Normally when a goaltender is off for a month during the season one would expect some rust in the form of a few goals he should have had in his next game. Not Scott Munroe. Munroe and the Penguins shutout the Binghamton Senators 3-0 tonight. It was Binghamton’s eighth straight loss.

Mike McKenna vs. Scott Munroe. Colin McDonald was sidelined with the flu, or flu-like symptoms. Dustin Jeffrey was recalled from his conditioning stint back to Pittsburgh.

First Period: B-Sens were flying out of the gate, Bobby Raymond hit a post. Six minutes in and Wilkes-Barre didn’t have a shot on goal. Then Brandon DeFazio goes out and gets two in his shift. The teams would trade two penalties a side and they’d skate back to the locker rooms scoreless.

Second Period: Pens had to kill two straight penalties and did so successfully, then Nick Petersen scored to make it 1-0 after McKenna was unable to control a rebound in a scrum. Steve MacIntyre had a shift in the middle of the period which really impressed me. He was throwing the body and nearly scored on a deflection. Late, Paul Thompson would score to make it 2-0 then nearly immediately afterward, Brian Gibbons would snipe a goal from the far dot to make it 3-0. Much like the two prior games, Wilkes-Barre gets two goals late to put itself out front.

Third Period: Not a whole lot to report here. Lots of end to end action. Carl Sneep made a few defensive plays. WBS would clamp down and play defense. They only took 5 shots on goal and allowed 8. Really nothing to report on. Munroe made the saves when he needed to preserve his second shutout on home ice.

Three Stars: 3) Jason Williams (2 assists, +2) 2) Scott Munroe (25 save shutout) and 1) Nick Petersen (goal, assist, +2)

Petersen and his wife welcomed a baby girl this morning right before lunch. Bombulie tweeted that he told his daughter that he’d score a goal for her. That he did, and more.

Can I say that WBS has a goaltending controversy on its hands? Thiessen and Munroe both have two shutouts now and are playing lights out in goal. Who gets the nod in Portland on Friday? Who sees two out of three in the weekend?

Around the Division: Wilkes-Barre and Binghamton were the only games in town.

Standings: The old saying is that games in hand don’t mean bunk unless you win them. WBS is the division leader up on Norfolk, 22 points to 19, Hershey sits third with 17 points. Syracuse 15 and Binghamton 12.

Conference: 1-StJ (25) 2-WBS (22) 3-ALB (18) 4-NOR (19) 5-ADK (17) 6-HER (17) 7-CT (17) 8-BRI (17)

Pens will probably have a light skate or a meeting or two before shipping to Portland on Thursday. I will be doing the same, but for attending meetings and practicing. If there isn’t anything to report on Wednesday, check me out on Thursday afternoon as I live-tweet (or attempt to) my six-hour trip to Portland.

Let’s Go Pens!

Wilkes-Barre is not able to get the winning streak to nine game this evening and subsequently lost to the Norfolk Admirals 5-3. Pens looked flat exhausted all weekend. They willed their way to a win last night in Hershey and had a 3-1 lead before coughing up a four goal third period by the Admirals to lose.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski. Dustin Jeffrey was a scratch tonight. Word on radio was that Pittsburgh wanted him to sit due to a lot of minutes played the last two games (Norfolk Wednesday and Hershey Friday) Matt Rust was called up from Wheeling in his place.

First Period: Jason Williams banged home a Colin McDonald feed from behind the net to put the Pens up early. The teams would trade power plays. Then, with Norfolk’s Jeff Dimmen in the box for tripping Bryan Lerg, Radko Gudas would score shorthanded. A miscommunication between the defensemen led to the turnover and the Gudas score. Norfolk seemed to me to have the period in control the whole way despite the 8-5 shots on goal advantage the Pens had.

Second Period: Ben Street would zip a shot past Tokarski to make it 2-1 then Niko Dimitrakos would score on a 2 on 1 to make it 3-1. Pest Eric Neilson was pestering Nick Petersen for a fight at center ice and in his badgering let the Pens come in 2 on 1 and score. Neilson would find a fight partner in the form of Steve MacIntyre. MacIntyre absolutely destroyed Neilson. I mean absolutely manhandled him. To Neilson’s credit, while eating about seven or eight bombs from MacIntyre, did not buckle once. This would end up being the turning point for WBS as they would look flat afterwards.

