You need your best players to be your best players on a nightly, consistent basis. You also can’t have individuals trying to do it all themselves. If you have these elements working for you, you lose most often than not and the Pens were on the losing end of this one 5-2 this evening.

Brad Thiessen vs. Iiro Tarkki. Matt Rust was scratched in favor of Ryan Schnell. Zach Sill was still out with an upper body injury.

First Period: Ben Street would sit for an early cross checking penalty and the Crunch would put its second ranked power play unit on the ice and score as Brandon McMillan scored his first of the season. Colin McDonald was everywhere this game, sticks in passing lanes and causing commotion in the offensive zone.

Second Period: Kyle Palmieri scored off of a Jason Williams turnover to make things 2-0. Another defensive breakdown would see Nicolas Deschamps come in all alone but Thiessen made the save. More Colin McDonald stirring up things with he and Geoff Walker but McDonald was unable to find the back of the net. However, Geoff Walker was able to score to make it 2-1. Pens would then come in 3-on-1 but were not able to even things. Then, Kyle Palmieri scored off of a lightning quick faceoff draw to make it 3-1.

Really a backbreaking goal for the Penguins, who to this point in the Period, did everything but score more goals.

Third Period: Just like the two previous periods, the Pens would get scored on. This time a Mat Clark shot on goal would get tipped in by Troy Bodie. Alex Grant would fight Bodie a few minutes later. This would fire up the Pens and Brian Gibbons would score to make it 4-2. But, Peter Holland would make it 5-2 to put the game out of reach.

Three Stars: 3) Troy Bodie (goal, even) 2) Nick Bonino (two assists, +1) and 1) Kyle Palmieri (goal, assist, +2)

Pens were just as flat as four day old soda tonight. Nothing else to say here.

Around the Division: Norfolk rallied late and won 2-1 at home against Adirondack. The Bears throttled the Pirates 7-1 and Binghamton lost 2-1 in Worcester.

Standings: Things getting tighter. WBS and Norfolk are tied with 29 points. Norfolk wins the tiebreaker (wins) and sits first with the Pens second.  Hershey is closer now with 27 points. Syracuse has 23 points and Binghamton 18.

Conference: 1-CT (31) 2-StJ (30) 3-NOR (29) 4-WBS (29) 5-ADK (27) 6-HER (27) 7-MCH (27) 8-BRI (26)

Penguins are off until Wednesday when they play in Binghamton. Updates from here to there dependent on roster moves and general things that occur which directly or indirectly affect this team league wide.

Let’s Go Pens!

Big news of the day besides the 4-1 win over the Pirates tonight was that Niko Dimitrakos was released from his professional tryout agreement (PTO). Normally with a player such as Dimitrakos (points in multiple games coming into today) the standard players contract (SPC) is normally announced right after the team announces the PTO expiring.

Not this time. Niko is gone as a Penguin. From what Tom Grace said on radio, both sides amicably parted ways. WBS beat writer Jonathan Bombulie has more.

Other than that, a big win for the Pens tonight who at times, stifled the Pirates. They held them to five shots on goal in the first and second period and physically dominated the offensive zone all night long.

Brad Thiessen vs. Curtis McElhinney.

First Period: Geoff Walker and Igor Gongalsky got into a “fight” early. Both received roughing minors. During the 4-on-4 action, Brett MacLean danced right around Philip Samuelsson and beat Thiessen glove side to put the Pirates up 1-0. This seemed to awaken the Pens as they simply dominated every aspect of the period from there on, finally getting a goal from Ben Street. The Street goal really should not have counted, as the Penguins were badly offsides. I mean at least by three feet minimum, but linesman Leo Boylan signaled good and they scored. Later, with Matt Watkins in the box for holding, Joey Mormina would put the Pens up 2-1 on the power play.

Second Period: Penguins would get another power play goal from Eric Tangradi after Alex Grant kept a puck onside. He would fire towards the net and Tangradi would collect the rebound and jam it past McElhinney. After that, Walker and Gongalsky would fight again, this time it was an actual “fight” – lots of hand fighting and Gongalsky had the takedown.

