Chirps from Center Ice

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins won 5-3 Saturday afternoon in Charlotte to propel themselves back to second place in the Atlantic Division and ties the Checkers with the second tire breaker, being regulation or overtime wins with some really good special teams play.

They killed off a Tristan Broz double minor and then another in the first period against a Checkers power play which is ranked third in the AHL.

Then, the Penguins scored a power play goal when Vasily Ponomarev scored with under seven minutes to play against the Checkers top ranked penalty kill.

The teams will rematch at 1 p.m. Sunday. I’ll be asking my priest to hurry up his sermon at the 11 a.m. mass I plan on attending.

Here’s how they lined up:

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Lineup Notes: AHL pro debut for Harrison Brunicke. Rutger McGraorty and Ville Koivunen were recalled to Pittsburgh and Joona Koppanen was sent back. Alex Gallant and Koppanen were in for those two and Brunicke went in for Scooter Brickey.

First Period: No scoring. Jack St. Ivany had yeoman like work on the Penguins penalty kill, which the Pens needed to do three times where one was a double minor Tristan Broz infraction.

Filip Larsson had a hell of a save on one of the closing sequences.

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Second Period: Sam Poulin scores when the puck gets lost in the pads of Checkers goaltender Cooper Black.

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Later, Valtteri Puustinen muscled his way into the Checkers zone and wired one past Black that made it 2-0 Wilkes-Barre.

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Then Charlotte started a furious push in the final five minutes of the period.

Nicholas Zabaneh played pitch and catch with Oliver Okuliar after creating a turnover and scored to get the Checkers on the board.

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Then Harrison Brunicke had a rookie mistake. He tried to bank a pass to himself off of the net he was defending and Sandis Vilmanis made him pay.

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To this point, I thought Brunicke looked good. He had some power play time as well.

Third Period: Fast forward to the 13:07 mark of the period where Wilmer Skoog was called for hooking. On the ensuing power play, Atley Calvert set a screen in front and Vasily Ponomarev unleashed a hell of a shot that beat Cooper Black to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead.

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As described above, first pro point for Harrison Brunicke who assisted on the power play goal.

With Black pulled for an extra attacker, Matt Nieto scored from about 185 feet away into the empty net and then Joona Koppanen muscled his way through all three zones to score an empty netter of his own to seal it for the Penguins.

Justin Sourdif had a wrap around chance that deflected off of the skates of Owen Pickering in front as a consolation goal for the Checkers with :36 left.

Three Stars: 3) Nicholas Zabaneh (goal) 2) Valtteri Puustinen (goal) 1) Vasily Ponomarev (power play goal)

The Good: Huge two points Saturday and they get to roll out Sergei Murashov out Sunday who has not lost in the AHL yet. Special teams ruled the day for the Penguins and this is a huge two points.

The Bad: Charlotte never went away and if it wasn’t for the late special teams theatrics for the Penguins, could have been a different result, but that’s a stretch.

Turning Point: Glaringly obvious here, the Ponomarev goal gets it here.

Around the Division: Well, hate to do this to you but with them playing early Saturday and even earlier Sunday, these won’t be here this weekend. I will leave links to the daily box here and Sunday if I remember. Heh.

Standings: As it stands the Penguins are three off Hershey for tops in the division with 82 points, but the Bears are in Utica Saturday night.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are hosting the Cincinnati Cyclones in a few hours.

Video Highlights: AHL VideoCenter is likely your best bet.

Back at it early Sunday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!