Chirps from Center Ice

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They didn’t clinch on the ice that their season ended on like they did last year in St. John’s, but the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins got closer to doing so with a 3-2 shootout win in Syracuse Friday night.

Chuck Kobasew scored two power play goals. Tomas Vokoun, facing his first live fire since June of last year while with Pittsburgh, stopped 23 of 25 shots.

Brian Dumoulin took a hard shot from Dalton Smith in the third period, took one shift afterwards but wasn’t seen again. You hope, with the injury to the other top defenseman Philip Samuelsson, that Dumoulin’s injury isn’t that bad or else Wilkes-Barre could be in a bind sooner rather than later. Edit: Jonathan tweeted that the injury is believed to be minor.

Tomas Vokoun vs. Cedrick Desjardins

Lineup Notes: Harry Zolnierczyk was recalled to Pittsburgh before the game. Bryan Rust made his pro debut on the Penguins third line with Dominik Uher and Carter Rowney. Injury scratches were Jeff Deslauriers, Philip Samuelsson and Zach Sill. Veteran was Tom Kostopoulos and healthies were Nick D’Agostino, Josh Archibald, Conor Sheary, Matia Marcantuoni and Scott Wilson.

First Period: Nice opening jump from both clubs. Chuck Kobasew scores on a power play goal to put the Penguins ahead 1-0. Andrew Ebbett assisted on the goal, extending his point streak to twelve games. Shots were 8-1 Penguins.

Then the Crunch took over.

Vlad Namestnikov on a power play goal with Adam Payerl setting an unintentional screen beats Vokoun near post. Wilkes-Barre gets a power play and do nothing with it. Carter Rowney slashes a guy to break up a Crunch rush. On the ensuing power play for Syracuse, Jonathan Marchessault centers to Jon DiSalvatore on a bang-bang play that puts the Crunch ahead 2-1.

The Penguins outshot the Crunch 8-1 in the games first 6:44 and then were outshot 11-0 by Syracuse the final 13:16 of the period.

Second Period: It was a Wilkes-Barre power play clinic. The Pens were given four consecutive power plays in the period, but scored on only one of them. Chuck Kobasew (again) scored on a backhander as he cashed in on a rebound of a shot from the point. Brett Connolly nearly scored on a penalty kill as he snaked around the Pens defenders and wrapped around and missed a wide open net. Of note, Bryan Rust had some late power play time.

Third Period: Penguins were really looking for the killshot, but never found it. No power plays in this period for either side. During the turn of events, Brian Dumoulin took a hard clean shot from Dalton Smith. Late, Desjardins made a couple of really nice saves to keep it square at two heading into….

Overtime: More Desjardins heroics. A stop on a Wilkes-Barre odd man rush up ice on Carter Rowney then a save on a Nick Drazenovic one timer.

Shootout: Anton Zlobin in Round 1, Spencer Machacek in Round 5. Tomas Vokoun stops all four Crunch players and Wilkes-Barre skates away with the two points.

Three Stars: 3) Vlad Namestnikov (goal, even) 2) Cedrick Desjardins (29 saves on 31 shots) and 1) Chuck Kobasew (two goals, even)

Around the Division: Hershey loses to Binghamton 5-4 in overtime…Norfolk does the same in Providence 2-1.

Other Games that Matter: Albany beats Bridgeport 2-1 in regulation. St. John’s was idle tonight.

Magic Number: One. Any point tomorrow by Wilkes-Barre should, conceivably, seal a twelfth straight trip to the dance.

Standings: Binghamton 90 — Penguins 90 — Hershey 83 — Norfolk 82 — Syracuse 70

Conference: 1) MCH (100) 2) SPR (96) 3) BNG (90) 4) STJ (93) 5) WBS (90) 6) PRO (88) 7) ALB (85) 8) HER (83)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in Cincinnati tonight and lost 6-3. Eric Hartzell was in net for this one and took the loss for the Nailers.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Pens / B-Sens face-off tomorrow in what will likely be the biggest game of the season for both. East Division Championship up for grabs. A trip to the playoffs. Loser probably having to travel to St. John’s for Round 1 of the playoffs. Just tons of story lines. The Gameday setup will be here for you Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!!