneau-Leblond, to put the game out of reach for the Penguins at 4-1. My AHL Live feed went out in the third period. Jay Rosehill and Bobby Farnham fought and Letourneau-Leblond and MacIntyre talked about it  but didn’t drop the gloves. Letourneau-Leblond is probably the only guy in the Conference that can throw with MacIntyre. The rest of the period ended peacefully.

The two teams rematch tomorrow at 7:15.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (31 saves on 32 shots) 2) Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (one goal, two assists, +3) 1) Jay Rosehill (two goals, assist, +3)

Around the Division: Not many games tonight. Syracuse beats Adirondack at home 4-2. The rest of the division was off or snowed out.

Standings: Binghamton 60 — Syracuse 58 — Penguins 51 — Hershey 49 — Norfolk 41

Conference: 1) BNG (60) 2) SPR (60) 3) POR (56) 4) SYR (58) 5) PRO (53) 6) WBS (51) 7) WOR (50) 8) HER (49)

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers did not skate tonight.

Penguins rematch against the Admirals tomorrow at 7:15. Gameday for that affair will be up tomorrow here on the blog at 3 p.m.

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Penguins cap off a perfect six point weekend and win in nearly the same fashion this afternoon as they did two weeks ago. Down 1-0 to start the third, Riley Holzapfel evens things at one. Nothing decided the rest of the way in regulation. Then in overtime, Chad Kolarik plays the part of Paul Thompson and wins it with 10.8 left in overtime and the Penguins comeback and win in stunning fashion, 2-1.

Now, the Penguins just sit five points back of the Syracuse Crunch for the second spot and seven points back of the Binghamton Senators for the East Division lead. The Penguins have won 9 of 10 games and could be regarded as one of the hottest teams in the AHL.

Credit the Bears, too, for putting on a great show today as well. These two teams may be the best in the East Division at present.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Dany Sabourin in a rematch from the AHL Outdoor Classic a few weeks ago. Chris Barton was scratched to make room for Steve MacIntyre.

First Period: Highlighted by a legal hip check thrown by Bears defenseman Steve Oleksy to Bobby Farnham which Farnham takes exception to. They fight. Oleksy gets the jersey over Farnham’s head and feeds him some shots. Riley Holzapfel had a good chance when he had Sabourin down but never was able to get a shot off. Otherwise, an even period with the goaltenders stealing the show.

Second Period: You could have called this period the Steve and Steve show with the antics of Steve MacIntyre and Steve Oleksy. Olesky clips MacIntyre at the WBS blue line putting the Penguins on the power play. The Pens don’t score, then MacIntyre charges Oleksy, then gets an additional two minutes tacked on for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Bears score on the back end of the double minor when Boyd Kane received a pass on the far dot that he zipped past Zatkoff to put the Bears out ahead 1-0. Then, the pace of play really slowed down from there with both teams playing two games in the span of 24 hours.

Third Period: Penguins put up 14 shots on goal in the period. Relentless forecheck all period. Holzapfel gets one by Sabourin in a pile of bodies to bring things even. The teams traded power plays to close out the period but it was on to….

Overtime: One of the things I noticed from looking at the scoresheet from Friday and the scoresheet from yesterday was the lack of shots from Chad Kolarik. He had none in either game. He had one soft shot somewhere in the second period in this game. Anyway, Joe Morrow gets thrown into the boards hard. Neither referee Trevor Hanson or Jon McIsaac call anything. A few moments later a whistle during play and here is where I thought that the Penguins would be called for arguing the non-call. No. Boyd Kane was mad about something. Boyd Kane let the referees know he was mad about something. The referees had heard enough and placed Kane in the penalty box for unsportsmanlike conduct. Say what you want about whether the call was ticky-tack by McIsaac / Hanson, but your captain takes a penalty on the bench in overtime during a rivalry game. You just can’t have or let that happen. On the ensuing power play, Chad Kolarik receives a pass from Alex Grant below the blue line he one-times home. Game over.

In keeping with the theme from the Outdoor Classic, the Bears were unhappy with the celebration by the Penguins at the end. Ah, rivalries!

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Zatkoff (20 saves on 21 shots) 2) Dany Sabourin (37 saves on 39 shots) 1) Chad Kolarik (game winning OT goal, even)

Notes: Last regular season game in Hershey for the season. The next two games are Friday March 1 and Sunday April 7, both in Wilkes-Barre. My how time flies. — St. John’s may host the 2014 All-Star Classic according to this entry by Brendan McCarthy for the St. John’s Telegram. — Tom Venesky from the Times Leader had a nice story on Kolarik featured on the AHL’s website you can look at here.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Binghamton 58 — Syracuse 56 — Penguins 51 — Hershey 47 — Norfolk 39

Conference: 1) SPR (60) 2) BNG (58) 3) POR (56) 4) SYR (56) 5) PRO (53) 6) WBS (51) 7) BRI (47) 8) HER (47)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are off until this Thursday when they host Greenville.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here. Look to be all in one package.

I’ll probably have a few things here and there this week. The Penguins travel to Norfolk next weekend.

Let’s Go Pens!