Chirps from Center Ice

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Wilkes-Barre grits out a 5-3 win Sunday in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in a game where the vibe was the same like Wednesday against Hershey. Pens go up, Bears draw even. Rinse and repeat here, but this game didn’t go to a shootout.

Seems like a methodical, determined win for the Pens, whose magic number will drop to six. They can hypothetically sew up a berth next weekend to the Calder Cup Playoffs.

But let’s talk about Sunday.

Here’s how they lined up:

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Lineup Notes: Poolman and Hollowell (illness) were out for Chase Pietila (making his AHL debut) and Scooter Brickey on defense. Atley Calvert for Vasily Ponomarev (lower body, day to day) up front.

First Period: It was a blink and you missed it start, with Tristan Broz getting a power play goal at 2:57, Joona Koppanen following with a shorthanded goal :24 later and then Ehen Samson getting an even strength goal :02 after a Phantoms power plat that made it a blazing start just 5:05 in. Here’s all the goals.

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Things settled a bit after that with each team getting a few good looks but no further scoring.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre couldn’t get out of second gear to start the period having to kill a left over penalty to start the period and then a period right after that. Givani Smith netted another even strength goal for the Phantoms right after the power play expired that tied the game at two.

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Things again settled from there and the Penguins found themselves on a late power play.

Well, make it 2/2 in the contest so far for the Penguins as Avery Hayes pumped in power play goal for Wilkes-Barre that re-established the lead for the away team.

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Phantoms made a little bit of a pushback but Sergei Murashov held steady in the net for the Penguins.

Third Period: Penguins found themselves in familiar territory that they had Friday in Allentown, a long 5-on-3 for, this time for 1:42, but the Phnatoms held the Penguins to zero shots I believe.

Lehigh Valley gets a power play and then Phantoms debutante Nikita Grebenkin scores to even it at three.

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Just a backbreaking turn of events that I think do them in last season or a few seasons back.

But not this team.

Undeterred, Valterri Puustinen tips in an Owen Pickering shot to push the Penguins ahead 4-3.

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Then with Alexei Kolosov out for an extra Phantom, Joona Koppanen scores an empty net goal.

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Three Stars: 3) 1) Nikita Grebenkin (goal) 2) Valterri Puustinen (goal) 1) Joona Koppanen (two goals)

The Good: Nice response, they bent but didn’t break, handled road business and took home two points.

The Bad: Lehigh Valley isn’t a team they are going to want to see in the playoffs. I like the way they matchup. against Hershey. I don’t like the way they matchup against the Phantoms. So there’s that.

The Bad 2: Failing to score on over three minutes of five on three advantage for over the course of back to back games is going to give a lot of teams a lot of film on how to replicate what the Phantoms did to the Penguins these past two games.

Turning Point: Glaringly obvious, the Puustinen tip of the Pickering shot that gave Wilkes-Barre the lead for good gets it here.

Around the Division: Hershey is up big at the time this goes up in Chicago and will be the first team in the Calder Cup Playoffs if it holds. Box here. Charlotte is up on Toronto up in Canada, that box is here and Providence beats a suddenly ice cold Springfield Thunderbirds team 4-1.

Standings: Can’t really intelligently do this with the Bears and Checkers still competing in games when I hit “Publish” here – Penguins have 74 points and will stay in second place in the Division with a game in hand against Providence. Huge matchup between these two teams looms Friday in Wilkes-Barre.

Wheeling Update: Nailers in action with the Cincinnati Cyclones, that box is also here.

Video Highlights: At some point can be found here.

They will get the week off to rest recover and hopefully get some key guys back or close to back as the season hits its stretch run.

AHL Power Rankings will be up Monday at 2. Please do check those out.

Let’s Go Pens!