Third Period: Really a quick moving period. Two penalties, both :04 apart from one another. Before you knew it, there was a minute left and the Pirates would opt for the extra attacker. Geoff Walker ensured there would be no comeback by getting the empty net goal.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, +1) 2) Alex Grant (two assists, +2) and 1) Joey Mormina (game winning goal, even)

Around the Division: Norfolk lost to Adirondack 5-1 in the other game I was watching on Twitter. All the while the Phantoms played with only 5 defensemen. Really an impressive showing by them against one of the top offensive AHL teams. Hershey beat Syracuse 4-1 and Binghamton finally got back into the win column by beating Manchester 4-1.

Standings: WBS back to tops in the division with 29 points. Norfolk with 27 for second, Hershey sits third with 25. Syracuse has 21 points in fourth and Binghamton has 18 points in fifth.

Conference: 1-StJ (30) 2-CT (29) 3-WBS (29) 4-ADK (27) 5-NOR (27) 6-HER (25) 7-ALB (25) 8-MCH (25)

Penguins travel to Syracuse tomorrow. Gameday will be up here at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

News of the day was that Robert Bortuzzo and Alex Picard being recalled to Pittsburgh as Kris Letang and Zbynek Michalek are out with undisclosed ailments. As a result, Wilkes-Barre drops this one 5-2.

After the game, I mentioned that final shots on goal were 32-18 Norfolk and wondered if this was an indirect effect of Bortuzzo’s and Picard’s absence. Well, Jonathan Bombulie tweeted me the following:

https://twitter.com/#!/CVBombulie/status/141711773974806528

Regardless, it was Scott Munroe vs. Dustin Tokarski this evening. All hands on deck defensively tonight.

First Period: Early, Walker had some odd touches which lead to him turning over the puck in his defensive zone twice in one shift. Then, with ex-WBS Penguin J-P Cote in the box for cross checking Eric Tangradi, Nick Petersen would feed Niko Dimitrakos on the power play where Niko would have all the time in the world to rip a shot past Tokarski to put the Pens up 1-0. Late, with matching minors to Ryan Craig and Cory Conacher for roughing, Mike Angelidis would redirect a Mark Barberio offering to even things.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre came out and played the first three and a half minutes like gangbusters. Then Mark Barberio hooks a Penguin and on the ensuing power play the Penguins looked like the Keystone Kops. Norfolk easily killed the penalty. Then, a weird sequence. As a Norfolk power play expires, Blair Jones scores when Munroe was interfered with. Referee T.J. Luxmore rules that a WBS player pushed a Norfolk player into Munroe so therefore no interference and a good goal. Then, off of the ensuing faceoff, Ben Street would score a weird goal redirecting a Nick Petersen shot. Then, Simon Despres and Bryan Lerg would sit for slashing and hooking respectively and Cory Conacher would score on an easy backdoor while up 5-0n-3 to put the Admirals up 3-2.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre, down a goal on the road, would only take two shots on goal all period. Meanwhile, Norfolk would get a power play goal from rookie sensation Cory Conacher who is absolutely tearing it up right now. Norfolk would clamp down, Penguins would pull Munroe late and Trevor Smith would pot an empty netter from center ice to ice it and the Pens would lose at Scope for the first time in eight games.

Three Stars: 3) Trevor Smith (goal, two assists, +2) 2) Blair Jones (goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Cory Conacher (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey lost in Hartford to the Connecticut Whale 4-2. Big news there was that Mattias Sjogren was returning to Sweden.

Standings: Norfolk tied with Wilkes-Barre in points, but since they have more wins are first in the division with 27 points. Hershey has 23 points in third. Syracuse sits fourth with 21 points and Binghamton last with 16 points.

Conference: Missed opportunity for WBS tonight as a win would have put us in sole possession of first place overall. Standings look like this. 1-StJ (28) 2-CT (27) 3-NOR (27) 4-WBS (27) 5-MCH (25) 6-BRI (24) 7-ADK (23) 8-HER (23)

Wilkes-Barre travels home tonight. Here’s Bombulie’s postgamer. Pittsburgh also confirmed that Letang and Michalek are out for Thursday’s game at Washington. I would expect a calllup from Wheeling in the form of Andrew Hotham. If that occurs, you’ll see it from me on Twitter first.

Penguins will practice Thursday morning then Portland comes calling Friday night.

Let’s Go Pens!