Chirps from Center Ice

As things stand, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are just four points away from the second place Providence Bruins. Yes, the Bruins have a game in hand on the Penguins and the Charlotte Checkers are tied with the Penguins in points with the same amount of games played. The Penguins, winners of five straight, seem to be heading in the right directions, all of them positive.

Wait, what’s that I smell? Chocolate. Oh, boy.

The reigning, defending, undisputed 12 time Calder Cup Champions are back on the Penguins schedule this weekend. And they are there twice.

The division and soon the entire AHL will need to run through Hershey, as the Bears locked up the Atlantic Division Championship early last week and are just three points away from winning the regular season title ensuring they have home ice against every playoff victim opponent the Bears may face this postseason.

For the Penguins, second place in the division is calling to them. The only issue is that the voice may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing which is actually a bear.

Music to Set the Mood…

Let’s hope that our road leads to a first round bye.

A Quote…

“Fire Forrest”
— a lot of us

There’s a reason we are fans and that decision makers are decision makers. No matter what happens here in the next month, month and a half if we are lucky, you got to hand it to J.D. Forrest and the coaching staff of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. He’s navigated choppy waters all season long in losing his top two leading scorers in Rem Pitlick and Alex Nylander to trade and possibly his current leading scorer in Ty Smith to injury.

I don’t think the Penguins are where they are under the tutelage of anyone else other than Forrest. I was wrong, you were too, and we gotta hand it to the guy.

The Setup

Another three in three weekend with Bridgeport here Friday then a home and home with the Hershey Bears Saturday here and Sunday in Hershey.

For the Penguins, they got all six points last weekend in a three in three. An OT thriller against Cleveland on Friday, a 6-3 drubbing of the last place Islanders on Saturday then a 5-1 beatdown of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Sunday. Newcomers Evan Vierling, Mathieu De St. Phalle and the regulars like Avery Hayes and Xavier Ouellet all stepped up huge and got this team all six points and at the doorstep of a possible first round bye.

The Islanders on Sunday lost in a shootout to the resurgent Rochester Americans 5-4. Hershey thumped the Iowa Wild 7-2 on Friday then beat the Wild in a shootout 3-2 on Saturday to continue to rack up points and get closer to the regular season title, a meaningless accomplishment for a franchise that measures itself on Calder Cups.

Records

Penguins are tied for third in the Atlantic with a 36-22-8-1 record good for 81 points and have 67 games played.

Bridgeport is last in the Atlantic with a 24-36-6-2 record good for 56 points and 68 games played.

Hershey is an astonishing 50-12-0-5 with 105 points and 67 games played.

Check Your Surroundings…

Providence is second in the Atlantic with a record of 38-19-6-3 with 85 points and 66 games played.

The Bruins came away with just two overtime loser points thanks to losses handed to them by Lehigh Valley and Rochester. The Bruins have a scrappy Utica Comets team twice at home Friday-Saturday and a flailing Springfield team in Western Massachusetts on Sunday.

The fourth place Charlotte Checkers have a 37-23-7-0 record and 81 points with 67 games played.

The Checkers swept the Hartford Wolf Pack this weekend by an aggregate score of 8-1. Old buddy Magnus Hellberg had a 20 save shutout for the Checkers on Saturday. Charlotte is in Springfield and Hartford Saturday and Sunday respectively, so on account of playing Friday, the Penguins will be in arrears to a game for the Checkers when the dust settles Sunday evening.

What can we learn about the Penguins this week?

I think this weekend is really the last stand they have against chasing down the first round bye because as I said Providence and Charlotte will have a game in hand on the Penguins heading into the start of next week. I think the guys in the room realize it is a very important weekend to get all six points again if they want to be contenders for the bye but playing the Category Five Superteam known as the Hershey Bears makes for a tall task.

That means Ludovic Waeber will likely see a start for the Penguins because I can’t see a scenario where Joel Blomqvist plays back to back with a travel day in between to Hershey on Sunday afternoon. Perhaps I am wrong. I very well may be.

You need to play a perfect game against the Bears if you want to have hope you are in contention at the end. They have done that back when they were toiling and we were calling for a change at the head coach position. That means limiting power play opportunities given to the Bears and limiting turnovers and general errors made. Hershey forces a ton of that, their record and run of play shows that of late. You just have to execute and keep it close in the end.

Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?

Out: Peter Abbandonato, Marc Johnstone, Sam Houde, Vasily Ponomarev, Joona Koppanen, Taylor Gauthier and Jonathan Gruden were unavailable this past weekend due to injury. We don’t know the status of Ty Smith yet, injured Sunday.

Up: Ryan Shea, Jack St. Ivany, Valtteri Puustinen. Radim Zohorna went up Wednesday, Vinnie Hinostroza went up Thursday.

Sam Poulin was returned back to Wilkes-Barre Wednesday.

Down: Justin Addamo, Dillon Hamaliuk are in Wheeling.

Max Cajkovic, Matthew Quercia were released on Wednesday. Cajkovic was loaned to the Slovakian national team.

Lukas Svejkovsky and Taylor Gauthier are up from Wheeling and on the Coal Street roster.

More ATO’s: Emil Järventie, Kalle Kangas, Beau Jelsma were signed at various parts of this past week.

Who’s in Goal?

I think we see Ken Appleby for the Islanders and that two headed monster combo of Hunter Shepard and Clay Stevenson for the Bears. My gut says Ludovic Waeber Friday and Joel Blomqvist on Saturday and Sunday but my heart says otherwise.

Who’s Running the Show?

Jordan Deckard and Jordan Watt are the assigned refs Friday with J.P. Waleski and Tyler Loftus joining them on the lines.

Watt sticks around and has Taylor Burzminski join him with Bill Lyons and Jud Ritter on the lines.

Alex Łepkowski and Jordan Deckard are the assigned referees Sunday in Hershey with Justin Johnson and Richard Jondo on the lines.

A Note About Me…

I will not be at either home game this weekend due to a pre-planned camping trip to Lancaster this weekend. I’m likely not going to be able to watch Friday’s game on AHLTV, so I will do my best to cobble something together. I should have something Saturday and Sunday, though. I’ll be back for playoffs.

Looking Ahead…

Final weekend of the regular season with a stop in Hartford Friday and the season finale in Allentown against the Phantoms on Saturday.

Give us a bold prediction…

No reason to believe that they can’t run the win streak to eight and be a point or two off Providence for second. I think that if not, the Bruins and Checkers falter also and it all gets decided next weekend.