Chirps from Center Ice

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There was some concern this week when Tristan Jarry went down with injury and Joel Blomqvist went up to Pittsburgh.

I think you can put those concerns to bed.

Taylor Gauthier makes 34 saves and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins shutout the Syracuse Crunch 4-0 in Syracuse Friday night.

Some of Gauthier’s saves were highlight reel, as detailed below. He stopped a penalty shot in the first period which I think is the turning point in the contest, based off of the way things were going at that point.

I don’t think the plan is to go back to Gauthier Saturday, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him back in net again for the Penguins when these two teams rematch Saturday.

Here’s how they lined up on Friday:

Lineup Notes: They didn’t need goaltender recall from Wheeling as Garret Sparks backed up. Corey Andonovski and Valtteri Puustinen were in for Dakota Joshua and Matt Filipe up front. Mark Pysyk made his WBS debut and Libor Hajek was back in on defense for Jack Rathbone and Xavier Ouellet.

First Period: Pretty inert period, felt more like a feeling out period. Tame, but for a Libor Hajek stick lift that got too aggressive for referee Austin O’Rourke’s liking on Gabriel Fortier, which Taylor Gauthier made a right pad save on.

Second Period: No power plays in the first, referee O’Rouke and his running buddy Jordan Samuels-Thomas gave each team three in the second period. Its was hard to get rolling when every five minutes you were killing a penalty. Pens did a good  job killing off a 4-on-3 against. Taylor Gauthier continued to dazzle in net for the Penguins, and Alex Nylander scored just :37 into the frame.

Third Period: Penguins rip the game open with three goals. First one was scored by Ty Smith about three minutes into the third period.

This was followed by a Jansen Harkins power play goal 2:03 later that made it 3-0.

I think the Penguins iced the game away here, but in case there was any doubt Puustinen netted his second of the game right around halfway and the Pens were on cruise control.

This goal chased Hugo Alnefelt and entered Brandon Halverson. I think Alnefelt goes again for the Crunch Saturday, so he may be out for revenge.

Gauthier locked things down from there.

At no point during the contest did things get out of control for the Penguins. You could argue during the tense moments in the second when killing the 9,000 penalties awarded, but they navigated through it all and asserted control and never looked back.

Three Stars: 3) Ty Smith (goal, assist) 2) Alex Nylander (two goals, assist) 1) Taylor Gauthier (34 saves)

The Good: Seemed like an easy night at the office for the team. Syracuse is a really good team, the Penguins made them look like pikers Friday.

The Bad: I’m a bad person if I pick out something bad when the team wins by four goals and the goaltender gets a 34 save shutout.

Turning Point: Spoiled it in the lede, but the penalty shot save that Gauthier made on Gabriel Fortier set up his night as well as the night of the team playing in front of him.

Around the Division: Hartford shuts out Bridgeport 3-0, Providence beats Springfield 5-4. Charlotte is out west against San Jose.

Standings: The fact that Charlotte has that late game in San Jose later means I can’t really give this to you for accuracy sake. The Penguins have 13 points. If Charlotte wins or gets a point, they will leapfrog the points and be fourth in the Atlantic.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers hosted the Idaho Steelheads and the Steelheads, who are a hell of an ECHL team, drubbed the Nailers 5-2. They rematch Saturday.

Video Highlights: If I can work an edit in I will, provided I work my way around back to the computer between the next time I do this, which is Saturday after the rematch between the Pens and Crunch.

Let’s Go Pens!