Chirps from Center Ice

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What are you doing Saturday?

You’re going to be sweating, like me, in a winner take all Game 5 after the Springfield Thunderbirds shutout the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins team 2-0 in Game 4 on Thursday.

All due respect to Springfield, but they do not quit. They are hard to kill. Ask any Charlotte Checkers or Providence Bruins fan.

The Thunderbirds see an early Penguins goal in the first period come off the board and that wildly swings momentum in their direction, the Penguins play shellshocked the remainder of the game, manage just six shots in the second period and three shots in the third before pulling Sergei Murashov for the extra attacker and put up an additional four desperate bids to run the total to seven in the period.

Without a doubt, this is Wilkes-Barre / Scranton’s best chance to win a Calder Cup in franchise history. No pressure from an eliminated Pittsburgh and a bevy of players ready to make the jump to full time NHL work next season. Mess this up, and it’s a setback of 5-7 years again to relevancy. Sure, they may contend and all, but it’s a different animal in playoffs.

Springfield doesn’t care though.

I also firmly believe that whichever team wins Game 5 will make it to the Calder Cup Finals, with all due respect to the Cleveland Monsters and Toronto Marlies.

Let’s just hope we still have something to talk about come Memorial Day.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: No changes to any personnel from Game 3.

First Period: Story of the period was this disallowed goal by Harrison Brunicke which was ruled initially good but after discussion from referees Stephen Hiff and Alex Lepkowski with linesmen Dylan Blujus and Brandon Grillo, it was ruled no goal.

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I mean you can’t get mad at these calls because no one knows what goaltender interference is or isn’t. Did Georgii Romanov sell it a bit? Maybe? But that’s gamesmanship.

Ice was tilted Springfield’s way all period but Sergei Murashov was dialed in.

Boko Imama had a fight.

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But there was no scoring.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre does not score on two power play attempts in the period, Springfield scores on their only attempt via Dillon Dube.

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First lead in 16 days for the Thunderbirds and it broke a 0-9 streak the Thunderbirds had on the power play in the series.

Sergei Murashov was dialed in the period otherwise, stopping Marc-André Gaudet and Zach Dean point blank on two different opportunities in the period. Aidan McDonough draws iron and Rutger McGroarty misses on the rebound chance on the first power play for the Penguins.

Third Period: Springfield gets an early goal when Gaudet scores on a weird play that doubles the Thunderbirds lead.

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Murashov continued to keep his team in it, stopping Zach Dean with the pad to keep it 2-0.

Springfield smothered the Penguins in all zones and hung on and with Sergei Murashov pulled the Penguins were not able to solve Georgii Romanov.

Three Stars: 3) Marc-André Gaudet (goal) 2) Dillon Dube (goal) 1) Georgii Romanov (20 save shutout)

The Good: I have no idea. Nobody got hurt? We get the privilege of attending another AHL hockey game we all really don’t want to go to on Saturday? Would a Hershey Bear or Bridgeport Islanders fan like to attend a game this weekend? Probably.

The Bad: After the goal was taken off the board they looked like a totally shellshocked team. Hey, newsflash, the teams get tougher each series. If you can’t get past this sixth place cockroach team, you probably aren’t winning it all, jack.

Turning Point: The Brunicke disallowed goal gets it here.

Video Highlights: 

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See you Saturday for all the marbles, this round.

Let’s Go Pens!