Chirps from Center Ice

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J.D. Forrest has them humming in the right direction.

A 3-2 afternoon win in Springfield, and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have another 5 out of 6 points weekend under their belt and are third in the Atlantic Division, two off of the Providence Bruins, whom they host on Wednesday.

They go down 0-2 and storm back for a regulation win against a game, understaffed Springfield team who are in a nosedive right now. Sam Poulin has goals in his last four games and Joel Blomqvist picks up another win.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup: Will Butcher in for Taylor Fedun was the only change. The lines from Saturday remained unchanged.

I was hoping for better news on the injuries guys in Sam Houde, Raivis Ansons and Avery Hayes. Houde is week to week undisclosed and Ansons is week to week lower body and Hayes is week to week upper body.

I gotta tell you, I am blown away by the level of detail in these injury reports.

First Period: They came out of the gate blazing, but their power play continued to sputter and with 65 seconds left AHL leading goal scorer Adam Gaudette scored on a wraparound that gave the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead.

Second Period: Pens seemed to get a bunch of breakaways in the game, more so than usual, and every time they found one of them they tried the five hole. Malcolm Subban was up to it though, and denied the bids.

Wyatt Kalynuk with an old school windmill slapshot that straight beats Joel Blomqvist and goes over the glove that gives Springfield a 2-0 lead.

The Penguins dug in, using a power play and Will Butcher was camped in front where Vinnie Hinostroza found him for a goal that cut into the Springfield lead.

Then Jesse Puljujuarvi scored his first of the season for Wilkes-Barre that tied the game.

Third Period: They hold Springfield to five shots in the period. Sam Poulin, who is starting to find his game now, scores a goal at the end of his shift.

That’s him at the end of his shift, trying to find space, gets caught, then rips the puck away and finds Austin Rueschhoff who shoots, gets block, follows his rebound like basketball and then dishes back to Poulin for the slam dunk near side. Everything about that sequence was heaven for the Penguins. Just a fantastic finish to a long shift for Poulin.

The Thunderbirds use a time out and pull Subban but are unable to find the equalizer.

Gotta feel for Subban, who had 50+ saves on Saturday and 32 here Monday.

Three Stars: 3) Will Butcher (goal) 2) Jesse Puljujuarvi (goal) 1) Sam Poulin (goal)

The Good: Needed to win a game against a depleted opponent (Springfield is dealing with injuries to top guys) and did. But it was ugly. Sometimes ugly works.

The Bad: Hard to find anything here since they came back from two down and used a power play goal to jumpstart the pushback.

Turning Point: The Poulin goal has to get it here, right? The kid wouldn’t be denied and it paid off.

Around the Division: Just one other game, Hershey was in Bridgeport and it’s the Islanders who win in a shootout and win 2-1.

Standings: Hershey 60 – Providence 47 – Penguins 45 – Hartford 43 – Springfield 41 – Charlotte 40  – Lehigh Valley 38 – Bridgeport 26

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

Weekend Preview comes at you Wednesday at around lunch time. Talk to you then.

Let’s Go Pens!