Chirps from Center Ice

Penguins win a wild and crazy game in Syracuse tonight 4-1 with two goals from Eric Tangradi. Syracuse may have had the flu bug in their locker room as reported by Tom Grace on the radio. If so, it showed, the Crunch fanned on several open chances.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Dustin Tokarski. I tweeted something pregame that Tokarski hadn’t lost a game to the Penguins was January 10 of this year.

First Period: Coach John Hynes dressed a more seasoned lineup on defense this night with Carl Sneep and Brian Dumoulin scratched. :38 seconds in, just like last night, the Pens would find themselves behind 1-0 off the stick of Cory Conacher who banked in a shot off of a Penguins defensemans skate. Teams would trade penalties until Alex Grant digs a puck off a wall and feeds Eric Tangradi who scored to tie the game. Rookie Dominik Uher was everywhere this period, throwing hits and drawing penalties. Cory Conacher fanned on an open net and missed what normally is for him a sure goal late, thanks to the puck hitting the crossbar instead of the back of the net.

Second Period: Riley Holzapfel turns and shoots after a puck banks off the wall from the bottom of the far circle and it eludes Tokarski and goes in the back of the net. Most ridiculous goal for Tokarski which took a little bit of life out of the Crunch at the time I felt. Then, with Radko Gudas in the box for interference the Pens would waste no time with Warren Peters winning a faceoff to Benn Ferriero who shot the puck at Tokarski who did not corral the rebound and it found its way to Beau Bennett who scored it. His first AHL goal, on the power play. Later, Jeff Zatkoff really came up huge with save afer save after save, it felt.

Third Period: You got the sense watching and listening to the game that the Penguins were almost playing not to blow a 3-1 lead, especially with; a) starting the season 0-4 and b) what happened last night in blowing a two goal lead with 1:08 left vs. Rochester. It didn’t happen. Despite outshooting the Penguins 11-9, the Crunch never got anything by Zatkoff. With Tokarski pulled, Eric Tangradi would pick off a center ice pass and bury it from 100′ to seal it for the Pens at 4-1.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Zatkoff (35 saves on 36 shots) 2) Cory Conacher (goal, even) and 1) Eric Tangradi (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: The Hershey Bears shutout the Albany Devils tonight 3-0. Braden Holtby was back from a minor injury and earned the clean sheet and BAH GAWD! the 32 game winning streak is over!!! The St. John’s IceCaps defeated the Norfolk Admirals 3-2. Bingahmoton lost in Lewsiton, Maine tonight vs. the Portland Pirates 4-2. 

Standings: Syracuse 9 — Norfolk 8 — Binghamton 7 — Hershey 5 — Penguins 4.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers win in a shootout in West Virginia tonight over the Reading Royals 3-2. Goaltender Patrick Killeen stopped 37 of 39 and was named first star of the game.

Penguins are bussing straight to Hershey tonight for the 5 p.m. start in Chocolatetown tomorrow. Gameday setup for the affair will be here on the blog at 1 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!