Chirps from Center Ice

Pens up late 6-3 then cough up three unanswered Manchester goals and visions of Game 6 vs. Charlotte last year start dancing in my head. Pens take it to shootout and win, 7-6. They are now in sole possession of first in the East, two up on idle Norfolk, who plays in Binghamton tomorrow.

News o’ the day, which seemed to catch everyone off guard, was that Cal O’Reilly was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre from Pittsburgh. Here’s Jonathan Bombulie’s take from earlier, which I will cosign on. O’Reilly did not play tonight for Wilkes-Barre. Cody Chupp was recalled from Wheeling.

Scott Munroe vs. Jeff Zatkoff – scratches were Philip Samuelsson, Cody Wild, Matt Rust and Steve MacIntyre.

First Period: All Penguins. Forechecking had shots at 8-2 at the half way point.  Brian Strait turns the puck over to Justin Azevedo who scores on the third shot on goal for the Monarchs. Later, Stefan Legein scored a fluky goal to make it 2-0 on the Monarchs’ fifth shot on goal.

I tweeted at the end of the first that the score was not indicative of the effort, shots were 15-5 Pens and the Monarchs were 0/2 on the power play with no shot on goal during either man advantage.

Second Period: The jump wasn’t there to start for the Pens as Manchester had the first three shots on goal this frame and all good ones. Then Brandon DeFazio would score through a screen to put the Pens on the board. As a Penguins power play expired, Brian Gibbons would score to even things on a goal mouth scrum. Later, Jason Williams received a gorgeous pass from Colin McDonald which had like three Manchester players admiring it which Williams broke in on and backhanded it past Zatkoff to push the Pens ahead 3-2. Penguins, while on the power play, would be awarded a penalty shot when a Monarchs player covered the puck in the goal crease. Jason Williams took it and missed. Afterwards, Cody Chupp would get his first of the year from a nice centering pass from Brian Gibbons.

The period would end 4-2, and this would be the most productive second period of the season for the Pens. They scored three goals four separate times before this.

Third Period: Linden Vey would get a centering pass from Robert Czarnik he tapped in to bring Manchester to 4-3. Immediately thereafter, Jason Williams answers back to put the Pens out ahead by two goals. Almost right after that, Zach Sill would pick off a Zatkoff clearing attempt and scored to make it 6-3.

That goal chased Zatkoff. Martin Jones replaced him. That seemed to settle the Monarchs down some. Six minutes later, Robert Czarnik scored when the puck went in and out quickly. Referee Darcy Burchell immediately signaled goal, then went over to consult with the goal judge who confirmed it.

I had a strange feeling that this goal would be a tipping point of sorts for the Monarchs. Sometimes I hate when I am right. Linden Vey scored with 3:09 left to make it 6-5, then with Jones pulled Trent Hunter scored to tie it with less than a minute to go.

Overtime: Solved nothing. Hunter tried to end it, couldn’t. Then Street tried to do the same but it was off to the…

Shootout: Vey scored in the first round for the Monarchs. That was all for them. Lerg scored on his patented 650 deke move and Geoff Walker, who is perfect this season in shootouts, also scored and the Pens got the extra point.

Go back a second to the Williams penalty shot. I tweeted pre-game that the Pens have been involved in three of the last five penalty shots one way or another. Make it four for six now.

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (two assists, even) 2) Linden Vey (two goals, one assist, +5) 1) Jason Williams (two goals, +1)

Miscellany note: From the game sheet, looks like Manchester played a man down all night.

Around the Division: Hershey and Lake Erie squared off in the only other AHL game tonight. The Bears lost 4-3.

Standings: Pens outright number one for tonight at least with 71 points to Norfolk’s 69. Bears stuck at 67 points in third. Then it’s Syracuse 50, Binghamton 45.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-WBS (71) 3-CT (62) 4-NOR (69) 5-HER (67) 6-BRI (61) 7-MCH (59) 8-WOR (57)

Pens off tomorrow then Syracuse is in for a Saturday night game in front of a sold out crowd. Should be a fun one.

Let’s Go Pens!