Chirps from Center Ice

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The best play in this game came from someone on the ice that was not a player.

With 5:23 left in the third period of what was a 3-0 Penguins lead, Providence forward Graham Mink decides it is time to tackle and start punching goaltender Brad Thiessen. Naturally, a line brawl ensues. Mink continues his assault on a defenseless Thiessen, when referee Trevor Hanson jumps in and tackles Mink to diffuse the situation any higher than it already had.

The end result for Mink, and ultimately the Providence Bruins, was a 4-0 shutout by the hands of Brad Thiessen and the now resurgent Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Game 6 is Monday night in Providence.

Brad Thiessen vs. Niklas Svedberg. No lineup changes for the Penguins this night.

First Period: Can best be summed up by saying that it looked like Providence wanted to send this to a Game 6 more than the Penguins did. Brian Dumoulin cashed on a rebound of a Brian Gibbons shot to make it 1-0. Then the Pens nearly score again on another rush by Warren Peters. Christian Hanson and Joey Mormina have been going at it all series. Mormina wanted Hanson to fight in Game 5, Hanson wanted no part. Hanson wanted Mormina to fight in Game 6 and gave Joey no choice as Hanson dropped his gloves and started punching Mormina. What became of this for  the Bruins was a Pens 5×3 power play. Trevor Smith scores in the slot after a P-Bruin lost his stick to make it 2-0 Pens. Wheels officially off the bus at that point for Providence, who took four straight penalties to open the game.

Second Period: Things tightened up for the P-Bruins. Not before Bobby Robins gets assessed a 5:00 boarding major. Two big penalty kills late by the Pens to preserve the 2-0 lead heading into the….

Third Period: Adam Payerl scores a goal on a slapshot that plum beat Svedberg. I thought at the time it was a big goal because you almost could feel a Providence goal coming. Thiessen was on his head making saves in scrambles. Pens with another big kill a Peter Merth delay of game call.

Then the gong show happened. Graham Mink falls on Thiessen after a crash play. It takes him a long time, or longer than usual time to get off of Thiessen and back on his feet. This incites the Penguins, Alex Grant  especially. The ensuing faceoff, Thiessen makes another save and all hell breaks loose with Mink on top of Thiessen punching him. Referee Trevor Hanson jumps in, and stops it and things separate. This is what was left of the carnage:

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Thiessen would be fine. Later, the Pens find themselves on a 5-on-3. They score on a Paul Thompson shot. Goalie Nik Svedberg takes exception and two hand slashes Thompson. The same thing nearly breaks out without any punches thrown at Svedberg though. Thiessen makes a pad stop with just about ten seconds left to preserve the shutout and the game ended.

Three Stars: 3) Riley Holzapfel (two assists, +2) 2) Brian Dumoulin (game winning goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Brad Thiessen (30 save shutout)

From the League’s PR, Thiessen has stopped 97 or 100 for a 0.82 GAA and a .970 SV%.

Here are the full highlights of the game from the Pens YouTube page:

So the series will see a sixth game. The Penguins will need to play like the P-Bruins are on the brink of elimination I think in order to get this to seven on Wednesday.

If anything breaks Sunday as far as suspensions go, I will have an update first on Twitter. Then here on the blog.

If not, see you Monday.

Let’s Go Pens! All In!!!

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I guess the sadistic side of me won out this time.

I had this headline already picked out Sunday. If the Penguins did not win tonight, then “Dark Daze” would be the headline that would run.

Dark Days or Daze, or whatever play on words you want to make of it, indeed.

The Penguins lose this game 2-1 in overtime and now are on the brink of elimination, down 0-3 in this best of seven.

The Penguins played a mighty fine game tonight, and gave the regular season champion Providence Bruins a great run and just did not come out winners this time.

The problem with that, and going forward in the series is that the Penguins have no margin for error. Lose one more and it’s another Spring of disappointment leaving Wilkes-Barre with another sense of what might have been.

