Chirps from Center Ice

Let’s get right to the news of the day. It’s not the 4-1 Wilkes-Barre win over Syracuse tonight but rather Dustin Jeffrey has been recalled (again) by Pittsburgh because Evgeni Malkin did not make the trip to New Jersey when the Pens play the Devils tomorrow. I am hoping that he actually plays this time because the two other times he was called up he was a healthy scratch.

Now onto our game. Andrew Hutchinson made his return to the lineup tonight. It was great to see that man tonight. When he came out for warmups I jumped out of my seat like we scored a goal.

John Curry vs. J-P Levasseur tonight. Also, on the Pens bench tonight was goaltending coach Gilles Meloche and Bill Guerin. Ryan Schnell took warmups but was the scratch. Coach John Hynes went with seven defensemen tonight.

First Period: Syracuse flying all over the place. WBS first shot on goal didn’t come until 8 minutes into the hockey game. No scoring this period but a few things. First, on the power play Andrew Hutchinson was back on point. Second, the penalty kill unit fared better than the power play unit did early. More chances shorthanded then with the man advantage. Third, Steve Wagner was butt ended and went to the dressing room, came back, but did not return for the second period on. Fourth, the fancy passing didn’t work for pretty much the whole night and finally the scouting in the Eastern Conference must be better than the Western Conference because every single move Brett Sterling tried to make tonight failed. Seriously like it was last years moves.

Second Period: Veilleux took a bonehead interference in the offensive zone which lead to a David Laliberte deflection goal to put the Crunch up 1-0. Zach Sill would fight Matt Kennedy and bloody him. Later, Maxime Macenauer would sit for a slash then Nick Johnson would score on the power play. Andrew Hutchinson would sit for a cross check after that and Hynes had Zach Sill out there killing the penalty. Then, Nick Johnson would sticklift a Crunch player at center ice. The puck made it’s way to Bryan Lerg. Johnson would crash the net and the Penguins would score. Lerg unassisted. Then Nick Bonino would get called for high sticking, then Josh Green would high stick and cut Eric Tangradi for a four minute double minor. Tango would stay out, and Tim Wallace would score on the power play to make it 3-1.

Second Period thoughts: John Curry was earning his money tonight keeping the Penguins in the game early. Two of the three Pens goals were garbage goals. Absolute just junkyard dog style goals.

Third Period: Joey Mormina would get his first of the year at the very end of the Green double minor. Tangradi screened Levasseur. Apparently head coach Mark Holick thought pulling J-P down 4-1 was the way to go, as Timo Pielmeier was put in goal. That was it. Syracuse tried to make a game of it but Wilkes-Barre shut them down.

Three Stars: Bryan Lerg, Ryan Craig and Nick Johnson.

Thoughts: The Pens were 3 for 6 on the power play. Well, having Hutchinson back is the reason yeah? No. He assisted on one and that was it.

Around the Division: Charlotte beat Springfield 3-1 and outshot Springy 43-22. Bingo shutout Albany 3-0. Barry Brust is made of steel, he got the shutout for the B-Sens.

Standings: Wilkes-Barre goes back to 11 points to the good on Norfolk, 66-55 in points. Charlotte is in third with 53. Idle Hershey is fourth with 49 points. Apparently the Bears have already conceded the East Division to Wilkes-Barre. Bingo sits a point behind the Bears with 48 points in fifth. Albany has 37 points in sixth. Syracuse is seventh with 35 points and Adirondack has 28 points in last place.

Friday: Charlotte and Springfield have a rematch. Albany and Hershey in Titletown, Bingo hosts Norfolk in a game I will be watching. Oh, you haven’t heard? The WBS / Adirondack game in Philly will not be carried on AHL Live so I am banished to radio. I don’t get Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia (it’ll be shown there) so it’s radio only Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!