Chirps from Center Ice

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An exact 2-1 Wilkes-Barre win Saturday night just like the same 2-1 Wilkes-Barre win from the night before.

While it wasn’t a repeat of what happened last night, it sure looked awful similar. Pens jump out to a 2-0 lead. Admirals cut the lead in half with a goal by Devante Smith-Pelly.

Regardless, the Pens travel to Norfolk and take all four points away from the Admirals. A needed perfect weekend for the Pens, with a lot of jockeying behind them. It doesn’t matter what happens behind you as long as you keep winning.

Peter Mannino vs. John Gibson

The only lineup change tonight was Nick Drazenovic for Spencer Machacek, veteran for veteran.

First Period: A predictably more stronger period for the Norfolk Admirals as they are in a mix with other teams battling for their playoff lives. Shots were 10-4 Norfolk this period, in a real defensive battle.

Second Period: Brendan Mikkelson breaks the scoreless deadlock with this shot from the blue line to put the Pens on the board first. Chuck Kobasew didn’t have a point in the game, but he did have a fight, tangling with Kevin Gagne.

Third Period: If you tried to watch this game or any other game on AHL Live tonight and had difficulty, it wasn’t you, it was them. I managed to get a piece of this nice Dominik Uher shorthanded goal before it went out to pasture completely on me. Then, Devante Smith-Pelly scores a power play goal when the Penguins took a delay of game call. Pens would get two power plays but up against the top rated penalty kill in the AHL would not get a goal. Two Norfolk power plays bookended the Penguin power plays but the Pens did not allow a game tying goal. With Gibson pulled late, they never found the equalizer.

Ice Chips: Tonight was Tom Kostopoulos’ 400th game as a member of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins….With the secondary assist on the Brendan Mikkelson goal, Andrew Ebbett extended his point streak to 11 games….The Penguins are 19-3-4 when Ebbett tallies a point in the game.

Three Stars: 3) Brendan Mikkelson (goal, +1) 2) Devante Smith-Pelly (goal, -2) and 1) Dominik Uher (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Shootouts dominated the East Division tonight. Hershey wins a 12 round shootout against the St. John’s IceCaps and keep their playoff hopes alive with a 2-1 win tonight…..Binghamton just uses the standard five rounder to get by Syracuse 4-3 in a shootout up in Central New York.

Standings: Binghamton 85 — Penguins 84 — Norfolk 77 — Hershey 76 — Syracuse — 65

Conference: 1) MCH (94) 2) SPR (90) 3) BNG (85) 4) STJ (87) 5) WBS (84) 6) PRO (81) 7) ALB (80) 8) NOR (77)

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off tonight.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here for your viewing enjoyment. I am actually interested to see what happened in the third period because I couldn’t see it on AHL Live.

The B-Sens burn one of their two games in hand on the Penguins tomorrow when they face off against the Albany Devils in the Capital District tomorrow. The Penguins will want an Albany regulation win and so will you. I will have a blurb on that final score Sunday afternoon on Twitter.

Week 26 AHL Power Rankings will be here Monday at 4 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!!!