Chirps from Center Ice

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Really don’t know what to make of this one.

Syracuse has won three straight. They beat Hershey Saturday night in Hershey 5-0. Then the next night in Washington D.C. they beat the Bears again 5-2. Then they respond tonight, at home with a 4-0 shutout of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. They have outscored their opponents 14-2 in three games.

Are the Crunch making a push out of the East Division basement? May be too early to tell. I think tonight was more about Crunch goaltender Anders Lindback, down from parent Tampa Bay on conditioning, who pitched a 30 save shutout tonight and helped the Crunch to the win tonight.

There were moves today for the Penguins. As expected, Eric Hartzell was sent to Wheeling this morning and Peter Mannino was recalled. Then this afternoon, Tom Kuhnhackl and Anton Zlobin were sent to Wheeling also.

That left D Barry Goers as the only healthy scratch for the Penguins tonight. He is out for the weekend attending to a family matter. Harrison Ruopp was in for the Pens tonight as the 6th defenseman.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. the aforementioned Anders Lindback

First Period: Tanner Richard scored on the first shot of the game for the Crunch as he skated in from the blue line and beat Deslauriers for an early 1-0 Crunch lead. Penguins pretty much dominate the period, but Matt Taormina scores in the final minute to put the Crunch up 2-0.

That play was offsides:

Second Period: Matt Taormina scores again to put the Crunch up 3-0 and this ended Deslauriers night. Peter Mannino would out in his first work for Wilkes-Barre since November 8.

He’d promptly get scored on by Drew Olsen. It was 4-0 Crunch.

Then a boffo moment. Lindback misplays a puck in back of his net and inadvertently passes to Jayson Megna. Megna gathers himself and shoots, but Lindback makes it back in net in time to rob him to keep the Penguins off the board and preserve his shutout. That gaffe right there was probably the Penguins best chance at a goal tonight.

Third Period: Teams trade power plays. Nothing of either. Back and forth period with the Crunch outshooting the Penguins 11-8. Credit Syracuse for not letting off. No one would score though.

Three Stars: 3) Dana Tyrell (assist, +2) 2) Matt Taormina (two goals, +2) and 1) Anders Lindback (30 save shutout)

Around the Division: Binghamton lost up on The Rock to St. John’s 6-2. Hershey lost in a shootout 2-1 to the Hartford Wolf Pack and the Norfolk Admirals beat the best team in the AHL in the Manchester Monarchs by a score of 3-2.

Other Game of Relevance: The Bridgeport Sound Tigers win their seventh in a row with a 4-2 over the Providence Bruins. The Sound Tigers are making a push out of the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference to make it into the top 8. Right now, the playoff picture is 9 teams for 8 spots. Bridgeport wants to and probably will make it 10 for 8 really soon.

The AHL put out the Playoff Primer today, so if you have been saying it’s too early for me to be thinking about playoffs, think again. The Penguins magic number coming into the weekend was 43.

Standings: Binghamton 70 — Norfolk 68 — Hershey 65 — Penguins 65 — Syracuse 51

Conference: 1) MCH (80) 2) SPR (71) 3) BNG (70) 4) STJ (70) 5) NOR (68) 6) ALB (66) 7) HER (65) 8) WBS (65) 9) PRO (65) 10) BRI (55)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in Elmira tonight and were down 4-0. They score five goals in 14:58 and end up beating the Jackals by a score of 6-4. Eric Hartzell picked up the win. Anton Zlobin had a goal and an assist. Cody Sylvester had two goals.

SendToNews Highlights: Are not up yet. I will check again.

Penguins probably are bussing to Atlantic City tonight for their 5 p.m. start time with the rested Devils tomorrow in an important game for both. I’ll have the Gameday setup here on the blog at 1 p.m. tomorrow.

Let’s Go Pens!