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Another 1 vs. 2 battle comes to NEPA as Sem wrestling hosts Blair Academy

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Over the last season and a half, no team in the AHL has played more overtime games than the Rochester Americans.</p><p>With the start of Saturday&#8217;s game moved up to 3:05 p.m. due to a predicted snowstorm, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have even more reason to make sure Friday&#8217;s contest against Rochester is decided in regulation.</p><p>&#8220;Hopefully we&#8217;ll win it in regulation,&#8221; said Penguins winger Joseph Cramarossa. &#8220;It will be a quicker turnaround going into Saturday.&#8221;</p><p>Saturday&#8217;s earlier start isn&#8217;t the only schedule quirk the Penguins will face in the upcoming days. On Monday, they play at home against Lehigh Valley in a game slated to start at 1:05 p.m. The Penguins follow it up with a road contest in Bridgeport that begins at 10:30 a.m.</p><p>So much for 7 p.m. starts &#8212; at least for now. </p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re definitely going to have to put in a little more work after the game for recovery,&#8221; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defenseman Matt Abt said. &#8220;It does throw your schedule off a bit, but we did have a 10:30 a.m. game earlier this year, so we&#8217;ll be prepared for this.&#8221;</p><p>For his part, Cramarossa said all the pregame rituals will remain the same and he&#8217;ll prepare for Saturday&#8217;s game like it&#8217;s a Sunday contest, which typically begins at 5 p.m.</p><p>The only real impact, according to Penguins head coach Clark Donatelli, will be managing the workload of his goaltenders during the stretch of early start times.</p><p>Tristan Jarry will be in net on Friday, and Anthony Peters could get the start on Saturday.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to watch that,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;Obviously Jarry isn&#8217;t going to go back-to-back with a 3 p.m. game. That throws a wrinkle in, but Peters was going to get a game anyway.&#8221;</p><p><strong>A trade</strong></p><p>Pittsburgh traded center Derek Grant on Thursday to Anaheim for center Joseph Blandisi, who had been with San Diego.</p><p>Blandisi joined Pittsburgh after the trade and it&#8217;s not known if he&#8217;ll be assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.</p><p><strong>Injury update</strong></p><p>On the injury front, defenseman Zach Trotman and forward Sam Miletic could return this weekend. Chris Summers and Ben Sexton will remain out of the lineup.</p><p><strong>Avoiding the snow</strong></p><p>The Penguins don&#8217;t have to travel during this weekend&#8217;s storm, and they&#8217;re happy about it.</p><p>Defenseman Matt Abt, who played junior hockey in western Canada, recalled the time his team&#8217;s bus broke down during a storm.</p><p>&#8220;We were on the road for a few hours. A cold bus. It&#8217;s not fun,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Pens play at 3 on Saturday, 1 p.m. on Monday and then 10:30 a.m. on the road Wednesday</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

WBS Pens preparing for upcoming early games