Chirps from Center Ice

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It is probably all moot anyway, since Providence keeps winning. The Bruins control their own destiny at this point and have seven point leads on both the Penguins and Phantoms tonight, eight if you consider the tie breaker.

The Bruins shutout the Belleville Senators tonight 2-0. Troy Mann, coach of the Senators, should probably get AHL Coach of the Year for the turnaround in Belleville this season. Mann has the Senators primed as a playoff team in the North Division.

His Senators were completely shut down tonight and had just 14 shots on goal.. This after the Bruins traveled to and from Laval, Quebec to play a midweek game against the Rocket, one that they lost in a shootout.

So it’s message sent and delivered by Jay Leach’s Providence Bruins, who are seven clear of Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre with ten games left.

Penguins lose 3-2 Friday night in Wilkes-Barre. Saturday is essentially must win to just to hope to maintain a seven point deficit over Providence, who plays at home again against Binghamton team who have lost nine straight.

Tristan Jarry opposed Alex Lyon.

Here is how they lined up:

Pittsburgh recalled Adam Johnson Thursday and returned Adam Johnson and Just Riikola came with him. Linus Ölund and Tim Erixon yielded for them from Tuesday in Hershey.

Pens jumped out to a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Ryan Haggerty goal where he stole a puck at center ice, skated in and scored.

Shots were 8-6 Penguins after one. Tristan Jarry was dialed in.

Phantoms score twice to go ahead 2-1 when Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored on a nice feed from Philip Sameulsson and then Chris Conner completely walked past Jeff Taylor and stuffed the puck under the pad of Jarry to give the Phantoms a 2-1 lead.

Ryan Haggerty scored at the end of the period when Lyon tried to home run a pass out of his zone which was intercepted.

Phantoms score :28 into the third period when Aube-Kubel scored again to make it 3-2.

Wilkes-Barre had two opportunities on the power play to tie the game back up, but failed. There is your turning point.

Alex Lyon locked things down from there and the Penguins ran out of time.

Here are your three stars:

Here are the video highlights:

These teams rematch Saturday in Allentown. Gameday setup hits the blog here Saturday at 3.