Chirps from Center Ice

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Try and find a weakness on this team right now.

Go ahead. I have all night. Try and find one.

Right now, you can’t.

The Penguins come back from one goal deficits twice in this game and win 5-4 off of a Chad Kolarik hat trick game winning goal where Kolarik snaked through three St. John’s IceCaps defenders to zip a shot past goaltender Eddie Pasquale to win it for the Penguins.

Defense? Check. Good goaltending? Check. Penalty kill? Check. Power play? Coming around, but check. Consistent offense at the right times? Check.

The Penguins have something special going on right now. They are 8-0-1 in their last nine and are without a shadow of a doubt one of the best teams playing in the American Hockey League right now.

Brad Thiessen vs. Eddie Pasquale — Reid McNeill was in for Cody Wild and Christiaan Minella was in for Chris Collins.

First Period: Penguins came out and attacked the IceCaps to start the period, they caught St. John’s flatfooted which led to two straight power plays for the Penguins. Chad Kolarik would score when Dylan Reese shot the puck wide to a pinching Alex Grant on the half wall. Grant passed to Kolarik, who was all alone in the slot and picked a corner on Pasquale. Late, the Penguins would get another power play but Jason Jaffray and Josh Lunden came in 2-on-1 and Lunden slid it under Thiessen with 1.8 seconds left in the period.

Second Period: Dominik Uher may never want to leave Newfoundland. He scored his third goal of the weekend when Warren Peters fights off two IceCaps defenders in the half corner, Adam Payerl comes near to sweep the puck around the cage and passes to Uher who backhands it home to make it 2-1. The IceCaps would immediately answer, Dean Arsene from the point where Ray Sawada was in front and tipped it in.

IceCaps really forced the issue on the Penguins, hemming them in their own zone and hitting them every chance they got. It pays off as Julian Melchiori receives a drop pass from Ben Maxwell and rips it past Thiessen. But, the Penguins would answer right back. Off the faceoff, Trevor Smith forechecks like a madman and gets the puck and skates in and slides it under Pasquale to tie things again at 3-3.

Whew. What a period. The Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™ was seen later but Gibbons made a few too many moves to score and I just like saying Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game ™ – ha.

Third Period: Really went back and forth, back and forth. Then the IceCaps score on what looked like to the broadcast booth an offsides play. You be the judge…

The puck is on the bottom there, where it was passed to the player in the middle. That player was Will O’Neill.

The Penguins apparently weren’t phased by the 50/50 call and methodically plugged along and eventually would even things at four again when Chad Kolarik dispossesses a St. John’s player, skates to the slot and scores. Late icings and timeouts by both sides happened but no goals scored so it was onto….

Overtime: Kolarik magic again. Snakes through three IceCap defenders and snipes from just below the blueline to cap off a perfect weekend for the Penguins and keep the wheels rolling in the right direction.

Three Stars: 3) Ray Sawada (goal, even) 2) Josh Lunden (goal, even) and 1) Jason Jaffray (three assists, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton loses to Adirondack 2-1 in a 15 round shootout in a game that featured everything. A waved off goal for Binghamton for a video review screen malfunction, the Phantoms tying the game with .3 left in the third. So yeah, everything. The Hershey Bears win 6-3 in a gotta have it game up in Portland vs. the Pirates. Joey Crabb had a hat trick and the Bears scored five power play goals. The Providence Bruins drop kicked the Norfolk Admirals 4-1.

Standings: Syracuse 93 — Binghamton 92 — Penguins 88 — Norfolk 79 — Hershey 77

Conference: 1) PRO (99) 2) SPR (95) 3) SYR (93) 4) BNG (92) 5) WBS (88) 6) POR (81) 7) NOR (79) 8) CT (79)

Penguins can’t get higher than the five seed. They could get caught by Portland, but I was actually cheering for Hershey to beat Portland tonight because it will be next to impossible for the Pirates now to catch and pass the Penguins at the five. Now, it boils down to who wins the East Division between the Crunch and B-Sens. The Penguins get the loser of that battle, where a point sit between the two teams heading into the final week of the regular season. Oh, Binghamton and Syracuse play their final game against each other next weekend.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Radio made mention that Derek Nesbitt may actually see a game for the Penguins in the final two games this weekend. Should be something worth keeping an eye on.

Let’s Go Pens!!!