Chirps from Center Ice

Pens move the road record this year to 8-0 and the winning streak to eight straight winning in overtime 4-3 in another chapter in the Penguins / Bears rivalry.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin. With Eric Tangradi on recall to Pittsburgh, Paul Thompson was back after being scratched for the past two games.

First Period: Early, a Julien Brouillette point shot would get in the goal as Thiessen was screened. Then, right after, Philip Samuelsson would score his first pro goal after Paul Thompson crashed the net. Then a scary moment as a Robert Bortuzzo blind drop pass to no one saw Keith Aucoin and Chris Bourque come in alone but was saved by Thiessen. Then late with Jason Williams in the box for interference, Jacob Micflikier would score at 19:59 to make it 2-1.

I though that the late, late, late goal was a backbreaker for the Pens. They gambled on the PK and got burned, badly. But they regrouped.

Second Period: Really a flat period I thought for Wilkes-Barre. Both teams really clamped down defensively and didn’t want to make a mistake. In doing so, it really made for boring hockey to me. With under a minute, the Pens get two bang-bang goals within :16 after a Sneep point shot deflected by Paul Thompson. Then, Thompson picked off a Hershey pass, crashed the net and Ryan Craig scored it.

The goals really came after a late Hershey ice which caught the Bears really tired. The second goal in the period was all Thompson’s work.

Third Period: Pens came out buzzing, but the Bears would even the score again when Julien Brouillette would fire a shot at Thiessen he would have trouble controlling and Keith Aucoin would clean up the rebound. Later, Colin McDonald would score to make it 4-3 after Philip Samuelsson kept the puck in, fired it on net and Sabourin would have his own problems controlling the rebound and McDonald would do the rest. Hershey would then buzz, buzz and buzz and Keith Aucoin would come down the right side and dish a pass right to Mattias Sjogren to tie the game late.

Overtime: Simon Despres, :57 in, would have all day at the top of the slot and would wrist home his third game winning goal of the year.

Three Stars: 3) Patrick McNeill (two assists, -1) 2) Ben Street (4 assists, +4) and 1) Simon Despres (game winning goal, +3)

Pens kept up with the Bears tonight despite to me, looking a step off. Tim Leone tweeted that John Hynes is perfect as a head coach at Giant Center. I certainly would say that it could have been a game which came down to coaching.

Around the Division: Albany beat Norfolk 2-1. Binghamton lost again, this time to Rochester 3-1 and Syracuse beat Adirondack 3-2. And outside of the division, since we are talking “eight is great,” check out what Grand Rapids did to Hamilton tonight in the Steel City.

Standings: WBS has a small window of breathing room now up 20 points to Hershey and Norfolk’s 17 points respectively. Syracuse is fourth with 15 points and Binghamton sits last with 12 points.

Tom mentioned the Conference standings, so from here on, I am going to start running it. So off we go.

Conference: St. John’s sits atop the conference with 21 points. WBS has 20 points for second. Northeast Division leader Connecticut have 17 points. The rest goes: 4-HER (17) 5-NOR (17) 6-ADK (15) 7-SYR (15) and 8-ALB (15) The top eight teams in the conference make the playoffs. I’ll start looking at 9, 10 and deeper later in the season if the points are close enough.

Pens get home for a Saturday TV game vs. Norfolk. Gameday will be up at 3 p.m. here on the blog.

Let’s Go Pens!