Chirps from Center Ice

Pens win in what you can call dramatic fashion, 4-3 in overtime versus a gritty Rochester Americans team. All of the three prior meetings were one goal affairs this season. Portland lost to Manchester 4-1 tonight so that loss means that for the first time in team history, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are the best overall team in the American Hockey League for the regular season. With that, comes the Macgregor Kilpatrick trophy.

John Curry vs. Marc Chevrie. Brandon DeFazio skated and Viktor Ekbom was the scratch. The game was played before GM Ray Shero. Andrew Hutchinson also took warmups. There was a concern, albeit a small one, that he injured his knee last night.

First Period: Zach Sill would skate down the middle and fire a puck at Chevrie who left big rebounds all night. Rochester failed to clear it and in doing so, Corey Potter slap shot goal. Right after, Chris Taylor scored to even the game. I tweeted with about 8:29 left to go in the first that Rochester had 7 shots on goal (to the Pens 8 ) – The Pens would not allow another shot the remainder of the period and the teams would go to the locker room tied at 1.

Second Period: The Pens didn’t allow the Amerks a shot on goal for about 10 minutes into the period which was fast paced, because referee Chris Brown let them play. John Curry with two big saves then WBS would get whistled for too many men. :11 into it, the Pens’ Chris Collins would get called for tripping and the Pens would have to kill off a lengthy 5 on 3. As it expired, ex-WBS Penguin Bill Thomas to make it 2-1 Rochester. Curry was making some ten bell saves all night. Curry won us the game tonight for sure.

Third Period: Andrew Hutchinson with all day to shoot and ties the game at 2 off the hop to start the third. Then, Zach Sill with a nifty deke in on a breakaway to make it 3-2. Soon, Jeff LoVecchio tied it on a tough goal on Curry. Then the Pens get two chances on a power play but do not score. Pens thought they had a goal in on the second one but Brown lost sight of it and there was no goal. They would head to overtime…

…where Geoff Walker would end it. This before more huge glove saves by Curry. Walker came in all alone, much like he did last night, against what seemed to be three Americans and drove the net and scored.

Thoughts: The Paul Thompson / Nick Petersen duo was dynamite tonight. Tons of opportunities to score. Going to be fun watching these two.

Three Stars: Jeff LoVecchio (goal, assist, +1) Zach Sill (goal, two assists, +1) and Geoff Walker (game winning overtime goal)

Around the Division: Hershey wins a wild one in Norfolk 5-4. The Bears were down 4-1 to end the first and scored four unanswered goals in the second to hold on and win. Four huge points taken from Hampton Roads this weekend for the Hershey Bears who are solidifying themselves for second place in the East. Their magic number is 1 on Charlotte. Speaking of the Checkers, the city of Charlotte will see Calder Cup playoff hockey in their first season, they were victorious in Albany tonight 5-3. Binghamton lost 4-3 to Bridgeport. The Sens’ magic number is 3 on the Atlantic Division crossover. Syracuse was shutout by Adirondack 3-0.

I honestly don’t know what happens from here from a WBS standpoint with 4 games left. Wheeling clinched a playoff spot so there will not be a band of black aces making its way from the Wheelhouse. Your guess is as good as mine as far as personnel go from here.

Like the East Division crown, celebrate this briefly. There is still a lot of work left to do.

Let’s Go Pens!