Chirps from Center Ice

Penguins get win 50 this afternoon vs. the Charlotte Checkers. Fourth time in team history with a 2-1 win over the Charlotte Checkers.

Brad Thiessen vs. Mike Murphy.

First Period: Early, Mike Murphy was on it, robbing Bryan Lerg. Later, Zack FitzGerald would sit for a rough and the Pens PP would go to work. It looked better than past power plays, but the same result in failing to score. First period was more of a defensive chess match and it would end scoreless.

Second Period: Still deadlocked at 0-0, the Pens were trying feathering passes which were knocked away by Charlotte. The power play would look bad in the second with Zach Boychuk in the box on a slash with the Pens playing dump and chase and ice the puck. Later, Zach Sill would keep a puck in by the far wall on his stomach and pass to Geoff Walker who passed to Nick Petersen who scored on a nifty spin-o-rama type move. Probably top three goals of the year right there.Then, Mike Murphy would come out of the game due to apparent injury. He was spilled behind the net with no call as play continued and Justin Pogge would come on in relief. Sill would get a good chance later but Pogge made the save.

Third Period: :21 in, Sill would score off of a nice centering feed from Geoff Walker and Keven Veilleux. That Walker-Sill-Veilleux line has been dynamite of late. The Pens would smother the Checkers every shift. Very late, I heard people in my section start saying “shutout” and I cringed. You never use that word until the game is over. Sure enough, a Bobby Sanguinetti was deflected by Chris Terry, who earlier with Pogge pulled swung and missed at a dropping puck on a wide open cage, broke up the shutout with 4.8 seconds left.

Three Stars: Nick Petersen: (goal, +1) Brad Thiessen (25 saves on 26 shots) and Zach Sill (game winning goal, assist, +2)

Bombulie had nice words to say about Zach Sill on his blog earlier. Really nothing more can be said about a fourth line mucker converted into a legit scoring threat every time he steps over the boards. Dustin Jeffrey, Eric Tangradi and Nick Johnson have some big shoes and Zach Sill is filling them nicely.

Around the Division: Syracuse beat Hershey 5-2. Hershey pumped 32 shots on goal and allowed 19 yet still lost. Binghamton beat Bridgeport in overtime 4-3.

Manchester lost to Worcester 3-2 and Portland beat Providence 5-3 so the Pirates go up 93-91 on the Monarchs and into second overall in the AHL.

Standings: Wilkes gets to 101 points, Hershey is 10 back with 91. Charlotte and Norfolk are tied with 84 points with Norfolk in third. Bingo sits fifth with 79 points. ALB 64, SYR 61 and ADK 58.

This week: Pens give back one of it’s three games in hand on the Bears when they take on the Albany Devils Wednesday at home in Wilkes-Barre. The Devils are 0-7 this season vs. the Pens and will be looking for the upset.

Bombulie says the magic number to clinch the division is 6. I am no math major and neither is Bombulie admittedly, so I guess I believe him. Don’t always believe what you read, @franki2003 says that the magic number is 7, with Norfolk having 12 games left if they won all of them they would finish with 108 points.

Go Pens.