Did some freelancing for Chris Roy and the Maine Hockey Journal tonight and was back in the WBS press box again. That’s why if you tuned into the live-tweeting earlier you saw a much more reserved game call.

What a difference a day makes.

The Penguins, who were frustrated by the Hershey Bears the night before, had a goal fest in the first 6:10 of the first period of the game tonight.

But, you play sixty minutes. Not six minutes and ten seconds. The Pirates won tonight in a shootout 4-3 bolstered in net by Mike Lee, who saw his first action at the AHL level. He didn’t start the game though.

Classic game really that had a bit of everything. A big lead by the home team early. A rookie goaltender who never saw any AHL action thrust into duty against one of the leagues sharpest teams. Fights, lots of them. A comeback by the visitors and a hero in the aforementioned rookie in the end.

Brad Thiessen vs. Mark Visentin – Steve MacIntyre was in for Paul Thompson, Joey Mormina and Alex Grant for Simon Despres an Philip Samuelsson.

First Period: Philippe Dupuis swings around the net and does a spin-o-rama which fools Visentin. He fires the puck at him, then Trevor Smith deflects it in for a 1-0 Pens lead. Less than a minute later, Philippe Dupuis fires a puck towards the net, Visentin leaves a rebound that Jayson Megna gets a stick on and settles and slips past Visentin. Portland head coach Ray Edwards saw enough and replaced Visentin with Mike Lee, fresh from ECHL Gwinnett. Visentin, the night before got tuned up to the total of six goals in Binghamton last night. The Pirates settled from there and it was on to the…

Second Period: Pacquiao / Marquez 4 had nothing on this period. Steve MacIntyre finally got his chance to fight Joel Rechlicz. MacIntyre buried him with one punch. That wasn’t even the best fight of the period though as Andy Miele, not known as a fighter fought pest Baobby Farnham. Miele really represented himself well and stood right in there with the more established Farnham. Eric Tangradi and Alex Bolduc were the undercard with Tangradi dropping Bolduc.

Edit: Here is the MacIntyre / Rechlicz fight I captured on my phone from the press box. Yes, it looks like they are on Earth and I on the Moon. Check out the videoboard above them for a better view or hope that the highlights go up on the SendToNews package later.

Oh, there were goals too. Riley Holzapfel picks off a Pirates pass as they were attempting to clear the defensive zone and blasted it past Mike Lee. It looked like it caught Lee by surprise. Then rookie sensation Chris Brown scored for the Pirates after the MacIntyre and Farnham fights.

Third Period: Jordan Martinook scores a goal nearly the same way that Riley Holzapfel did the period prior. The Pirates had life. Later, Oliver Eckman-Larsson scored an NHL quality wrist shot on Brad Thiessen while Brian Dumoulin was in the penalty box. Tie game. Through penalties, no other goals were had in regulation or…

Overtime: There were penalties, but no scoring. Lee really showed himself well for this being his first AHL minutes.

Shootout: Lee really deserved a star of the game because he stopped Jayson Megna, Benn Ferriero, Trevor Smith and Beau Bennett. Bennett on his attempt tumbled into the boards hard and was down for a second. He left the ice on his own power. Chris Conner and Rob Klinkhammer scored for the Pirates.

Three Stars: 3) Rob Klinkhammer (shootout goal) 2) Riley Holzapfel (goal, +2) and 1) Oliver Eckman-Larsson (goal, assist, -1)

Around the Division: Syracuse was in Glens Falls tonight and lost in a shootout 4-3.  Bingo had it’s win streak snapped at nine games losing 3-1 vs. Norfolk and Hershey hosted the Hamilton Bulldogs and lost 3-2.

Editorial: Missed opportunity for the Pens to pick up ground on teams ahead of us that straight lost or did not maximize points. Can’t be happy with this effort this weekend at all.

