Chirps from Center Ice

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.