Chirps from Center Ice

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are the first team knocked out of the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs after Helge Grans’ goal with two minutes to play in regulation in Game 2 on Friday night gives the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 3-2 lead in the game. Using the 31 saves from a 31-year old Parker Gahagen that has all of a sudden found the fountain of youth, the Penguins are again dismissed via sweep by their Pennsylvania Turnpike rival for the second year in a row.

A disappointing end to another promising season where they won 40 games under head coach Kirk MacDonald. The Penguins flaws were exposed in a bad way in the ever on the edge best of three series.

A broken Joel Blomqvist.

An aging, lax and sometimes broken defense.

A 21 year old phenom goaltender who has a lot to learn on rebound control in Sergei Murashov. Murashov was solid in the game, but the two goals he gave up in the third period came off of juicy rebounds. He has to get this under control and quickly if he wants to be the goaltender you want him to be.

The curse of the shutout in the final regular season home game has legs.

So it goes.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: Mathias Laferriere for Chase Stillman up front,.  Dan Renouf for Nate Clurman.

First Period: Both teams killed the other teams penalties. Emotions high. Murashov was calm. The Penguins were the better team.

Second Period: Penguins get two power play chances. Couldn’t score. Lehigh Valley opens the scoring when Jett Luchanko sets up Anthony Richard for a 1-0 lead.

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Dan Renouf has two Calder Cups. One with Grand Rapids and one with Charlotte. He’s aged twenty years since the start of the season. That was on him there.

Parker Gahagen was under fire in the period, standing on his head all period.

Wilkes-Barre gets a power play late and it felt like a turning point.

Tristan Broz cashes on it.

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The Penguins were the better team.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre has to kill of 1:57 of five on three. They may have lost this series, but the penalty kill in this game alone was aces. They kill the nearly two minute power play with ease.

They get a goal from their rookie Harrison Brunicke set up by Tristan Broz.

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Then they stopped being the better team.

You could see it in the faces of the crowd when the camera panned to them, the fans were worried. But then a Zayde Wisdom shot spills off the pads of Sergei Murashov to the tape of Jacob Gaucher and the Phantoms tie the game. Life.

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Pens had a brief :40 power play but couldn’t get anything going.

Are we going to overtime? Sure felt like it.

Until it didn’t.

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What the hell man.

Time out Wilkes-Barre. With. Murashov pulled for the extra man, the Penguins couldn’t win a face-off to even give them a shot to tie the game.

Three Stars: 3) Parker Gahagen (31 saves) 2) Anthony Richard (goal, assist) 1) Helge Grans (goal)

The Good: Young group that maybe didn’t know any better. They mastered Lehigh Valley in the regular season but playoffs are a different beast especially in a best of three series. They should keep the core together, add in a few more vets, perhaps a defensemen or two and maybe get back next season.

The Bad: I joked about it in the second half of the season about how the Penguins and Phantoms were destined to meet again in the playoffs. They (or I) have to stop looking past Lehigh Valley as a walkover. They started to sputter at the end of the season and that cost them a shot at the bye. Unless or until they change the format (they won’t) they will always be subject to the best of three format. It’s something that they need to avoid.

Turning Point: The Grans goal with two minutes left gets it here.

So that’s it. Thanks for sticking around for another year. I’ll continue to do this for as long as it remains fun. This season was fun, but as always, ended too soon.

I should be back sometime this week with a wrap up piece / grades on every player then it’s off to a long summer. As someone who prefers the warm over the cold, it’s something I am looking forward very much.

Have a great summer and we will talk to you soon.