Brad Thiessen got the net tonight. He was opposed by Niklas Svedberg. Both netminders played a solid game.

The opening period saw a measured period of hockey by both teams. For it being the third game in a seven game series, neither team wanted to or made a mistake.

Jared Knight would stuff home a shot from the far side after the Penguins had a tired group on the ice to open the scoring in the second period. Initially, I thought this was a good thing, being as though that the team that scored first in the series had gone on to lose both games. Providence really bottled up the Pens in the first half of the second period. They parlayed that into pressure but Thiessen and the Penguins defense kept them out. Then all of a sudden, coming back from a radio timeout, the Pens win the faceoff back to Cody Wild who puts a puck on net that caroms around to finally the stick of Trevor Smith. Tie game. Adam Payerl the next shift nearly makes it 2-1 and just like that the Penguins are the ones getting all the chances and all the offensive zone puck possession.

Both clubs would go into the locker rooms at the end of the third deadlocked at 1-1. It certainly looked like the top two defensive teams in the AHL were duking it out.

Penguins would get their best kill of the series when nabbed for too many men on the ice. Both netminder trade ten bell saves. Penguins nearly score on a fluke after more Providence offensive zone time. Pens get a late power play but don’t score.

Overtime lasts all but :31. A Penguins turnover at their own blue line sees Carter Camper pass to Jordan Caron who dishes to Carter Cunningham. Cunningham shoots, Camper pots the rebound. Ballgame.

I don’t think there is anything necessarily different that the Penguins could have done to win this game. It comes down to puck luck. The Penguins didn’t have it. The Bruins did and they have the 3-0 series lead.

Game 4 is Friday in Wilkes-Barre.

The Boston Red Sox did it in baseball in 2004.
The Philadelphia Flyers did it in hockey in 2010.
Will the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins do it in 2013?

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

To the end….

Let’s Go Pens!

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We don’t like Chris Bourque.

He’ll tell you that all he does is play hockey and try to stop him.

Buoyed by a huge first period led by Bourque, the Providence Bruins take a 2-0 series lead in the series and win 4-2.

The first period was all the Bruins needed, as they chased starting goaltender Jeff Zatkoff. Brad Thiessen came in and settled things down the rest of the way, and you could say (if you completely discount the first period) that the Penguins were the better team tonight.

Cody Wild in was in for Dylan Reese. Christiaan Minella was in for Bobby Farnham. Regarding Reese, radio said that he is “day to day” and that he would “hopefully” be back in the lineup once the series shifts back to Wilkes-Barre.

There were new lines for the Pens. It looked like this:

Nesbitt-Smith-Megna
Collins-Gibbons-Kolarik
Holzapfel-Peters-Thompson
Minella-Sill-Payerl

Dumoulin-Samuelsson
Mormina-Grant
Wild-McNeill

It was Jeff Zatkoff vs. Niklas Svedberg, both these top goaltenders in the AHL entered this game with a goals against average above 3.75 and a sub .900 save percentage.

Providence’s way, they scratched Kevan Miller, who the P-Bruins were undefeated in playoffs in. Ryan Button took his place. Ex-Bear Graham Mink was in for Jared Knight.

First Period: Whatever could go wrong in this period, did go wrong in this period. Warren Peters opens the scoring shorthanded. But then the Pens would find themselves down 5×3, Zach Sill tries to get the puck out by cheating up, Jamie Tardif scores. Later, Ryan Spooner was left unmarked on the far side and scored on pretty much a wide open net and then it was 2-1. Penguins get a kill, but then Brian Gibbons, who took the penalty that the Pens killed beforehand, went right to the box again. Jamie Tardif muscles a puck past Zatkoff for his second of the game, the Bruins third. For good measure, Chris Bourque scores on a deflection from the point. 4-1.

MVP period for Bourque who was 1-2-3 in the period.

Zatkoff: 12 goals in four periods. Prior, 12 goals in last 22 periods.
Providence: 12 goals in the series to this point.

