Chirps from Center Ice

        vs.          

4                                                3

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Alright, so the headline doesn’t pay justice to what actually happened during the shootout. The Pens failed to score once in the novelty act, the Crunch scored twice and skate away with the extra point, winners 4-3.

But the actual game itself felt like a shoutout. An even shootout, too.

The last time these two teams met, the Pens scored five goals in the third and cruised to a 6-3 victory.

Not tonight. This game was about as even as one could imagine, with the score 3-3 at the end of regulation and the shots 25 a side.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Kristers Gudlevskis

Mike Carman replaced Nick Drazenovic who did not play and Reid McNeill took warmups but was scratched.

First Period: Andrew Ebbett turns the puck over in his own zone to Danick Gauthier who skates the length and scores to give the Crunch a 1-0 lead. Pens at one point had a power play where for 1:30, they could not get past the center red line. Later, Harry Zolnierczyk pounces on his own rebound and scores to tie the game at one. During the celebration, Bobby Farnham does something that referee David Banfield didn’t like and put the Crunch on the power play. They would score on said power play when reigning AHL Player of the Week Nikita Kucherov corrals a Vlad Namestnikov shot and passes to Nikita Kucherov who scores to put the Crunch up 2-1. It was a silly penalty for the Pens to give, really.

Second Period: More even hockey. Teams would skate up and down the ice for a good eight minutes straight with no whistles or anything. Finally, Andrew Ebbett takes a puck off the back wall, skates up, turns, fires and beats Gudlevskis far post to tie the game at two. Overall, an extremely even period for both teams.

Third Period: More even hockey. More end to end, no whistles back and forth. It was really fun to watch. Andrew Ebbett scores to put the Pens ahead 3-2 when Gudlevskis tries a poke check and Ebbett stuffs it past the Crunch netminder and into the net. You’d think that East Division netminders would take note and not try that when Ebbett is bearing down on them.

Anyway, Jeff Deslauriers makes a save on a JP Cote shot, leaves a rebound that Evan Rankin corrals and stuffs past Deslauriers to tie the game. When Syracuse plays desperate they play dangerous.

The other note in the period was an injury to Dom Uher. He was crunched along the door where the Crunch exit to the locker room and went down in pain. He favored his left leg going off and did not return. Edit: Bombulie says in his blog post game recap that Uher was back on the bench at the end of overtime. Terrific news.

Overtime: Harry Zolnierczyk is awarded a penalty shot but does not score. That was the most eventful thing that happened.

Shootout: Tom Kuhnhaxkl, Brian Gibbons, Andrew Ebbett and Chris Conner all fail to score for the Pens. Tanner Richard, Nikita Kucherov score for the Crunch and that was the ball game.

Three Stars: 3) Danick Gauthier (goal, assist, even) 2) Andrew Ebbett (two goals, even) and 1) Nikita Kucherov (assist, -1, shoot out goal)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins 18 — Norfolk 17 — Syracuse 15 — Binghamton 12 — Hershey 7

Conference: 1) MCH (19) 2) WBS (18) 3) HFD (16) 4) NOR (17) 5) SPR (15) 6) SYR (15) 7) BNG (12) 8) ADK (12)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers played a kids day game and lost 3-2 in a shootout to Kalamazoo. Christiaan Minella was a +2 and Eric Hartzell stopped 32 of 34.

SendToNews Highlights: Aren’t up yet. If the Pens put a YouTube package up instead, I’ll run it here in the morning.

Two things. First, this game was the first one I think that the Pens have lost when holding a lead at some point in the third. Second, Syracuse and Norfolk, both hot on the tails of the Penguins, play this weekend in Virginia. What you’d like here ideally is a split by both teams with NO overtime and the Penguins to, obviously, beat Albany Friday and Springfield Sunday.

If I think of anything Thursday or if news breaks, I’ll have something then. If not, Gameday for Albany will be up on the blog at 3 pm.

Let’s Go Pens!!!