Chirps from Center Ice

       vs.       

3                                          5

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Got in my truck just in time to hear Penguins play by play man Nick Hart use the headline to tonight’s game recap describing Ethan Prow’s third period power play goal which stood up as the game winner for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, who defeat the Hartford Wolf Pack 5-3.

Prow also added two assists and is among league leaders in +/-. These two teams rematch Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre.

Tristan Jarry, who had an eventful night to say the least, opposed Dustin Tokarski.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: The return of Ryan Haggerty, Jarrett Burton and Kevin Czuczman…

First Period: Four goals in the games first 10:50 made for a wild start to a Friday night home game.

Hartford connected :22 into a power play to open the scoring. Lias Andersson scored to give the Wolf Pack a 1-0 lead…

The Penguins would respond about three minutes later. A big hit by the returning Jarrett Burton, who I thought played a hell of a game on the fourth line, set up Tobias Lindberg here…

Collectively, I felt the fourth line played extremely well with Ölund centering Lindberg and Burton.

Penguins would score on a power play when Zach Aston-Reese put a shot on that Garrett Wilson deflected past Tokarski for a 2-1 Penguin lead…

But former All-Star John Gilmour would connect on another Hartford power play to even the game at two a piece.

Four goals in 10:50. The Penguins don’t like to play run and gun and would lose more than they would win playing that style, so the game at that point needed to slow down for success to occur.

Second Period: It did, to an extent, in the second period. Penguins came in waves at Tokarski, but the former Calder Cup winner had some key stops that kept his team in the game. Penguins found themselves in late penalty trouble but got out of it heading into the…

Third Period: Tom had a nice tweet summing up how the Penguins came out for the third…

Backing up, Sam Lafferty had a highlight reel, goal of the year candidate goal, that gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead. Just watch this…

Then, Lafferty put a shot on that was blocked on a Wilkes-Barre power play that Ethan Prow pounced on that gave the Penguins a 4-2 lead.

Ryan Haggerty laid a big hit on Libor Hajek that he had to fight Chris Bigras on and the Penguins were off to the races.

They couldn’t close it out when they had a :23 two man advantage, and then they let it slip a bit when Cole Schneider scored on an extended two man advantage for Hartford, that pulled the Wolf Pack to within one…

But the Penguins killed off the rest of the penalties (they did not have a good night overall, Hartford connected on three power play goals, but got the kill there) setting up Anthony Angello off of a face-off.

What a shot indeed.

Then,

But it wasn’t. Explanation by Taylor here…

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Charlotte runs the record to 9-1, holding on to defeat the Providence Bruins 4-3. Those two rematch tomorrow in Charlotte… Binghamton clips the mercurial Lehigh Valley Phantoms in overtime 4-3… The Big Bear Machine is warming up! Hershey cools off Rochester 4-2. Those two rematch in Chocolatetown Saturday night… Springfield remains the only team in the AHL without a regulation loss with a 3-2 win at home against Bridgeport.

Standings: Charlotte 18 – Springfield 16 – Penguins 13 – Lehigh Valley 12 – Hershey 11 – Bridgeport 9 – Hartford 9 – Providence 7

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They have their home opener (yes, on November 3) Saturday agains the Indy Fuel.

Highlights:

Gameday setup for the rematch vs. Hartford hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!