Chirps from Center Ice

Normally when you allow a team 16 shots all game you should win. With a team as loaded as Wilkes-Barre is, allowing an opponent 16 shots on goal is a sure recipe for success Normally when you put 47 shots up on the board on a team the odds are high that you win the game right?

Not tonight. If you would have told me that the shots would be 47-16 in favor of WBS and the Pens would lose 4-1 I would have never in a million years believed you. It’s true.

This may be some post game knee jerk react from me but Barry Brust, with a better Binghamton team in front of him (the B-Sens have been decimated by call ups also) can outright in my opinion win a Calder Cup for the City of Binghamton. The man is just simply phenomenal. Wilkes-Barre is now 3-4 against this Binghamton team with one more game left to play. The Penguins are 0-3 in the Southern Tier of New York.

Barry Brust vs. Brad Thiessen. Earlier in the day Andrew Orpik was shipped back to the Wheelhouse.

First Period: Fifteen minutes in David Dziurzynski digs a puck off of the wall in the Pens offensive zone to the stick of B-Sens captain Ryan Keller who roofs it on Thiessen to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. When Bingo scores first it is 23-3-2-2. Shots on goal this period 9-7 for WBS. For what it’s worth, it was a feeling out period for both teams for the first half of the period for as weird as it sounds this many games into the season.

Second Period: Corey Locke would sit for hooking then Kaspars Daugavins for the same thing setting up an extended power play for the Pens, Bryan Lerg would score when Corey Locke attempted a steal leaving Lerg all alone to snipe one on Brust to tie the score at 1. Then the wheels would come off. Erik Gryba would score while a screen was set on Thiessen. The turning point of the game was later though when the Pens had a power play. The puck would get dumped in on Brust, he went out of his net to play it but it took a weird bounce and popped right in front of a wide open net. Instead of scoring, the Penss would take a hooking penalty, Ryan Craig to even it up at 4 on 4 for a brief period. After the original penalty on a David Hale rough call would expire Joey Mormina would get nabbed for interference and the top ranked in the AHL Binghamton Senators power play and top ranked at home Binghamton Senators power play unit would take the ice for :42 of 5 on 3. Soon, Kaspars Daugavins would make it 3-1. Then right after that, Corey Cowick would throw a shot at Thiessen’s pads which would deflect to the stick of Andrew Sweetland who jammed home the puck to make it 4-1. Shots on goal this period were 15-6 in favor of WBS and 24-13 overall.

Third Period: Pens would throw everything they could muster and more at Brust but the man from Swan River, Manitoba stood tall denying chance after chance. Chants of “Bar-ry, Bar-ry” were heard all night. The Pens would get two power plays but not convert. They put 24 shots on net in the third and only allowed Binghamton 3 shots at new goaltender John Curry, who relieved Thiessen to start the third.

Three Stars were Corey Cowick (2 assists, +2), Ryan Keller (goal, assist, +1) and Barry Brust (47 saves on 48 shots)

Bombulie said in his postgamer that the shots on goal number was skewed a bit and Senators coach Kurt Kleinendorst was furious at the off-ice officials for their liberal shot count. (It’s always like that in Binghamton)

It is the same old song and dance with Binghamton. Brust steals the show all the time. Nothing about Binghamton really impresses me that much. Corey Locke is an animal but outside of that it comes down to, at least for me, the yeoman-like effort of Barry Brust in net.

Around the Division: Hershey wins in a shootout 4-3 over the Toronto Marlies.

Standings: Hershey is back within 8 points. 84-76. The bigger concern is the Binghamton Senators who need to be reckoned with at this point, clearly in my opinion the best team in the division right now. They have won 7 straight and have points in their last 9 games. Just unreal hockey they are playing. Idle Charlotte has 71 points, Binghamton now has 68 points for fourth, Norfolk has 66 points in fifth. Albany, Syracuse and Adirondack have 48, 46, 45 points respectively.

Tomorrow and Friday: Hershey is in Lake Erie to take on the Lake Erie Monsters. Seems that every other division has a tight points race for first but ours. The Monsters are third in the North and sit two points out of first. I believe that game is televised on Fox Sports Ohio. I will be watching. Charlotte hosts the Connecticut Whale. Friday the Pens are off, but Charlotte and Norfolk do battle and Binghamton travels to Syracuse.

Go Pens.