Chirps from Center Ice

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No luck on St. Patrick’s Day for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins who lose 4-1 to the Hartford Wolf Pack. The Penguins went o-for-5 on the power play and this has become the biggest problem for the league’s worst power play at 13.3%. Penguins Head Coach Clark Donatelli to Tom Venesky after the game…

I don’t necessarily buy all that Clark is selling here. The Penguins have such a hard time entering the zone and when they do they never get anything that resembles a shot on goal worthwhile of a goalie making a save.

Hartford scores two fluky goals :38 apart in the first, :54 seconds in the third and beat the Penguins. Anthony Peters was fine in net. The Penguins put 18 shots on Hartford in the second period but Chris Nell was fantastic for Hartford all game really and that was it. Wolf Pack looked as good as they did yesterday when they beat Lehigh Valley in a shootout.

Lines were…

Adam Johnson – J-S Dea – Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Joseph Cramarossa – Josh Jooris – Sam Lafferty
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Tom Kostopoulos

Chris Summers – Ethan Prow
Kevin Schulze – Kevin Czuczman
Jarred Tinordi – Zach Trotman

Anthony Peters – Etienne Marcoux

Lineup Notes: Tom Sestito and Christian Thomas were healthy scratches tonight. Ryan Haggerty retuned from injury. Ethan Prow played, and showed no ill effects from his concussion on the Josiah Didier hit Wednesday in Charlotte.

First Period: It ended 2-0 for Hartford but by rights should have been 4 or 5-0. Anthony Peters was bailing out his teammates with save after save. Both sides had chances both ways.

Hartford scores bang bang plays when Simon Denis rakes a puck off the wall and throws it at Peters and on the way its deflected in by Cole Schneider. :38 later, a big rebound left by Peters is put in by Dan DeSalvo.

Second Period: Hartford put two early shots on Peters, but after that Wilkes-Barre responded with a ton of shots at Nell.

Hartford took four penalties that resulted in power plays for the Penguins but Wilkes-Barre was not able to find the back of the net on the man advantage. This is what cost them the game, we just didn’t know it at at the time.

Wilkes-Barre outshot Hartford 18-3 in the second period.

Third Period: Daniel Sprong scored on his birthday to bring the Penguins to within one.

He looked off Quinney on a two on one and never really looked at Nell and the net and put the shot on and it went five hole and in.

Kevin Czuczman appeared to have scored a goal, but referee Stephen Thomson never signaled goal and play continued and then Steven Fogarty beat Peters to make to 3-1. After a video review on the Czuczman shot, which confirmed no goal, it was 3-1 Hartford.

On the Czuczman shot, I have no idea how it wasn’t a goal. There was no ping noise signifying a shot off the pipe. and from where Czuczman shot the puck there was no way that puck couldn’t hit anything more than inside the net from they angle it was shot from but the type doesn’t lie. A review lasting more than a minute confirmed Thomson’s eyes in real time.

Vinni Lettieri scored :54 later to make it 4-1 and suddenly all the air was out of the balloon or the keg was kicked at a party full of thirsty patrons. Use whatever inference you wish, Penguins weren’t coming back from this one.

Three Stars: 3) Daniel Sprong (goal, even) 2) Dan DeSalvo (goal, +1) and Chris Nell (30 saves on 31 shots)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley shuts out Providence 3-0….Charlotte wins 4-2 against Binghamton…Hershey beats Springfield 4-2. Bridgeport was off.

The Hershey game was significant because it was referee David Banfield’s final game. Judging from the reaction around social media, he must have been one hell of a referee because no one had a nice thing to say about him.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.692 percentage points) — Penguins (.639) — Providence (.627) — Charlotte (.592) — Hartford (.492) — Hershey (.485) — Springfield (.484)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose 3-2 in overtime in Glens Falls against the Adirondack Thunder. Reid Gardiner and Troy Josephs scored for the Nailers in the OT loss. Nailers are five points up on Worcester for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North Division.

