Face it. No one expected Wilkes-Barre to win today. Nobody. I go on a lot of AHL boards, a lot of beat writers comment sections and follow a lot of fans on Twitter. No one had this Wilkes-Barre this afternoon.

Except me.

About two hours before puck drop…

http://twitter.com/#!/nafsnep/status/36829920189624320

Prior to that, I read this commentary in Sunday’s Citizens Voice from beat writer Jonathan Bombulie.

Penguins blitzkrieged the Bears today, winning 7-1. Now I will say that I did not expect a 7-1 whooping that the Penguins put on the Bears today. I expected a much tighter game.

Brad Thiessen vs. Todd Ford.

First Period: Corey Potter hook at 1:05 in. Bears have the 2nd ranked power play in the AHL. Here we go right? Nope. Zach Sill is no Dustin Jeffrey, but he scored a shorthanded goal and the floodgates opened. Later, Hutchinson came down the slot and chipped in a Ben Street feed from behind the net to make it 2-0. Later, Brian Strait would fire a puck from the blueline Ford could not see to make it 3-0. I love when Strait scores. They are postage stamp goals and boy are they pretty. The Bears would pressure the last third of the period but would not score. I though had they did, all the momentum would go out the window.

Second Period: Andrew Orpik would feed David Marshall to make it 4-0 and chase Ford. Have you driven a Ford lately? Jared DeMichiel would come in relief of Ford. Pens would have to kill off :56 of a 5 on 3 but would end up killing it and getting a power play. Ben Street would make it 5-0. Veilleux again would fire a shot at DeMichiel which Street cleaned up on the rebound. Pens didn’t stop there, Robert Bortuzzo came down the slot and received a Chris Collins centering bid to make it 6-0. He just picked a corner and it went in.

Third Period: Not much here in this period. The defense would not allow Hershey many chances, only allowing 4 shots all period. One of those however was a Brian Willsie rebound goal from a Sheldon Souray shot from the blueline. But later, Ryan Schnell would pick up his first AHL goal on a nice feed from David Marshall.

Bombulie had a nice postgamer himself. In it, Pens got a mountain of offense from a bunch of guys who you have never heard of. Seven different Penguins scored goals. More role players than anything, as Veilleux and Haddad and your more purer scorers did not find the score sheet. I could not be more proud of this organization and that group of guys that played today.

Around the Division: Charlotte beat Albany 3-2. Bingo beat Adirondack 4-3 in overtime and swept the weekend. The Senators are for real.

Standings: If we manufacture this kind of offense yesterday, we have a 12 point division lead. Instead we only have a 10 point division lead. 80-70 right now over Hershey. Charlotte sits third with 66 points. Idle Norfolk (who plays Hershey Tuesday at Scope) has 65 points for fourth. Binghanton has 62 points in fifth. Syracuse is sixth with 42 points. Albany seventh with 41. Adirondack gets the loser point and has 40 points.

This week: Hershey is in Norfolk Tuesday, and Albany plays a third game in a row in Charlotte. I’ll probably update periodically on Tuesday night on Twitter and will probably have something here on the blog then.

Proud of this team. You should be too. 80 points! WOO! Let’s Go Pens!

I hope there isn’t a theme to be had here in that subject line. Pens shutout by one of the teams on the up and up with a ridiculous goaltender in Michael Leighton who, in 4 games, is 2-1 with a 1.16 GAA, .968 SV% and a shutout streak of 1:35:14. (thanks Tim)

One shot is all the Pens needed, but they could not find it and lost 1-0. Veilleux, Lerg and Walker all had chances.

Micheal Leighton vs. Brad Thiessen. No idea was Hynes is thinking going with Thiessen two nights in a row. I suppose you continue to ride the hot hand and give your team it’s best chance to win.

First Period: Pens were given an early power play but could not convert. Erik Gustafsson would score at 14:54 to put the Phantoms ahead. The Pens would have to kill off a Geoff Walker trip, then on the ensuing faceoff a Cach Sill trip to give the Phantoms 1:55 of 5 on 3 time. Then, while killing the 5 on 3, Robert Bortuzzo would get called for slashing. Then when the two trip penalties expired, the penlaty box attendant let the wrong guys out! It was mass chaos.

