Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have made the Calder Cup Playoffs for the tenth straight year in row, defeating the Connecticut Whale in Hartford by a score of 3-0 behind a 32 save shutout by goaltender Scott Munroe and a three goal flurry in the first period spanning 2:11.

Scott Munroe vs. Chad Johnson – Cody Wild and Philip Samuelsson were in for the recalled Brian Strait and Simon Despres. Brandon DeFazio and Matt Rust were the scratches.

First Period: Penguins, on the power play, get a goal from Jason Williams on a backdoor feed from Colin McDonald. Then, Ben Street spun off a man, side stepped another and wired a slick wrist shot past Johnson to make it 2-0. Then, Cody Wilkd would collect his first goal of the season crashing the net and putting one past Johnson to make it 3-0. That goal would chase the Connecticut goalie in favor of Cameron Talbot. Pens would have to kill a 4:00 double minor for a Steve MacIntyre high stick. Connecticut would not get a shot on goal.

First Period Thoughts: Wow. Night and day from last weekend. Tom Grace said on radio that Coach John Hynes worked the team hard in practice and spent all week breaking down video. It worked. Pens looked like a totally different team.

Second Period: Whale come out with two quick chances but Munroe made some big time saves to keep them out of his net. Really the story of the night as the Pens did well in insulating him and he made the stops he needed to when called upon.

Third Period: More of the same from the Penguins just keeping the Whale in check, almost at arms length. When they got close, Munroe was there to deny them. Brian Gibbons was turned away by Talbot who really settled things down for the Whale. Munroe was seeing the puck through traffic late making a few big saves to preserve the shutout.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, +1) 2) Scott Munroe (32 save shutout) 1) Jason Williams (game winning goal, even)

Tom Grace stated that Brad Thiessen would get the net tomorrow night in Albany. If I am Hynes I go right back to Munroe. We will see.

Around the Division: Norfolk win 22 in a row in comeback fashion, 2-1, over the St. John’s IceCaps. Syracuse coughs up a 3-1 lead and lose 4-3 to the Adirondack Phantoms in overtime.

Standings: Norfolk 101 / Penguins 87 / Hershey 86 / Syracuse 74 / Binghamton 59.

Conference: 1-NOR (101) 2-STJ (86) 3-BRI (79) 4-WBS (87) 5-HER (86) 6-CT (77) 7-SYR (74) 8-MCH (73)

Penguins bus to Albany to take on the Devils tomorrow at 7. Gameday will be here tomorrow at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!