Chirps from Center Ice

Pens ride a four goal first period to roll the Hershey Bears 7-2 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Colin McDonald scored two more goals upping his Calder Cup Playoff goal total to four. The St. Gregory’s Academy men were in attendance tonight again, firing up the crowd. Just a perfect night, altogether.

Celebrate tonight, but do not look past an important Game 3 Wednesday vs. the Bears at Giant Center. You need to win three games in a best of five. The Pens have dominated the first two games, yes, but Hershey is a proud franchise and will not go down without a fight.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin – Cameron Schilling and DJ King were out for Hershey. Barry Almieda and Julien Brouillette were in for them. Brian Gibbons was out for Matt Rust the Penguins way.

First Period: Colin McDonald bats down a Bears clearing attempt and scores to put the Pens up 1-0 early on. Brad Thiessen misplayed a puck that Boyd Kane nearly scored on. Then, a goal for the highlight reel. Zach Sill, falling down, roofs a shot over Sabourin to put the Pens up 2-0. The goals would keep coming. A Wilkes-Barre rush would see Cody Wild pot a rebound to make it 3-0. Head Coach Mark French would call a time out to settle his troops. Last time he did this in Wilkes-Barre, Kyle Greentree scored two bang bang goals. Not this time. A routine offside call would spoil into a scrum and Bears captain Boyd Kane in the box for a roughing call. Jason Williams would blast a shot from the point that Geoff Walker would tip home to put the score at 4-0.

Second Period: Bears came out and dominated this period. It started with Patrick McNeill scoring on a shot that Thiessen bobbled. You could sense the Bears ready to break the dam. Shift after shift, the Bears were coming. Then, Matt Rust breaks in and backhands one past Sabourin. Big goal. Big, big goal at the time. The Penguins weren’t going to cough up a lead on home ice again. Garrett Mitchell scored on a deflection to make it 5-2 going into the…

Third Period: Pens had to kill a carryover Bryan Lerg high stick. They would. They would have to kill an Alex Grant high stick. They would. They would have to kill a Robert Bortuzzo hook. During the kill, Ben Street jumps around Chris Bourque. Bourque hooks him, and referee Francis Charron called a penalty shot. Street would score on the first ever postseason penalty shot goal in team history. At this point it was 6-2 with about five minutes left. Then Patrick Wellar came unglued. Paul Thompson jostles with Dany Sabourin while play goes on. Patrick Wellar takes offense. He cross checked Thompson, then while linesmen are trying to break up the scrum, Wellar takes three whacks at Thompson. Out of all this, Wellar would get 2:00 for roughing and 5:00 for slashing putting the Pens on a 7:00 power play. He would also get a game misconduct. As would Kyle Greentree (also two for elbowing) and Philip Samuelsson (two for roughing) – then Kevin Marshall would put the Pens on a 5-on-3 for a slash. Pens couldn’t score on that, but did when Alex Grant shot a puck from the blue line Colin McDonald deflected home for his second of the night to make it 7-2.

Three Stars: 3) Matt Rust (goal, +3) 2) Jason Williams (three assists, +3) and 1) Colin McDonald (two goals, assist, +3)

As noted by Bears beat writer Tim Leone, the Penguins have held the Hershey Bears top two lines pointless. Also, final shots on goals this game were 27-16 Penguins. Wilkes-Barre holds Hershey to an 0-fer on the power play this weekend. The Penguins scored four times on the man advantage so far in the series.

The Penguins can finish things Wednesday.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: Ding dong, the winning streak is dead. The Manchester Monarchs do what twenty-nine teams could not do, and that is defeat the Norfolk Admirals tonight 5-2 evening that series at 1-1 with the series shifting to New Hampshire for Game 3 on Wednesday. Goaltender Cameron Talbot shuts out the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 3-0 tonight to put the Sound Tigers on the brink with Game 3 tomorrow. Talbot has not allowed a single goal in the series, as Bridgeport lost by the same 3-0 score on Thursday. And it is all even between Syracuse and St. John’s, as the Crunch beat the IceCaps 4-3 with Game 3 of that series on Wednesday in Newfoundland.

Content will be scarce I think the next few days. Penguins will probably be off tomorrow. They may practice Monday, if not, Tuesday. Depending on content I may have things, I don’t know. Washington is guaranteed a seventh game, as they lead their series with defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins 3-2. Game 6 is Sunday, Game 7 if necessary Wednesday. Pittsburgh needs to win tomorrow in Philly in Game 6 or else their season is over. Those are things to watch for.

Let’s Go Pens!