Chirps from Center Ice

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The well has run dry.

The tank is on empty.

The sun has gone down.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins bow out of the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs 7-0 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Philippe Paradis had a hat trick, and that was all she wrote on this one.

Head Coach John Hynes put Jeff Zatkoff in net trying to change up the luck for the Penguins. Derrick Pouliot made his debut on the blue line for the Pens, taking the place of Peter Merth. Derek Nesbitt and Bobby Farnham were in for Christiaan Minella and Chris Collins.

I don’t really know what to recap here. The game was close for a good portion of the first period. But then a failed clear by the Penguins, something that has dogged them all season long, cost them again. Vlad Namestnikov bats in a shot to make it 1-0 Crunch.

Then Dan Sexton beats out a Penguin for an icing call. Off the face off, Radko Gudas scores to make it 2-0 Crunch. None of what you read in this paragraph happens if the icing is touched up.

It may have not mattered, because we Philippe Paradis had yet to have his fun.

Paradis wheels around the net in the second period and stuffs one home to make it 3-0 Crunch. The Pens giveaway a puck trying to clear and its 4-0 Syracuse.

Later, a puck hits Warren Peters as the Pens try to exit and Ondrej Palat scores to make it 5-0 Crunch.

At this point, after 40 minutes. The tank was spent. The Pens were running on fumes.

That Paradis guy that I mentioned earlier? Hasn’t had his fun yet.

Brian Dumoulin blows a tire. Paradis flies in and score to make it 6-0 Crunch. He caps off his hat trick to make it 7-0.

Syracuse coasts the rest of the way. The Penguins don’t score. The only player I gave an “F” to in my quarterly grades would end up scoring the final WBS Penguins goal of the season. If you don’t know, now you know.

So that’s it.

Tom Grace had a quote postgame which is appropriate:

“The longer it takes, the sweeter it will taste”

It took the City of Syracuse nineteen seasons to play a meaningful hockey game in June.

Wilkes-Barre expects to play in June season after season.

Moral is, the time is coming.

It ain’t today. It ain’t tomorrow. Hell, it may not be for another five years.

But it’s coming. That I am sure of.

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Hope that you will keep checking out the blog this summer for the latest on what is to come for 2013-14. I will try to keep things fresh here on the blog with content and will have the 2013 Offseason Moves tab up soon.

Let’s Go Pens!!!