Chirps from Center Ice

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5                              4

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So that’s two wins on back to back nights against the North Division and Atlantic Division leading teams.

Clean. No overtime. No fluke goals. No flukes.

Adversity? Overcome. Tenacity? There. Never say die attitude? You bet.

Wilkes-Barre wins 5-4 after a late goal from Rutger McGroarty set up by Tristan Broz in another instant classic game by the Penguins in a weekend full of them.

The Penguins never trailed in the game and Filip Král had a four point (2-2) night. The aforementioned Broz had three assists.

There may be something there there with this team, but it’s November, about to be December here in a few hours and I have been down this road. Let’s enjoy the wins but not get ahead of ourselves.

Here’s how they lined up:

https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/1863002509607936494

Lineup Notes: These embeds aren’t working anymore and I don’t know what I am going to do about it. Anyway, Boko Imama and Jagger Joshua were in for Avery Hayes and Marc Johnstone from last night. up front and Isaac Belliveau for Sebastian Aho on defense.

First Period: Penguins didn’t waste any time and scored just. :55 in when a floater of a shot by Filip Král eluded Hunter Shepard.

Bogdan Trineyev scored through a mangrove of Penguins defenders midway through. Dan Renouf wasn’t able to corral the puck and the Bears capitalized. That’s what champions do.

https://twitter.com/TheHersheyBears/status/1863018935878058040

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Second Period: One of the non scoring things I picked up in this period was the ease with which the Penguins killed the Hershey power plays that the back to back defending champs were awarded off the whistles of Cody Beach and Liam Maaskant.

Spencer Smallman was denied by Sergei Murashov and Murashov looked sharp.

Back to the power play talk, the Penguins didn’t waste any time on a power play opportunity when Vasily Ponomarev scored off a rebound from a shot from the point caromed off of Shepard and to Ponomarev who scored to give the Penguins a lead.

https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/1863034818662973711

This made Hershey mad. They respond in kind with relentless pressure. Usually you see this with teams and it passes with no goals. Those aren’t championship teams. This is a championship team.

https://twitter.com/TheHersheyBears/status/1863035741816660219

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In case you are having problems with the embed, it’s Vinnie Iorio picking a spot on the low near corner that tied the game again.

But then the Penguins would edge ahead again when Emil Bemström would sneak behind the Hershey defense and snipe home a goal that made it 3-2 Penguins heading into the….

https://twitter.com/TheAHL/status/1863039017786241447

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Third Period: Hershey would connect on leftover power play time from the second period when Chase Priskie, who has all of his goals for the Bears on the power play this season, connects to tie the game yet again.

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Then the Penguins would all of a sudden get :55 of a two man advantage and it looked bad. I thought that the Bears would kill it all off, get the requisite momentum, score again and hold on to win and here’s your turning point.

Wrong.

Enter Kral again who scores his second of the night that makes it 4-3 on the power play.

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Nine seconds later, Ethen Frank scores to tie it again. The heavyweight bout was entering its 11th round.

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Again, I have no idea of these embeds are embedding. Click the link and hit back to see what I am trying to show you.

Wilkes-Barre would navigate out of another Hershey power play about midway through and it looked like we were heading for overtime.

Nope. Tristan Broz, who has been the Penguins best player to date, finds Rutger McGroarty late that edges the Penguins ahead.

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I liked how Broz waits out the diving Bears defender there and calmly shuffles a pass over to his teammate for the go ahead goal there. That’s veteran type stuff from an AHL rookie.

Hershey would pull Shepard in favor of an extra attacker but would not find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Rutger McGroarty (goal, assist) 2) Vincent Iorio (goal, assist) 1) Filip Král (two goals, two assists)

The Good: Hell of a way to establish yourself as a team that needs to be taken seriously taking down the North and Atlantic Division leading teams here in November. Power play looks lethal, penalty kill is really good as well.

The Bad: You are really nitpicking blaming defense or goaltending when you are in a shootout like this against a back to back champion in Hershey.

Turning Point: Broz to McGroarty at 18:45 of the third period that gives the Penguins the lead for good gets it here.

Around the Division: Charlotte shuts out Iowa 3-0….Springfield beats Hartford 4-1….Belleville shut out Bridgeport 2-0….Lehigh Valley beats Laval 4-3 and Utica wins their fifth game in a row shutting out Providence 3-0.

Standings: Hershey 31 – Penguins and Checkers 23 – Lehigh Valley 22 – Springfield and Hartford 19 – Providence 18 – Bridgeport 13

Wheeling Update: Nailers blow out the Cincinnati Cyclones 7-1. Taylor Gauthier stops 31. Kyle Jackson had a four point (2-2) night and was a +5.

Video Highlights: Will likely be up as soon as I get tired of waiting around for them and shut my laptop like last night. LOL.

Power Rankings Monday. It’s a recurring theme that I can’t get a team stick as a number one team. Laval was number one last week and lost two straight. They are out. Cleveland has won 10 in a row, the heck with it, give it to Cleveland. Check out the rest on Monday.

Let’s Go Pens!