Chirps from Center Ice

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As Penguins fans, I think we can all say we have been there before.

Blood rival in a playoff game. Their best player sinks an OT game winner to deliver a heartbreaking loss. So you come back the next day, and it seems that everyone is against you, including the referees.

For Binghamton Senators fans, I think that is how they are feeling this Sunday evening.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins take a 2-0 series lead with a 3-2 win on the Southern Tier of New York and can sweep the series Thursday in Wilkes-Barre. It seemed at times that referees Jon McIsaac and Jamie Koharski were wearing Penguins jerseys with orange arm bands with some of the so-so calls being made against the home team, which incited the ire of the faithful at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

Or maybe Binghamton played undisciplined and the Penguins played sound, calm cool hockey. Who knows. I guess it depends on what team you pull for.

One lineup change to note the Penguins way. Chris Collins was in for Dominik Uher. For a more in-depth reason as to why the change, may I direct you to the great Jonathan Bombulie’s blog recap.

Turns out though, that the Collins swap for Uher was money in the bank. Collins scored a goal in the second period of the game that broke a 1-1 tie. It had appeared, to that point, that the B-Sens were slowly gaining enough momentum to make a series out of it, but then Collins fools everyone in what Bombulie described as a no look shot that absolutely fooled everyone in the arena, especially starting goaltender Nathan Lawson.

Jeff Zatkoff was astounding once again. He lets in a goal on a rush late in the first when Matt Puempel finds himself in the high slot after a pass and he shoots it blocker side on him. Earlier, Riley Holzapfel finished off a goal mouth scrum on the back end of a Derek Grant double minor for a high stick.

Warren Peters had an excellent game as well, blocking shots, winning face-offs, clearing pucks, etc. He scored with 1.9 seconds left in the second to put the Penguins ahead 3-1 at the time.

Penguins would be the beneficiaries of the whistles of McIassac / Koharski with an extended 5-on-3 power play in the third period, but they could not score on it.

Stephane Da Costa for Binghamton got close twice in the game, drawing iron on two separate occasions including once late in the third. Chris Wideman scored late on a power play with Lawson pulled but the Pens held on and took command of the series and will look to end it Thursday.

B-Sens kept the top line of Kolarik-Smith-Holzapfel pretty much in check all night but for the goal scored by Holzapfel on the back end of the double minor late in the first. Assists from Sill, Megna, Gibbons with goals from Collins and Peters is about as balanced of a scoring effort that you can ask for, in my opinion.

If you happened to be wondering who the teams are that came back from down 0-2 in the best of five, wonder no more. The great Tim Leone has it covered for you. (hint: he’s only doing this because Hershey is up 2-0 on Providence in their series)

I will be back this week with a look at the other series in the East and West and what could be shaping up for the Penguins in Round 2, provided we don’t see a repeat reversal of 2005. I think we will know quick, especially if that Game 3 goes three overtimes. Binghamton doesn’t have anyone named Armstrong though.

Let’s Go Pens!