Chirps from Center Ice

Penguins come out in the first period and storm the IceCaps and were pretty relentless all game long and played, to me, their best game of the Calder Cup Playoffs and won in decisive fashion 3-1 tonight evening the best of seven series 1-1 with Game 3 Saturday night.

In sum, the Penguins looked like the IceCaps did last night. They skated the IceCaps in circles tonight and played a really strong sixty minutes of hockey.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes either way. The regulars in the lineup did not take a morning skate. Jonathan Bombulie caught up with Jason Williams and Joey Mormina and they both diagnosed last night’s performance to a case of tired legs.

First Period: Penguins came out and stormed the IceCaps. They took the games first nine shots. One of them was an Eric Tangradi goal over a sprawling Pasquale. Then, the momentum the Penguins had shifted to the St. John’s side as Alex Grant took offense to a Garth Murray hit on Brian Gibbons. Grant dropped his gloves as Murray skated away. The IceCaps scored on the power play when Ben Maxwell deflected a Derek Meech shot from the point.

Second Period: Thiessen made a big save on a John Albert breakaway when Philip Samuelsson cheated up on a play. Penguins would then get two consecutive penalties. The first power play was all Penguins buzzing but no scoring. The second power play was no buzzing. Penguins killed a late Samuelsson penalty.

Third Period: Eric Tangradi in the box for a hook, Cal O’Reilly and Joey Mormina come in on a 2 on 1 shorthanded. O’Reilly waited out a man and dished to Mormina who slammed it home to put the Penguins up 2-1. Then, the Penguins would get a power play and Jason Williams would score on the power play which for Williams, is a point in every single WBS playoff game so far. It would be all the Penguins would need to stymie the IceCaps attempts. Wilkes-Barre would kill two penalties late.

Final shots on goal were 38 for the Penguins and 23 for the IceCaps. Really a dominating performance by the Penguins.

First road win for the Pens this postseason, first shorthanded goal and the Penguins have the next three at home which is home ice advantage.

Three Stars: 3) Eddie Pasquale (35 saves on 38 shots) 2) Eric Tangradi (goal, +1) and 1) Joey Mormina (shorthanded game winning goal, +1)

Game Three is Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre. A note from play-by-play man Tom Grace revealed that the clubs will be on the same flight back to Northeastern Pennsylvania tomorrow. Should be an interesting flight!

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: Connecticut wins in overtime off of an Andreas Thuresson shot and the Whale take Game 1 3-2 and a 1-0 series lead. Connecticut got two bang-gang goals :12 apart in the first and held on. Game 2 is Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!