Chirps from Center Ice

           vs.          

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I changed the blog headline at the last second because I wanted to tell you here in the open that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have locked up second place in the Atlantic Division and will avoid the First Round and instead enjoy a bye.

That’s because the Hershey Bears did the Penguins a solid and defeated the Charlotte Checkers 2-1 in regulation earlier in the day and no matter what happened Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre, the bye was the Penguins.

“House Money” was the operating headline here but I didn’t think that stuck given the circumstances of the game needing to be played, so we went with the fun, punny, ‘bye Felicia’ headline.

Oh, the Penguins defeated the Cleveland Monsters 4-1 behind a pair of Aidan McDonough goals.

I again ask, where the hell would we be without Aidan McDonough?

Here’s how they lined up:

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Lineup Notes: Pittsburgh didn’t have anything to play for so they decided to call up Rutger McGroarty, Joona Koppanen and Ville Koivunen because they are playing with house money locked into the second seed in the Metropolitan Division. Coal Street recalled Nolan Renwick earlier in the day and he, Zach Gallant and a returning Aaron Huglen were in up front and Alex Alexeyev was in for Phil Kemp on defense.

First Period: Daniel Russell leads a two on one with Atley Clavert, puts a shot on net he knows will be redirected to Calvert and it’s Calvert who score to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

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(journalistic integrity denies me the right to call them the Gandy Dancers. come on, I give you terrible pun headlines, ain’t that enough?)

Second Period: Highlight of the period was Joel Blomqvist stopping a Tate Singleton breakaway clean I hope is in the highlight package below.

The teams traded two power plays a side.

Third Period: The Penguins got a bit of a scare when Sebastian Aho was called for a double minor for high sticking but the Penguins penalty kill was able to get out of it clean.

No, seriously, where the hell would we be without Aidan McDonough?

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Big goal. Why?

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This was less than a minute later.

Aidan McDonough said watch this…

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:58 later to be exact.

So after nearly fifty minutes of nothing offensively but for one goal, it’s three goals in the span of 1:50.

With time dwindling, Zach Sawchenko was vacated from the net and Tanner Howe scored an empty net goal, fire up the coffee pots!

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Three Stars: 3) Joel Blomqvist (25 saves) 2) Atley Calvert (goal, assist) 1) Aidan McDonough (two goals)

The Good: Nice tidy win against a playoff bound Cleveland team. Wilkes-Barre was at about 80% strength, 75% depending on who you talk to, and handled a playoff bound Cleveland Monsters team.

The Bad: Would like to see them get a shutout for one of their goaltenders in one of the next two games. Just not the last game, that’s been a bad omen the last two seasons.

Turning Point: Pick either the 4:00 kill on the Aho high stick to start the third or the McDonough power play goal that made it 3-1.

Around the Division: I don’t think the rest it matters since they are cemented in the two seed. Play the dame kids the rest of the season and keep healthy!

Here’s the Saturday night scoreboard with of course ten minutes left to play in the third at 9:40 on a Saturday night.

Standings: Doesn’t matter, Penguins are locked in the two seed with 97 points and have three more games to play. They can max at 103. Getting 100+ points would be sweet.

Here’s the standings board if you are so interested.

Wheeling Update: Nailers with a big win in Reading.

Video Highlights: That Blomqvist save I talked about above is at the :50 mark below.

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Three games left, play your kids!

More this coming Wednesday when Hershey stops in.

Let’s Go Pens!