Chirps from Center Ice

Pens lost this penalty filled game (puppet show) 5-2 tonight in which it saw about five 5 on 3 penalty periods. Rather than me spout off on how bad I feel referee Jamie Koharski is, I am just going to recap as best I can and move on.

Cameron Talbot vs. Brad Thiessen. Carl Sneep was scratched and David Marshall dressed. The Pens went with 12 forwards and 6 defensemen. Sneep was seen in the players box with a cast on his left hand, and ace bandage over what appeared to be a removable splint.

First Period: Off the hop, Connecticut’s Pavel Valentenko sat for interference then Kris Newbury for hooking. In the 5 on 3 that ensued Tim Wallace would score from the left faceoff dot to put the Pens up 1-0. Later, John Mitchell deked around Corey Potter to put the Whale on the board ant tie the game at 1-1. To this point the Pens were dominating the shots on goal to a tune of something like 8-2. Soon after, Andrew Hutchinson would slap a pass to Chris Collins to make it 2-1 Pens. Collins was everywhere the first period. Then, Kris Newbury would put a puck on net which would dribble past Thiessen to make the score 2-2. Shots on goal in the first would be 20-7 Penguins.

Somewhere in the first intermission the wheels would come off because the Pens would only manage 11 more shots the rest of the game. 5 in the second and 6 in the third.

Second Period: Tim Wallace would start the second in the penalty box for 1:55 of carryover time from the first for slashing. Later, Joe Vitale would get nabbed for tripping giving the Whale a 5 on 3 for 1:39. Wade Redden would score with :02 left on the 5 on 3 to put the Whale up 3-2. At this point, Coach John Hynes would replace Brad Thiessen with John Curry. Nothing against Thiessen, the move was really to shake up the team more than anything, like the game against Norfolk at home two weeks ago when he pulled Curry for Thiessen. Then the Pens would get a chance on the power play but would not score. Evgeni Grachev hold then a Blake Parlett hold. Nothing. Then David Marshall would sit for a hook and Jamie Koharski would nab Joe Vitale for slashing handing the Whale 1:11 of 5 on 3. Pens would kill it all and go to the locker room down 3-2.

Third Period: Kelsey Tessier would fire a rocket of a slap shot from the right face off circle past John Curry even strength to give the Whale a 4-2 lead. The Pens would then get 1:32 of 5 on 3 when Stu Bickel would trip a Penguin and Brodie Dupont later elbowed someone. Would the Pens score? No. The Pens would get another chance of 5 on 3 for :18 after a Derek Couture hold and a Wade Redden hook. No scoring. Highlight of the night was Zach Sill bloodying Blake Parlett. I think Sill broke his nose. Rather than resorting to full blown thuggery, the Pens tried to even the score to no avail with an empty net which Kris Newbury took advantage of. Final score was 5-2.

Three stars: Andrew Hutchinson (2 assists, +1) Kris Newbury (2 goals, assist, +1) Wade Redden (game winning goal, 2 assists, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey lost in a shootout to Portland 3-2. Charlotte beat Binghamton in regulation 2-1. Bears sit 7 back of the Pens right now.

Standings: WBS has 90 points to Hershey’s 83. Charlotte sits 3rd with 80 points. Norfolk (idle) has 75. Binghamton could not tie the Admirals for 4th and have 73 points. Albany has 52 points in sixth and Adirondack and Syracuse has 51 points tied for last in the division.

Portland ties Manchester for the Atlantic Division lead and is in a three way tie with the Bears for second best in the AHL. Hershey, despite a rash of call-ups and injuries still is the second best team in the AHL? Amazing. Just amazing. The Bears are going to be again heavily favored to win it all for a third year in a row.

Tomorrow: Hershey plays in Worcester in a game I will keep my eye on. The other game of interest is the Binghamton / Charlotte rematch in Charlotte. I will have a quick blog post about the games tomorrow night.

Today the AHL released the Clear Day Rosters which you can view here. Tony Androck from Pensburgh had an excellent blog post breaking it all down and what it all means from a WBS Penguins perspective. Because of Tony’s fine work, I don’t have to break anything down here on the blog. I will direct you his work. You can also follow Tony on Twitter at @TonyAndrock

Go Penguins.