Chirps from Center Ice

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Let’s get a couple things out of the way.

First, the score line is correct. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins lost this game tonight 12-3. It is the most goals allowed in Penguins history. I don’t know if a nine goal loss is the biggest deficit that the Penguins have lost by, but it matters little.

Second, Wilkes-Barre / Scranton lost three defensemen in the game tonight. The first was Lukas Bengtsson which swung the momentum for the Rochester Americans in a huge way.

Third, the Amerks have been punching under their weight class of recent, winless in their last five games and sliding in the North Division and losing touch with Toronto for the lead and being passed by the Utica Comets for second in the division. To say that they got up for this game, with four ex-Penguins in the lineup for Rochester, player and coach on running the team, would be an understatement.

It was 3-0 Rochester at the end of the first period. Penguins went on a hot run for about two minutes that saw them score two goals, but then the Americans scored one of their bazillion goals tonight that killed that momentum.

So it ends as an embarrassing loss for the team tonight and one that may have collateral damage in the long run. If you don’t want to read the meat of the story, the Pens also lost Chris Summers in the first period to injury as well as Frank Corrado in the third.

Casey DeSmith opposed Linus Ullmark.

Lines were…

Thomas Di Pauli – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Adam Johnson – Greg McKegg – Joseph Cramarossa
Cody Wydo – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Chris Summers – Lukas Bengtsson
Jarred Tinordi – Ethan Prow
Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado

Casey DeSmith – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Penguins went back to the conventional 12F, 6D setup after using an extra defenseman last weekend in Providence…. Cramarossa debuted on the third line…. Andrey Pedan was a scratch, radio noting he was ill…. Coal Street recalled Cody Wydo and Freddie Tiffels from mWheeling yesterday. Wydo was in, Tiffels was a scratch. Tom had another piece on the Penguins defenseman Lukas Bengtsson for The Athletic which you can check out here if you are a subscriber. If not, what are you waiting for? They are going all in on baseball this season and are already in 20 of the 30 MLB markets.

First Period: Penguins lost three players in the period and for every player they lost, Rochester scored a goal.

First, Lukas Bengtsson early on on a clean, unwhistled hit by Colin Blackwell…

Then Chris Summers went out of the game after friendly fire from Daniel Sprong. Sprong goes to throw a check at Seth Griffith, hits him and Griffith throws his head back directly into Summers’. Here’s the video…

Shortly thereafter, almost immediately, Griffith scored to put Rochester on the board.

:59 later, after a turnover and a bad line change, ex-Penguin Adam Krause capitalized and made it 2-0.

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Bad to worse, Thomas DiPauli later took a puck over glass delay of game penalty.

:06 later, Zach Redmond scored to make it 3-0.

Bad to worse.

Back to the unwhistled hit on Blackwood on Bengtsson, Patrick McGrath was upset about it wanted a piece of Blackwood who wanted nothing to do with the Penguins winger. The officials, knowing that the game was meeting it’s boiling point, tossed McGrath from the game with a game misconduct.

Second Period: Rochester didn’t let off. Seth Griffith banked on in off of DeSmith from behind the goal line that made it 4-0.

Griffith’s second goal of the night.

That was the end of Casey DeSmith. Anthony Peters entered the game.

He was met with the same buzzsaw.

With Jarred Tinordi in the box for a pick on Justin Bailey, Alex Nylander scored here to make it 5-0.

Three power play goals for the Rochester Americans.

Wilkes-Barre punches back and scores two goals 2:02 apart. Jarrett Burton scores in a pile here that makes it 5-1…

Entire play was set up with a nice quick save by Anthony Peters. Cramarossa with the clear, Cody Wydo beats out the ice and Jarrett Burton scores to bust up the shutout. Cramarossa picked up his first Penguin point on this sequence.

Cody Wydo then scored to make it 5-2…

..with nice work by him to sauce a pass that deflects off of Ullmark and creeps slowly over the line and in.

Comeback is on! Yeah, here we go!

About that.

Jarred Tinordi pinches, and why blame him, his team is on the comeback, giving Rochester a 3-on-1 and Brendan Guhle unleashed this rocket that squelched the momentum the Penguins were building that made it 6-2.

But Rochester wasn’t done. A puck went into the skates of Justin Bailey, Bailey digs it out and centers to Sean Malone who scores to make it 7-2 Amerks.

(Rochester never GIFed this one, use your imagination)

Despite all this, Wilkes-Barre outshot the Americans heading into the…

Third Period: Penguins made it 7-3 on this Greg McKegg goal…

But that just made Rochester mad. God love you if you are still reading the recap at this point. I’ll try not to keep you any longer.

Alex Nylander made it 8-3 when he banged in a rebound. Pens had a turnover and a bad line change. Guys were gassed and tired at this point.

Rochester scores their fourth power play of the night when Kyle Criscuolo scored to make it 9-3.

Criscuolo made it 10-3 with another.

Second time Rochester has scored ten goals this season by the way, they did it to Binghamton earlier this year.

The Devils stopped the Americans from scoring more, though. The Penguins found themselves on a 5-on-3 penalty kill and Rochester scored twice, one by Stuart Percy and the other by Matt Tennyson to make it 12-3.

Americans ended up 6-for-9 on the power play.

Penguins lost Stuart Percy to injury / precaution late somewhere.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Nylander (two goals, two assists, +2) 2) Kyle Criscuolo (two goals, two assists, +2) and 1) Seth Griffith (two goals, three assists, +2)

Weird Facts: Penguins actually outshot the Amerks 38-37. No one on Rochester had a had trick. Kevin Porter and Eric Cornel were the only Amerks skaters to not record a point.

Around the Division: Providence beats Bridgeport 1-0 in a shootout…Lehigh Valley thumps Springfield 8-2…Hershey beats Laval 6-3. Charlotte and Hartford were off.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.673 percentage points) — Penguins (.667) — Providence (.630) — Charlotte (.587) — Bridgeport (.529) — Hartford (.519) — Hershey (.452) — Springfield (.442)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose at home to the Fort Wayne Komets 4-3. The Nailers game tomorrow is postponed with Cincy due to impending bad weather.

I doubt anyone wants to see highlights of this one. I sure don’t.

Penguins will regroup, make defensive callups from Wheeling if need be, and get ready for the Utica Comets Saturday night at home for Military Appreciation Night. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday afternoon at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!