Chirps from Center Ice

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So this Filip Larsson is good, right?

29 saves, including some timely ones on a late second and third period penalty kill and don’t look now but the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are just four off of the Hershey Bears for first place in the division with a 3-2 win Friday night over the visiting Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Oh yeah, and this Tristan Broz kid is going places too. A pair of goals for the rookie.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: All on defense as the forward lines were unchanged. Mats Lindgren and Justin Lee for the recalled Nate Clurman and the Spengler Cup playing Mac Hollowell.

First Period: Terrible start, Filip Larsson lets in the first shot he sees by Garrett Wilson just 1:17 and the Phantoms were off and running early.

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But later, Tristan Broz would score a highlight reel goal and tie the game late in the period.

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Second Period: 2:03 into the second period and Broz scored on a bullet of a one timer set up by Rutger McGroarty and Wilkes-Barre edged ahead 2-1.

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I saw the shot, but never saw the puck. Neither did Cal Petersen and it was 3-1 Penguins.

Rutger McGroarty assisted. It won’t be much longer before Broz is getting the call to Pittsburgh. That was his team leading 12th goal of the season. He’s tied with Boris Katchouk with a dozen goals on the season for the Penguins.

Larsson was at his finest late in a Phantoms power play with seconds left on the clock. Absolutely lasered in on a kill where his unit was out there the whole two minutes. Huge moment.

Third Period: Vasily Ponomarev joined in the goal scoring party with this goal here off of a long shot blockered away by Petersen to Ponomarev who waited, held and shot and scored to make it 3-1 just :43 into the period.

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Decent enough of a response by Lehigh Valley who score off of what I thought was a lazy, seeing eye Ethan Samson shot that beat Larsson up high and in that made it a too close for comfort with too much time remaining one goal game.

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Penguins navigate through another late penalty kill, I thought referees Sydney Harris and Liam Maaskant were okay, I wouldn’t want them as pilots of an airplane because that was a bit of a rough landing.

Phantoms were unable to find the equalizer with Petersen vacated.

Three Stars: 3) Dan Renouf (two assists) 2) Rutger McGroarty (two assists) 1) Tristan Broz (two goals)

The Good: They are finding ways to win rough and tumble games like last weekend and tight and tidy games like the one you saw tonight.

The Bad: 0/4 on the power play, but write some of that off because Mac Hollowell is in Switzerland and everything runs through him.

Turning Point: I have to give it to that late second period kill where the Phantoms did everything but score and Larsson did everything to stop them.

Around the Division: Providence is 7-0 against the Bridgeport Islanders after a 4-1 win…Springfield’s five game losing streak ends with a 5-2 win over Hartford.

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 3-2 in Cincinnati over the Cyclones. Sergei Murashov continues to play on god mode at the ECHL level with 23 saves and hasn’t lost a game in a while for Wheeling. Wheeling is a point off of the defending Kelly Cup Champion Florida Everblades for the best overall team in the ECHL.

Video Highlights: 

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More Saturday after a visit to Hershey.

Let’s Go Pens!