Chirps from Center Ice

Wilkes-Barre remains perfect on the road tonight after winning 2-1 in a shootout. Brad Thiessen played about 58 minutes of shutout hockey before being stymied by Mike Hoffman.

I love when I get the idea for my headline I am going to run while I am either at the game or on the way from the game. Tonight I got my headline in the first intermission and would have run it regardless of tonight’s outcome. Why? The game was basically delayed by 5 minutes tonight due to smoke in the mechanical room at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Look, firefighters!

So after all this, Brad Thiessen vs. Robin Lehner. Matt Rust was in for Paul Thompson as the only lineup change.

First Period: Brandon DeFazio and Ryan Schnell had the best chance of the very young evening early. Carl Sneep (on his birthday) had a gaping net which he could not score on the backhand in. Then the Pens would get a power play and spend 1:55 in the offensive zone but not score. Later, Zach Sill and Ben Street would work some magic shorthanded but not score.

Second Period: Good instincts by net minder Robin Lehner, seeing the Penguins making an on the fly change he’d fire the puck into the changing bodies and get the Pens caught for too many men. Really a smart move by him. Bryan Lerg would get denied shorthanded. Later, Zach Sill would lob a puck at Lehner which would go in the net. Really a changeup that foiled Lehner. After that the two teams would go back and forth all period with no goals to come from it.

Third Period: Loud ping heard behind Thiessen’s net as a puck would ring off two posts but not go in. Later a Carl Sneep shot nearly deflects in the net off of the helmet of Eric Gryba. Binghamton would get a power play and not even set up shop much to the dismay to the Binghamton faithful. Then Joey Mormina would get called for tripping, and mouth off to the officials and get a misconduct call and would be done for the night. I knew that it would potentially be a turning point with the B-Sens going on the power play and the teams best defenseman done for the night. Sure enough, Mike Hoffman would spoil Thiessen’s shutout bid and tie the game late. Huge momentum shift as the final minutes were all Binghamton.

Overtime: Mark Parrish would get denied early by the toe of Thiessen. Pens had some chances but the shootout is where we would go.

Shootout: Colin McDonald, Niko Dimitrakos and Bryan Lerg would score in the shootout and Thiessen stopped two of four Binghamton shooters and the Pens would get the two points, sweep the weekend and get to first place in the East Division all while down two of the top defensemen, their captain and life of the team hurt. Unbelievable.

Three Stars: 3) Zach Sill (goal, +1) 2) Brad Thiessen (28 saves on 29 shots) and 1) Bryan Lerg (game winning shootout goal, even)

Around the Division: Bridgeport beat Norfolk 3-2 tonight. Suddenly the high-powered Admirals look pedestrian, losing two this weekend. They try to salvage points Sunay afternoon in Providence. Syracuse beat Rochester 5-2. Five different Crunch found the back of the net.

Standings: Penguins are in first place in the division. with 16 points. Norfolk has 15 points in second. Idle Hershey sits third with 14 points. Syracuse and Binghamton are tied with 12 points but since Syracuse is percentage points better than Binghamton they are fourth and Binghamton fifth.

No matter what happens tomorrow in Providence, it looks like Wednesday’s game is going to be for first place in the division.

Pens are probably off till Monday, travel to Norfolk Tuesday for the game Wednesday. As the updates are available I will have them here on the blog but for the nuggets, lend a follow to me on Twitter if you haven’t already.

Go Pens!