Really a dominating performance this evening in the New York Capital District, a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre romp which by rights should have been a 7-0 thrashing or something like that.

Brett Sterling was a scratch. Joey Haddad took his spot on the fourth line. Nick Johnson as advertised did not play. Brad Thiessen got the nod in net in an unprecedented 2nd game in a row which to date has been unheard of. I was fully expecting John Curry against the broken Devils.

First period: Albany drew a quick 5 on 3 after a Brian Strait hook and a very soft Corey Potter trip. Tyler Eckford sniped from the blue line while Thiessen was screened. Later in the period, Adam Henrique took a cross check and Dustin Jeffrey scored to tie the game. More on him later.

Second period: Chris Collins bomb from the point finds a Ryan Craig stick to make it 2-1 early at 2:42 of the period. Albany beat writer Bill Cain tweeted that the Devils were being outshot 18-3 at 4:30 into the 2nd period. It really was a dominating performance for the Wilkes-Barre defense tonight. Radio called the corps a “man amongst boys” tonight. Later in the period, Joe Vitale drew an Alexander Urbom slash, and Andrew Hutchinson blasted a one timer from Dustin Jeffrey from the blue line past Frazee to make it 3-1. Then, Pierre Luc-Letourneau-Leblond and Jesse Boulerice scrapped in what was the fight of the year in my opinion. Both men struck each other so hard they cut each other. I mean open gashes which required stitches for both. Boulerice was hit so hard it knocked me out (not literally). Referee Terry Koharski reffed the score and called a bunch of penalties on WBS, but it just didn’t matter. We had shorthanded chance after shorthanded chance. Only 1,478 in attendance tonight and they booed the effort tonight. Bronx cheers on any legit shots on Thiessen who probably didn’t even break a sweat tonight.

The shots were 27-7 after two.

Third period: More shorthanded chances by WBS. Eric Tangradi lit the lamp at 5:50 from a delicious pass from Dustin Jeffrey. After that it was cruise control. Zach Sill got in late shenanigans but it didn’t matter it was a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre romp. 8-0 on the road and Thiessen undefeated.

Tyler Eckford for Albany, Andrew Hutchinson and Dustin Jeffrey for WBS were the three stars:

Thoughts: 1) As I said in my Gameday Preview, Albany’s core is fractured. Injuries and call-ups will hurt any team. Right now WBS is an elite team, so the 1-0 deficit early meant nothing to them, they just went on lockdown afterwards with the final SOG tally being 32-19. 2) Thiessen. Why start him twice in a row? Especially against a downtrodden Albany team? Unless you are naming him your #1 and going Thiess, Thiess, Curry this weekend v. Norfolk, Hershey and Bingo. My thought is it’ll be Curry-Thiessen-Curry this weekend. 3) The fourth line. Sill-Boulerice-Haddad worked hard and should have had a goal tonight. Really impressed by the depth on this team. 4) Bryan Lerg really played great tonight, which speaks again to the depth this team has. 5) Dustin Jeffrey. Really making a case to get called up to Pittsburgh and stay there. Eric P at the Wilkes-Blog has a post this week you should read. He was 1-2-3 tonight. Radio called his goal an “NHL caliber goal” and basically called this game his “breakout” game. Hard to disagree.

No other team in the East skated tonight, We are 12-2 right now with 24 points. Hershey and Charlotte have 19 a piece. Charlotte plays Adirondack tomorrow and Friday. Hershey plays in Bingo Friday.

Gigantic test coming against the Norfolk Admirals Friday which are going from pretender to contender. Get your popcorn ready.

We needed a bounceback game after last night’s debacle v. Binghamton. The Sharks are not a push over. But, we somehow managed to stick to the basics and won 2-0 tonight.

Brad Thiessen v. Alex Stalock on Alex Stalock bobblehead night. No Sterling tonight. Bryan Lerg skated in his first game in what seemed like forever for him.

After an early Andrew Hutchinson high stick, Wilkes-Barre generated chance after chance after chance this evening.

The big story out of this game may not be a save, goal or fight but Nick Johnson’s left shoulder. After Dustin Jeffrey nearly scored in the first period, Worcester’s Mike Moore shoved Juice to the ice and he went down and stayed down. No penalty called. At first he went to the bench, then he and trainer Patrick Steidle went to the locker room.

This was all during a Sean Sullivan cross check penalty and a subsequent Ryan Craig power play goal. I tweeted very early this morning that Worcester boasted the best power play and penalty kill in the league. So much for that.

Wilkes-Barre penalty kill was perfect. Worcester could not set anything up. You can see that they focused on tightening that up. What made it even better, Tim Wallace scored in the second period on a shorthanded 2 on 1 with Dustin Jeffrey after a Corey Potter boarding call.

After that, Worcester had guns blazing late in the 2nd with multiple chances.

Third period was fast paced. You get that when Chris Cozzan is in the orange arm bands. I spoke with some Sharks fans during the action. Worcester is smack dab in the middle of Atlantic Division country, merely 2 hours away from Portland and Bridgeport and under an hour everyplace in between. Would love to be a season ticket holder here. Would probably attend close to 70 AHL games if I did.

Anyway. I counted only 17 Penguin skaters on the bench and did not see Nick Johnson in the third period. I can tell you that I saw him post hit. Perhaps they just rested him. I hope it’s nothing serious.

Eric Tangradi, Ryan Craig and Brad Thiessen were the three stars in that order. Final shots on goal were 38 for Worcester to Wilkes-Barre’s 26.

I liked the way we responded tonight after the 5-1 whipping Bingo put on us 24 hours ago. Nothing went right yesterday. Today, different story.

East Division scoreboard: Bridgeport beat Norfolk 3-2 in OT. Thanks, Sound Tigers. 2nd place Charlotte was idle. Checkers don’t play till Wednesday. Portland beat Albany 5-2. The Abbotsford Heat beat the Adirondack Phantons 4-2. Toronto beat Binghamton 4-3 and Hershey shutout the Syracuse Crunch 3-0. Dany Sabourin with the shut out for the Bears. Go figure. Copycats.

The AHL website was having issues tonight. Here is all you need to know. Wilkes-Barre is in first with 22 points. Charlotte is idle with 19. With the technical difficulties, I am not confident saying anything else, so here is the link to the AHL standings.

Please check out Jonathan Bombulie for more intelligent analysis.*

We’ll be back in the 570 tomorrow. Albany Tuesday in the Capital District of New York.  I have some fodder regarding the radio show I will run between now and Tuesday.

Go Pens!

*- JB reports in the postgamer that The Ticket made the trip, worked out today but did not play. He further mentioned Juice was banged up twice and Joe Vitale was limping late. I know I counted 17 players. I know I did because I did it five times, three times with my fingers. (4 lines, three players to a line = 12 players, plus 6 defensemen = 18 players) — we’ll see Monday what the walking wounded looks like and if there is a call up from The Nail.