Chirps from Center Ice

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Other rejected headline was, “Tufte Luck” – as I think I have ran that a time or two before.

Two heavyweights battled it out in Wilkes-Barre Wednesday and in the second period on just five shots, three that went in, the Providence Bruins hand the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins their first loss of the season, a 3-1 result.

Look, I said In the Weekend Preview that nothing would be decided on a Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre and I still believe that but the Bruins are an elite team. The Penguins are too, but it was the Bruins that capitalized on the mistakes that the Penguins made and that’s your result.

Work night, so speed it along. Okay.

No scoring in the first period. In the second, the Bruins jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Brett Harrison floated to the slot and fired on over the blocker of Sergei Murashov that put the Bruins ahead 1-0. Less than nine minutes later, a puck hops over the stick of Avery Hayes to Riley Tufte who buries a breakaway goal for a 2-0 lead for Providence.

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Then Valtteri Puustinen answered 1:07 later that brought the Penguins back within one of the Bruins and gave them a bit of life.

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But then it was the Penguin killer known as Georgii Merkulov that scored back door and here’s your turning point of the night that gave the Bruins a 3-1 lead.

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Shots in the second were 13-5 Penguins in the second. Three goals for the P-Bruins in the period is not great!

In the third period the Penguins threw everything but the kitchen sink at Michael DiPietro in net but couldn’t get anything to go.

Both teams were 0/1 on the power play and I think that Mason Riley and Andrew Bell understood the assignment this evening and just stayed the hell out of the way and let the bulls fight it out on their own.

The 16 shots allowed by the Penguins is a season low. While Providence did win, it was not a very impressive one because the Penguins smothered them, but three of those 16 went in in a period where they took five, so if you argued for the impressiveness, I guess I won’t stop you.

Here’s how they lined up for posterity purposes.

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Divisionally, Hershey beat Bridgeport 3-1; Hartford beat Charlotte 4-1; Lehigh Valley was shutout in Laval 3-0 and Springfield had the night off on this busy Wednesday.

Wheeling was off as well.

Pens and Bruins are tied at 14 points at the top of the division. Lehigh Valley has 9 points, Charlotte and Hershey have 7, Hartford 6, Bridgeport 5 and Springfield 2.

Highlights since Coal Street posted them. Allie who runs the socials for the Penguins and I learned about the 6-7 thingy that all the kids are doing. You really do learn something new every day, I guess.

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More Friday after the Islanders visit.

Let’s Go Pens!