Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have 12 games left in their regular season and in those 12 games they play three three in threes or nine games. The first of those three in threes are this weekend starting in Syracuse Friday.

Music to Set the Mood…

Let’s hope this weekend turns up three roses for the Penguins.

The Setup

Three this weekend; road game in Syracuse, home against Utica, on the road in Allentown starting Friday.

The Penguins took three out of a possible four points in Cleveland this weekend. It should have been four because they gave up a late extra attacker goal to the Monsters on Sunday and lost in overtime. They are in good shape however and solidified themselves for third place while keeping the heat on Providence for second and a first round playoff bye.

I think they played exact duplicates of the two games in Cleveland, but had the breaks go more their way Monday, specifically in the third period, and won easily. I don’t think that Cleveland posed much of a threat to the Penguins at any time during the two games out in Cleveland.

The Monsters are dueling with Syracuse for tops in the North Division. The Crunch went 1-2 last week, dropping a close contest with Rochester last Wednesday, beating Belleville Friday and losing to Hershey on Saturday.

Utica went 2-1 last week, losing to Belleville Wednesday while beating Hershey in a shootout on Friday and beating a slumping Hartford side clean on Saturday. The Comets host Bridgeport Friday before taking the trip down I-81 Saturday.

Lehigh Valley were shutout by the Penguins last Wednesday, then went to Providence and took 3 out of 4 points, losing in a shootout on Friday.

This past Wednesday, the Phantoms hosted a regressing Springfield side and beat them 3-1.

Records

The Penguins are third in the Atlantic with a 31-20-8-1 record, good for 71 points.

Syracuse is second in the North with a 34-19-4-2 record, good for 74 points.

Utica is 26-24-4-4 and last in the North with 60 points.

Lehigh Valley is 27-24-5-3 and sixth in the Atlantic good for 62 points.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Valtteri Puustinen is up and will likely be back at the end of Pittsburgh’s regular season.

Jonathan Gruden was recalled by Pittsburgh Tuesday, after being held out Monday in Cleveland. Jack St. Ivany was returned to Wilkes-Barre Monday and played against the Monsters in Game 2 and had three assists. Gruden was sent back and St. Ivany was recalled on Thursday. I would expect this trend to continue.

Up from Wheeling remain Justin Addamo, Raivis Ansons, Owen Headrick and Lukas Svejkovsky.

Coal Street signed defenseman Scooter Brickey to an AHL contract which starts next season. He’s with the team currently on an ATO. He is from The Ohio State University.

Peter Abbandonato, Marc Johnstone and Sam Houde remain out with injuries. There’s hope from the chatter revealed this past weekend that Abbandonato and Johnstone are back at some point. Forget about Houde who has upper and lower body injuries.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

How quickly they can close out the 13 point gap they have to sew up a playoff spot and work on either pursuing second place or preserving third place.

Syracuse was an active team at the trade deadline, adding ex-Penguin Jordy Bellerive. They are a good team and likely better than Cleveland, so that should be a decent enough of a test for the Penguins on Friday. The Penguins split a pair of games with the Crunch back in November. Taylor Gauthier picked up a shutout then lost the next night. The Crunch are 6-3-1 in their last ten and trending towards better, with these acquisitions made.

Utica is above .500 but in last place but the North Division is very competitive. The Comets are 6-3-0-1 in their last ten. Don’t expect “last place team, easy win” vibes with this team. This is a trap game of all trap games for the Penguins.

Lehigh Valley is who we think they are, a mercurial team that can run with the Penguins but can be beat. They are to us what the Penguins are to the Hershey Bears. We always think we can beat Hershey and expect to, if we play the right way, but Hershey breaks down the Penguins and it’s usually the Bears winning. Same thing applies with the Phantoms, but the Penguins are the better team in this example.

Same thing that applies though, get good goaltending, score a power play goal, stay disciplined, get depth scoring. It sounds cliché but it’s simple really and fundamental.

Check Your Surroundings

Providence hosts Charlotte and Syracuse Saturday and Sunday respectively. At the end of the weekend, the Bruins will have two games in hand on the Penguins so if that deficit to second is smaller at the end of the weekend, it may be a bit of a mirage because the Bruins will have two games in hand.

Charlotte will have Springfield and Providence on the road this weekend and the Checkers will have a game in hand on the Penguins at the end of the weekend. Springfield is a bit of a mystery. Seems like they are fading, worse then Lehigh Valley for the six seed, so we will see.

Hartford is in a slump. If they don’t watch Lehigh Valley could catch them. Unlikely, but I’m more attentive to what Charlotte is doing vs. Hartford because remember the Wolf Pack had five games in hand on the Pens, and lost most of them.

The Wolf Pack played in Rochester on Wednesday and scored five goals but lost clean 6-5. They will have Toronto Saturday and Belleville Sunday. At various points in the season, they had five games in hand on the Pens, now they just have one, and are four points behind the Pens for the third seed.

Here’s a look at the standings coming into Friday:

2. Providence, 59 games played, and 77 points.
3. PENGUINS, 60 games played and 71 points.
4. Charlotte, 60 games played and 68 points.
5. Hartford, 59 games played and 67 points.

Who’s in Goal?

I would have expected Ludovic Waeber last weekend but J.D. Forrest threw a curve at me and everyone else and went Blomqvist for his fifth straight start and a back-to-back appearance out in Cleveland. Waeber will have to start a game in this three in three. My guess is Saturday.

Brandon Halverson, Akira Schmid, Cal Petersen if I had to guess for the competition, which I kind of am here.

Who’s Running the Show?

Justin Kea and Johnathan Daniels have the assignment in Syracuse with Dylan Blujus and Jarrett Burton on the lines.

Mathieu Menniti and Casey Terreri will be in the orange arm bands Saturday with Richard Jondo and Tyler Loftus on the lines.

Sunday in Allentown sees Brendan Schreider and Mike Dietrich with Robert Peterkin and Michael Magee on the lines.

Looking ahead…

One game next week, a Saturday game at home against, you guessed it! The Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Give us a bold prediction…

Magic number dips to single digits, Ludovic Waeber stands on his head with a 35+ save performance and a win for the Pens in his debut Saturday and Jagger Joshua picks up AHL Player of the Week honors with five goals and three assists. The Penguins score a power play goal in each game, including a game where they score two.