Well, that was needed.

Needed for the Penguins, who have lost 11 of the last 12.

Needed for Brad Thiessen, who had a 3.41 goals against average and a 0.884 save percentage. A mediocre season to date is an understatement.

Needed for the fanbase, desperate for wins and watching the other fans of the division snatching up wins like they are going out of style.

Pens win this game tonight 3-0, blanking the Worcester Sharks behind a 30 save shutout by Brad Thiessen. His first shutout in over fourteen months.

Ex-Shark Benn Ferriero scored just forty seconds into the game after Beau Bennett wrapped around the net and passed to Ferriero. It was the jump that the Penguins needed as they looked a lot better in the period. Thiessen looked really sharp from the jump as well. He’d been looking like the Thiessen of old in past affairs but hadn’t had the run support. Sharks, to their credit, continued to test Thiessen and never really looked out of it.

In the second, the Pens got goals from Riley Holzapfel and Warren Peters. The Holzapfel goal was a snipe job from the slot. The Peters goal was a rebound of a shot from Eric Tangradi. Sharks would buzz and get good looks but Theissen kept them out.

When the third period started, I am sure visions of the collapse in Binghamton were still fresh in everyones minds. Also to note, Worcester is 6-7-0-1 when trailing after two periods. That is best in the league. So they know how to comeback in the third. Only this time, it didn’t happen. Penguins played prevent defense all period long. They had no intention of putting pucks to Worcester goalkeeper Harri Sateri, taking just two shots all period. It worked. They held on for the win, backstopped by Brad Thiessen not allowing many if any rebounds all game.

Three Stars were Riley Holzapfel (goal, +1) Benn Ferriero (game winning goal, +1) and Brad Thiessen (30 save shutout)

Bears lose at home to the B-Sens 3-1. Crunch beat the Norfolk Admirals 4-3 in overtime for your divisional action.

Standings in the East Division are: Syracuse 49 — Binghamton 45 — Hershey 34 — Penguins 33 — Norfolk 30.

Conference looks like this: 1) SYR (49) 2) POR (42) 3) SPR (41) 4) BNG (45) 5) WOR (37) 6) BRI (37) 7) PRO (36) 8) MCH (36) 10) WBS (33)

Wheeling also enjoyed a shutout tonight. They blanked the Trenton Titans by a score of 5-0. Paul Crowder had a hat trick.

No SendToNews highlights to share yet.

Pens bus to Hartford tonight to take on the Connecticut Whale tomorrow at 3 p.m. Gameday will be here on the blog for you at 11 a.m.

Let’s look at tonight’s game in three parts:

The Good:

The Penguins allowed the B-Sens 15 shots on goal. Binghamton is a very good hockey team. Best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference, enough to send head coach Luke Richardson to Providence to coach the AHL All-Stars for the Eastern Conference. If this loss is during a stretch where the Pens are winning, you take this kind of loss given those kind of shots allowed against a quality opponent such as Binghamton any day of the week.

The Bad:

0 for 9 on the power play. Only one goal scored again. Two separate five on threes. Nothing to show for it. Nary a shot, even.

The Ugly:

1-11 in the last twelve games including 1-8 against divisional opponents. That hurts. Really bad, especially when you see your divisional foes nearly every weekend it seems. This was touched on in tonight’s Penguins Insider recap.

The result was a 3-1 Wilkes-Barre loss. Beau Bennett scored a postage stamp goal early in the first. Binghamton would even the score late in the period via Derek Grant. Microcosm of the season really. The Pens pressure the B-Sens all period, are pickpocketed in the offensive zone, and Binghamton scores. They’d then get a five on three goal by Mike Hoffman in the second period, then Hugh Jessiman would score on a wrist shot from the top of the circle in the third period to seal the victory for the B-Sens.

Around the Division: Syracuse shut out Norfolk 3-0. Hershey was idle.

Standings: Syracuse 47 — Binghamton 43 — Hershey 34 — Penguins 31 — Norfolk 29

Conference: 1) SYR (47) 2) SPR (41) 3) POR (40) 4) BNG (43) 5) WOR (37) 6) BRI (37) 7) PRO (36) 8) HER (34) 10) WBS (31)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the Trenton Titans tonight at home 3-2 in overtime. Cody Chupp had two assists.

SendToNews Highlights: Are slowly being curated by Kate Krenzer and the B-Sens braintrust, but here is a link that will eventually show you all the good stuff.

