Chirps from Center Ice

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3                              4

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I didn’t put too much stock when the Bridgeport Islanders scored first Saturday night. It happens all the time for them.

I started to worry, though, when the Islanders scored again to go up 2-0.

But my worried were allayed when the Penguins scored twice to tie the game at two heading into the first intermission.

Then the Penguins scored again, then again, but a Liam Foudy shorthanded goal shifted momentum in a big way, but the Penguins held on in a too close for comfort type of an affair.

Wilkes-Barre wins 4-3 to draw within four points of the Providence Bruins who had their thirteen game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Springfield Thunderbirds Saturday. The Bruins still have four games in hand on the Penguins.

Here’s how they lined up. The Islanders are one of a handful of teams that don’t post a lineup graphic.

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Lineup Notes: Matt Dumba and Scooter Brickey for Emil Pieniniemi on defense and Aidan McDonough for Rafaël Harvey-Pinard at forward.

First Period: Adam Beckman’s shot while there were Islanders buzzing around Joel Blomqvist’s crease goes in and the Islanders take an early 1-0 lea at 6:06.

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Then a Julien Gauthier goal comes when an Ethan Bear shot misses the net entirely, caroms hard off the back wall straight to Gauthier who had a step on Blomqvist and into a wide open net at 7:55 that gave Bridgeport a 2-0 lead.

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This is the same Bridgeport team that bussed four hours down from Springfield the night before while the Penguins were idle.

Things hit a lull for a but and settled, then a Filip Hållander goal comes at 17:26 off of a rebound that gives the Penguins some life.

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Then Atley Calvert 1:03 later from the far dot and it’s a tie game.

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Good response. They went down last week to Syracuse and its snowballed out of control after that. Bridgeport isn’t Syracuse, though.

Second Period: Sebastian Aho loves playing against his old team because he always scores.

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Not a lot of action to write home about here. Tristan Broz fought Daylan Kuefer, that was all.

Third Period: Weird sequence here. Ville Koivunen rips a shot that rings iron, referee Jack Young washes it out, play continues.

Matt Dumba who was on the ie was adamant that the shot resulted in a goal and at the next stoppage, Young and Patrick Hanrahan review on the iPad at the scorers table and, well…

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Good goal. They had to put about :50 or so seconds back on the clock.

But, a dumb D-to-D pass by Matt Dumba while the Penguins were on the only power play of the game results in Liam Foudy posting up the pass and taking the puck all the way in for a shorthanded goal.

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Special teams remain an abject, top to bottom, disaster.

A rejected blog headline was “Brickey Wall” – but where I was going here was there was a late sequence where, with Jeremy Smith pulled for the Islanders, a puck gets past Blomqvist but it’s Scooter Brickey’s stick that prevents the puck from crossing the line.

Hanrahan and Young reviewed this on the iPad and this time, their suspicions turned out to be correct, no goal.

Three Stars: 3) Tanner Howe (two goals) 2) Sebastian Aho (goal) 1) Ville Koivunen (goal)

The Good: They gritted out a win that this time, I think they deserved.

The Bad: Special teams continues to be an issue.

Turning Point: The Koivunen goal gets it here because it ultimately ended up getting them the win.

Around the Division: Providence sees their 13 game winning streak come to an end up in Springfield as they lose 3-2…..Hartford shuts out Belleville 4-0….Lehigh Valley beats Hershey 6-4…Charlotte beats Syracuse 4-3.

Standings: Providence 77 – Penguins 73 – Charlotte 61 – Hershey 52 – Lehigh Valley 50 – Bridgeport 49 – Springfield 46 – Hartford 42

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They play again Wednesday.

Video Highlights: 

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The Sunday game in Bridgeport was moved up to 3 p.m. because of the weather. I’m actually happy to see that because I don’t like Sunday games in general, and a 5 p.m. start would have been brutal anyway.

Let’s Go Pens!