Chirps from Center Ice

Wonderfully tight checking game tonight here in Rhode Island and felt like a playoff game. A playoff game where neither team could score any pretty goals. Scott Munroe comes back from stopping no shots on Tuesday to stop all shots in the shootout and the Penguins skate away with the extra two points here in Providence winning 3-2.

Scott Munroe vs. Michael Hutchinson

Lineup notes: Simon Despres was called up to Pittsburgh today and Cody Wild took his spot Steve MacIntyre took warmups but was scratched. Matt Rust was in for the ailing Bryan Lerg.

First Period: Brian Gibbons was dispossessed at the blue line and Jared Staal and Kyle MacKinnon came in on a two on none nearly. Staal missed but MacKinnon put the rebound past Munroe and in to put the P-Bruins up 1-0. The very next shift, Josh Hennessy gets a puck fed to him off the wall and wrists a shot past Munroe to put the Bruins up 2-0.

Really nothing else happened this period. The Pens were just stuck in a bad minute of hockey where the P-Bruins scored two goals in :50.

Second Period: Ben Street crashed the net and Geoff Walker tapped in the rebound past Hutchinson to put the Pens on the board and cut the Bruins lead in half at 2-1. Zach Sill on a penalty kill took two David Warsofsky shots off the ankle but was fine. The second was a really tight checking period.

Third Period: Penguins only allowed the Bruins one shot on goal the entire period. They took ten themselves, including a Ben Street goal when Hutchinson didn’t seal the post and the puck went in the goal off of his back and in. The pressure really was ramped up by and for the Penguins.

Overtime: Solved nothing.

Shootout: No one scored in the first five rounds. Colin McDonald comes in and scores in Round Six, and Scott Munroe denied Jamie Tardif to seal the win for the Pens.

Three Stars: 3) Josh Hennessy (goal, +1) 2) Ben Street (goal, assist, +2) 1) Colin McDonald (game winning shootout goal, -2)

The Geoff Walker, Ben Street and Nick Petersen line was the best line for the Pens all night. They literally won the game for us.

Around the Division: Norfolk wins its 13th game in a row beating Adirondack in Glens Falls 3-1. Hershey loses a crazy game in St. John’s that saw Braden Holtby start the game, get pulled when he lets in the third goal for Dany Sabourin, who then got pulled when St. John’s scored its fourth goal. The IceCaps went on to win 6-1. Rochester beats Binghamton 3-1. Syracuse beats Albany in a shootout 2-1.

Standings: Norfolk has 83 points to the Pens 75. The Bears are stuck on 71 points. Syracuse 58 then Binghamton 52.

Conference: 1-NOR (83) 2-StJ (79) 3-BRI (71) 4-WBS (75) 5-HER (71) 6-CT (70) 7-ALB (64) 8-WOR (63)

Pens travel on to Bridgeport tomorrow to face the white hot Sound Tigers. Gameday will be up here at 3, I will have the live tweets from Harbor Yard at 7.

Let’s Go Pens!