Chirps from Center Ice

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins won easily in Belleville, Ontario Friday night 6-1 and have an eight game point streak, the longest streak since the 2019-20 season. It was a bit of a total team effort for the Penguins, who get 39 saves out of Joel Blomqvist on his 23rd birthday and three assists from Rutger McGroarty who set Sam Poulin up for a pair of goals, one of those shorthanded in the third period.

The teams rematch Sunday afternoon in Belleville.

Here’s how they lined up.

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Lineup Notes: Boko Imama for Corey Andonovski up front, Nikolai Knyzhov, returning from injury, replaces Scooter Brickey on defense. Sebastian Aho is week to week with a lower body injury.

First Period: The Penguins scored three goals on the first three shots they fired at Mads Søgaard, and they were off to the races.

Avery Hayes at 4:55, the first shot of the game for either side made it 1-0.

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Then Sam Poulin capitalized off of a Belleville turnover and it was 2-0 Wilkes-Barre.

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Then the Penguins go on a power play and Valtteri Puustinen scores a power play goal that makes it 3-0.

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It was surreal hearing Nick Hart on radio use the adjective, “lethal” when describing the Penguins power play, which is clicking at around 25%.

Sadly Valtteri Puustinen and Sam Poulin were denied on the fourth and fifth shots of the game for the Penguins.

The Penguins survived a late push by Belleville to conclude the period.

Second Period: Boris Katchouk tallied a goal at 2:03 of the period and that was enough to chase Mads Søgaard from the Belleville net. It was 4-1 Penguins and enter Michael Simpson. Here’s the Katchouk goal:

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Belleville would get on the board when Keean Washkurak would get a step on Jonathan Gruden and collected a nice pass from Jan Jenik and the Senators were on the board, spoiling a would be shutout bid for Joel Blomqvist on his 23rd birthday…

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Game started to devolve a bit as Nate Clurman took what looked like a knee on knee hit which drew the ire of Vasiliy Ponomarev who took a penalty. But there was no penalty heading the way of Belleville. The Penguins were able to kill that off, but then Jonathan Gruden fought Garrett Pilon and then eight seconds after that Boko Imama, who played last year for these Senators, fought Hayden Hodgson.

The Penguins were able to navigate these waters fine, then the aforementioned Imama scored a goal that made it 5-1 Penguins.

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Third Period: The Penguins get a second goal from Sam Poulin who was stopped once by Simpson on the breakaway but then he and McGroarty work some magic to get a turnover and Poulin scores to make it 6-1.

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Belleville put a lot of shots on Joel Blomqvist, but the quantity didn’t overcome the quality and while some of the saves were a bit challenging, at no point were the Penguins in danger of relinquishing the lead.

Three Stars: 3) Rutger McGroarty (three assists) 2) Sam Poulin (two goals) 1) Joel Blomqvist (39 saves)

The Good: Belleville is a bad team and the Penguins handled them easily, which is what a good team should do in this situation.

The Bad: Losing Nate Clurman to injury for one. That’s Clurman and Aho on this trip. There’s winning big, but losing guys to injury is never anything you want to see.

Turning Point: I think the third goal on the third shot would get it here. That buried the Senators and there was no coming back from that on their current run of play.

Around the Division: A three goal deficit is nothing for the reigning Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears who were down 3-0 to start the third, storm back for three goals to tie and then an Alex Limoges goal in overtime gives the Bears a 4-3 win in Charlotte. Those two teams will rematch Saturday…Providence beats Bridgeport 4-1….Hartford beats Lehigh Valley 3-2 in overtime.

Standings: Hershey 47 – Penguins 43 – Charlotte 42 – Providence 40 – Lehigh Valley 38 – Hartford 35 – Springfield 29 – Bridgeport 18

Wheeling Update: Wheeling wins 4-1 in Indiana against the Indy Fuel. Taylor Gauthier stopped 25. Matthew Quercia had a pair of goals.

Video Highlights: Doubtful. Suggest if you really want them, head to the AHL VideoCenter sometime Saturday morning.

Enjoy the Saturday off, talk to you Sunday.

Let’s Go Pens!