Chirps from Center Ice

Brad Thiessen showed why he is the Eastern Conference’s starting goaltender with a 2-0 clean sheet of the Providence Bruins tonight in the Rhose Island capital.

Thiessen was opposed by Nolan Schaefer tonight. Keven Veilleux and Brian Strait returned to the lineup. Ryan Schnell took warmups but was a scratch as was Jason DeSantis who did not take warmups.. Alex Grant I am also told made the trip but is still a ways away from returning.

First period: First ten minutes of the game was all Wilkes-Barre in the Providence zone. Not much in the way of action, just sound defense by Wilkes-Barre. Pens would have two straight power plays handed to them but failed to convert. Ryan Craig would fight Nathan McIver but outside of that not much else went on.

Second period: Joe Colborne would sit for hooking and then finally, the Pens would score a power play goal. Brett Sterling. It appeared as if Schaefer was screened. Regardless it is nice to see The Ticket burying chances when he has them.

The turning point of the game came about five minutes later when Tim Wallace would sit for hooking at 13:27 then Corey Potter for delay of game at 14:30. The Pens would have to kill off :57 of a 5 on 3. Now, Providence’s power play is ranked last in the league. Dustin Jeffrey singlehandedly would snuff out the 5 on 3 by getting two separate breakaways, drawing a Colby Cohen hold and an Andrew Bodnarchuk hold. As long as nothing weird occurred, I felt WBS had this one in the bag because of Dustin’s work.

Shots at the end of two were 24-12 in favor of WBS. With this being essentially a home and home series for the Penguins, radio mentioned that the aggregate shots total was 75-30 at one point in the second period. Just utter domination by the Penguins.

Third period: Geoff Walker got himself a garbage goal, banking it in off of Nolan Schaefer early in the period to extend the lead to 2-0. Later Nolan would rob Dustin Jeffrey on the doorstep. The third period would fly by. Providence would get its chances but Wilkes-Barre held the fort and earned Thiessen a shutout.

Three stars were Schaefer, Thiessen and Brett Sterling in that order.

Around the Division: Charlotte beat Manchester in a shootout 6-5. This is after the Checkers were up 5-3 and let Charlotte back into it. Norfolk defeated Bridgeport 5-2. Hershey shutout tomorrow’s opponent the Adirondack Phantoms 3-0. Binghamton lost to Albany 3-2. Check out who got the game winner and who was named first star in that one. Syracuse lost in a shootout to the Hamilton Bulldogs 1-0.

Standings: WBS up 11 on Charlotte 62-51. Norfolk needed to win to keep pace, they are in third with 49 points. Hershey is fourth with 48 points. Binghamton is fifth with 44 points. Albany has 35 points in sixth, Syracuse has 33 points in seventh and Adirondack has 26 points in last.

Tomorrow: Charlotte is idle, so WBS can extend the points lead with a win in Glens Falls. Norfolk has a rematch tomorrow home v. Bridgeport and Hershey is home vs. Lake Erie.

Tomorrow’s game vs. the Phantoms puts us at the half way mark of the season. You know what this means, right? Second Quarter grades are due Monday afternoon here on the blog!

Go Pens!