Chirps from Center Ice

After a thrilling series with the Hershey Bears, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have advanced to the Atlantic Division Finals and will take on the Springfield Thunderbirds.

The Setup

Wilkes-Barre ousted the Hershey Bears in four games. They played their most complete game of the series in the put away Game 4 and had that look in their eye that they didn’t want to play a Saturday game. Are they rounding into form? They better be, because their next opponent does not say die.

How They Got Here…

The Springfield Thunderbirds, the six seed in the Atlantic Division, have knocked off the three seed Charlotte Checkers in the First Round and the 54 win, top overall seeded Providence Bruins in four games. The Thunderbirds have done the dirty work for the Penguins, taking out arguably Wilkes-Barre’s biggest threats. But now the two teams meet in the Atlantic Division Finals in a Best of Five Series for a chance to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Schedule…

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Give Me Three Keys

1) The Penguins finished 29 points better than the Springfield Thunderbirds but none of that matters now. Springfield is battle tested against the Charlotte Checkers who they beat in three games and the Providence Bruins who they dispatched in four games. Simply put, the Penguins have to out scrap the Thunderbirds, something that the Checkers and the Bruins could not do. The reasons for that were that the Bruins never got slapped in the face in the regular season and the Thunderbirds were a bad matchup. The Penguins can scrap with the best of them, so it should be fun to watch. Who out scraps who determines who moves on I think.

2) Start on time. This is going to be a theme you better get used to. The Penguins started on time in Games 1, 3 and 4 in the Hershey series and that carried them to wins, scoring goals at the 3:01, 3:15 and 1:15 marks of the first period. Do that here in the Springfield series and your chances to advance go up.

3) Make them pay on special teams. Springfield, with all that scrappiness that they have, stretch the rules and are the most penalized team in the postseason coming into this weekend with 24 times shorthanded. But watch out! The Thunderbirds have two shorthanded goals, but so do the Penguins.

X Factors

Penguins: Rutger McGroarty, Harrison Brunicke and Ville Koivunen. McGroarty scored the overtime game winner for the Penguins in Game 3 and has improved in every game of the series. Ville Koivunen leads the team in points with a goal and three assists, tied with Tristan Broz’s four assists. Harrison Brunicke is growing up right before our eyes and is steadily becoming one of the Penguins best offensive defensemen, who can pretty much do it all. All four mentioned here are gunning for full time NHL work next season and I’d say are off to a good start.

Thunderbirds: Chris Wagner and Georgi Romanov. Here, I will let Mark Divver, who covers the Providence Bruins better than anyone, describe it for you here:

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I have tried not to pay attention to the other series, but it’s hard not to watch what Springfield has been doing. They got shelled 8-1 in Game 1 in Charlotte in the First Round, then respond for a 5-2 win and then an 2-1 OT win, all in Charlotte because of time and distance. They just don’t care. The puck drops, they find ways to win.

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This? This right here is a dangerous team. Do not be fooled by their .500 record at all. They dispatched one of the greatest regular season teams in AHL history and made mincemeat out of the league MVP in goalie Michael DiPietro. The only thing stopping them from being heavy favorites is their regular season record but again, none of this matters at the present time. This will not be an easy series because the Thunderbirds do not have the word quit in their vocabulary.

Who’ll be in goal?

It’ll be Sergei Murashov vs. Georgi Romanov. Thunderbirds head coach Steve Ott went to Romanov in Game 2 of the Charlotte series and the T-Birds haven’t looked back.

What about the other guys?

The Cleveland Monsters ousted the Syracuse Crunch in four games and await their opponent in the North Division Finals and that opponent will be known when the Laval Rocket host the Toronto Marlies in the winner take all Game 5 Saturday from Laval. That series will probably start around the same time as the Penguins / Thunderbirds series, early next week.

But, to quote the great Tim Leone, worry about your own series first.

Okay, okay, give us your NASCAR picks….

This is the only reason why I am doing this you know. They are in Watkins Glen, New York and it’s a road course which means it’s Shane van Gisbergen’s race to lose.

But give me Christopher Bell, seven top fives in last eight road courses and a top five in his last four road tracks.

NYCFC is in a skid, and I don’t like their chances Sunday at home against an equally bad Columbus Crew team. 3-1 Crew and I hope I am wrong.

Enjoy the weekend off, get amped for some great games next week with Springfield and we will talk to you Tuesday after Game 1.