I’ve been getting into the practice of running some pregame nuggets on the opponent for the evening vs. the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Let’s take a look at a few from tonights contest vs. the Albany Devils:

Well, tonight the Pens lost for the first time ever vs. a New Jersey Devils AHL franchise by the score of 2-1. The Pens were 0-for-5 on the power play tonight.

They also couldn’t win a face-off to save themselves tonight and that malady cost them the game ultimately.

Scott Munroe vs. Jeff Frazee. Brain Strait, Carl Sneep and Paul Thompson were in for Peter Merth, Dan Henningson and Ryan Schnell.

First Period: Pens took two consecutive penalties but killed them easily, as I mentioned in the nuggets that Albany has only scored on four road power plays all season. The face-off trouble reared its head early, as Munroe was forced to make three tough saves after the Pens could not win the battle in the dot. The period would end with no score.

Second Period: Mike Hoeffel scored a laser beam goal over Munroe’s glove to put the Devils out front 1-0 at 7:49. Then, Boris Valabik and Harry Young both fought to the dislike of the crowd as they both had a hold of each other where the other was not allowed to get a square punch in. The fans actually booed!

Third Period: While the side were 4-on-4, Ben Street scored on a 2-on-1 break with Colin McDonald to even things at one. Then, a scary incident when a WBS player crashed the Albany net and right into Jeff Frazee. Frazee appeared to have injured his arm but would remain in the game, but in obvious pain. Brian Gibbons then had a good chance while being pulled down and actually hit the bottom of the post but the puck did not go in. After an icing call, the Penguins don’t win the face-off and Mike Hoeffel scores his second of th game to put the Devils up late. Brad Mills would sit for a late high stick on Boris Valabik but the Pens with Munroe pulled were unable to get one past Frazee and lost.

The pessimist in me is going to say that the Penguins couldn’t beat a team they have mastered in previous attempts and score on a one armed goaltender when they needed to. The optimist says that they learn from this, better to make these mistakes now than in May.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Frazee (25 saves on 26 shots) 2) Ben Street (goal, +1) and 1) Mike Hoeffel (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: We were the only game in town division, and league wide.

Standings: 1-HER (37) 2-NOR (37) 3-WBS (37)4-SYR (27) 5-BNG (24)

Strange, how percentage points work in hockey. Penguins go from second to first yesterday when Norfolk beat Hershey. Now, with the loss and same amount of points and the Bears and Admirals, drop to third.

Conference: 1-StJ (39) 2-HER (37) 3-CT (36) 4-MCH (38) 5-NOR (37) 6-WBS (37) 7-WOR (32) 8-ADK (32)

Looking Ahead: WBS breaks for Christmas and is off again until next Tuesday nights game vs. Hershey. This week, Hershey hosts Syracuse on Wednesday. Norfolk is already off.

Expect blog updates to be scarce between now and then. I’ll probably run a brief recap of the Bears / Crunch game. I’ll have no news on demotions to Pittsburgh because the NHL roster freeze is in effect until December 27. That means Pittsburgh can call up whoever they want, but can’t send anyone down until the 27th at midnight.

Let’s Go Pens!

Let’s start tonight’s recap with a nugget from Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie from the Citizens Voice:

What happened tonight was an expected result, as the Pens dropped this one 5-2.

Breakout passes from their own defensive zone looked a mess. Really a game where you can get down on things but I need to constantly remind myself that this is a patchwork team right now.

Anyway, Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski. Ben Street was back in. Boris Valabik was in as well.

First Period: I tweeted in my pre-game nugget session that you have to stay disciplined when playing Norfolk with how good their power play is (second best on the road) – well, :32 in, Cody Wild was nabbed for interference. It did not take long for the Admirals to score as Matt Fornataro made it 1-0 before most of the sell out crowd were settled into their seats. Then, Radko Gudas fired a shot from the blue line which Carter Ashton deflected him to put the Admirals up 2-0. This shook up the Pens a bit as they came to life and started the comeback. Dan Henningson shot the puck from his own blue line and Ben Street deflected it past Tokarski to make it 2-1. Pens looked to carry the momentum into the…

Second Period: Geoff Walker threw the puck at the net at an odd angle and the puck deflected off of a Norfolk defensemans skate and in. Bryan Lerg would get credit for tucking it last. Then, after the Penguins killed off an Alex Grant hook, Tyler Johnson would score from the slot by zipping a shot over the glove of Thiessen. This was three goals on ten shots. Thiessen would get the hook after that and Scott Munroe would come in. The Admirals seemed to be the ones shook up after that as they continued to buzz. Later, Cory Conacher outworked the Penguins fourth line by blowing past everyone to score on a wraparound. Then, with under a minute, ex-WBS Penguin Michel Ouellet scored to make it 5-2.

Third Period: Thiessen returned to the WBS nets. The good news coming out of this period was that Wilkes-Barre limited Norfolk to three shots. The bad news was that they themselves only took six and scored on none of them. The Pens had two chances on a power play but did not convert.

Three Stars: 3) Scott Jackson (two assists, +2) 2) Tyler Johnson (goal, +1) and 1) Carter Ashton (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey thumped Bridgeport 5-0 on a Dany Sabourin 32 save shutout. The Bears are now tied with the Penguins with 37 points each. Binghamton lost to Worcester 5-2. Syracuse lost to Adirondack 4-3.

Standings: Hershey, by way of percentage points, claims top spot. Wilkes-Barre is second. Norfolk is third with 35 points. Syracuse has 27 points in fourth and Binghamton has 22 points in last.

Conference: 1-StJ (37) 2-HER (37) 3-CT (36) 4-WBS (37) 5-MCH (36) 6-NOR (35) 7-WOR (32) 8-ADK (32)

Tomorrow the Admirals play the Bears in Hershey. If Norfolk wins, its another three way tie for first in the East. If they lose, the Bears are outright the number one team in the East and could, depending on how St. John’s does against Portland tomorrow, be tops in the Conference.

Albany comes to town Monday. They are much improved so this game won’t be easy.

Craig Adams left tonight’s game in Pittsburgh with the ever specific “lower body injury” so if there is a call up made from Wilkes-Barre, it probably won’t come till Monday for cap reasons. Hopefully bodies heal and we can get back to somewhat bit of normalcy soon.

Let’s Go Pens!