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Anyway the unstoppable Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins met an immovable force in Amerks goaltender Jacob Markstrom tonight. The more I sit and think about it I am comparing it to a playoff game for the Penguins. That kind of atmosphere too. Large crowd and a tight game. This one was a 4-3 Wilkes-Barre win.
John Curry vs. the aforementioned Jacob Markstrom. Joey Haddad was in for the injured Chris Collins. Apparently it’s bumps and or bruises, per the Bombulie blog recap.
First period: Referee Jamie Koharski gets Joe Vitale on a bush league slash call :56 seconds in. Evgeny Dadonov for Rochester nearly scores but misses a wide open net. Pens kill it. Later, Dustin Jeffrey scores a garbage goal in a scrum to put the Pens up 1-0. Soon after that, the fourth line again puts in work and Jesse Boulerice scored a goal. 2-0 Wilkes-Barre. At that moment, Boulerice and Eric Tangradi were tied in goals with three. Until, a Robert Bortuzzo blast from the point gets deflected in by the Big Dog. 3-0. At this point, I think it’s going to be a Wilkes-barre romp. It was certainly setting up to be that. The game is 10:52 old and it’s 3-0 Wilkes-Barre. Hold up though. Joey Haddad boards an Amerk and Clay Wilson scored to make it 3-1 going into the first intermission.
Second period: If you didn’t think Jesse Boulerice and Eric Selleck were going to fight tonight you were dead wrong. My YouTube skills leave much to be desired. Maybe you can help me out in the comments section on how to make this look better:
Anyway, that’s the best I can do for now. Kenndal McArdle was spotted holding Joe Vitale. As the Amerks killed it, he scored to make it 3-2. I tweeted that it wasn’t for a lack of effort, but WBS hadn’t found the killshot yet to bury the Amerks. After a Carl Sneep hook, Mike Kostka tied the game at three. During a penalty which saw Eric Selleck in the box for a roughing penalty, Jacob Markstrom made a glove save on a Steve Wagner wrister while he was being screened by Eric Tangradi. I suppose a goaltender can only do so much but imagine if Markstrom is on a good team? The second period would end tied at three.
Third period: I tweeted again that how the Penguins respond to the second period debacle in the first five minutes of the third period would dictate how the game would go for them. Well, welcome to the goal column Geoff Walker. The goal was assisted by Dustin Jeffrey and Tim Wallace. Radio said that we have an NHL player in Jeffrey playing on our AHL team. I cannot disagree with that statement one bit. The rest of the period was basically lockdown hockey. The shots on goal would end up favoring Wilkes-Barre 40-22. Rochester only took 4 shots on goal the entire third period (and also the second) so whatever was said in the locker room was well received by the defense.
The win puts us at 32 points. Tops in the league and still tops in the East, as it is really gearing up now.
Around the East: Braden Hotlby’s return to Hershey saw him shut out the Phantoms 4-0. Andrew Gordon scored another goal for the Bears. Hershey at 100% and Wilkes-Barre / Scranton at 100% will be a barnburner for sure when, yes I said when, these two teams meet in the playoffs. Meanwhile the Norfolk Admirals are tapping Bears fans and Penguins fans on the shoulder saying, “remember us?” as they cruised to a 5-2 victory over tomorrows opponent the Springfield Falcons. Watch out for Norfolk. Charlotte beat Worcester 4-2. Albany beat Binghamton 4-3. Please try to figure that one out if you can. Bingo gives us fits and Albany can’t run with us yet the Devils somehow manage to beat the Senators tonight. I will be scratching my head at that one all night for sure. Toronto beat Syracuse 2-1 in Joffrey Lupul’s debut conditioning stint for the Crunch. This next score isn’t the East but it’s some bit of history, Grand Rapids beat Chicago tonight by the score of 10-8. The League tweeted that the last time anything of this sort happened was in 1996 when Baltimore beat Binghamton by the same score.
Standings wise: WBS in first with 32 points. Norfolk in sole possession of second with 28. Charlotte in third with 27. Hershey has 25 points good for fourth. Bingo has 23 points in fifth. It drops way off after that. Albany in sixth with 18, Syracuse seventh with 16 and Adirondack still in last with a mere 8 points.
Report cards are done. They will debut on the blog here Monday at 10 a.m. They are based off of the last 20 games. Tonight was Game 20. It’ll be fun for you to read.
Again, let me know what you think of the new format here. E-mail me or leave me a comment in comments section. I am always looking for input to make things better.
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