Chirps from Center Ice

Pens win again on the road capping off a perfect six point road trip with a 4-3 win in overtime in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Pens will play their 1,000th regular season game this Friday when they host the Manchester Monarchs.

Scott Munroe vs. Edward Pasquale – Peter Merth was in for Philip Samuelsson and Ryan Schnell was in for Cody Chupp. Tom Grace did not elude to a Samuelsson injury but an eyewitness in St. John’s tweeted me that during his penalty on Carl Klingberg which awarded Klingberg a penalty shot last night, that Samuelsson looked to have taken a skate to the shoulder / collarbone area. We’ll have to see this week if anything is made out of it.

First Period: Great flow back and forth between the teams last night spilled into the opening period of today’s game. Then a controversial moment, with the Pens on the power play as Geoff Walker appeared to have scored but referee Tim Mayer ruled that the puck never crossed the goal line. The goal light never came on and the replays were inconclusive to me on AHL Live. Then, Bryan Lerg would score shorthanded with Alex Grant in the penalty box for a cross check. This was the second shorthander for Lerg in as many games and ties him with Hershey’s Chris Bourque for the AHL league lead (nice find, Mike O’Brien) Then, Robert Bortuzzo would rip a shot off from the point which rebounded to Paul Thompson who scored.

Second Period: IceCaps would come out guns blazing and Spencer Machacek would score to bring the score to 2-1. IceCaps would continue to knock on the door, but Munroe held the fort. Then, Geoff Walker would wait out Pasquale and score on the power play to push it to 3-1. Pens would continue to stave off most threats by St. John’s this period but the score would remain 3-1.

Third Period: Really weird sequence about five minutes into the period. Joey Mormina would dive to break up a scoring chance by Carl Klingberg and would trip Klingberg. IceCaps PP. Then, Bryan Lerg would do the same thing, only this time to ex-Penguin Jason DeSantis. 5×3 for St. John’s. They would use their time out. Then, off the faceoff, Ryan Craig would dive on the puck and get whistled for delay of game. But wait, they weren’t done! Brian Strait would go to the box on a hooking call. Credit to play-by-play man Tom Grace for math on the fly. Penguins would have to kill periods of :04, :55 and 1:05 of 5 on 3 consecutively. Then, Spencer Machacek would get nabbed for holding to negate the extended two-man disadvantage for the Pens. When it was all said and done, all penalties would get killed and the score would remain 3-1.

Going to a second paragraph here. St. John’s would even the score at three. Ben Maxwell would bring St. John’s to one, then Jason Jaffray 1:04 later would tie it on a power play. Things would settle, the IceCaps would look for the go ahead, but the Pens would make sure the game went to overtime.

Overtime: Scott Munroe made a save on a Zach Redmond shot, I think I saw Jason Williams block a shot then start the rush the other way. Joey Mormina would blast a shot from the far wall which deflected to Street in for the game winner.

What a story for Mormina, who was injured earlier in the game when a puck rolled up his stick and into his face and Street, who has family in St. John’s to end the successful road trip for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Jason Williams (two assists, +2) 2) Jason Jaffray (goal, -1) and 1) Ben Street (game winning overtime goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Worcester beats Syracuse 4-3 in a shootout. Binghamton loses in Bridgeport, 3-.

Standings: Hershey leads with 55 points. Norfolk and the Penguins nipping at the Bears heels with 49 points each. Syracuse separating itself from Binghamton with 39 points to the defending champions 34.

Conference: 1-HER (55) 2-StJ (50) 3-CT (44) 4-NOR (49) 5-WBS (49) 6-WOR (45) 7-MCH (44) 8-ADK (42)

Pens will fly home tomorrow and will probably either have a light skate Tuesday or off and get back into the swing of things Wednesday but never fear! I have the Second Quarter Grades queued up ready to go for noon Monday. That should hold you until midweek when I’ll have something to blog about by then, hopefully.

Let’s Go Pens!