Chirps from Center Ice

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4                            3

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I had this tweet at some point during Game 3.

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That was because the Penguins jumped to a 2-0 lead only to see it evaporate and Hershey takes the lead. Hayes, who just had an empty net goal albeit an important one in Game 1, along with Rutger McGroarty, were no where to be found.

Fast forward to the final three minutes of regulation, and Avery Hayes scores to tie the game and force overtime.

Fast forward to 4:57 of the overtime frame and Rutger McGroarty’s goal has the Hershey Bears on the brink of elimination. Wilkes-Barre / Scranton wins 4-3. The Penguins can eliminate the Bears in Game 4 on Thursday.

My alternate headline was “Milk Cartons” if McGroarty and Hayes didn’t show up in the way that they did late. Milk does a body good.

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Here’s how they lined up:

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Lineup Notes: They shuffled the top three lines and left the Imama line untouched and took Finn Harding out of the lineup for Chase Pietila.

First Period: Phil Kemp pounced on a loose puck left in the slot and scored at 3:15 to give the Penguins a quick 1-0 lead.

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Then the Penguins played some Harlem Globetrotters with a series of passes that ended on the tape of Mikhail Ilyin who scored at 6:16 to make it 2-0 Penguins.

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But here come the Bears.

Ivan Miroshnichenko scores right at the halfway point of the period and it’s a 2-1 game.

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But I think this play was offside.

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You are looking at the puck at the top of the screen and the Bears skater in the middle of your screen. Looks offside to me by parallax is a funny thing.

Hershey would get the only power play of the period and the Penguins would kill it, but Hershey would keep the momentum. Bogdan Trineyev scores to tie the game at two.

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Second Period: Last thing you want to do is see the opponent score in the first minute.

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Brett Leason is developing into a stone in the shoe.

Penguins had the only power play in the period and were not able to score on it. Avery Hayes was open near post and had a gaping net to shoot into and the pass came to him in the skates.

Wilkes-Barre outshot the Bears 10-7 in the period but it would have been 5-2 Hershey if it weren’t for Sergei Murashov’s efforts in net.

Third Period: Avery Hayes had a bit of an eventful period. He hit the post early on and at full speed it looked like a goal but the in house replays clearly showed low iron and no goal.

Wilkes-Barre had to sweat through a penalty kill with one of their best killers Joona Koppanen in the box but got through it cleanly.

They were chasing, and chasing, and chasing, and chasing a goal and out of a time out with a hair over 3 minutes remaining and Sergei Murashov vacated for the extra attacker the aforementioned Avery Hayes scored to tie the game.

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A few spikes of hairiness to the final whistle but it was off to…

Overtime:

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(I got tired of waiting for Coal Street to post the video on a work night so I did it myself)

The Bears fans in attendance were irate at the fact that the goal was not reviewed. Hershey has literally every angle covered with multiple angles for replays, but what they don’t have (or show) is the overhead. The fans in attendance were sure that the goal should not have counted.

Enter Hershey play by play man Zack Fisch.

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So there’s that, and this….

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Three Stars: 3) Ivan Miroshnichenko (goal) 2) Brett Leason (goal) 1) Rutger McGroarty (overtime game winning goal)

The Good: Snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. I mean I realize it’s not supposed to be easy, but don’t make it harder if that makes any sense.

The Bad: I’m starting to question who the better team is here and I wasn’t at the start of the series.

Turning Point: The McGroarty goal is the obvious answer here.

Video Highlights:

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Ice Chips: Game 4 goes Thursday from Hershey and you can expect the best from the Bears in the hopes they force the decider here Saturday at 6:05….I still don’t think Wilkes-Barre has played its best game of the series yet….they don’t give MVPs this early in but Sergei Murashov gets my vote here. He’s literally dragging them through the series….I would still try to find room for Raivis Ansons if I am Kirk MacDonald but as I have say for years, I don’t coach them, I just blog about them.

Talk to you Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!