Chirps from Center Ice

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Wilkes-Barre / Scranton uses two goals in the third period and a pair of goals from Andrey Pedan to skate past rival Hershey 4-1 tonight at home.

This win is significant for a number of reasons. First, it keeps the Penguins in first place in the Atlantic Division. Second, it improves the Penguins already league best home ice advantage and record to 18-6-0-1. Finally, the Penguins beat Hershey, which is always great and the Bears have lost nine straight games.

This news coms with collateral damage. Conor Sheary is week-to-week up top with a lower body injury. Carter Rowney was activated off of injured reserve today and J-S Dea was sent back down but Dea and likely another player may rubber band back to Pittsburgh tomorrow because Patric Hornqvist suffered a lower body injury in Pittsburgh’s 7-4 win over Washington tonight. That player should be Zach Aston-Reese, who has 20 points in his past 20 games.

Oh, and locally…

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Walking wounded is back again folks. What a time to be alive.

One other thing…

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Tristan Jarry opposed Pheonix Copley

Lines were…all messed up. Not because of Haggerty leaving the game with injury alone, but J-S Dea wasn’t part of this Obie tweet…

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Dea centered the top line and Patrick McGrath was a scratch.

Defense was Andrey Pedan – Ethan Prow; Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado; Kevin Spinozzi and Chris Summers. Anthony Peters backed up Jarry.

First Period: Tyler Graovac stripped Kevin Spinozzi, skated in, pumped faked and dished to Riley Barber, only the pass never made it to Barber. Gage Quinney was the sole Penguin back, made a good read on the pass that Graovac made, only to see it deflect off of his stick and into his own net and gave Hershey a 1-0 lead.

On a power play, Andrey Pedan would score his first of the game when a puck put on Copley by J-S Dea rebounded straight to Pedan who scored to tie the game at one…

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Majority of action felt like it was played in front of Jarry, yet the Penguins only trailed the Bears 10-8 in shots. Penguins shots came in rushes mostly.

Second Period: Tight checking. Ryan Haggerty never came out for the period and wasn’t seen the rest of the game. Both teams traded power plays.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre breaks in on a three on one and Pedan scores his second of the game to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead. Nice dish by Greg McKegg, leading the rush, to Pedan for the score.

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Wilkes-Barre makes it 3-1 with a perfect screen set by Garrett Wilson on Copley that allowed Kevin Czuczman to score to make it 3-1 for the Penguins.

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Zach Aston-Reese had a secondary assist on that goal by Czuczman. That gives him 20 points in his last 20 games (7-13-20)

Hershey had a power play that lacked punch. They floated all night. They don’t look like the Bears team you would come to expect. I have people that some times tell me when things are going bad for the Penguins that they are, “not a team, just a collection of players.” I think that classification applies here regarding the way the Bears are playing right now.

With Copley pulled, Daniel Sprong set up Jarrett Burton for a doorstep tap in that iced the game away and made it 4-1 Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Daniel Sprong (two assists, +1) 2) Tristan Jarry (25 saves on 26 shots) and 1) Andrey Pedan (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley scores a late goal to beat Charlotte 3-2 to keep the heat on the Penguins for tops in the Atlantic….Providence scores an overtime power play goal to beat Hartford 2-1…Springfield shuts out Bridgeport 1-0.

Standings: Penguins (.674 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.652) — Providence (.622) — Charlotte (.556) — Bridgeport (.556) — Hartford (.500) — Springfield (.479) — Hershey (.446)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers make it an organizational sweep night with a 7-3 win over the Indy Fuel. Troy Josephs had a hat trick.

Video Highlights: 

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Gameday setup for a big 1 vs. 2 matchup featuring the Penguins and Phantoms hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!