Chirps from Center Ice

          vs.          

3                                             6

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They are .500 after a 6-3 win over the Binghamton Devils. Nice resurgence, but even if there were playoffs (there aren’t) they wouldn’t be in a position to qualify with the amount of games left.

They are coming together. Hope that there is some carryover come the Fall. I’m ready for this to be over already.

Here’s how they lined up:

Kasper Bjorkqvist made his season debut.

First Period: Bingo got on the board first, but then the Pens rattle off two straight. Here they are in GIF form. Note that the Robert goal was switched to Jordy Bellerive, who is having a nice season with his tenth goal.

Again, Bellerive’s goal. Robert never touched it.

The Devils are a mess, but nice to see a short handed goal.

Second Period: I am sure the instructions Anthony Angello was sent back with from Pittsburgh was to fill up the score sheet at every opportunity.

Exhibit A:

Bingo was hanging around though and drew back to within one with this busted tic tag toe play.

Josh Currie with his second on a nifty redirect and the Pens re-establish their two goal lead:

Third Period: Penguins get a power play to go early in the third when Tim Schaller connects here.

Ever resilient, Tyce Thompson gets the Devils within two with this goal here.

The Devils pulled the goalie for the extra attacker and the Penguins spent the remainder of the game trying to shoot and score from their own zone. They missed, constantly. It was quite hilarious. Finally Anthony Angello beats out an icing call (they weren’t coming anywhere close to the net) and got one to go for the 6-3 score that held.

Three Stars: 3) Jordy Bellerive (goal, assist) 2) Anthony Angello (two goals, assist) 1) Josh Currie (two goals, assist)

The Good: The leadership group in Currie and Angello had good nights and the rest of the team followed. Just like they drew it up.

The Bad: Binghamton is bad, and yet there was a sense until you looked up at the clock an realized there wasn’t a lot of time left that they probably weren’t going to make the comeback. But the thought always stayed with you.

Turning Point: Schaller’s power play blast to open the third period scoring gave the Penguins the insurance they needed.

They are back in action Saturday against Binghamton for the final time ever. The Devils are moving out of Binghamton and up to Utica and the Canucks are moving their affiliate out of Utica and to Abbotsford. There’s Board of Governor’s meeting Thursday which will most likely formalize all of this. My guess is you will get something on divisional alignments as well so maybe I will be here then to talk about that. No promises, though.

Let’s Go Pens and all that.

Stay safe.