Pens back at it tomorrow night at home vs. the idle Worcester Sharks. Gameday for that will be up here on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

My other headline was going to be, “December to Remember?” – but I think I like this one better.

What a horrible month of December for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

After a 5-3 win on December 1 vs. the St. John’s IceCaps, the Penguins were in second place in the division. Here’s how the the East Division shook out when it was all said and done on December 1: Syracuse 28 — Penguins 26 — Binghamton 24 — Hershey 19 — Norfolk 16

They also sat fourth overall in the conference, the best of the best not a division leader.

Then, a 5-4 overtime loss to Hershey. Up 3-0 vs. Portland and they lose in a shootout. Then the Zatkoff injury. A bad loss to the last place at the time Albany Devils 6-3. A 3-1 loss to Binghamton on my birthday. A 4-0 shutout loss to Syracuse. Then the implosion on the Southern Tier when they are up 3-0 to Binghamton to start the third and ultimately lose 4-3. They finally break the funk and win in Syracuse 3-2 to get John Hynes the coaching record. Then, shutout in Hershey 2-0 on Boxing Day, then the next night utterly dominated by the Bears on home ice 4-1. Then the OT loss to Norfolk 3-2 on Saturday night then finally tonight a 2-1 loss to the Syracuse Crunch.

December 2012 will go down 2-7-2-1 for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

The talk of “we will figure it out” or “there are guys with a lot of pride who are very talented in this room” or “we aren’t worried about this” have gone stale. Something has to give.

You can’t win a Calder Cup in December, but you sure may lose out on the chance to compete for one in December if you let things slip away.

Brad Thiessen opposed Dustin Tokarski tonight. Beau Bennett returned from injury. Benn Ferriero was scratched. He’s been playing poorly. That scratch is justified. Dylan Reese was scratched too. That’s a few games now. Something is up there.

Thiessen kept the Pens in it in the first period with some sharp saves on Syracuse’s gunners. Same held for the second period, but the run support just was not there. Richard Panik gets sprung on a mini-breakaway and scores with Joey Mormina hooking him. Then, Panik scores in the opening minutes of the third period while the Crunch were on a power play to make it 2-0. Trevor Smith would score with :01 in the third period left to spoil Tokarski’s shutout bid. Ballgame.

I’m going to look up the last time the Penguins scored a shorthanded goal.I’ll probably tweet it out later. Edit: Benn Ferriero November 21 in Hershey, a 4-0 win. The only one of the season. The power play in the third period looked terrible. People were booing. Myself included. I try to stay above the noise and not troll or go to negative town just for the sake of or because I like to, but the Penguins right now just are not making smart decisions with the puck and are just playing sloppy, sloppy hockey. It’s really awful to watch.

Things don’t get better for the Pens as they are in Binghamton on Friday. I hope that a weeks worth of practice fixes what is ailing the team right now.

Divisionally, Norfolk and Hershey were off. Binghamton hosted the St. John’s IceCaps and won 4-2. This means that B-Sens head coach Luke Richardson will coach the Eastern Conference All-Stars January in Providence as he’s the coach at December 31 in the Eastern Conference with the best winning percentage.

Standings look like this: Syracuse 45 — Binghamton 41 — Hershey 34 — Penguins 31 — Norfolk 29.

Conference is as follows: 1) Syracuse (45) 2) Springfield (39) 3) Portland (38) 4) Binghamton (41) 5) Worcester (37) 6) Bridgeport (37) 7) Providence (34) 8) Hershey (34) 10) Wilkes-Barre (31)

SendToNews Highlights are here.

Wheeling lost to the Elmira Jackals at home 3-2. Andrew Hotham had a goal and Carl Sneep an assist for the Nailers in the loss.

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Want to thank the people who read this blog. WordPress sent me the end of year report and the blog has been seen 36,000+ times just in 2012 alone. I am close to 100,000 views all time. I am not Jonathan Bombulie, nor do I want to be, but thank you, thank you, thank you for reading what I put up here. I strive to do the best that I can and be the best at it and bring you information relative to the Penguins and the American Hockey League in general from a fan perspective. I really appreciate all the compliments I get as someone who doesn’t have a journalism degree and someone who pushes paper for a living that people actually: a) read my blog b) enjoy reading my blog c) recommend my blog to others. I can’t thank you guys enough. Here’s to a great 2013!

Let’s Go Pens!