Chirps from Center Ice

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Pesky Ads.

Pesky Sens.

Pesky this.

Pesky that.

You see it all over the AHL, a resilient team that comes back from or battles through adversity labels itself “pesky.”

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are beyond that. Ask any season ticket holder that’s been with this team since the beginning and they will tell you about the “Cardiac Penguins.”

I’d rather be cardiac than pesky.

The Penguins found themselves down 3-0 before they knew it against a Manchester team that has seven guys on PTOs and their best player scratched on a recall to Los Angeles, have won four straight games and six of their last seven. Monarchs scored a five on three goal and two goals shorthanded before the Pens even knew what hit them. The Monarchs didn’t play last night. The Penguins were in Portland last night and Providence the night before. Things were not going the Penguins way at all. Manchester was running all over on them. It did not look like the Penguins team that we have all come to admire.

The Penguins battled. They fought for loose pucks. They battled some more. They won races. They pressured the Monarchs. They rode the wave of pressure that the Monarchs brought.

Finally, a Riley Holzapfel shot from just off the wall was deflected in by Chad Kolarik. 3-1. :28 later, it was 3-2 after Zach Sill crashed the net and the puck squeaked by.

More batting. More pressuring. More fighting.

Andy Andreoff scores a goal when he danced through Pens trying to defend but instead, running into each other. 4-2.

Things looked bleak. Teams around us in the conference were winning or on their ways to winning. The pressure both on and off the ice mounted.

Zach Sill steals an outlet pass, cuts in shoots it, whacks at a rebound and it goes in. 4-3.

Battle. Pressure. Fight. Battle. Pressure. Fight.

Chad Kolarik finds a streaking Dylan Reese in the slot. Reese has space, and roofs it. Tie game.

Overtime. Manchester came out gunning. Penguins sustained the pressure, then built some of their own. Nothing would be decided.

Goaltender Jeff Zatkoff stops Jordan Weal, Andry Andreoff, Brandon Kozun and Colton Yellow Horn. Martin Jones stops Chad Kolarik, Jayson Megna but does not stop Riley Holzapfel and Trevor Smith and the Pens skate away the victors, 5-4 in the shootout.

They battled. They pressured. They fought. Cardiac Penguins forever.

Three Stars: 3) Zach Sill (goal, assist, +2) 2) Linden Vey (three assists, even) and 1) Riley Holzapfel (shootout goal, assist, -2)

Around the Division: Binghamton stuns Hershey with two late goals including the go ahead with 2.3 seconds left in regulation and beat the Bears 3-2. The Bears went 0-3 on the weekend. The Admirals and Crunch were off tonight.

Standings: Syracuse 79 — Binghamton 78 — Penguins 67 — Hershey 64 — Norfolk 59

Conference: 1) SYR (79) 2) SPR (75) 3) PRO (75) 4) BNG (78) 5) POR (71) 6) WBS (67) 7) HER (64) 8) CT (64)

Wheeling was off tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: A fantastic package put together by the Monarchs here. Ken Cail is the voice of the Monarchs. I’d love to see him on Twitter one day.

Pens remain in Manchester until Tuesday when they bus to Worcester. I have no idea what blog content I will have between now and Wednesday, but I usually get a crazy idea that hops into my head sometimes.

Let’s Go Pens!