Chirps from Center Ice

         vs.        

2                               6

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The Aiden McDonough – Tristan Broz – Avery Hayes line had three goals and five assists in a 6-2 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Friday night.

This isn’t accounting for Danton Heinen who had a goal and an assist, and Sam Poulin who had the same.

The Penguins continue their mastery of the Phantoms and retake the Atlantic Division lead over idle Providence.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: Tristan Broz, Danton Heinen, Alex Gallant and Raivis Ansons in for the recalled Boko Imama and Rutger McGroarty and the scratched Nolan Renwick and William Dufour up front and Sebastian Aho for Logan Pietila on defense.

First Period: They went over ten and a half minutes without a whistle. It was refreshing to see the action go uninterrupted like that.

Sam Poulin late knocked in a rebound of a Harrison Brunicke shot that hit the post and it was 1-0 Penguins…

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Aiden McDonough had a puck ricochet off of his stick in his defensive zone and Tucker Robertson scored to tie the game at one.

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Second Period: Penguins net a power play goal when an Avery Hayes shot is rebounded and put in by Tristan Broz for a 2-1 Penguin lead.

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Danton Heinen hack and whack job off of starting Phantoms goaltender Aleksei Kolosov and it’s 3-1…

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And then Avery Hayes knocked in a puck while falling over and it’s 4-1 Wilkes-Barre…

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Hayes, with all this offensive power around him, played an angry game Friday and was really good on every corner of the ice I thought.

Sergei Murashov was tested, but stopped all nine shots faced in the period.

Third Period: Devolved a bit into a thug fest, with no actual fighting, with six unsportsmanlike conduct 10 minute penalties assessed by referees Alex Lepkowki and David Elford with kept things to a slow simmer when the game got out of reach for the Phantoms. Atley Calvert scored to make it 5-1, Anthony Richard scored again against the Penguins to make it 5-2, then Aidan McDonough scored a power play goal to make it 6-2. Here they all are.

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Three Stars: 3) Tristan Broz (goal, assist) 2) Aidan McDonough (goal, two assists) 1) Danton Heinen (goal, assist)

The Good: Thought Hayes deserved a star here. Maybe the 10 minute misconduct had something to do with it? Power play scored twice and the penalty kill was a perfect 4/4.

The Bad: Harrison Brunicke will likely be heading back to juniors. He can’t play in the AHL because he’s too young. He is only here because of semantics and a conditioning stint and a wrinkle in the rule. He’s too careless with the puck, turns it over a ton and isn’t doing anything to show that he’s an NHL caliber player. Don’t look at the boxscore. The three assists mean nothing when you play on a team that is in first place in a tough division and put up a million goals a night. You or I could likely get an assist here or there too.

I’m not picking on the kid, I want them all to succeed, I just don’t see him sticking around in Pittsburgh once he gets called up at the end of his stint on Sunday.

Turning Point: That three goal output there in the second period buried the Phantoms deep.

Around the Division: Rochester doubles up the Checkers down in North Carolina 6-3….Hartford beats Springfield 5-2….Utica beats Bridgeport 5-1.

Standings: Penguins 33 – Providence 32 – Lehigh Valley 25 – Hershey 23 – Charlotte 22 – Hartford 20 – Bridgeport 16 – Springfield 14

Wheeling Update: The Nailers host the Greensboro Gargoyles, a division opponent, for three games this weekend in West Virginia. I would get tired of the same opponent three straight games in three straight days but such is life in the ECHL. Nailers take Game 1 by a 3-1 score.

Video Highlights:

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Back at it Saturday night in Hershey. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!