Second Period: Brad Thiessen came into the game for Jeff Zatkoff and it seemed like the calming influence for the Penguins. First ten minutes looked back and forth. Then Jordan Caron took a goalie interference call. Pens power play looked atrocious. Gain the blue line, dump it in, get swarmed by the P-Bruins, lose it, puck back out the other way and down the ice. Rinse and repeat. Then, finally, a Pens D takes the puck in, wheels around the net and puts it into a crowd in Svedberg’s crease and Brian Gibbons slams it home. That was it for action to be described in the period.

Third Period: All Wilkes-Barre / Scranton to start the period. They nearly score on two or three opportunities. Then Warren Peters trucks Zach Trotman behind Svedberg’s net in a hit eerily similar to the one last night with Dylan Reese. No penalty called on the play by referees Darcy Burchell or Jean Hebert. Pens would find themselves down 5 on 3 for a brief time but would kill it all off, rather easily, considering the Red Light District that was the net guarded by the Penguins in the first period. Pens would get a late power play, but not score. With Thiessen pulled they didn’t score either.

Three Stars: 3) Craig Cunningham (assist, -1) 2) Chris Bourque (goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Jamie Tardif (two goals, two assists, +1)

Penguins played much better from the second period onward and scored a goal in the process, keeping Providence off the scoreboard the rest of the way. Did the P-Bruins let off or did the Pens make adjustments?

Game three is Wednesday. My guess is that Thiessen gets the start, the P-Bruins adjust, we throw it all at a wall and see what happens. Buy the ticket. Take the ride.

Let’s Go Pens!

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No, you read that score right.

Pens score 5 goals and don’t win.

Yes, I did say in my preview of series that these two teams featured in this Eastern Conference Semifinal are the top two defensive clubs in the AHL.

13 goals on 56 total shots by the teams.

A sharper Providence team, having played a full five game series vs. a dull Penguins team? Perhaps.

I totally wrote off the Providence Bruins as a team that feasted on cupcake teams in their cupcake division.

I was totally wrong.

The Providence Bruins defeat the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals by a score of 8-5 to take a 1-0 series lead in this best of seven. Remember that guy Chris Bourque? He of those Hershey Bears teams that obliterated everything in their path a few years ago? He plays for the Bruins now. He absolutely killed the Penguins tonight. A goal, three assists and a +2 and in true Chris Bourque fashion, the goal coming late which buried the Penguins.

The once healthy Penguins may be dealing with injuries going forward. Read on.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Niklas Svedberg. Dominik Uher was scratched. Streve MacIntyre took warmups but did not play. Bobby Farnham was back in the lineup.

First Period: Great open by the Penguins, who have not played a competitive game in eight days. The Pens had the first power play of the series and showed a great open minute but a fractured second. They kept the offensive pressure up and got another power play. Derek Nesbitt nearly scored on his patented “shoot from one knee one timer from the low circle” move but did not. Then a penalty shot was awarded when it was ruled that a P-Bruin covered the puck in the goal crease, but the puck was not actually on the ice. Chad Kolarik took the penalty shot and scored. Immediately thereafter, the Pens were on the penalty kill and the Providence power play took the ice. The P-Bruins power play is lethal. It is tops in the Calder Cup Playoffs. They nearly scored twice. They continued to press the Penguins the final eight minutes and with just over a minute left, Derek Nesbitt turns a puck over to Ryan Spooner who scored from about five feet in from the blue line on a shot that looked to handcuff Zatkoff. Tie game.

Shots on goal were 17-6 Penguins this period. Penguins had the quantity of shots but the Bruins has the better quality of shots.

Second Period: Nighmarish period for the Penguins. Starts with an injury to Dylan Reese as he appeared to be hit in the head. Reese was shaken, but skated off on his own power but did not return. Then Jayson Megna doesn’t touch a puck on an icing, the P-Bruins score when Jordan Caron bangs home a rebound. To this point, since the penalty shot by Chad Kolarik in the first, it was all Providence. Paul Thompson then puts it on net and Brian Gibbons stuffs it home on the far side to even the score at two,

Then it got bad.

