Penguins get two goals confirmed on replay and win what would end up being a tight one, 3-2. Cardiac Penguins forever!
Jeff Zatkoff vs. Frederik Andersen
Cody Wild slotted in for the recalled Robert Bortuzzo. Clark Seymour is on the trip. Reid McNeill was not, attending to a personal matter. Steve MacIntyre took warmups but was scratched.
First Period: All Norfolk to open the period, who had three shots on goal. Then, Trevor Smith corrals a loose puck, catches the Norfolk defensemen flatfooted and gets space, shoots and corals his own rebound and the puck goes in. Referees reviewed for a possible kicking motion, but the goal stood.
Then the Pens get the benefit of three straight power plays and are unable to score on them. If the Pens have even a marginal power play, it’s a 2-0 or even 3-0 lead.
Second Period: Penguins would have to kill off two power plays by Norfolk to open the period. They do. Then, late, Riley Holzapfel scores on a wired wrist shot that hits the inside top of crossbar and out. Referee Mar Lemelin took a look and confirmed his call. Later, Pens come in four on one, shoot, and Chris Collins is there in the slot pouncing on a rebound. Collins’ first WBS goal since his return.
Third Period: They ain’t the Cardiac Penguins for nothing, Norfolk cuts it to 3-2, Newcomer Kyle Bonis scores his first AHL goal on a Hail Mary pass from deep in the Norfolk offensive zone from Josh Brittain, slows down a bouncing puck and wires it past Zatkoff to put the Admirals on the board. All Admirals this period. Cody Wild takes a delay of game call. Hampus Lindholm winds up from the point, Devante Smith-Pelly tips it on the way home.
John Hynes then calls a time out. Huge time out in retrospect. Pens lock down the Admirals from there. Tom Grace says postgame that Norfolk maybe had two shots on goal after the timeout, with 5:36 remaining in the third.
Miscellany: I said four games ago that the Pens needed to go 3-1 in these last four games to cement themselves in playoffs. This after a terrible showing against these very Admirals two Saturdays ago when things looked, at least to me, bleak as bleak could be. 3-0-0-1 ain’t too shabby, which is 5 out of 6 points and one back of Portland for the five seed.
And how about Chad Kolarik? Three points off of the overall AHL point lead with 59 points. Something worth watching as the season winds down.
Three Stars: 3) Kyle Bonis (goal, even) 2) Chad Kolarik (two assists, +2) and 1) Riley Holzapfel (goal, +2)
Conference: 1) SPR (87) 2) PRO (87) 3) SYR (87) 4) BNG (87) 5) POR (79) 6) WBS (78) 7) CT (74) 8) HER (73)
Pens have 69 games played, which is most out of all of what you see above. Portland has 67. Binghamton, if things get really weird, have 67 games played.
SendToNews Highlights: I have something even better than this, YouTube highlights which are the same thing! I’d love to see WBS put the SendToNews package up on YouTube every night. For your viewing enjoyment…
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Pens stay in Norfolk tonight then will bus ten and a half hours straight to Glens Falls, NY tomorrow for Friday’s tilt vs. Adirondack.
Trade deadline is tomorrow. Syracuse and Hershey made some moves and transactions today. There may or may not be more tomorrow. I would love to see Pittsburgh land a scorer for Wilkes-Barre. Twitter will have it first, then Facebook then later the blog. I will have a recap of all the transactions tomorrow.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 