Chirps from Center Ice

Thought the Devils would be pushovers today. Boy was I wrong. Good, competitive hockey game this afternoon in Wilkes-Barre Township seeing the Pens win in a shootout 5-4.

Brad Thiessen v. Jeff Frazee. My first look at Patrick Killeen in warmups. Kid is humongous. 6’4. We had some fun in the warmup tweeting with different observers indicating that Killer got “killed” in warmups by getting sniped on. Here is my tribute to Allen Iverson.

Keven Veilleux was in the lineup as was Tim Wallace. Andrew Hutchinson is still out. Geoff Walker was the scratch.

Chris Cozzan was in the orange arm-bands. As a result, there were two penalties all game.

First period: Eric Tangradi got his AHL Player of the Week Award from a few weeks ago. Albany came out buzzing. Nick Palmieri would open up the scoring at 5:27. At this point, I tweeted that Albany had three or four scatterbrained shifts and got lucky and scored. Very late, Joe Vitale would chip a puck off of the side wall to the stick of Tangradi in the slot and the Big Dog would tie the game at one. That would come at 12:45. Then, Rob Davison would get his first goal of the year with a bomb from the blue line Thiessen would never see at 15:47. Then the fourth line would come out and Bryan Lerg would score at 17:06 to tie the game again.

Second period: Albany neutral zone turnover would see Chris Collins skate in and score at 5:18. Bortuzzo would sit for interference at 7:58 and Michael Swift would score on the ensuing PP. Albany set up shop in their zone, looked like they wanted to score, and did. Fourth line again, Bryan Lerg after a Sill point shot.

Second intermission. Ran into @TheDeathmaster who drove in all the way in from Altoona to see the Pens play tonight in a virtual blizzard here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. His travels will only improve as he goes past Williamsport, but man. Dedication.

Third period: Michael Swift slashing penalty and the ensuing Pens PP would come and go. Dan Kelly would fight a puck past the Pens and go five hole on Thiessen. Really a bad goal from what I saw but others saw Sneep tip it before it went in. Albany would turn on the jets and looked like the better team and had plenty of chances. Regulation would end a 4-4 deadlock.

Overtime: All Penguins. Plenty of chances. Dustin Jeffrey had two chances to end it. Brett Sterling, who has scored 100+ goals at this level, passes to Ryan Craig late who swings and misses at the puck. Blame the bad ice? I don’t know. But if I am Brett, I pick my spot and put it home. Neither team would score and we’d go to a shootout.

Shootout: Nick Johnson, Keven Veilleux and Brett Sterling would score. Thiessen turned away three of four. Pens would pick up the extra point. With Hershey beating the Norfolk Admirals in regulation, a huge boost to separate the Pens from the rest of the division.

Thoughts: Fourth line came to work again tonight. Zach Sill and Bryan Lerg were third and fourth stars (Sterling was the first star) and every time the Devils would punch, the fourth line would counter punch. The defensive pairing of Steve Wagner and Corey Potter are officially in suck mode right now. They will play on, because both were a +2. I have no idea how that could be. None. Bortuzzo was a -1. I can’t explain it.

Around the Division: Thanks Hershey. They beat the offensive juggernaut Norfolk Admirals 3-1. I don’t know how to feel about that. Hershey is down, but heating up. They have beat now Charlotte and Norfolk, two of arguably the best teams in the division, both in a row. I suppose, for now, I will take it. Binghamton beat Adirondack 7-1. Yikes. Rochester beat Syracuse 5-2. I am confused about this one. We beat Rochester three times this year, but they beat Syracuse whom we have not beaten yet.

Standings: With the Norfolk regulation loss, The Pens have 6 points now on the Admirals, 48-42 respectively. Idle Charlotte sits in third with 38 points. Hershey with the win draws a point behind the Checkers in fourth with 37 points. Bingo has 34 points good for fifth. Syracuse has 26 points for sixth, Albany 25 points for seventh and Adirondack has 14 points in eighth.

Pens practice Monday and Tuesday. I will prod Bombulie for updates on Hutchinson. I am taking off from work all week this week. I may see if I can fit a practice in sometime this week. No promises.

Let’s Go Pens!