Chirps from Center Ice

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2                                3

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Atley Calvert had a pair of goals but it was Avery Hayes’ goal in overtime that gives the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins a 3-2 overtime win over the Hershey Bears on Saturday night.

Good wash away game for the Penguins after Friday’s monstrosity against Providence.

Onto Bridgeport Sunday, with a chance to close the magic number even closer to zero.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: Sam Poulin was suspended a game by the AHL early Saturday for a slew foot. He was called for a hold :31 into the third period Friday but I thought it had the look of a slew foot and I was right. He was out, Marc Johnstone is hurt so that meant Matt Nieto and Zach Gallant were in up front. For Gallant it was his Penguins debut. On defense Sebastian Aho and Scooter Brickey were in for Dan Renouf and Nate Clurman.

First Period: Tamer start in comparison to the low bar based off of Friday, Filip Kral was called for a high stick and the Bears played pitch and catch with the puck and Mike Vecchione slammed one home to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

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Give a great team like the Bears an inch and they take a mile.

Second Period: Atley Calvert cleaned up the trash around the front of the net and scored to get the Penguins on the board at 3:49.

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Penguins to this point still hadn’t had a power play. That said, Casey Terreri and Mike Dietrich called a fantastic game.

Third Period: Calvert nets his second of the game at 6:52 off a nice feed from Zach Gallant to push the Penguins ahead 2-1.

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Turning Point: Wait, what? Just work with me here. Henrik Rybinski high sticks Filip Kral and draws blood, Penguins to a 4:00 power play. They do not score. They do not threaten. The Bears kill it easy.

Then with Hunter Shepard pulled, Mike Vecchione nets his second of the game off of a deflection.

(Hershey didn’t offer video. Many in the arena thought it was a kick, but Terreri and Dietrich reviewed and adjudged good goal)

Overtime: 

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Ballgame.

Three Stars: 3) Sergei Murashov (24 saves, 10-0 in AHL) 2) Atley Calvert (two goals) 1) Avery Hayes (overtime game winning goal)

The Good:  Way to wash to stink off that loss Providence handed you. It was one game, crumble it up and throw it in the bin and move on to the next one. They didn’t make the same mistakes and it got them the win.

The Bad: Giving another point to a team you are trying to chase down is a fools enterprise.

Gave you the turning point above. Get one, maybe two power play goals, and the Hayes heroics are not needed.

Around the Division: Hartford beats Milwaukee in overtime 2-1. The Penguins cannot clinch a spot this weekend. I think that’s the only score that matters. The rest of the boxes are here.

Standings: Hershey has 83. The Penguins have 76. With these Saturday game starting an hour earlier, I ain’t sticking around for the remaining finals.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in Toledo. Box here.

Video Highlights: Usually how these go as the moment I hit publish the video highlight will go up.

More tomorrow against Bridgeport Sunday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!