Second period: What was left of the Bortuzzo slash was killed off. What I liked about the 5 on 3 kill was it was a block party of shots. I would see tons of communicating back and forth between the guys which was good to see. Lots of big hits this period. Zach Sill would catch Denis Hamel in open ice and J.P. Testwuide would board Boulerice. Everyone was fine. Lerg would get a great chance on the backhand in close but couldn’t elevate the puck. Wilkes-Barre would throw the kitchen sink at Leighton but could not crack him this period.

Third period: Quick moving period. Dan Jancevski would get nailed for hooking and the Pens couldn’t do anything with it. That was the only penalty call all period. There would then be about 5 minutes of green flag hockey. Pens would pull Thiessen and with the empty net not manage maybe more than two shots on goal.

Final SOG were 28-18 WBS.

Thoughts: Maybe “not enough horses” isn’t the right term here. After all, Adirondack only had 18 shots on goal. Defense was stout. Just didn’t get that one goal to force overtime or a shootout.

Three Stars: Brad Thiessen (17 saves), Erik Gustafsson (game winning goal, +1), Michael Leighton (28 save shutout)

Around the Division: Oppurtunity lost for Wilkes-Barre as Hershey lost for the first time since 1986 it seems 4-3 to Binghamton. An angry Bears team is a dangerous Bears team, regardless if they will be tired from playing 5 in 7 or whatever it’s been. Albany beat Charlotte in overtime 4-3. Norfolk shuts out Syracuse on back to back nights, this time by a score of 4-0.

Standings: Nothing lost, nothing gained for WBS on Hershey. It’s still 78-70. Norfolk gets to 5 of the bears with 65 points. Charlotte loses a point in the OT loss and is now in fourth with 64 points. Binghamton now has 60 points in fifth. Syracuse / Albany / Adirondack are all withing three points of each other, 42 /41 /39 respectively.

Tomorrow: Only games that matters is Wilkes-Barre / Hershey. I want to see what this current team can do against a great team in Hershey. Albany and Charlotte rematch and Binghamton goes to Adirondack.

Let’s Go Pens!

With half our team playing in Long Island tonight, Brad Thiessen kept the Sound Tigers out of the net and earned his second shutout of the week as Wilkes-Barre defeated Bridgeport 2-0.

Take nothing away from this game as far as “we can win with half our team in Pittsburgh.” No. Bridgeport has now lost seven in a row, and only dressed 17 skaters tonight.

Brad Thiessen vs. Joel Martin.

First period: Pens had to kill a Bortuzzo hook early and then later Carl Sneep came down the slot to make it 1-0. Shots on goal thru the first were 13-6 for the Penguins.

Second period: Geoff Walker had an early chance that was snuffed out by the ageless Mark Wotton, then Ben Street would score to make it 2-0. Nice assist by Tim Wallace on that one. Second half of this period, the Sopund Tigers would come alive but Thiessen would deny all callers. Shots for the period would be 8-8, but Bridgeport would get more than half of them in the last two minutes it seemed.

Third period: Before AHL commissioner David Andrews, Robin Figren would get robbed by Thiessen in close. For about 15 minutes the Sound Tigers would get chance after chance, but Thiessen would say no. Bridgeport would outshoot us 8-6 this period, but the Pens would hold on and win 2-0, getting Thiessen a 22 save shutout.

Thoughts: Again, Bridgeport is a team totally headed in the wrong direction, you can’t take much away from this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to get a win, let alone a shutout, but this game should hardly be a blueprint as to what to expect going forward. At least in my opinion.

Three Stars: Joel Martin (25 saves), Carl Sneep (game winning goal, +1), Brad Thiessen (22 saves, shutout)

Around the Division: Keith Aucoin a three point night, Jared DeMichiel his first win in net as the Bears keep rolling, defeating the Providence Bruins 4-3. Norfolk blanked Syracuse 3-0. Bingo did the same to Rochester, 3-0.

Standings: WBS 78, HER 70, CHA 63, NOR 63, BNG 58, SYR 42, ALB 39, ADK 37.

Tomorrow: We get Adirondack tomorrow at Mohegan. Albany is in Charlotte, Hershey hosts Binghamton and Norfolk and Syracuse rematch on Hampton Roads.

Let’s Go Pens!