Chirps from Center Ice

On a night where the Pens celebrated their own comeback kid in the front office in the form of staffer Chris Kobela, Wilkes-Barre does it again on the ice for a stunning 4-3 overtime win against the Portland Pirates.

It’s the second time this year they have come from behind to win trailing after two periods.

Brad Thiessen vs. Marc Cheverie. Boatloads of lineup changes with the returns of Alex Picard on defense and Jason Williams and Colin McDonald from Pittsburgh. Nick Petersen, Steve MacIntyre and Philip Samuelsson were the scratches.

First Period: The game isn’t :20 old, and David Rundblad for the Pirates scores to put the Pirates on the board 1-0. (:18 exactly) Then, Rundblad would strike again, this time on the power play to put the Pirates up 2-0. Penguins responded with a flurry of shots and clamping down on the Pirates. Colin McDonald would get high sticked to put the Penguins on a 4:00 power play. Right at the tail end, the puck would get kicked in by Mathieu Beaudoin to put the Pens on the board. Geoff Walker would get credit. Then the Pens would get another power play which would carry over into the…

Second Period: The Pirates would kill the penalty and Patrick O’Sullivan would streak to the net and score to put the Pen down 3-1 off of a nice feed by David Rundblad. Penguins clamped down a bit after bing scored on but the Pirates would outshoot the Pens thos frame 7-6.

Third Period: Brian Strait would get the comeback going with a point shot from the top of the blue line which Brian Gibbons scored on the rebound. This was Gibbons second goal in three games. Is he finally warming up? The goal came at 11:51. Then, seven minutes later, Nathan Oystrick would fan on a pass and the Pens came in three on two, Matt Rust had a cross ice pass to Paul Thompson who went top shelf past Chevrie to tie things to go into…

Overtime: Alex Picard ended it :36 in. Thanks for coming!

 

Three Stars: 3) Paul Thompson (goal, two assists, +3) 2) David Rundblad (two goals, assist, +1) and 1) Alex Picard (overtime game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton lost a heartbreaker in St. John’s 4-3. Bears lose in a shootout to the Worcester Sharks in a scrappy affair 3-2. Sharks Head Coach Roy Sommer’s 500th win. Norfolk thumped Adirondack 7-3. Syracuse continues to nose dive into irrelevance with a 4-1 loss to Albany at home.

Standings: 1) WBS 65 points. 2) Hershey 62 points. 3) Norfolk 61 points 4) Syracuse 45 points 5) Binghamton 43 points.

Conference: 1-StJ (68) 2-WBS (65) 3-CT (57) 4-HER (62) 5-NOR (61) 6-MCH (58) 7-WOR (53) 8-BRI (53)

Penguins bus to Hershey tomorrow. I will be with them tomorrow in Hershey. Not on the bus, but I am making the trek to Chocolatetown. Gameday will be here at 1 p.m. on the blog. Recap will be delayed a bit as I drive back home.

Let’s Go Pens!