The Bruins would end up scoring four goals in 5:15. Kyle MacKinnon was the recipient of a pass on a three on two and scored to make it 3-2. Then Reid McNeill walks a puck out in front of Zatkoff’s net, is swarmed and the P-Bruins score on a bat rebound goal. McNeill had a forgettable game to this point. Brian Gibbons takes an interference call. Carter Camper scored to make it 5-2. At this point, 5 goals on 16 shots for the Bruins.

Paul Thompson scored with :04 left on a power play on a backhander to stop a little of the bleeding.

Then it got really bad.

Garnet Exelby collides with Chad Kolarik knee on knee and Kolarik went down in a heap and was helped off the ice putting no pressure on his right knee.

Third Period: Thankfully, Kolarik returned for the third period. Reese did not.

Craig Cunningham is good at hockey. So is Carter Camper. The two seemed to read each others minds when Cunningham wheeled around the slot, dished to Camper who dished back to Cunningham who scored to make it 6-3.

The Bruins pristinely move the puck with such speed its nearly impossible to stop. Tonight, turns out for the Pens, it was.

Bruins would score no more. Things got chippy. Penguins find themselves on a power play for 4:00. Philip Samuelsson shoots a puck from the point that Chris Collins deflects in to make it 6-4. Then, the Pens score on a funny bounce off the wall on a wide open net when Paul Thompson chases down a puck and shoots it into a wide open net. The Pens were rolling at this point. Svedberg does not see a shot his way and it deflects wide. Then, Penguin killer Chris Bourque scores on a slap shot that beat Zatkoff short side. Then, a meaningless penalty on Paul Thompson for roughing would put the P-Bruins on a power play late. That puck movement and tape to tape passes I talked about earlier would prove deadly again as Jamie Tardif would score on the backdoor to put the game permanently out of reach.

Three Stars: 3) Paul Thompson (two goals, assist, -1) 2) Carter Camper (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Chris Bourque (goal, three assists, +2)

The Bruins were 26-9-0-3 at home in the regular season. The last game that saw this many goals in the playoffs involved the Penguins per the AHL PR tweet feed, a 7-6 OT game vs. the Hershey Bears almost six years to the day, on May 11, 2007.

Despite all this, it wasn’t the worst loss of the night. Grad Rapids drop kicked the Toronto Marlies 7-0 tonight.

Anyway, Game 2 is tomorrow in Providence. No way this offensive ridiculousness continues. Expect a bounce back by the Penguins tomorrow in a big way to bring it back spilt 1-1. Gameday for this here on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I have ragged on Jayson Megna all season long.

Tonight, I couldn’t be more wrong.

Megna, in the game of his life, helps the Penguins to a 3-2 Game 3 win and a 3-0 sweep of the Binghamton Senators.

Jayson Megna was astounding tonight. Plain and simple. He and the fourth line won this game for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins who advance to the second round.

The Penguins do not yet know their opponent for the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Brad Thiessen started for the Penguins tonight. Jeff Zatkoff was no where to be seen for warmups. Scott Darling backed up for the Pens tonight. Zatkoff is officially listed as “day to day.” With this being playoffs, getting any more information from the team re: Zatkoff’s status would be like drawing blood from a stone.

First Period: Pens looked flat. Binghamton really limited their chances. A defensive zone turnover on a breakout lead to a Matt Puempel goal in where Thiessen had no chance. Pens only had four shots on goal that entire period.

Second Period: Nothing doing for the Pens in the scoring department. Penguins looked better in the period but Lawson by all means was outstanding.

