Chirps from Center Ice

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Cody Sylvester has followed the track of Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons in Pittsburgh.

That is, he scored in his “league up” debut. His goal turned out to be the game winner and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins hold off the Rochester Americans 3-1 and are in sole possession of first place in the East Division and have quietly won three in a row.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Matt Hackett

Nick Drazenovic (injury) Peter Merth (injury) Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (injury) Nick D’Agostino (healthy scratch) and Bobby Farnham (suspension) were the Penguins out of the lineup. The aforementioned Cody Sylvester, along with Denver Manderson and Dustin Stevenson made their Penguins debuts.

First Period: Wilkes-Barre came out gangbusters to open the game and just smothered Rochester. There was one sequence where the Amerks attempted to clear out of their zone on three different occasions and were unable to due to the high Penguins pressure they encountered. Finally, after dominating much of the period, Tom Kostopoulos deflected a Scott Harrington point shot from the blue line home with under five seconds remaining.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre would keep the pressure on the Americans early in the second. Jamie Tardif would turn a puck over and Cody Sylvester would score his first goal of the season for the Pens and first AHL goal with a nice wrist shot. Rochester would answer with a goal of its own with a goal by Kevin Porter on a power play. Then the Penguins started playing loose in their own end and started giving the Americans multiple chances at attempting to even the game but Jeff Deslauriers was up to the task.

Third Period: In a word, a snoozer. Pens dropped back and played defense and were wholly content with taking just three shots on goal while allowing Rochester seven. The most exciting thing to happen was this Jayson Megna empty netter, where he fends off two Rochester defenders.

Three Stars: 3) Cody Sylvester (game winning goal, +1) 2) Kevin Porter (goal, -2) and 1) Jeff Deslauriers (23 saves on 24 shots)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins 24 — Binghamton 22 — Syracuse 20 — Norfolk 19 — Hershey 14

Conference: 1) MCH (25) 2) WBS (24) 3) SPR 21 4) BNG 22 5) ALB (21) 6) SYR (20) 7) NOR (19) 8) HFD (18)

Wheeling Update: Nailers fall in a shootout in Reading 3-2. Zack Torquato had a goal and an assist in the game.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

But for breaking news Thursday, next blog update comes Friday at 3 p.m. for the St. John’s setup.

Let’s Go Pens!