Chirps from Center Ice

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Here’s Avery Hayes’ past month in a nut shell…

• Makes NHL debut, scores on first shot, scores another goal.
• Returns to AHL, records hat trick against Hershey.
• KO’s Zach Aston-Reese this past Sunday.
• Yet another hat trick, Wednesday in Springfield.

You can probably call Hayes King Midas, as everything this kid touches is turning to gold.

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton romps the Springfield Thunderbirds 7-2 Wednesday night behind the Avery Hayes hat trick. Tanner Howe and Ville Koivunen also scored a pair of goals and Sergei Murashov stopped 30 shots.

I looked up the stat that Providence is 17-3 against the Thunderbirds, Hartford and Bridgeport this season so far. Well the Penguins are now 30-9-0-1 against Atlantic Division competition this season. That’s not bad, and it has them solidly in second place in the division.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: First of all, shout out to the graphics department in Springfield, that lineup graphic is clean.

Filip Hållander made his debut for the Penguins this season on a two week conditioning stint. Atley Calvert was also back in after a scratch Sunday at home against Cleveland. Aidan McDonough and Gabe Klassen came out of the lineup.

Sebastian Aho made his return after missing 19 games (his last game was December 27) for Matt Dumba.

On Dumba, he is out with an upper body injury, likely getting new teeth this week and hopeful it’s not a broken jaw or worse.

Alex Alexeyev is ill, not injured. Thanks to Mike Flynn who let me know that Alexeyev was a full participant in practice Tuesday. Ryan McAllister and Zach Gallant (also out with upper body injuries) skated after everyone left the ice. No sign of Dumba or the other guy Raivis Ansons who is still week to week with an upper body injury.

Not announced yet by the team, but the Wednesday ECHL Transactions have Scooter Brickey and Nolan Renwick on the way back to Wilkes-Barre which is curious, considering Hållander is here for at least two weeks and they are relatively healthy-ish on defense. Unless there is a Pittsburgh recall or recalls coming when the NHL returns from Olympic break soon.

Phew, that’s like a blog post.

First Period: Disaster start for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, who see Springfield score on their first shot of the game with Theo Lindstein scoring just :33 in…

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But that cold slap in the face woke up the Penguins, as they would rattle off four goals in the period, chasing Will Cranley after the fourth goal.

Immediately after the Lindstein goal, Avery Hayes scores to tie the game at one. Moments later, Ville Koivunen scores at 1:44 to make it 2-1 and then a boffo sequence by Cranley and his defensemen where Cranley goes behind his net to play a puck, he crosses up his pass to the defenseman and there’s Avery Hayes like Johnny on the Spot to score into a wide open net and then Cranley gets the hook finally when Koivunen finds daylight in the slot to score his second of the period.

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So two of your best players carry the mail in the period. It’s a beautiful thing.

Shots were a head shaking 11-10 in favor of the Thunderbirds, despite the 4-1 lead for the Penguins.

Second Period: If you thought the game was over, you didn’t pay attention to the Weekend Preview I ran earlier in the day where I informed you that the Thunderbirds scored 14 goals across two games in Iowa this past weekend. They are an offensively potent team.

Dillon Dube motors past Finn Harding and steps by Sebastian Aho on a power play to cut the deficit to two on a power play.

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Penguins had a late power play that they squandered and I did not like the way the period broke at all, but it was two goal lead heading into the…

Third Period: I think the message got across properly as the Penguins turned a close, two goal lead into a three goal explosion in the third to run away from Springfield and turned the game into a laugher.

Hayes gets his hat trick and then Tanner Howe nets a pair.

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You will be seeing McGroarty set up Hayes and Hayes set up McGroarty in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future.

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That’s a nice setup by Boko Imama there.

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Was that the same spot? It looked like it. Nice pass by Aho there also.

Sergei Murashov stopped a Hugh McGing penalty shot, the first time that Murashov has had to stop a penalty shot in the AHL.

Three Stars: 3) Tanner Howe (two goals) 2) Ville Koivunen (two goals) 1) Avery Hayes (hat trick)

The Good: This week is a good week to wash the stink away from last weekend. I would say that tonight was a good start.

The Bad: Powerplay and penalty kill continue to be an issue. 0/3 on the power play and 3/4 on the penalty kill. They made up for that with offense and the play of Sergei Murashov.

Turning Point: Hayes’ third goal gets it here. If Springfield scores a third to make it 4-3, the dynamic of this game changes considerably.

Around the Division: Hershey beats Toronto 3-2 in a noon game north of the border….Charlotte wins in a shootout over Rochester 3-2.

Standings: Providence 75 – Penguins 71 – Charlotte 59 – Hershey 52 – Bridgeport 48 – Lehigh Valley 46 – Springfield 42 – Hartford 40

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: If they are going to be posted it will be on the Thunderbirds YouTube page. That’s a nice way of saying that at 10 o’clock on Wednesday, they aren’t up yet.

Friday off, see you Saturday at home against the Islanders.

Let’s Go Pens!