Chirps from Center Ice

Cardiac kids tonight. Pens take a 0-0 game into the 55th minute, then Corey Potter drives the net hard and Ben Street cleans up the mess to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Who else other than Street, right? Later, Norfolk would full court press the Pens and with three seconds left Mike Angelidis would score off of a really bad David Marshall turnover.

Pens would win it in the shootout, with Keven Veilleux and Andrew Hutchinson scoring for the Pens and Brad Thiessen denying all Norfolk callers.

The above summarizes this hard fought, playoff atmosphere-like game really. Guys really clamped down on this one. Defense wins, I suppose.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski. New guy Tyler Murovich was in the lineup because Geoff Walker cut his leg yesterday and Tim Wallace is on recall (again) to Pittsburgh.

First Period: Lots of talk about a fight off of the faceoff but no dice. No fights all game. Norfolk brought it tonight but Thiessen was steady. Shots were 10-5 Norfolk after 1.

Second Period: Pens outshot Norfolk 13-2 this period. May I remind you this is without our top seven scorers. Tokarski held the fort this period for the Admirals.

Third period: See above. Potter drives the net. Street cleans up the mess, Pens lead. Then with three seconds left, David Marshall does not clear the puck out of the Norfolk end and the Admirals pounce and score. I know Tom Grace on radio really ripped the kid hard in the heat of the moment, but you have to remember that you have an ECHL kid playing in a high pressure AHL situation and mistakes no matter how huge will happen.

Overtime: Uneventful. Terry Koharksi really swallowed his whistle this series which is uncharacteristic of #10 in the orange arm bands but I have seen the officiating this year improve a ton. I would rather “let the boys play” rather than going 8/9 on a penalty kill any day of the week.

Shootout: Veilleux, the Pens most accomplished player in the shootout, now 3 for 3, scored as did Andrew Hutchinson, who had no prior shootout experience. Thiessen would deny Troy Milam, Mattias Ritola, Stefano Giliati and Mark Barberio.

Three Stars: Mark Barberio (assist), Dustin Tokarski (34 of 35 saves) and Brad Thiessen (26 of 27 saves)

Around the Division: Braden Holtby is back for the Bears and won tonight 6-4 over Bridgeport. Charlotte beat Adirondack 3-2 in a shootout. Binghamton pulls into a tie for fourth tonight after defeating Albany 4-3. Syracuse defeated Rochester 7-1 tonight. Razor with the win for the Crunch in goal. Seven different Crunch found the back of the net.

Standings: Wilkes-Barre 84, Hershey 74. Division lead is still 10. Hershey loses all of its games in hand when they take on Charlotte tomorrow in Hershey. Checkers sit in third with 68 points. Binghamton actually pulls into fourth in the division due to the fact that the Senators have won 30 games to Norfolk’s 27 despit being tied for points with 66. Albany has 46 points good for sixth while Syracuse and Adirondack are tied for last in the division with 44 points.

Tomorrow: Only game of interest is the Hershey / Charlotte game at 5 p.m. from GIANT Center. I will tweet intermission scores and probably blog a quick recap here.

You should be proud of your hockey team. I am. Let’s Go Pens!!!