vs.      

  0                                              3

–

Brad Thiessen is showing the AHL that he deserved the January Goaltender of the Month Award.

If he keeps playing like this, he may never give it back.

Thiessen stopped all 20 shots faced tonight as the Penguins blanked the Adirondack Phantoms by a score of 3-0 tonight. Thiessen has four shutouts in his last eight starts and the Penguins have won eight of nine.

Brad Thiessen vs. Scott Munroe

First Period: First ten minutes was a puck possession clinic by the Phantoms. They get three straight power plays including a five on three but Thiessen and the WBS defense stands its ground. Then, about half way through the period, Joe Morrow takes a shot from just above the top of the right circle that Warren Peters deflects home for a 1-0 Penguins lead with Brian Gibbons and Bobby Farnham providing the double screen on Munroe.

Penguins wouldn’t look back from there.

Second Period: Alex Grant would score a goal that bounced over the net of Munroe to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead late in the period. No one knew where the puck was. I described it on Twitter like this, pardon the misspelling:

The puck pops up ion the opposite corner and falls like manna from heaven right in front of Grant and he taps it into an open cage.

— Jason Iacona (@nafsnep) February 3, 2013

Thiessen, before this, was generally very sharp. Even with Jon Sim for the Phantoms buzzing around his net all night whacking away until the whistle.

Third Period: The tension was mounting, from all the cheap shots and hits after the whistle. It boiled over when Olivier Lauridsen smacks Adam Payerl into the wall by the Phantoms bench. Zach Sill comes in and retaliates and gets tossed for instigating, which I thought was a bogus call from referees Trevor Hanson and Ryan Fraser, who called 15 total penalties all game. What was Sill to do there? Stand and watch? He had to stick up for his team mate.

Anyway, whenever you thought momentum was going to go the way of the Phantoms, the Penguins score. Tom Kostopoulos finished a nice rush with a pass to Warren Peters on the far side and Peters wired it home for his second of the night. The addition of Kostopoulos had reinvigorated the team as a whole because you are getting goals from guys like Peters, who aren’t known, at least this season, for their offensive prowess.

Solid effort all around by the team. A shutout in front of the home crowd is a sure way to get them to return.

Three Stars: 3) Brian Gibbons (two assists, +2) 2) Warren Peters (two goals, +2) and 1) Brad Thiessen (20 save shutout)

Around the Division: Binghamton lost 1-0 to St. John’s and are sputtering. Syracuse lost to Rochester 5-3. Hershey won at home vs. Manchester 2-1. Norfolk lost 4-1 to Bridgeport.

Standings: Binghamton 58 — Syracuse 56 — Penguins 49 — Hershey 46 — Norfolk 39

Conference: 1) SPR (60) 2) BNG (58) 3) POR (56) 4) SYR (56) 5) PRO (53) 6) WBS (49) 7) BRI (47) 8) HER (46)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers bus broke down, and they never made it to Kalamazoo tonight, so the game was postponed.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here. Have the Sill fight, all the goals and a Thiessen save in a crowd.

Miscellany: Did some freelancing for Michael Cignoli for The Saratogian tonight and was in the WBS press box. I had a pre-game blog entry here and snagged some quotes from Phantoms coach Terry Murray and defenseman Brandon Manning that he framed into his own postgame masterpiece for his blog and some of my quotes made the paper too.

Penguins travel to Hershey for a 2 p.m. tilt on Super Bowl Sunday. Gameday for that will drop at 10 a.m. Sunday morning.

Let’s Go Pens!

          vs.      

  1                                              4

–

Penguins do something twice in about 42 minutes that they did twice in 42 games. They scored two shorthanded goals and a power play goal and roll the Manchester Monarchs by a score of 4-1.

Big game in the scope of things because the Monarchs and Penguins are nearly step-for-step with one another records wise and since the top eight in the conference make the playoffs, it’s a bigger win than you think at this point in the season.

Before we get going, congrats to Brad Thiessen for being named Goaltender of the Month for the month of January. He joins Jeff Zatkoff as prior winners of the award this season. Zatkoff won it in November.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Peter Maninno

Lineup Notes: Tom Kostopoulos played his 1,000th regular season game. Mark Eaton was the veteran scratch. Cody Wild took warmups but was scratched. Paul Thompson, Beau Bennett and Phil Dupuis were all injury scratches.

First Period: No scoring. Manchester is a quick team. They get the puck, take the puck and bang, they are gone. The Penguins were reacting to this and adjusting to it as time went on.

Second Period: Power play to the Penguins and Joe Morrow gets the puck at the far faceoff dot and fires it home past Mannino to make it a 1-0 Penguins lead. Then, the Penguins fail to clear their own zone and Brian Gibbons takes a tripping call. The Penguins put the puck all the way down the ice to Mannino, Trevor Smith pursues the puck by himself and goes essentially takes on the entire Manchester team. They stood around and watched him take a shot, get his rebound and put the puck in to put the Pens up 2-0.

Then, this happened during intermission…

–

Moving on.

Third Period: Riley Holzapfel off on a trip, Zach Sill picks off a center ice pass and skates in on a break and scores to make it 3-0. 42 games, two shorthanded goals. 42 minutes, two shorthanded goals. Later, Adam Payerl takes a shot that rebounds to Holzapfel and he corrals it and wrists it home to make it 4-0. Manchester responds the next shift with Vincent LoVerde with a wrist shot from just under the blue line to break up the shutout bid for Zatkoff.

Overall, a great showing by the Pens. They could have had their doors blown in from Manchester’s speed, but adjusted and used special teams to win.

Three Stars: 3) Joe Morrow (goal, +2) 2) Zach Sill (goal, +2) and 1) Trevor Smith (goal, +1)

A forgettable game by Chris Barton, fresh from recall to the Wheeling Nailers. 6 PIMs, including a delayed penalty where he just skated down and ran over Mannino. You aren’t going to endear yourself to this fanbase or the coaching staff by doing that.

Around the Division: Everyone lost. Binghamton to St. John’s on the Rock 4-2, Syracuse to Springfield 5-3 and Norfolk to Adirondack 5-2. Hershey was idle.

Standings: Binghamton 58 — Syracuse 56 — Penguins 47 — Hershey 44 — Norfolk 39

Conference: 1) BNG (58) 2) SPR (58) 3) POR (54) 4) SYR (56) 5) PRO (51) 6) WBS (47) 7) WOR (46) 8) MCH (46)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost 2-1 at home to the Reading Royals.

SendToNews Highlights: Packaged right here for your viewing enjoyment.

Pens welcome the Adirondack Phantoms in tomorrow for a Saturday night game which will be on TV. Gameday for that will be up on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!