Chirps from Center Ice

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Other teams hate him. Says he’s too flashy. Celebrates too much.

He scores goals. He plays for the Penguins. Go ahead, try and stop him.

I am talking about Chad Kolarik, who scored two goals tonight for the Penguins including the overtime game winner, as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins go on to beat the Binghamton Senators 3-2 in overtime in this best of five series.

Game 2 is tomorrow afternoon at 5:05. The second game in a five game series is the most important one in the series. The series comes back to Wilkes-Barre with the Pens up two games to none or split with new life for the B-Sens.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Nathan Lawson – Cody Wild took warmups but he and Chris Collins were among the regulars scratched.

First Period: The Penguins jumped out of the gate and controlled every aspect of the game. B-Sens would get the puck in, a defender is there to take it off him and it’s back out. Puck possession. Puck possession. Puck possession. Brian Dumoulin passes to Brian Gibbons who taps it past Lawson to make it 1-0 Pens. Gibbons was everywhere early. B-Sens don’t register a shot on goal until 5:54 remaining in the period. Then, the Pens force a turnover behind Lawson’s net, find Kolarik who cuts to the slot and snipes it home for a 2-0 lead. B-Sens late and on a power play score when Penguin killer Shane Prince backhands a shot past Zatkoff to bring things to 2-1.

Second Period: Pens looked to have all the momentum when they find themselves on a 5×3 with 1:28 but three seconds later it gores to 4×3 when Derek Nesbitt high sticks a B-Sen off the ensuing faceoff. No dice with the penalties. Penguins continued puck possession.

Taking this to a second paragraph. The puck possession I talked about earlier? Gone. Shifted completely over to the Binghamton side like the teams were on a see saw. They had every bit of the chances and it was a matter of time before they scored and sure enough Mark Stone forechecks Philip Samuelsson backwards and takes the puck from him and scores to tie it. Absolutely back breaking goal at the time.

Third Period: Pens bend but don’t break. Both club gets a chance on the power play. The Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™ was seen but Lawson made the save. On to…..

Overtime: Zatkoff with some unreal saves. Kolarik ends it from the top of the slot.

Three Stars: 3) Nathan Lawson (30 saves on 33 shots) 2) Jeff Zatkoff (34 saves on 36 shots) and 1) Chad Kolarik (2 goals, +2)

Have worried that the goal scorers that we have would ball up and fade away like last season but Trevor Smith had two assists, Riley Holzapfel had an assist and Kolarik two goals. Derek Nesbitt chipped in with an assist too. One game does not a playoffs make.

Game 2 is at 5:05 tomorrow. Gameday for that is up at 1 p.m.

One final note before I go, Beau Bennett was scratched in Pittsburgh’s final regular season game. Will he be sent back to get playoff action? Time will tell.

Get ready for Binghamton’s best tomorrow.

Let’s Go Pens!