Chirps from Center Ice

I dogged it I must admit when drawing up the Gameday post for this game and “Why you should care”:

“Want to see them (the Pens) win? Come to the game tonight, Adirondack is a team in disarray…”

It takes a Bears fan in the comments section to remind me that Michael Leighton is down on a conditioning stint. I looked past that when writing up the Gameday and regret it. This was a trap game for Wilkes-Barre if there ever was one. John Curry opposed Leighton in the other net. No other lineup changes for Wilkes-Barre. Hutchinson out with injury and Veilleux scratched. Nick Johnson wore the other “A” tonight with Hutch out of the lineup.

First period: Eric Wellwood scored at 8:01 to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead. He stopped, then put the puck five hole on Curry. Bad goal for John but nothing circumstance wise you really can do. From the get go however, the Pens were steamrolling the Phantoms with chance after chance and a lot of time was spent in the Pens offensive zone. Leighton was up to the task, stopping everything he saw. Greg Moore sat for a hooking call and as his penalty expired, Eric Tangradi was screening Leighton and Dustin Jeffrey (who else) scored to tie the game at one. Period would end with a 15-4 shots advantage for Wilkes-Barre.

Second period: John Curry was up to the task tonight, flat robbing Greg Moore not once but twice on the left face off dot. Leighton was flat out keeping Adirondack relevant as he was just a NHL caliber goaltender, scratch that, an Eastern Conference Champion, Stanley Cup Final caliber goaltender keeping his team in the game. I tweeted that Wilkes-Barre would need a dirty goal to beat him.

Third period: The aforementioned dirty goal would not come until 15:00 of the third period when Tim Wallace absolutely undresses Danny Syvret and beats Leighton to make it 2-1. I don’t think Michael expected that out of Wallace either. I know I didn’t. 1:46 later, Eric Tangradi scored from the same angle Chris Collins did the night before on the goal line to make it 3-1. Joe Vitale would sit for a late hooking penalty. Adirondack would use it’s timeout and pull Leighton and on the 6 on 4, AHL sniper Denis Hamel one time a bomb to the net which would be tipped by Ben Holmstrom. Adirondack would empty its net again but Wilkes-Barre would hold on for a 3-2 victory.

Robert Bortuzzo, Tim Wallace and Dustin Jeffrey were the three stars. Hershey’s Andrew Gordon went pointless as the Bears blanked the Senators 4-0 tonight so with tonight’s goal and assist, Dustin Jeffrey is tied for the league lead in points with Andrew Gordon. I will have to ask Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie when the last time someone from WBS was tops in the league in scoring.

Around the Division: You already know about Hershey, Albany blanked Rochester 2-0. Check out who got the game winning goal in that one. Norfolk storms back from a 3-0 deficit to come back and win 4-3 in a shootout over the Portland Pirates. Arrrgh!

Standings: WBS is first in the league to 40 points. Norfolk is second with 32 points. Hershey and Charlotte are tied with 29 points in third and fourth respectively. Bad weekend for the Binghamton Senators, two games and zero points. They are in fifth with 23 points. Albany has 20 points for sixth, Syracuse 18 for seventh and the Phantoms are last with 8 points.

Big stick tap to Tim McManus tonight who was not at the game but encouraged his followers on Twitter to follow me for the tweet by tweet. I appreciate it so much.

Pens back to work Wednesday at home against the Toronto Marlies. Tomorrow I will spend my day watching parts of all 8 AHL games.

Go Pens.