At least one team in the organization is winning..

Wilkes-Barre downs Hershey 6-2 yesterday afternoon:

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton rallied for the final five goals of the game – including three on the power play – to take a 6-2 win over visiting Hershey on Sunday before 6,475 fans at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.

Rookie Nick Johnson tallied a pair of goals for the Penguins, and Janne Pesonen racked up a game-high four points (1-3-4) in the winning effort.

As Jonathan Bombulie points out, the Baby Pens (24-13-3) have defeated the mighty Bears (28-11-1) three times in a row following opening night's beat down. Also, anything that puts Mark Letustu and Mario Lemieux in the same sentence has got to be worth a read.

Pesonen was the #1 star of the game and rookie winger Luca Caputi notched three assists. It would be great if one of them could make an impact in the NHL this season, but don't hold your breath.

The Penguins are 7-2-1 in their last ten which is solid, but even more impressive considering that a number of their best players (Chris Minard, Tim Wallace, Dustin Jeffrey and Paul Bissonnette) have been in Pittsburgh for some or all of this stretch.

A pure character..

We're convinced Zenon Konopka is a minor-league version of a non-fashionista Sean Avery..

Also, during a goalmouth scrum, Zenon Konopka took a drink out of Adam Berkhoel's water bottle. I don't think I've ever seen that before. What do you do if you're a Penguins defenseman in that situation? Do you take great offense? I mean, it's not, on its face, a terribly offensive act. The guy just took a drink of water. It's not like he put his lips on the bottle or spat it at someone. I think you just call him a name and move on to the faceoff. What would you do?

Haha.

Putting down the Bears

Wow, it's almost as if starting the season on a 5 game streak of killing teams would inflate a team's confidence or something...

John Curry's back stiffened up when he was making a save midway through the second period and Adam Berkhoel had to come on in relief. As he skated to the
net, Berkhoel said the Bears reminded him about how his previous two outings went against them. (Not good for him.)

That's some quality chirping by the Bears, nice to see the relatively unheralded Berkhoel keep them at bay, if only for once.

Chris Minard and Ryan Stone led the way offensively for the young Pens, two veteran guys that should be offensive factors in that league every night.

Also if you were wondering how prospect Janne Pesonen is doing in the AHL, the answer is pretty well, he's second on the team in scoring (behind Minard) with 1 goal and 5 assists in four games. Pesonen had a breakout game Friday night with a breakaway goal and two assists.

Report from the Farm: Unsettling times

Overall, things are pretty well balanced for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at first glance. In 6 games played; 3 up and 3 down. 19 goals for, 19 goals against.

But there's some unsettling news: Uber-prospect Kris Letang (0g, 5a, 5p) was scratched for the last game, despite averaging a point per game. Guys who are having their pro prospects fade, Ryan Stone and Jonathan Filewich have spent a lot of time of the 4th line, in the doghouse and even in the press box for a night. Though Filewich did score 2 goals last game, so maybe he's turned the corner.

Chris Minard, hailed in these parts as maybe even a NHL caliber prospect has been bad since his opening night hat trick. "Invisible" was the word used by their beat writer. Minard too, spent some time in the press box, instead of on the bench.

But that's how things go in the American Hockey League. It's a constant rollercoaster of highs and lows, wins and losses. Instability from the young players is to be expected, but given how things are shaking out it's a little concerning right now, especially for Stone, Filewich and Letang. Hopefully they get the wakeup message that head coach Todd Richards is clearly sending.

One bright spot has been the offense of Jeff Taffe. He might never make it to the NHL, but he's putting up some great numbers, 7 goals and 2 assists in 6 games. So he has 9 points and the Penguins have 19 total.

The Penguins blueline (Bobby Scuds in particular) has played above expectations, especially in the past few games. There is no need to promote Letang in the forseeable future. So he needs to settle down, realize he's going to be in the A for a while, and just work on his game in the pros; particularly in his own end.

Forwards wise, Georges Laraque's having a nagging groin injury, but Adam Hall and Jarrko Ruutu have been sensational at grinding, hitting and cycling (now if Ruutu could only stay out of the penalty box!). So it doesn't look like Pittsburgh is in need of any forwards either at the moment.

This is all adding up to a lot of bus riding in the future for most of the Penguins closest prospects to the NHL. So close, but so very far.

Wilkes-Barre a Winner in Game 1

The Wilkes-Barre Penguins opened their season last night against AHL powerhouse and division rivals the Hershey Bears with a 5-4 win. Some notes and observations:

--Chris Minard had a natural hat trick for the first three goals of the game. He's an unhearlded prospect but perhaps someone to keep an eye on.
--Ty Conklin reportedly gave up a few softies.
--Alex Goligoski was victimized in his first professional game, looked bad on the 3rd goal allowed, welcome to the pros kid! It should be noted however, that he played well on the powerplay. As expected. Goligoski and Letang manning the points is pretty formidable. Definitely raw, but very formidable.
--Most observers expected defensive mainstay Alain Nasreddine to be back in the AHL. He's not. With Mike Weaver getting claimed by Vancouver, the blueline was very young and doesn't have a real defensive dman to hang your hat on that you need in the AHL level. Ryan Lannon was the most experience player, and that's not going to cut it over a long season.
--Uber-pest Louis Robitaille was running his mouth as usual, and Lannon dropped him. Good times.

The lines were:
Stone-Taffe-Filewich
James-Smith-Kennedy
Minard-Brent-Wallace
Jensen-Bonvie

Lannon-Engelland
Letang-Goligoski
Ardelan-Lovejoy

--Given that lineup, one has to wonder if tough guy in the making, Aaron Boogaard is about to spend some time in the Coast (ECHL). Certainly there will be no shortages of takers for a fight there.

A win is a win, so that's nice. But it's obvious that there's several good, experience forwards, but this team will need more foundation defensively. Given so many were making their pro debuts against a solid lineup, that's not to be unexpected.