Chirps from Center Ice

When you are an elite AHL team like the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are shaping up to be you need to take advantage of opportunities when the situation calls for it.

Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie ran a story today about how the Pens penalty killing was a dismal 20th overall in the 30 team AHL after being at or near the top just a month earlier.

Tonight the penalty killing was a perfect 4 for 4 tonight. The power play was 3 for 6 in a 5-1 Wilkes-Barre romp over the Trenton er, Albany Devils. One would have to count how many guys are up from the ECHL playing in Albany right now, as tonight just didn’t seem fair from a Penguins fan perspective.

Dave Caruso v. John Curry tonight. Lineup wise, Joey Haddad was back in over Bryan Lerg from Sunday. No Chris Collins, as he is expected back by the weekend.

First period: Right off the bat, John Curry was on his game. He gloved a Vladimir Zharkov shot. All things considered, if Curry does not make that glove save and Albany jumps out to a quick 1-0 lead then tonight may very well be a different story. Regardless, Trevor Kell took a holding call, then on the ensuing power play Dustin Jeffrey looked to have skated past every single Albany Devil and just fires a wrister at Dave Caruso to give the 1-0 lead. John Curry picked up the secondary assist on that one. Then with about 12 minutes to go in the first, Michael Swift scored for Albany to tie the game at one apiece. For as weird as the Curry assist was on the Jeffrey goal, familiar pest Louis Robitaille collected the second assist on the Swift goal. At this point in the game, we looked to be better off killing a penalty than playing 5 on 5 even strength hockey. Matt Anderson would sit for interference and Dustin Jeffrey would make the Devils pay :17 later. Soon after Andrew Hutchinson would get injured and would not return the rest of the game. The first period would end 2-1.

Lots of chatter back and forth between all of you regarding the play of Dustin Jeffrey and whether Wilkes-Barre fans need to worry about him getting the call to Pittsburgh to stay. Here are my thoughts on this. If Pittsburgh’s third line of Chris Conner Mark Letestu and Tyler Kennedy are not as successful as they have been of recent, then there is a case to call Jeffrey up. Since the third line is often time the best Pittsburgh line of the night, Jeffrey remains here in Wilkes-Barre. Plus, @CxJamesx9 replied to me on Twitter that when Jordan Staal finally does return from injury there will not be any room for him at all.

Second period: Pens would pull away this period. Brett Sterling and Tim Wallace would score :15 apart from one another to make it a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre lead. Dave Caruso would get yanked after that but I found it funny that Tom Grace, who was doing PxP tonight, completely missed that until well after Caruso was on the bench. Even after he was pulled and a random Penguin would fire a shot, he would say that Caruso made the save. He’s human. Regardless, it was Frazee’s first action since being injured in Wilkes-Barre a few weeks ago. Kory Nagy would sit for a cross-check and Robert Bortuzzo would snipe from the blueline to make it 5-1 and it was all she wrote. A complete lock down and shut down period by Wilkes-Barre also, as Albany would go 12:45 before registering a shot on goal.

The third period was uneventful as there was no scoring. I don’t know if it was because we wanted to preserve the lead, work on different hybrid things or just not embarrass the opponent or what, but it would end a 5-1 victory. Grace mentioned that the Penguins own the best record in North American hockey which reaches beyond the ranks of the American Hockey League.

• Big nights from Corey Potter and Steve Wagner, both had two assists apiece.
• If Hutchinson can’t go this weekend because of injury, we are in good hands with Joey Mormina. I have been itching to see him in the lineup.
• Three Stars were Michael Swift, Brett Sterling and Dustin Jeffrey.

No one in the East skated tonight, so WBS sits atop the division still with an 18-4 record. We have 36 points to second place Charlotte’s 29. The Checkers do not skate again until Sunday home against the Crunch. Third place Norfolk plays Friday in Manchester then Sunday in Portland. ManchVegas is tops in the Atlantic Division and Portland was tops before being passed by the Monarchs so those are games that if you are into wondering how the chase team fares against top competition from another division its worth keeping your eye on.

Binghamton in Friday for their last regular season visit to Wilkes-Barre Township. Will be interesting how we come out and play against the only fly in the ointment so far this campaign.

Go Pens.