Chirps from Center Ice

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins conclude their six game home stand with a 5-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Tuesday night. The lead for the Penguins now is 11 on the second place Phantoms team.

Oskar Sundqvist had gone cold for a bit then caught one and missed practice yesterday. He came to the rink ready to roll and scored twice tonight as the Penguins easily beat a Lehigh Valley team that never really were able to get going Tuesday night.

Taking the veteran option on the lines tonight because, if you didn’t know already, I do not like work night home games. A 72 game schedule would be aces for this blogger. Anyway, here’s tonight’s lines…

Lineup Notes: Tim Erixon was the vet scratch, Patrick McGrath took warmups only and Barry Goers were the scratches.

First Period: Garrett Wilson exits the game early on a high, dirty hit by Sam Morin 4:31 in.

Here is video of the hit courtesy of Elmer Talmadge:

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The Penguins would score on the power play afterward on this goal by Derrick Pouliot:

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Teams trade power plays after then later Sahir Gill throws a hit to make a play. Players spill into the boards, J-S Dea comes over to collect the puck and finds Dominik Simon cutting to the net unabated and Simon scores to make it 2-0:

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Shots were 15-7 Penguins after the first in a period that they were ready for. Lehigh Valley didn’t register a shot on goal till 7:59 and were making bad passes all over the place.

Second Period: Pens had to kill a carry over penalty to begin, Oskar Sundqvist scored shorthanded on this move…

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Phantoms appeared to have scored right back but the puck popped up over Jarry and onto the net where it was re-directed in via Colin McDonald high stick.

Tristan Jarry was really on point in the period making some excellent post to post stops on the Phantoms. He made two stellar saves on a penalty kill.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel finally solves Jarry following up his own shot post to post from behind the net that broke up the goose egg on the board for the Phantoms.

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J-S Dea had a spectacular goal. Here it is set up via color man Nick Hart:

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After brief review, it stood as a goal.

Phantoms played a good majority of that period as the better team but the Penguins manage two goals in the period anyway to maintain a three goal lead heading into the…

Third Period: Sundqvist made it 5-1 on this impossible goal from the corner you need to see to believe:

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Pretty blah period with the Penguins protecting a lead against a Lehigh Valley team that is dynamite in the third period and continued to press for more goals at the same time. It’s a beautiful balancing act when executed properly and Wilkes-Barre pulled it off nicely. Penguins nearly doubled up the Phantoms in shots in the period.

Three Stars:  3) Tristan Jarry 2) Dominik Simon (goal, assist) 1) Oskar Sundqvist (two goals)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins (.755 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.673) — Providence (.650) — Bridgeport (.646) — Hershey (.610) — Springfield (.439) — Hartford (.418)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers host the Brampton Beast tomorrow.

Postgame, Penguins Head Coach Clark Donatelli advised Tom and Seth and other WBS media that Garrett Wilson is week to week with an upper body injury and is having x-rays tomorrow. He also stated that he and his coaches are reviewing the hint to see if they will send it to the League for review and Supplemental Discipline.

I wanted to look up the Phantoms third period goal differential. Against the rest of the AHL teams except that Penguins it’s +34. Against Wilkes-Barre it’s +1. That’s remarkable and a testament to the coaching staff on game preparation.

Video highlights…

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Pens are off on the road now until a March 8 home date with these Phantoms beginning this weekend in Albany on Friday. But for breaking stuff, look for the next blog update to come then.

Let’s Go Pens!