Chirps from Center Ice

        @       

1                                         2

–

The Hershey Bears motto for the season is, “Defend the Den.”

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins get the message.

The Penguins lost 2-1 in a shootout, making it eight straight losses at Giant Center for the Penguins.

The game featured a goaltending clinic and many players looking up into the rafters of the Giant Center, with a lot of posts hit and near misses. Starting goaltenders Philipp Grubauer and Jeff Zatkoff were sharp this night.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Conor Sheary – Carter Rowney – Josh Archibald
Tom Kostopoulos – JS Dea – Adam Payerl
Tom Kuhnhackl – Dominik Uher – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Philip Samuelsson
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot

Jeff Zatkoff – Matt Murray

Barry Goers took warmups but was the scratch. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond served his one game suspension for his unpenalized antics last Friday in Albany.

You knew that Jayson Megna was called up to Pittsburgh. News out of Pittsburgh today was that Brittle Beau Bennett is out (again) with a lower body injury. He can’t stay healthy. It’s not a matter of if he gets healthy, it’s when. It’s unfortunate. Obviously, there wasn’t a call up today, but I’d expect one fairly soon. Andrew Ebbett is a name if you just want to call up a guy to scratch him. J-S Dea or Bryan Rust are two names that if Pittsburgh wants to call them up to see if they can play, I wouldn’t be surprised go up.

Third Period: If you are a regular reader to this blog and these game recaps, you know that I recap the First, Second and Third Periods. The only problem is that nothing of memory happened in the first and second periods except for…

— This Jeff Zatkoff save on a Caleb Herbert breakaway.
— This hit by Connor Carrick on Taylor Chorney which would knock Chorney out of the game.
— This fight between Josh Archibald and Nathan Walker, a TKO for Archibald.

In the third period of a tightly contested game, Philip Samuelsson put a puck over the glass which resulted in the automatic delay of game call. On the ensuing power play for Hershey, Stan Galiev one timed a puck home for the Bears that would put them in front 1-0 and end a 152:15 goalless drought for them after the offense for the Chocolate and White sputtered this past weekend.

Brian Dumoulin, with Jeff Zatkoff pulled in the last minute of regulation, fired this goal home to tie the game at one a piece.

Overtime: Would be firsts for both teams. The first overtime for the Bears on Giant Center ice and the first time the Penguins played under the 3-on-3 format, because Kris Newbury and Bobby Farnham were in the penalty boxes for infractions. Connor Carrick hit a crossbar. That was it. It was onto the…

Shootout: Stan Galiev and Scott Wilson both missed in Round 1. Dustin Gazley and J-S Dea connected in Round 2. Connor Carrick and Bryan Rust missed in Round 3. Chris Brown beat Zatkoff in Round 4 and Andrew Ebbett missed his chance and the Bears skated away with the extra point.

Three Stars: 3) Brian Dumoulin (goal, +1) 2) Philipp Grubauer (24 saves on 25 shots) and 1) Stan Galiev (goal, even)

Around the Division: The St. John’s IceCaps beat the Binghamton Senators in a shootout also, the score was 4-3….Norfolk got reinforcements back from Anaheim and beat Charlotte 4-1….Lehigh Valley lost to Springfield 3-2.

Standings: Penguins 24 — Hershey 22 — Lehigh Valley 18 — Binghamton 19 — Norfolk 14

Conference: 1) SPR (27) 2) MCH (25) 3) WBS (24) 4) SYR (23) 5) BRI (22) 6) HER (22) 7) HFD (22) 8) ALB (21)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers beat the Greenville Road Warriors at home 4-2. Zack Torquato earned first star honors with a goal and two assists.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Penguins are off until Saturday. For as many games in hand that the Bears have on the Penguins (two) they do not play Friday night. So have a nice Thanksgiving and check back here for the next blog update for Saturday’s setup against St. John’s.

Let’s Go Pens!