Chirps from Center Ice

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This game was 2-1 coming into the third period in favor of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Boko Imama scores 1:56 in, then Avery Hayes and Owen Pickering connect on the front and back end of a two man advantage for the Penguins and then Rafaël Harvey-Pinard scores on a Matt Dumba assist, his fourth of the game, and the Penguins run over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 6-2 on Sunday afternoon.

We talked Saturday night in the win against Syracuse about starting on time, well the Penguins most defiantly finished on time here and took a perfect weekend to keep pace with the Providence Bruins, who swept the Checkers in Charlotte this weekend.

I am burying the lead story and that’s Matt Dumba. Four assists today to go with the assist and goal Saturday against Syracuse puts him in AHL Player of the Week territory. It’s not that I want to rip the guy for being here and playing bad. I cheer for the front of the jersey and always have but for three guys (Wade Brookbank, Ben Lovejoy and Casey DeSmith in that order) so just because you have the large muscular penguin on skates on your chest doesn’t give you a pass from me to skate around like an idiot and not care.

That said, Dumba had a hell of a weekend and I want to see it continue.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: Tanner Howe made his long awaited AHL debut after knee surgery, replacing Brayden Edwards. Aiden McDonough slipped down to the third line. No changes to the defensive pairings.

First Period: Penguins killed two penalties, but in between there was a sequence that the penguins had a dog-on-bone mindset where Aidan McDonough finished this feed from Matt Dumba who threw it at the net that put the Penguins up 1-0.

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Dumba had an active fly by the seat of your pants, assisting on the McDonough goal, taking a penalty and then when the Penguins killed the penalty Fin Harding threw one out to the neutral zone that was picked up by Dumba who nearly scored on the breakaway.

Second Period: I particularly didn’t like the penalties the Penguins were taking and Lane Pederson made them pay early into the second period with this power play goal that tied the game at one.

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But then the Penguins fourth line saved the day as Nolan Renwick led a two on one charge down ice with Zach Urdahl and wired one in to make it 2-1 for the Penguins.

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Wilkes-Barre had to sweat out a late Tanner Howe tripping call but got through that one okay.

Third Period: Boko Imama have a puck literally hand to him by ex-teamate Phil Tomasino and scored to make it 3-1 Penguins.

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Oof.

The Penguins power play is bad. League worst bad. But against the Phantoms? The Penguins have scored like half of their power play goals this season against the Phantoms penalty kill.

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I mean they made it look easy and put the game out of reach.

Anthony Richard tried to make it interesting and brought it back to within three for the Phantoms with this goal here…

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But then Rafaël Harvey-Pinard tipped in a Gabe Klassen shot that made it 6-2.

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Referees Liam Maaskant and Sydney Harris thought that the patrons paid to see them, so some goofy penalties were called right to the very end.

Three Stars: 3) Christian Kyrou (two assists) 2) Joel Blomqvist (23 saves) 1) Matt Dumba (four assists)

The Good: I am hoping that this weekend is a turnaround point for Dumba, and that you can expect more of the same out of a guy that has had 10 years in the NHL.

The Bad: The penalties are out of control at this point and you worry that a league memo starts going around to watch the Penguins because they are careless. Tighten things up with all the stick fouls, men!

Turning Point: Connecting on the front and back ends of the two man advantage in the third period will ice it away for just about every team in the AHL, so that gets the nod here.

Around the Division: Providence blanks Charlotte 3-0 to sweep the Checkers this weekend…Bridgeport and Springfield started at 5. That box is here.

Standings: Providence 65 – Penguins 62 – Charlotte 53 – Hershey 47 – Lehigh Valley 46 and the rest of it isn’t accurate because the Islanders / Thunderbirds game isn’t final yet.

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose a 1-0 affair in Worcester. I miss Worcester. Fine city.

Video Highlights: You are your on your own with these.

Hershey is in Wednesday. Weekend Preview will be up Wednesday afternoon so check that out then.

Let’s Go Pens!