Standings: Syracuse 31 — Bingamton 28 — Penguins 28 — Hershey 23 — Norfolk 20

Conference: 1) SPR 32 2) SYR 31 3) WOR 25 4) BNG 28 5) WBS 28 6) MCH 25 7) PRO 23 8) POR 24

Wheeling Update: The Nailers rematched against the defending champion Florida Everblades tonight and lost a heartbreaker in the shootout 5-4. Nailers allow Florida to score three goals in the third period to force overtime and lose in the shootout.

SendToNews Highlights: I think I can see Brian Coe editing these for everyone over in the media box. Maybe not, that looks like an empty popcorn box on second look. The highlights aren’t up yet. They may be when I get home. Here they are.

Pens are off until Wednesday when they are in Albany on December 12. I have a couple of things kicking around in my head I can use for blog fodder between now and then.

The Penguins have lost games this season.

Here, I will name all the teams that the Pens have lost to.

Binghamton, Bridgeport, Springfield and Syracuse once.

Hershey. Four times.

The Pens and Bears play each other twelve times.

That’s not a good pattern.

The Penguins lose in overtime to the Bears by a score of 5-4. When the Pens were on, they were on. When they were off, Hershey scored. That simple. The Penguins did not play a full sixty minutes of hockey tonight and the results are indicative of the score.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Dany Sabourin – Brian Strait was a scratch and Paul Thompson drew back in the lineup.

First Period: Bears come out flying. Coach John Hynes told Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie earlier this week that the Bears would be sharp from playing the night before in the Nation’s Capital in the AHL Showcase and that the Pens needed to match this or else. Well, in the short term they didn’t and the Bears found themselves up 1-0 thanks to a Mattias Sjogren tip of a Steve Oleksy shot from the point. Later, the Pens cash in on the power play just :04 in when Benn Ferriero rifled home a shot from the blue line to bring the game even at one. Then, Warren Peters below the goal feeds a cutting Simon Despres to put the Pens up 2-1. Late, as been the case with the Penguins with opponents under five minutes, the Bears scored to tie it at two.

Second Period: Robert Bortuzzo shoots from the blue line and it eludes Sabourin for a 3-2 Pens lead. The first ten minutes of the period were all Wilkes-Barre only allowing the Bears one shot on goal. Then, to start the second half of the period, Jon DiSalvatore would score to tie it at three. Under five minutes again in the period, Tomas Kundratek beats Zatkoff clean with a shot to push the Bears back out in front 4-3.

Third Period: The Pens would have extended power play time to work with when Steve Oleksy for Hershey took a penalty then argued the call nonstop with referee Terry Koharski. After a pretty inert stretch of power play time for the Pens, Eric Tangradi was finally able to breakthrough and even the game at 4 apiece. After that, a lot of back and forth but no scoring and it was onto…

Overtime: Philip Samuelsson coughs up a puck that T.J. Syner or Kevin Marshall pick off. They come in two vs. one and Kevin Marshall scores to end it.

Three Stars: 3) Eric Tangradi (goal, assist, -2) 2) Kevin Marshall (game winning goal, even) 1) Jon DiSalvatore (goal, assist, +2)

Editorial: I seem to be more miffed at the fact that we lost the game than I am the fact that we got a point out of the affair and by rights should have lost. I am really growing tired of Penguins rookie and/or second year defensemen getting doe-eyed when the slightest forecheck is applied while Alex Grant, Joey Mormina and others waste away as healthy scratches and Carl Sneep is buried in Wheeling. Yes, I understand development of players who are your future and fully understand the role of a minor league hockey team in the mess that is never-ending NHL labor strife. Just because I realize this doesn’t mean that I have to like it.

Oh, Simon Despres was not seen at all from the third period onward.

Around the Division: The two teams ahead of us in the East Division won. Syracuse dispatched the Hamilton Bulldogs by a score of 5-1 and the Binghamton Senators subjugated the Portland Pirates 6-1 good for their ninth win in a row. Norfolk was idle.

