Chirps from Center Ice

It’s not going to be a race, really. The teams are going to charter back to Newfoundland on Thursday, but it’s past my bedtime. I don’t care, the Penguins are still alive in the playoffs! Simon Despres ended it in double overtime on a backhander of a rebound he created and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are still alive and well after a thrilling double overtime 3-2 victory.

You will hear me beat this drum from now until the series is over: These two teams are evenly matched. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out when you have three consecutive games go into overtime. The games have been decided on bounces. The Penguins finally found one that went their way for once.

Game 6 is Friday.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale – no lineup changes for WBS. For St. John’s, Jason DeSantis was in for the injured Arturs Kulda.

First Period: That thing I said earlier about bounces? St. John’s got the biggest bounce in the history of bounces when a routine Jason King clear from the top of the left circle in the St. John’s zone was cleared by King along the wall. The puck travels down as if it were intermission and you have a “shoot from center ice into the clowns mouth” contests. The puck hops Thiessens stick at the top of the crease and into the net to give the St. John’s IceCaps the softest, slowest goal you will ever see at this level of professional hockey. Later, St. John’s appears to have scored again but they kicked the puck in and it was disallowed. This first period was all IceCaps.

Second Period: Mr. Moe Mentum changed his address to a Wilkes-Barre one as this period was all Penguins. When the sides were four on four, Paul Thompson picked off a St. John’s clearing bid and roofed one over Pasquale to knot the score at one. St. John’s would get a power play but never get a single shot in on Thiessen. The Pens dominated this period, allowing just three IceCaps shots.

I tweeted this at the end of the period. Using it here because sometimes I admire tweets:

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Third Period: Jason Williams feeds Alex Grant at the high slot and Grant lasered it past Pasquale to put the Pens out ahead 2-1. Eleven seconds later, Geoff Walker took a holding call. Paul Postma shot from the blue line and scored, even though I thought I heard a tip in front and the IceCaps evened it at two. Penguins then looked to not go to over time. Alex Grant buzzed a post, Paul Thompson was stopped in the slot, Ben Street had a good chance. Then, Brad Thiessen got bloodied by Simon Despres’ stick. Trainer Patrick Steidle could not stop the bleeding so enter Scott Munroe. Munroe made two shaky saves before Thiessen re-entered. Observers said that Thiessen looked possessed after that. Ben Street nearly ended it late but it was off to…

Overtime: IceCaps came in on a two on one but did not score. Chances back and forth but it was headed to…

Second Overtime: Longest AHL playoff game of the season, third longest WBS playoff game in team history, at 12:08 of the second overtime, Simon Despres fired a shot from the left circle then chased his own rebound and backhanded it past Pasquale to send the Penguins back to Newfoundland on Friday.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Grant (goal, +1) 2) Paul Thompson (goal, +1) and 1) Simon Despres (game winning double overtime goal, +2)

Notes: Dogged Ben Street on Twitter and here. He had two assists tonight. Philip Samuelsson did not see overtime ice.

Penguins will charter a flight to St. John’s with the IceCaps Thursday.

If you are on Twitter, do the following: Use #WBSPensIn7 as a hashtag and follow me if you aren’t already. We can do this. Still miles to go. St. John’s is going to come out full of vim and vigor looking to end it on Friday at home in front of a sold out crowd. Penguins are out to play world beaters. As far as content goes between then and now, I have no idea what I am running or could run. I think I may have some fun with numbers like I said I would after Game 4. So why don’t we do that. I’ll dive into the numbers and put up a post probably tomorrow or Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!