Third Period: All credit to Norfolk. Down 3-1 and having MacIntyre rearrange the face of Eric Neilson they could have folded up and went home. Not these pesky Admirals, they scored four times to win. First was a Cory Conacher clean up on a rebound while the Admirals were on the power play. Second was Mark Barberio on a slapshot from the far circle Thiessen never saw when Brian Gibbons was in the box for tripping. Third was Dana Tyrell on a mini break which Thiessen got a part of but it went 5-hole and in and finally an empty netter late which technically counts as a power play goal so three power play goals in the period alone.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, even) 2) Dana Tyrell (game winning goal, assist, +1) and 1) Mark Barberio (goal, two assists, +1)

I felt like WBS chased it the remainder of the night after the MacIntyre / Neilson fight. That the defense allowed four straight goals in the third when this is something we pride ourselves on is not acceptable.

WBS will need to regroup and will. Rare Tuesday game when the defending Calder Cup champion Binghamton Senators come to town hungry for a win.

Around the Division: Hershey and Binghamton were idle. Albany shutout Syracuse 1-0.

Standings: WBS leads by one point over Norfolk, 20 to 19. Hershey has 17 points, Syracuse 15 and Binghamton 12.

Conference: St. John’s still leads overall 23 points to WBS’ 20. Then it goes Adirondack (yes, Adirondack) 17 points as the Northeast Division leader. It’s actually quite the logjam in that division as three teams have 17 points currently and last place Springfield sits just three points back. Not bad for a division which everyone thought would be  the weakest in the Eastern Conference. Four thru Eight go: 4-NOR (19) 5-HER (17) 6-CT (17) 7-ALB (17) 8-SYR (15)

May run a few things here and there between now and Tuesday. Check back often!

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens move the road record this year to 8-0 and the winning streak to eight straight winning in overtime 4-3 in another chapter in the Penguins / Bears rivalry.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin. With Eric Tangradi on recall to Pittsburgh, Paul Thompson was back after being scratched for the past two games.

First Period: Early, a Julien Brouillette point shot would get in the goal as Thiessen was screened. Then, right after, Philip Samuelsson would score his first pro goal after Paul Thompson crashed the net. Then a scary moment as a Robert Bortuzzo blind drop pass to no one saw Keith Aucoin and Chris Bourque come in alone but was saved by Thiessen. Then late with Jason Williams in the box for interference, Jacob Micflikier would score at 19:59 to make it 2-1.

I though that the late, late, late goal was a backbreaker for the Pens. They gambled on the PK and got burned, badly. But they regrouped.

Second Period: Really a flat period I thought for Wilkes-Barre. Both teams really clamped down defensively and didn’t want to make a mistake. In doing so, it really made for boring hockey to me. With under a minute, the Pens get two bang-bang goals within :16 after a Sneep point shot deflected by Paul Thompson. Then, Thompson picked off a Hershey pass, crashed the net and Ryan Craig scored it.

The goals really came after a late Hershey ice which caught the Bears really tired. The second goal in the period was all Thompson’s work.

Third Period: Pens came out buzzing, but the Bears would even the score again when Julien Brouillette would fire a shot at Thiessen he would have trouble controlling and Keith Aucoin would clean up the rebound. Later, Colin McDonald would score to make it 4-3 after Philip Samuelsson kept the puck in, fired it on net and Sabourin would have his own problems controlling the rebound and McDonald would do the rest. Hershey would then buzz, buzz and buzz and Keith Aucoin would come down the right side and dish a pass right to Mattias Sjogren to tie the game late.

Overtime: Simon Despres, :57 in, would have all day at the top of the slot and would wrist home his third game winning goal of the year.

Three Stars: 3) Patrick McNeill (two assists, -1) 2) Ben Street (4 assists, +4) and 1) Simon Despres (game winning goal, +3)

Pens kept up with the Bears tonight despite to me, looking a step off. Tim Leone tweeted that John Hynes is perfect as a head coach at Giant Center. I certainly would say that it could have been a game which came down to coaching.

Around the Division: Albany beat Norfolk 2-1. Binghamton lost again, this time to Rochester 3-1 and Syracuse beat Adirondack 3-2. And outside of the division, since we are talking “eight is great,” check out what Grand Rapids did to Hamilton tonight in the Steel City.

Standings: WBS has a small window of breathing room now up 20 points to Hershey and Norfolk’s 17 points respectively. Syracuse is fourth with 15 points and Binghamton sits last with 12 points.

Tom mentioned the Conference standings, so from here on, I am going to start running it. So off we go.

Conference: St. John’s sits atop the conference with 21 points. WBS has 20 points for second. Northeast Division leader Connecticut have 17 points. The rest goes: 4-HER (17) 5-NOR (17) 6-ADK (15) 7-SYR (15) and 8-ALB (15) The top eight teams in the conference make the playoffs. I’ll start looking at 9, 10 and deeper later in the season if the points are close enough.

Pens get home for a Saturday TV game vs. Norfolk. Gameday will be up at 3 p.m. here on the blog.

Let’s Go Pens!