Chirps from Center Ice

Business handled tonight. A 4-2 Wilkes-Barre win and the way you are supposed to handle a team who is four spots below you in the standings. If we somehow lose to Binghamton tonight, every team in the league is looking for the game tape to break down and try and find a way to duplicate it.

Let’s get this right out of the way: Max Talbot took a shot in practice today in Pittsburgh off of the foot / ankle area and is bruised. He will travel with the team tomorrow to Columbus, but head coach Dan Bylsma said today that if he cannot go either Dustin Jeffrey, Nick Johnson or Brett Sterling may get the call to Columbus tomorrow. Evgeni Malkin was given a “maintenance” day and Brooks Orpik missed practice due to illness. Max can still play if he is able, apparently. We’ll have to see.

Regardless, back to the matter at hand. Brad Thiessen v. Barry Brust tonight. Chris Collins returned to the lineup. Andrew Hutchinson was out due to injury and Keven Veilleux of all people was the scratch tonight with Joey Haddad. Bryan Lerg skated tonight.

First period: While Corey Potter and Zack Smith were in the box for separate slash and rough penalties respectively, Joey Mormina put a shot on Brust’s pads which kicked out to Joe Vitale on the doorstep and gave WBS the 1-0 lead. I find AHL stats interesting. Normally something the casual fan just ignores, I eat these stats up. That said, WBS is 11-3 when it scores first. You will be seeing me quoting a ton of these stats both here on the blog and on Twitter anymore now that I have found the AHL Media Kits online. Anyway, later in the period while Joe Vitale was sitting for a hooking call Dustin Jeffrey comes in shorthanded and snipes an NHL caliber goal. It was an NHL goal scorer’s goal. Dustin is just playing on another planet right now.

Second period: There was 1:45 of Brian Strait cross check penalty kill the Pens had to erase. Shots on goal at this point for Binghamton was only 3. Not only did they kill the penalty but they did not allow a single shot on Thiessen. An Eric Gryba hook saw Nick Johnson draw iron on the ensuing power play. I thought at the time that if we cashed in on the man advantage, the game would be over at that point. We didn’t score. In fact, we let Binghamton right back into it at that point via Bobby Butler’s goal. I called it a ridiculous goal on Twitter for two reasons. 1) It was a great goal by Butler, 2) The game was half over and it was Binghamton’s fifth shot of the game. If Wilkes-Barre is going to draw a comparison of being truly an elite team, they cannot let any of this happen. Especially against a team who, on paper, you should destroy. Well, apparently Binghamton didn’t get the memo and about 7 minutes or so later Kaspars Daugavins tied the game right at the end of the second period.

Third period: Chris Collins stole the show. Scored on Brust from an insane angle to give the Pens the 3-2 lead then pots the empty net goal with under a minute left to play. The only thing I did notice this period is that Coach Hynes had Dustin Jeffrey playing in the spot for the injured Andrew Hutchinson. That’s right, the left defensemen. To nitpick on Dustin, he played a bit shaky as a rearguard, but that is nitpicking with a capital N.

Final shots on goal would end up 29-14 for Wilkes-Barre. Three Stars were Dustin Jeffrey, Bobby Butler and Chris Collins. That’s all for Bingo this year at the Arena. Unless we see them in the playoffs which, despite the win, is NOT something I want right now.

Around the Division: Hershey beat Albany 3-2 in what was described by observers present at the game a really competitive game by the Devils. Nice to see I suppose. Andrew Gordon went pointless, so Jeffrey and Corey Locke close the gap on the points lead on him. Norfolk destroyed Atlantic Division leading Manchester tonight 7-2. Mike Angelidis had 5 points (2-3-5) and was +5 but was outdone by recently demoted Mathieu Roy’s +6. Yikes. Rochester defeated Syracuse 6-5. Adirondack and Charlotte were idle tonight.

Standings: At 19-4, we pace the entire American Hockey League with the best record. Norfolk sits second in the division, leapfrogging the idle Checkers with 30 points. Charlotte sits idle till Sunday in third with 29 points. Hershey is in fourth with 27 points, Bingo with 23 points, Albany and Syracuse sixth-seventh with 18 points apiece and tomorrow’s opponent Adirondack will be looking to get to 10 points tomorrow when they come to town to play us. Good luck.

I looked up who the ref is going to be tomorrow. His name is Graham Skilliter. Having never heard of him before and him not being listed on the AHL’s On Ice Officials Roster I did some research on him. He is a Saskatooner from the Dub. This by my research is his first AHL game tomorrow. Had a nasty accident while working a WHL game this year. I don’t have a book on him on how he calls a game. I guess we find out tomorrow. If you don’t know me, I am intrigued by referees and how each has his own personality calling games. With Jeff Smith, you need to bleed for him to raise his arm. With the now retired Nygel Pelletier, if you were on the ice and ten feet away from the play you’d get called for hooking. I like to know these things going in to a game.

Gameday post will be up at 3:30 tomorrow with the newly added Media Kit link. Educate yourself.

Go Pens.