Third Period: Penguins had the early jump. You got the sense that if the B-Sens did manage to somehow hold on and win the game that they would not be able to replicate the result for 120 minutes of hockey or two more games. The Pens started to pressure, pressure and pressure some more. Things started to get chippy. Then, Trevor Smith finds himself in the box for a roughing call. The Penguins send out Zach Sill and Jayson Megna on the penalty kill. Sill works a puck out, it gets to Megna for a 2-on-1 rush the other way. Megna carries it, dishes to Sill who deflects the pass top left corner on Lawson to tie it at one a piece.

The very next series there was a stoppage in play. I noticed at the time the the B-Sens skaters were coming off the ice like someone had just shot their dog. The Pens had the look of hope on their faces, like they were the ones that would score the next goal.

Binghamton would pressure for a good six minutes. The aggression would prove to be too much as Pat Cannone would trip up Trevor Smith. Penguins power play.

Penguins would work a puck down low to perfection. Trevor Smith would dish to Riley Holzapfel who would have an easy backdoor shot on goal for the go ahead goal.

Binghamton would pull Lawson, and fitting enough, Jayson Megna would win a race to a puck and score an empty netter. It would actually hold up as the game winner as Mark Borowiecki would score the final B-Sens goal of the season with 1.5 seconds left as Thiessen was heavily screened.

All games end in 3-2 scores. I am telling you, the B-Sens could have won all three of these games by this same score.

This paragraph is dedicated to the Binghamton Senators for a hell of a series. To Kate Krenzer in the front office, Bob Howard who moonlights on color with play by play man Grady Whittenburg and Matt Weinstein and Matt Verderame from the Press & Sun-Bulletin handshakes to you guys on a hell of a series and look forward to seeing you again in the Fall.

Three Stars: 3) Jayson Megna (goal, assist, +2) 2) Riley Holzapfel (goal, even) and 1) Zach Sill (goal, assist, +2)

Again, the Penguins do not know who they will be facing in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Syracuse Crunch seem like the most likely opponent as the Crunch finished off a sweep of their own tonight up in Portland 4-3. The Manchester Monarchs live to see another day as they win over the Springfield Falcons 2-1 Hershey hosts Providence for Game 3 on Saturday.

I think we will know the opponent fairly soon, so stick with me on Twitter for the up to the minute on that and check the blog sometime this weekend for that and a schedule of what to expect in the coming days.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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As Penguins fans, I think we can all say we have been there before.

Blood rival in a playoff game. Their best player sinks an OT game winner to deliver a heartbreaking loss. So you come back the next day, and it seems that everyone is against you, including the referees.

For Binghamton Senators fans, I think that is how they are feeling this Sunday evening.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins take a 2-0 series lead with a 3-2 win on the Southern Tier of New York and can sweep the series Thursday in Wilkes-Barre. It seemed at times that referees Jon McIsaac and Jamie Koharski were wearing Penguins jerseys with orange arm bands with some of the so-so calls being made against the home team, which incited the ire of the faithful at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

Or maybe Binghamton played undisciplined and the Penguins played sound, calm cool hockey. Who knows. I guess it depends on what team you pull for.

One lineup change to note the Penguins way. Chris Collins was in for Dominik Uher. For a more in-depth reason as to why the change, may I direct you to the great Jonathan Bombulie’s blog recap.

Turns out though, that the Collins swap for Uher was money in the bank. Collins scored a goal in the second period of the game that broke a 1-1 tie. It had appeared, to that point, that the B-Sens were slowly gaining enough momentum to make a series out of it, but then Collins fools everyone in what Bombulie described as a no look shot that absolutely fooled everyone in the arena, especially starting goaltender Nathan Lawson.

Jeff Zatkoff was astounding once again. He lets in a goal on a rush late in the first when Matt Puempel finds himself in the high slot after a pass and he shoots it blocker side on him. Earlier, Riley Holzapfel finished off a goal mouth scrum on the back end of a Derek Grant double minor for a high stick.

Warren Peters had an excellent game as well, blocking shots, winning face-offs, clearing pucks, etc. He scored with 1.9 seconds left in the second to put the Penguins ahead 3-1 at the time.