Standings: Syracuse 30 — Binghamton 28 — Penguins 28 — Hershey 23 — Norfolk 18

Conference: 1) SYR (30) 2) SPR (30) 3) WOR (24) 4) BNG (28) 5) WBS (27) 6) MCH (23) 7) STJ (23) 8) HER (23)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers come back from down 3-0 to the defending champion Florida Everblades only to lose 4-3 in a shootout. Carl Sneep had a goal for the Nailers in the loss.

SendToNews Highlights: Are slowly being pieced together as I type this but can be found here.

Pens back in action tomorrow night at 7:05 when they host the Portland Pirates.

I’ll be covering the game for the Maine Hockey Journal tomorrow and my friend Chris Roy. That means press box and “reporting” the game vs. “cheering” in case anyone is looking for my lanky seven foot frame in Section 104 tomorrow.

Gameday setup will be here on the blog tomorrow at 3 p.m.

The tear continues.

The Penguins win again tonight, making it five in a row, and earn John Hynes his 115th all-time win as head coach, tying Glenn Patrick in that category. They do so by playing the system implemented by Hynes and his staff and skate away victors, 5-3 over the St. John’s IceCaps.

The game was exactly like last night’s vs. Syracuse, with the Penguins…. well, read on.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Eddie Pasquale — Zach Sill was back from injury. Paul Thompson was scratched again.

First Period: Could best be described as a carbon copy to the first period last night vs. Syracuse. That is, the Pens jump out on the IceCaps early via goals from Simon Despres and Warren Peters via deflection, then clamp down and do not allow St. John’s one shot on goal until about six minutes to play in the first. Then a pushback by the IceCaps late, Jason Jaffray for the visitors scores while the teams were four-on-four.

First Period Notes: Penguins hit anything and everything that moved that period. Tom Kuhnhackl left the game with an apparent injury and did not return the rest of the game.

Second Period: Probably the flattest period the Pens have played in recent memory. You could see the St. John’s momentum shift with every shift. Finally, an IceCaps faceoff win in the WBS defensive zone is won to Julian Melchiori who fires it at the goal. Ray Sawada gets a stick on it to deflect it past Zatkoff to bring St. John’s to tie the game. Then, late while on a power play, Dylan Reese gets a goal which deflected off of St. John’s defenseman Derek Meech’s stick and slowly trickled past Pasquale to give the Pens the lead late. It was the lift that the team needed as the period was a very uncharacteristic period for the Penguins.

Third Period: Riley Holzapfel sets up Benn Ferriero for a goal from behind the net. I’ll let WBS beat writer Jonathan Bombulie describe this one as he was right on top of it:

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In keeping with last night’s game, Spencer Machacek scored to make it 4-3 with just under seven minutes to play, then the IceCaps got a late power play, pulled Pasquale, and the Penguins found an empty net goal via Riley Holzapfel, who had just been sprung from the penalty box to seal it.

Three Stars: 3) Benn Ferriero (goal, +1) 2) Riley Holzapfel (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Dylan Reese (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Syracuse claws back from down 0-3 to win in Hartford tonight 4-3 in overtime vs. the Connecticut Whale. They get three third period goals to tie, then Mark Barberio scored the OT game winner. Norfolk beats Hershey 5-1 in Hershey. Braden Holtby took the loss for the Bears tonight. Hershey’s been riding him as of late, perhaps he was tired. But that’s me speculating. Binghamton, who has about 45 games in hand on the Penguins, were off tonight.

Standings: Syracuse 28 — Penguins 26 — Binghamton 24 — Hershey 19 — Norfolk 16

Conference: 1) SYR (28) 2) SPR (26) 3) MCH (23) 4) WBS (26) 5) BNG (24) 6) STH (23) 7) WOR (22) 8) BRI (21)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendtoNews Highlights: Still going up as I am typing this, but here’s the link to all the good stuff you will want to see. Sucks that WordPress won’t allow for me to embed this on my site. Oh well, extra clicks for you!

Pens are off until next Friday vs. Hershey. I’ll see what I can drum up blog content wise for you this week. As always, catch me on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest cooing over redheads, indie rock discussion and random pictures of animals and still life.

Let’s Go Pens!