Chirps from Center Ice

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Before you start, yes, I know it’s John Fogerty. Work with me, people.

Steven Fogarty’s two goals tonight for the Hartford Wolf Pack and backup goaltender Marek Mazanec’s 35 save performance carry the Wolf Pack in a 3-2 win in Wilkes-Barre against the Penguins.

The Pens found themselves in penalty trouble again, giving up five chances to the visitors and getting scored on once, by Fogarty. It’s an area that they need to clean up and quick.

Another area to clean up is responding on back to back games. The Penguins are now 0-2-0-1 on games where they played the night before. Splitting weekend series is OK, but just OK. The Penguins are mired in the middle of the Atlantic Division now because if it.

No time to rest as the Penguins are right back at it Sunday afternoon in Bridgeport.

Tristan Jarry opposed the aforementioned Mazanec.

Lines were…

Notes: Stefan Elliott was in for Kevin Czuczman, the Penguins probably wanted to ease Czuczman back into things and not play him on back to backs and Jeff Taylor was in for Matt Abt. No changes up front to any of the forward lines.

Tristan Jarry appeared in his 100th AHL game for Wilkes-Barre tonight. He is the fourth goalie in Penguins history to match that feat.

First Period: :35 in, a slashing penalty was called on Thomas DiPauli and Fogarty bagged his first goal of the night on the power play with a back door tap in that gave the Wolf Pack a 1-0 lead.

Penguins get it back late in the period as a puck stays onside and it put home by Ryan Haggerty to tie the game at one…

EDIT: Hold the phone on the above. Sam Lafferty on line one…

Second Period: Fogarty again. He led a two-on-one break while the teams were 4-on-4 and snapped a shot over Jarry’s glove to make it a 2-1 lead for Hartford.

Bobby Butler followed up about two and a half minutes later on a back door slam dunk goal that made it 3-1 Hartford.

Despite this, I had a feeling that the Penguins were still in it.

Zach Trotman gave me hope…

Face-off win by Teddy Blueger back to Trotman who stepped into one and scored.

Penguins would get no closer though. With a late power play that spilled over to the…

Third Period: …the Pens would have to kill separate tripping penalties by Sam Lafferty and Tobias Lindberg but couldn’t find the equalizing goal. Garrett Wilson came close, though…

With about 1:10 of 6-on-5 with Jarry pulled time to work with, the Penguins never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Every team in the Atlantic Division faced off against the team they played Friday night. Those teams that lost on Friday all won on Saturday but for Charlotte, who is playing on a different planet right now as the first team to ten wins with a 3-2 win against the Providence Bruins. Bridgeport hands Springfield their first regulation loss of the season with a 5-2 decision…Rochester beats Hershey 4-1 and Lehigh Valley, who lost Friday in overtime to the Devils, get two late goals to tie then the overtime goal to win at home and repay the favor to defeat Binghamton 3-2.

Standings: Charlotte 20 – Springfield – 16 – Lehigh Valley 14 – Penguins 13 – Bridgeport, Hartford and Hershey all with 11 in that order – Providence 8

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose in their home opener against the Indy Fuel 5-3. John Muse was in net and took the loss. Troy Josephs had a pair of goals.

If I see a highlight package from Coal Street I will run it here.

Gameday setup for the Sunday affair in Bridgeport hits the blog Sunday at 11. Please don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour.

Let’s Go Pens!