Penguins would be the beneficiaries of the whistles of McIassac / Koharski with an extended 5-on-3 power play in the third period, but they could not score on it.

Stephane Da Costa for Binghamton got close twice in the game, drawing iron on two separate occasions including once late in the third. Chris Wideman scored late on a power play with Lawson pulled but the Pens held on and took command of the series and will look to end it Thursday.

B-Sens kept the top line of Kolarik-Smith-Holzapfel pretty much in check all night but for the goal scored by Holzapfel on the back end of the double minor late in the first. Assists from Sill, Megna, Gibbons with goals from Collins and Peters is about as balanced of a scoring effort that you can ask for, in my opinion.

If you happened to be wondering who the teams are that came back from down 0-2 in the best of five, wonder no more. The great Tim Leone has it covered for you. (hint: he’s only doing this because Hershey is up 2-0 on Providence in their series)

I will be back this week with a look at the other series in the East and West and what could be shaping up for the Penguins in Round 2, provided we don’t see a repeat reversal of 2005. I think we will know quick, especially if that Game 3 goes three overtimes. Binghamton doesn’t have anyone named Armstrong though.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Other teams hate him. Says he’s too flashy. Celebrates too much.

He scores goals. He plays for the Penguins. Go ahead, try and stop him.

I am talking about Chad Kolarik, who scored two goals tonight for the Penguins including the overtime game winner, as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins go on to beat the Binghamton Senators 3-2 in overtime in this best of five series.

Game 2 is tomorrow afternoon at 5:05. The second game in a five game series is the most important one in the series. The series comes back to Wilkes-Barre with the Pens up two games to none or split with new life for the B-Sens.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Nathan Lawson – Cody Wild took warmups but he and Chris Collins were among the regulars scratched.

First Period: The Penguins jumped out of the gate and controlled every aspect of the game. B-Sens would get the puck in, a defender is there to take it off him and it’s back out. Puck possession. Puck possession. Puck possession. Brian Dumoulin passes to Brian Gibbons who taps it past Lawson to make it 1-0 Pens. Gibbons was everywhere early. B-Sens don’t register a shot on goal until 5:54 remaining in the period. Then, the Pens force a turnover behind Lawson’s net, find Kolarik who cuts to the slot and snipes it home for a 2-0 lead. B-Sens late and on a power play score when Penguin killer Shane Prince backhands a shot past Zatkoff to bring things to 2-1.

Second Period: Pens looked to have all the momentum when they find themselves on a 5×3 with 1:28 but three seconds later it gores to 4×3 when Derek Nesbitt high sticks a B-Sen off the ensuing faceoff. No dice with the penalties. Penguins continued puck possession.

Taking this to a second paragraph. The puck possession I talked about earlier? Gone. Shifted completely over to the Binghamton side like the teams were on a see saw. They had every bit of the chances and it was a matter of time before they scored and sure enough Mark Stone forechecks Philip Samuelsson backwards and takes the puck from him and scores to tie it. Absolutely back breaking goal at the time.

Third Period: Pens bend but don’t break. Both club gets a chance on the power play. The Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™ was seen but Lawson made the save. On to…..

Overtime: Zatkoff with some unreal saves. Kolarik ends it from the top of the slot.

Three Stars: 3) Nathan Lawson (30 saves on 33 shots) 2) Jeff Zatkoff (34 saves on 36 shots) and 1) Chad Kolarik (2 goals, +2)

Have worried that the goal scorers that we have would ball up and fade away like last season but Trevor Smith had two assists, Riley Holzapfel had an assist and Kolarik two goals. Derek Nesbitt chipped in with an assist too. One game does not a playoffs make.

Game 2 is at 5:05 tomorrow. Gameday for that is up at 1 p.m.

One final note before I go, Beau Bennett was scratched in Pittsburgh’s final regular season game. Will he be sent back to get playoff action? Time will tell.

Get ready for Binghamton’s best tomorrow.

Let’s Go Pens!