Chirps from Center Ice

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton dressed a young lineup. The Hershey Bears dressed a more experienced lineup. The results were predictable, a 6-1 Bears rout.

Again, with this being preseason, not much analysis is going to go into this offering.

Andy Chiodo vs. Philipp Grubauer

Mike O’Brien offered lines:

Sylvester – Megna – Thompson
Thompson – Carman – Payerl
Severyn – Manderson – Johnson
Minella – Rowney – Zurevinski

McNeill – D’Agostino
Seymour – Merth
Ratchuk – Goers

Jeff Deslauriers backed up Chiodo. Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath took warmups but was scratched. Three players wore the “A” for the Pens tonight. They were Jayson Megna, Paul Thompson and Peter Merth.

Bears came out and jumped on the Penguins in the first five minutes. Tyler Ruegsegger set up Patrick Wellar and screened Chiodo to get the Bears on the board first.

Off the next faceoff, Mike Carman picks off a Hershey D-man and sets up Adam Payerl who gets a breakaway on Grubauer and scores on a deke to answer :23 later.

Jayson Megna had a quick start for his first preseason game for Wilkes-Barre. He stepped around a Bear and put a tough shot on netminder Grubauer.

Bears scored late when Casey Wellman pounced on a puck during a miscommunication by the Penguins. The puck dribbled through Chiodo and just over the line. Then, nearly right after that, Jeff Taffe scored on a blast from the top of the left circle to extend the Bears lead to 3-1.

Shots were 10-10 after the first. At one point, with six minutes and change to go in a 1-1 game, the shots were 9-4 Penguins. Same story from last night. Final five minutes of the period, Bears get two quick goals, and it’s a 3-1 game and the Pens stop playing and get outshot 6-1.

I mean it’s preseason and all and I am overanalyzing, but you just cannot let off against a team, any team, especially a dynamite offense that lies in Hershey.

Second period had the games first penalty and the first power play for Wilkes-Barre. Jayson Megna had a breakaway attempt denied by Tomas Kundratek. The Bears would kill off the remainder of the Penguins power play, then shortly score again to make it 4-1. This time David Marshall would be the recipient of a Tyler Ruegsegger steal and centering pass from behind the Penguin net to extend the lead to three for the Bears.

Jeff Deslauriers replaced Andy Chiodo at the halfway point of the game. Right before the Bears went on the power play but the Penguins killed it somewhat easily.

Christiaan Minella and David Marshall fought. Marshall already had an assist and a goal, so he completed his Gordie Howe hat trick.

Bears with a late power play, Nathan Walker for the Bears appears to score, referee TJ Luxmore signals goal, then takes a look at it on replay and overturns his call.

Shots were 23-16 Bears through two.

Couple of almost goals for both teams to start the third. Chay Genoway sweeps a puck away from the crease of Philipp Grubauer from a shot by Jayson Megna. Back the other way, Jeff Deslauriers stops Jeff Taffe on a 2-on-1 for the Bears.

Garrett Mitchell and Cody Sylvester had a memorable fight. Lots of punches. Hoping the Bears put together a SendToNews highlight package so I could link over.

David Marshall had quite a game. Scored a back hand goal and made it 5-1 Bears. That was four points for Marshall.

If the Bears can get scoring from secondary and tertiary players, while still getting points from regular scorers, there may be something brewing in Chocolatetwon and it may not be good for the rest of the League.

Rowdy third period really. Patrick Wellar and Scott Zurevinski fought.

Derek Whitmore scored a late power play goal for the Bears for good measure on the power play and made it 6-1. The first power play goal given up by the Penguins in the preseason.

That was that. The two teams rematch in Wilkes-Barre Sunday at 5:05.

Rosters are due for the NHL tomorrow. That means that there will players put on waivers. They need to hit waivers by noon tomorrow. We will see who Pittsburgh puts on there. Stick with me @nafsnep on Twitter tomorrow and we’ll find out together.

Let’s Go Pens!