Video Highlights: 

Pens back at it Sunday at 3 against Hershey. Gameday setup is yours at 11 a.m. Sunday morning.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I guess the lesson here tonight is be careful what you wish for.

If the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins somehow overtake the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the number one spot in the Atlantic Division, they will most likely play the Charlotte Checkers in Round One of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Right now, I don’t like the Penguins chances if that were to become a reality.

Wilkes-Barre loses 3-1. A lifeless effort tonight for the Penguins who only had 8 shots on goal throughout two periods. This game obviously meant more for the Checkers, being pursued by fifth place Bridgeport, than it did the Penguins.

Alex Nedeljkovic won his 28th game of the season which leads all AHL goaltenders, he opposed Anthony Peters in a rematch of last night.

Lines were the same as last night save for Jarrett Burton for Sam Lafferty on the third line. Josh Jooris was re-assigned by Pittsburgh Wednesday afternoon. Jooris was not in the lineup for Wilkes-Barre tonight. Etienne Marcoux again backed up Anthony Peters while the status of Michael Leighton remains a mystery.

First Period: But for :26 of 5-on-3 penalty kill time that came and went for the Penguins, it was an overall fast pace of a period. Wilkes-Barre was out shot 9-5. J-S Dea hit a post in the early stages, Jarred Tinordi had a clear in the early seconds of the 5-on-3 against and Charlotte was never able to establish anything threatening while on the man advantage.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre looked lethargic in the first period and continued in the second period, firing just three shots at Nedeljkovic, tied for a season low.

Charlotte jumped out to a two goal lead as a result of keeping their feet moving as their opponents were content with watching instead of competing.

Julien Gauthier, scratched last night, scored first for Charlotte to open the scoring…

That is three Penguins defenders around Gauthier and he still manages to get his shot off.

On a power play, ex-Penguin Greg McKegg scored on a tic tac toe play in front while Chris Summers was out in left field daydreaming…

Gotta mark the man in front.

A puck went out of play in front on Nedeljkovic and the Penguins then tried to get something going with the physicality. Everyone grabbed a man and pushing and shoving ensued. The Penguins sleepwalked through the first two periods and needed something, anything to get them going…

Third Period: Penguins started to chase the game and the worst thing that could happen would be a power play. Chasing a game late caused Wilkes-Barre to play fast and loose and the Checkers easily killed the penalty.

But the Penguins were able to get to within one when Tom Sestito put home a rebound of a Daniel Spring shot that made it a one goal game.

Another power play came and went for the Penguins in a golden opportunity missed for Wilkes-Barre. The lack of success on the power play is going to bury this team.

Wilkes-Barre continued to press, made mistakes in their own end and Greg McKegg scored a second goal against his former team.

I’d say so.

Penguins ice the puck with Peters pulled for the extra attacker and then were called for too many men while again trying to get Peters off.

Ethan Prow may have been injured here in this sequence with Josiah Didier.

Dirty hit. Didier was assessed a charging penalty for what it is worth.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Sestito (goal, even) 2) Juian Gauthier (goal, +1) and 1) Greg McKegg (two goals, even)

Around the Division: For the second night in a row, they all watched us.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.690 percentage points) — Penguins (.650) — Providence (.631) — Charlotte (.586) — Bridgeport (.557) — Springfield (.492) — Hartford (.476) — Hershey (.468)

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Charlotte didn’t put up any highlights last night when they lost, I wonder if they will now that they won. If they do, I will work the edit in this spot.

Pens travel back from North Carolina and are scheduled to practice Friday. I would assume that there would be information on Prow, Leighton and anyone else for the two home games against Hartford Saturday and Hershey Sunday.

Next blog post here will most likely be Saturday’s setup with Hartford at 3. I may run a recap of the Friday games with any information shared after Friday’s practice late Friday night depending on circumstances.

Let’s Go Pens!