Chirps from Center Ice

             vs.          

6                                   1

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I don’t know what was worse, tonight’s 6-1 throttling at the hands (paws?) of the Hershey Bears or the roads home.

Either way, a quick one here on a Wednesday work night.

Bears head coach Todd Nelson challenged his team after Saturday’s loss to the Penguins. He called the Bears “entitled” after winning back to back Calder Cups.

I thought about this long and hard Wednesday. Would you want to play for a guy where every day is the Super Bowl? Or is it hard to please such a demanding man to the point where your best may not be his best? I don’t know, it’s a tough spot.

Regardless, the back to back Calder Cup Champs responded in kind and handled business on the road in Wilkes-Barre.

I’m not going to clip in each of the Bears goals.

Here’s how they lined up. Mind the embed issues. I am told sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

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Lineup Notes: In addition to Jagger Joshua being assigned to Wheeling, Sergei Murashov went with him. It’s an embarrassment of riches for the Penguins that the guy that beat the Bears on Saturday was in a car headed west to Wheeling. Tough league. March Johnstone replaced Joshua up front and Jack St. Ivany took the place of Isaac Belliveau on defense.

First Period: Penguins get outworked on the first Bears goal, they leave a guy that always seems to score on them for a second goal and a tic tac toe play ends up in their net for the third goal.

They went Ethan Bear, Pierrick Dube and Bogdan Trineyev in that order.

Two of those goals were scored in the final minute which has to be unacceptable.

Second Period: Hoping to get back into the game, the Penguins put a firing squad in front of Hunter Shepard but Shepard had a blindfold and a good cigarette because he was cool as a cucumber and turned them all away.

The Penguins would lose a board battle and the Bears would score another to make it 4-0 (Henrik Rybinski) then a shot changes speed / direction on Joel Blomqvist and Alex Limoges gets credit for it and it’s 5-0, and the very next shift :16 later Boris Katchouk would score to get the Penguins on the board.

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But then an Ethen Frank snipe made it 6-1, again a goal by the opposition in the period’s final minute.

Third Period: Filip Larsson would replace Joel Blomqvist and allow no shots, the Penguins would score no goals and it would end up a 6-1 final.

Three Stars: 3) Hunter Shepard (29 saves) 2) Ethen Frank (goal, assist) 1) Henrik Rybinski (goal, two assists)

The Good: I slid down a hill, almost put my truck sideways and into a ditch but made it out straight, slower and OK and home in one piece.

The Bad: Nights like these make me miss summer.

Turning Point: The Frank goal that made it 6-1 proved that even if the Penguins scored again, Hershey wasn’t backing down.

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley loses 7-3 at home to Rockford…. Hartford wins 6-1 in Bridgeport. The rest of them had the Wednesday off.

Standings: Hershey 33 – Penguins 23 – Charlotte 23 – Lehigh Valley 22 – Springfield 21 – Hartford 21 – Providence 18 – Bridgeport 13

Things are tight, yes, but the Penguins have six games in hand on Hershey and three on everyone else but for Charlotte who have the same games played (17) and. four on Bridgeport.

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: Doubt anyone would want to relive this abomination.

Back at it Saturday in Hartford. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!