Chirps from Center Ice

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I think I found the weakness with this team.

It’s the shootout.

Another shootout loss, this time to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Sunday afternoon. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins get a point, but fall in the shootout round 2-0 and lose the game 4-3 via shootout.

They were tenacious all day, but the lack of leveraged scoring like you saw Saturday against Hershey wasn’t there. They get a pair of goals from Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and David Breazeale gets his first AHL goal, and Lehigh Valley chips away and gets the game to a shootout and wins.

Them’s the brakes sometimes. You want to get points when you are giving away games in hand to Providence, who now has five games and will have six after Tuesday.

Here’s how they lined up ⬇️

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Lineup Notes: I am just going to leave this here…

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Partridge in a pear tree.

Coal Street recalled Tommy Budnick and Brent Johnson, who both slotted in for Laatsch and Aho.

Good news? Danton Heinen is on waivers again and if no one claims him he should get re-assigned back to Wilkes-Barre which could help Tuesday against Charlotte.

First Period: I mean you can break all of the defensemen really, it doesn’t matter. The structure is there and the goaltender’s are otherworldly. I tried to watch specially in the period to see if there were any holes and didn’t see any. Anything that made it through was stopped by Joel Blomqvist.

Rafaël Harvey-Pinard scored off a very nice pass from Valtteri Puustinen to give the Penguins a quick 1-0 lead.

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Gabe Klassen dropped to Harvey-Pinard who passed to Puustinen and went straight back to Harvey-Pinard for the goal.

I am telling you this is a guy I am dying to see break out.

With the assist, Puustinen passes Kris Beech in assist and makes it to 5th place and is 11 points away from 2nd in team franchise points.

Shots were 10-10 after the first period.

Second Period: Ask, and you will receive…

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They kind of needed it, because they fell into penalty trouble again. Despite getting away clean Saturday at home against Hershey, Lehigh Valley nipped them twice on the power play.

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Lane Pederson there. Nice play, drawing the attention away from Pederson. Pass needs to be true and it was. Great goal.

The Penguins lost Aidan McDonough to injury after he took a shoulder / elbow from Devin Kaplan. No call on the play and McDonough didn’t return.

Tucker Robertsson tied the game on a nice shot that tied the game on the power play in the final minute of the period.

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Third Period: Lehigh Valley didn’t wait long before taking the lead on an Oscar Eklind goal.

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Unfortunate series here. Blomqvist drops a saves me makes 99 times out of a 100 and there’s Eklind waiting like a rat looking for the loose crumbs.

The Penguins didn’t wait long for an instant response off of the stick of David Breazeale, for his first AHL goal that tied the game :31 later….

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No other scoring and it was off to…

Overtime: Penguins had the games last 1:09 of overtime on the power play and failed to score after a timeout.

Shootout: Tucker Robertson and Cooper Marody scored in the top of the first and second, Valtteri Puustinen hit the post and Phil Tomasino was not successful in the bottom of the first and second and that was it.

Three Stars: 3) Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (two goals, assist) 2) Tucker Robertson (goal, shootout goal) 1) Lane Pederson (goal, assist)

The Good: I can’t complain about the point, in the scope of things. But they left a lot out there, I thought.

The Bad: Besides losing another player to possible injury, the lack of any kind of guaranteed scoring is a problem here. Tomasino and Broz have been quiet, and you can’t rely on Calvert, Klassen and Ansons lighting up the score sheet like they have been. Getting Heinen through waivers and here Tuesday would be a decent offensive boost. You hope!

Turning Point: The failure to score on the power play in overtime gets it here.

Around the Division: Springfield beats Bridgeport in overtime 4-3. Hershey is hosting Charlotte in a game that started at 5. That box is here.

Standings: Penguins 47 – Providence 43 – the rest of the standings are here. Check this out if you want after the Bears / Checkers game goes final.

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: AHL VideoCenter is your best bet.

More Tuesday after the Penguins host the Checkers in their last game of 2025.

Let’s Go Pens!