Chirps from Center Ice

Whirlwind day with the Pens allowing me to sit on press row and overtake their Twitter feed. Am actually typing up this postgamer now for you on press row.

Pens win a wild game over Rochester tonight 5-4. Pens were up with 1:08 left to play in regulation 4-2, cough up two goals within :44 to send the game to overtime. Paul Thompson then skates in on Amerks netminder David Leggio and scores five hole to win it and the Pens are off the goose egg and into the win column.

Brad Thiessen vs. David Leggio

First Period: Before most fans were in their seats, Luke Adam opened the scoring to put the Amerks on top 1-0. Penguins would get a power play goal from Paul Thompson on a goal line hack and whack and the Pens tied the game on the power play. Shots were 12-8 Penguins in the first.

Second Period: Warren Peters got his first goal of the season with a rebound goal. Rochester storms back and Alex Biega shot would be tipped in by Evan Rankin and the pesky Amerks tied the game again at two. The Amerks really handcuffed the Pens this period only allowing them four shots on goal.

Third Period: Paul Thompson, who was literally everywhere tonight with probably his best performance in a Penguins uniform, shoots the puck at Leggio. The Rochester netminder bobbles it and Eric Tangradi sweeps in for the rebound goal to put the Pens out front 3-2. Later, Brian Gibbons cuts to the net and scores to add insurance for the Penguins and made it 4-2. But it wasn’t enough at least in regulation. Kevin Porter scored with 1:08 left to play in regulation. The American call time out. Faceoff. Leggio to the bench. Amerks pressure. Mark Mancari scores to even it at 4.

Overtime: Back and forth with neither team wanting to make a mistake. Finally an Americans turnover to Paul Thompson who looms in and scores, sending the crowd who really booed the life out of this team after coughing up two goals in :44 to a cheering frenzy.

Postgame, Hynes said that Thiessen’s effort “could be better.” In my opinion, an obvious “stock up” for Zatkoff and “stock down” for Thiessen. We will see tomorrow in Syracuse.

Three Stars: 3) Brian Gibbons (goal, +1) 2) Eric Tangradi (goal, -2) and 1) Paul Thompson (two goals, assist, +1)

I thought that overall Simon Despres and Brian Dumoulin had very inert games. Dumoulin, for example, when the teams were 4-on-4, ices the puck deliberately thinking that the Pens are on a penalty kill. Despres lets guys get by him all night as well as turned over the puck twice in one power play.

Around the Division: Conneticut beat Hershey 3-1 in Hartford tonight. Binghamton, Norfolk and Syracuse did not play tonight.

Standings: Syracuse 9 — Norfolk 8 — Binghamton 7 — Hershey 3 — Penguins 2

Wheeling Update: Wheeling scores a touchdown on Reading tonight 7-3. Paul Crowder had a four point night (2-2-4) and Patrick Killeen stopped 28 of 31 shots.

I will have the raw audio of Paul Thompson and Eric Tangradi press availability later on this evening, probably as its own separate blog post.

Pens at it again tomorrow in Syracuse. Gameday setup here on the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!