But less than a minutes later, and with Aaron Rome still in the penalty box, Minard struck for his fist of the evening off a Ryan Stone feed to even the score.

Another penalty, this one to Derrick Brassard, gave the Penguins a man advantage just 61 seconds after the Minard goal. And seven seconds into the power play, Stone capitalized with a slap shot from the point to put the home club in the lead for good.

"We really took the life out of them in a span of about three or four minutes in the game," said head coach Todd Richards. "They score a shorthanded goal, they should have had some momentum. We come back with a power play goal and answer it a minute later. Then we go right back on the power play again and we score. I think that killed everything they had worked for for a period and a half."

The Penguins scored four times in the middle frame to put more than enough distance between the teams. Tim Wallace banged home a Nathan Smith feed for what proved to be the game-winner, and Minard picked up a rebound during a scramble in front of the Syracuse net to make the score 5-2 at the end of two periods.

He then completed the hat trick with 11 minutes to play, giving him six goals in his past three games.

"I was in a little slump there at the start of the year, I wasn't playing very well," said Minard, who had a hat trick on opening night, then went 14 games without a goal. "Our line's clicking right now. Everybody's working hard and making good plays."

The Penguins go for 10 in a row this Friday night when they travel to Toronto to take on the North Division leading Marlies. But they aren't taking anything for granted according to Richards.

"You have to prove yourself every night, you can't rest on what we did a couple of nights ago. When we go into the game Friday against Toronto, we can't rest on what we did tonight," he said. "We're putting ourself in a position now like where we were last year, as being one of the better teams in the league. When you're an elite team in the league, everyone gets up for you every night."

John Curry, named the AHL Rookie of the Month for December earlier on Wednesday, stopped 22 shots for his fifth consecutive win.

NOTES: Minard's hat trick was the 19th in team history, the Pens third of the year and Minard's second of the season...Minard is the second Penguin to record multiple hat tricks in a season (Michel Ouellet, Dec. 11 & 31, 2004)...Tim Brent (4-14-18) and Nathan Smith (5-7-12) extended their point streaks to nine games, while Kurtis McLean upped his to six games (4-8-12)...Minard has points in four straight contests (6-2-8). He also has 13 points (9-4-13) during the Pens' nine game winning streak...Jonathan Filewich stretched his point streak to three games (2-1-3), as did Ardelan (0-4-4)