Chirps from Center Ice

Assistant Coach Alain Nasreddine may want to burn the tape of this game with the defensive zone gaffes which resulted in an easy 5-1 Hershey win tonight.

It’s either that, or Wilkes-Barre will never be really able to pull away from Hershey or the rest of the division for that matter, as a Penguin regulation win would have put the Penguins five points up on the Bears and the rest of the East.

Alas, it is a one point cushion for now. The Bears hit the road for a weekend set of games next weekend and the Penguins host the Norfolk Admirals in what could easily be one of the the three most important games of the year.

Brad Thiessen vs. Braden Holtby. Eric Tangradi was out attending to a family issue so Steve MacIntyre took his spot and Philip Samuelsson was in for Cody Wild. Those were the only lineup changes.

First Period: The game was ten minutes old. It was really a spirited affair with the shots 10-6 favoring the Penguins. There was a stoppage and I overheard someone yell behind Thiessen’s net, “Boring!” Well, it ramped up from there. A bad defensive zone clear by the Penguins resulted in Ryan Potulny’s first of two of the night, then a Penguins penalty as Philip Samuelsson headed to the box on a slash.  Jacob Micflikier scored on a power play goal to make it 2-0. Here’s what I said at the time the First period ended:

Second Period: Brian Strait would take a hooking call and the Bears sans Keith Aucoin power play took the ice and Jacob Micflikier would score his second of the game as it would deflect in past Thiessen.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Steve MacIntyre and Patrick Wellar would have a pretty uneventful fight. Then Paul Thompson would get cut and go to the locker room bleeding. Tomas Kundratek got him. The next shift, Brandon DeFazio just lit up Kundratek, who stood there the whole time and tok every punch without dropping his gloves. The Bears headed to a SEVEN MINUTE power play. The Bears weren’t able to do anything with it. In fact, Matt Rust would clear a puck over the glass putting the Bears on a 5-on-3 for a whole two minutes. The Pens not only killed that, but the whole seven minutes.

Third Period: Garrett Mitchell would score on a nice D.J. King pass from down low to basically put the game out of reach, although I though it was out of reach at 3-0 but the seven minute successful penalty kill swayed me a bit. Colin McDonald would bust up the Holtby shutout to bring the Pens to 4-1 but Ryan Potulny would score to make it 5-1 to put matters out of reach for good. For what it’s worth, I tweeted this right after I tweeted the score:

Rough stuff would end the game with 2.3 seconds left. Alex Grant and Andrew Carroll would fight here and referee Terry Koharski ended the game for fear of things getting completely out of hand.

Three Stars: 3) Chris Bourque (three assists, +1, which is good for a tie in the AHL points lead with Keith Aucoin) 2) Jacob Micflikier (two goals, even) 1) Ryan Potulny (2 goals, 1 assist, +2)

Bombulie had a great analysis regarding the Bears and defeating opponents at home by four or more goals. Giant Center is a rats nest for opponents, although I must say for opposing teams fans (me) Bears fans could not be nicer to me. But what he was saying was that if opponents go down by two or more goals, they get blown away most times than not.

Around the Division: St. John’s beat Binghamton 6-3. The IceCaps are the first AHL team to 70 points. Norfolk beat Charlotte 3-1. Syracuse does not render a point all weekend having lost to Hershey Friday. Albany Saturday and Lake Erie in Cleveland 2-1 tonight.

Standings: Penguins have a slim one point lead in the division 65 to 64 over Hershey. Oh, the Admirals are nipping! 63 points and can takeover first place in the division with an outright win Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre. They have 63 points. Then an 18 point chasm between third and fourth with Syracuse with 45 points and Binghamton with 43.

Conference: 1-StJ (70) 2-WBS (65) 3-CT (58) 4-HER (64) 5-NOR (63) 6-MCH (58) 7-WOR (55) 8-BRI (55)

Pens have off tomorrow and then practice Tuesday. Blog fodder will run as content allows as always. I’ll probably have something Tuesday.

I’d like to run a feature or two between now and the weekend coming. Just with upcoming opponents or maybe something else. Stay tuned.

Let’s Go Pens!