Chirps from Center Ice

Little bit more of an established group for the Bears tonight and less so for WBS but the Pens still managed to scrape out a win at GIANT Center tonight winning 2-1.

Scott Munroe vs. Dany Sabourin. News out of Hershey this afternoon is that Braden Holtby is on his way back to the Bears.

Before the game, Tom Grace gave listeners an update on Keven Veilleux. He has a knee injury. They don’t know the extent of it yet because his knee was too swollen for diagnostic tests. From the sound of Grace and the tone he was trying to set forth, it did not sound good. The term “indefinitely” was used re: how long it would be until Veilleux could return.

First Period: 90 seconds in a Wilkes-Barre turnover led to a Matt Pope backhand goal on Scott Munroe. I’d give a prize to one of my readers if they could leave a comment for me on whether this was the first goal allowed by Munroe since being back in North America. Then a bit of a scare with Zach Sill fighting Christian Hanson. Sill went to the locker room with Patrick Steidle but just for stitches and returned later. There were gobs of fights. Last night it was pretty much Andrew Carroll for the Bears fighting three times for Hershey. Guys, literally, fighting for positions on the team. There was a penalty shot with Chris Barton being hauled down on a mini-breakaway. The Pens are 2-for franchise history all time in penalty shots so Barton did not score. I listened on radio tonight but could tell you that it just sounded like a discombobulated period.

First Intermission: Cuts in Wilkes-Barre will happen after tomorrows game in Wilkes-Barre vs. Adirondack.

Second Period: The radio feed went out about halfway though. Before that, Danny Richmond was caught interfering then Ben Street put the teams at 4-on-4. Zack Miskovic had a chance but the puck went over Miskovic’s net. Then the radio feed went out. The aforementioned Miskovic was then elbowed by Zach Sill and bloodied. Sill got a 5 minute elbow major. Wilkes-Barre would kill it. Paul Thompson had a nice chance shorthanded. Then the goalies made themselves the show with each making some great saves. The Sill penalty for the elbow falls under 45.4 in the rulebook which carries a $100 fine and a review by the League for a possible suspension.

Third Period: Carl Sneep threads a pass to Ben Street right off the hop to ties the game. Pace picked up a bit this period. Bears had a goal waved off because of a puck going in off of a high stick. Both Munroe and Sabourin made great saves in this period. Later, Brian Gibbons got a step on Keith Aucoin and scored on a daft backhand that beat Sabourin to put the Pens up 2-1. Bears would ramp up the pressure and Munroe made some money saves. They call Munroe “Money” as a nickname, so get used to me tossing it around the blog and on the Twitter feed. After a Danny Richmond icing call with Sabourin on the bench the Pens would hold on and win.

Three Stars: Dany Sabourin (23 saves on 25 shots) Scott Munroe (34 saves on 35 shots) and Brian Gibbons (game winning goal)

Pens wrap up the preseason tomorrow vs. the Adirondack Phantoms at 5 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre. Again, no Gameday post so the next post you see may be the postgamer on that game tomorrow evening.

Go Pens!