Chirps from Center Ice

Pens get two power play goals when they need them and ride defense and sound all-around play to hold on and win this afternoon’s contest in Portland 5-3.

Lineup changes ruled the day with a cloud of questions at the start when it was announced that Eric Tangradi and Zach Sill were scratched. Tangradi was held out due to what Tom Grace called a “potential call-up” situation. (late edit: Tangradi has indeed been called up to Pittsburgh)

I’m not going to speculate what this means or could mean for Tangradi and his status as a Penguin. What I will say is he was awful in Albany and deserved to be sat, in my opinion.

DeFazio replaced Sill and MacIntyre replaced Tangradi. On defense, Simon Despres returned and took Cody Wild’s spot.

Scott Munroe vs. Justin Pogge

First Period: A back and forth, crisp period for two teams playing a 1 p.m. Monday game. Petersen had a good chance on Pogge but didn’t score. Shots were an even twelve leading into the…

Second Period: Pens would kill a carryover penalty from the first period then Nick Petersen would score on a rebound goal to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Then Tyler Eckford scored on a slapshot a few minutes later to bring things even at one. Afterwards, a Mathieu Beaudoin shot rebounded to Ryan Duncan who had essentially an empty net to shoot into to put the Pirates up 2-1. Then, the Pirates would take a too man men on the ice call and Geoff Walker would push the puck in past Pogge to even things at two. The Pens would buzz and Ben Street would earn two penalties when he walked around a man at the blueline, would get hooked then come in on Pogge and get hooked again. In the full two minute five on three, Bryan Lerg would be the recipient of a perfect tic-tac-toe pass to put the Pens up 3-2.

In hindsight, a huge period for the Pens. Start up the period with a goal, then go down 2-1 then get two power play goals to push ahead.

Third Period: Simon Despres would fall down then ultimately in the end get whistled for holding. In the power play, a Patrick O’Sullivan point shot would deflect off of the stick of Brett MacLean to even things at three a piece.  Then, Brian Strait would score a goal from the blueline on a slap shot on a delayed penalty call. Portland would push back hard but the Pens would not break. Ryan Craig would take a slashing call with 2:15 left. The Pirates would pull Pogge and Alex Picard, attempting to clear the puck out of his defensive zone would bank it off of the glass and into the empty net to seal it for the Pens.

Two quick things: Twentieth road win for the Pens this season and the Picard goal would end up being the 11th road shorthanded goal and 13th overall shorthanded goal which is the best in the AHL this season.

Three Stars: 3) Geoff Walker (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brett MacLean (goal, assist, even) 1) Brian Strait (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: They all watched us as no one else skated.

Standings: Penguins and Admirals are tied in points with 69 points each with 54 games played. Since the Admirals have more wins they are in first over the Pens. The Bears are in third with 67 points then it’s the Crunch with 48 points and then the Senators with 45.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-NOR (69) 3-CT (62) 4-WBS (69) 5-HER (67) 6-BRI (61) 7-MCH (58) 8-WOR (57)

I have a really big thing planned for the blog tomorrow. It’s a roundtable discussion between me, a Bears fan and an Admirals fan about what to expect over the last two months of the season. With the Penguins off until probably Wednesday, this will do well to carry the fodder on the blog until then. It will be out tomorrow on the blog at noon. Look out for that, some interesting answers from the five pack of questions I asked.

Let’s Go Pens!