Chirps from Center Ice

Norfolk skates away with a perfect six point weekend after defeating the Binghamton Senators on Friday, the Hershey Bears on Saturday and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins today by a score of 3-2. The Admirals now open up a four point East Division lead over the Penguins.

Patrick Killeen vs. Dustin Tokarski. Pens brought in Brad Fogal on a PTO this afternoon, an undrafted goalie out of Division-III Adrian College in Michigan. Steve MacIntrye was scratched as was Bryan Lerg who had an “undisclosed illness” as described by radio. In was Cody Chupp and Nick Petersen.

First Period: Off the opening face-off, Jason Williams was spring and nearly scored on Tokarski. The Penguins had the best opening shifts I think all year. Every pass was with purpose. They really came out flying. Teams would trade power plays but no scoring this period.

Second Period: Penguins appeared to score but referee Matt Kirk called an interference on the goaltender penalty on Ryan Craig. Later, with Radko Gudas in the box for crosschecking, Ben Street would receive an Alex Grant blue line pass he would fire past Tokarski to put the Pens up 1-0. Then, with Jason Williams in the box for a hook, Mark Barberio would score in the slot to tie the game on his own power play goal. During the process, Barberio was pushed from behind by Zach Sill. Sill would get a penalty for roughing, but the Pens would kill it.

Then I tweeted this about the Norfolk Admirals third period goal differential:

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Third Period: Former Penguin J-P Cote scored to put the Admirals ahead 2-1 on a shot from the blue line off an Admirals face-off win. Later, Alex Picard (the good Picard, not the one who plays for the Admirals) fired a shot from the blue line which beat Tokarski to even things at two. Pens would have to kill a 5-on-3 for :38. Then the Pens would get a power play late with P-C Labrie in the box for delay of game for clearing the puck out of his defensive zone. Then, Alex Grant gets whistled for a very minute hook on Tyler Johnson, who admittedly was everywhere tonight, and the Adimirals got a power play on the back end of 4-on-4 they cashed on when Carter Ashton scored a back door play through a mass of bodies. The play was away from me and I didn’t exactly see just what happened, other than the puck going in the net behind Killeen. Pens would pull Killeen late but never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) J-P Cote (goal, +1) 2) WBS’ Alex Picard (goal, even) 1) Carter Ashton (game winning goal, even)

Thoughts: 1) Cal O’Reilly is really good in the face-off dot. For what I noticed, I don’t think he lost a single face-off. 2) Patrick Killeen will be fine at this level. I thought he played a fair game. Teams have a book on him that you shoot high on him apparently, because the Barberio and Cote goals were both up on him. 3) Norfolk is a really, really good team. Quick forwards and stout goaltending. They are not going to be easy to knock off the top spot in the East.

Around the Division: Syracuse lost to Adirondack 4-3 after being down 4-0 in the only other East Division action.

Standings: Admirals 75 — Penguins 71 — Bears 67 — Crunch 52 — Senators 46

Conference: 1-NOR (75) 2-StJ (73) 3-BRI (66) 4-WBS (71) 5-HER (67) 6-CT (64) 7-MCH (61) 8-ALB (60)

Looking ahead to the trade dealing tomorrow I would anticipate that Brad Thiessen and Eric Tangradi will be assigned here. They will need to be in order to be on the AHL’s Clear Day list the following Monday.

As for trades, if anything affects Wilkes-Barre, I will have a blog on it Monday evening and reactions on Twitter as it happens.

Penguins are off until next Sunday. In the meantime, the Admirals and Bears tangle again in Virginia on Wednesday. That should be a good game.

Let’s Go Pens!