Chirps from Center Ice

After beating the Hershey Bears in four games and the Springfield Thunderbirds in five games, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2014 where they will face off against the Toronto Marlies, who were last here in 2019.

The Setup

The Penguins put the Bears away in four games and had a chance to put the scrappy Springfield Thunderbirds away in four games but were shutout 2-0. In the decider last Saturday in Game 5, they obliterated the Thunderbirds 8-1. It’s the best team assembled and in my opinion, the best chance they have for their first championship in the 27 years they have existed as a franchise.

How They Got Here…

The Toronto Marlies, the four seed in the North Division, advanced in three games in the First Round against the Rochester Americans, then took out the top seeded Laval Rocket in five, and then came back from a 2-1 series hole to beat the Cleveland Monsters in five games this past Sunday. The Marlies had a 36-26-5-5 record good for 82 points in the regular season.

The Schedule…

–

Give Me Three Keys…

1) Special teams. Toronto has given up 8 power play goals against, by far the most in the Playoffs thus far. Make them pay when they take penalties, which they take a lot of, 43 total which leads the teams left in the playoffs.

2) Start on time. I told you in the Hershey series and in the Springfield series that this would be a theme. Get used to it. Get on them early, often, hold the lead, and take control.

3) The job isn’t done. It’s half way in the series that you need to win, sure, but they still need eight more wins to win it all. Don’t rest on your laurels and think that you can just put up eight goals every night. Stay five on five, walk away when a guy is messing with you after a whistle, keep your head and you’ll be fine.

X Factors

Penguins: Bill Zonnon, Sergei Murashov and Alex Alexeyev. I’m not even mentioning Avery Hayes or Tristan Broz because you hope that those guys will carry the freight when needed, as Broz with his 2-2 did in game five against Springfield. Toronto has been shutout three times each in each series, once in each series that they have played and the competition gets stiffer here with Wilkes-Barre. Rightly, the Penguins will be heavily favored top to bottom, and it starts with Murashov, keeps riding with Alexeyev, in my opinion the best they have at defense and keeps going with fourth liner and rookie sensation Bill Zonnon and builds from there.

Marlies: Vinni Lettieri, Logan Shaw, Artur Ahktyamov. A forward, a defenseman and a goaltender in that order. Lettieri has thirteen points (6-7) for the Marlies and leads all skaters in points in this postseason, William Villeneuve is a puck slinging defenseman who has ten assists to go with a goal and Ahktyamov is their horse in goal. He’s not on the same level as Georgii Romanov was for Springfield a series ago, but when you are the highest scoring team in the playoffs (the Marlies have 39 goals for, six better than Colorado) a save or two when needed is all you need, often. But, for all that scoring the Marlies do, they have also fished 32 goals against out of their nets, which is half of what the Penguins have allowed so far. But remember that the Pens had a First Round bye, while the Marlies did not.

Who’ll be in goal?

Sergei Murashov and Artur Ahktyamov. Dennis Hildeby has three appearances for the Marlies in the postseason and could also be a factor.

Prior Results

Wilkes-Barre had a 3-0 lead coming into the third period at home back in November and lost 4-3 in overtime. Filip Larsson started that game and the Penguins were without, at the time, Avery Hayes, Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, to name three.

They had a 4-1 lead coming into the third in Toronto in March and old buddy Alex Nylander clipped Joel Blomqvist for a pair of third period goals but the Pens held on and won 4-3. Hildeby started the March game, Ahktyamov the game in November.

What about the other guys?

The other guys? That’s the Chicago Wolves and the Colorado Eagles, who meet in the Western Conference Finals tomorrow in Colorado. Jayson Megna captains the Eagles who are coached by Mark Letestu. Chicago is the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, who if you remember were with Charlotte for years before the divorce and outed the Penguins all those years ago in the playoffs.

Provided the Penguins handle the business before them currently with the Toronto Marlies, we will focus on the winner of that series in due time. It should be a great one nevertheless.

Remember what the great Tim Leone says, worry about your own damn series.

Predictions?

Gave them to you at the start of the playoffs. I had Cleveland here against the Penguins. I had the Penguins winning it all, as in it all then, nothing changes that here. Keep your nose clean, play the way that has gotten you home ice throughout the remainder of the playoffs and you should be fine and hopefully it’s a short series. As fate usually has it, it rarely is.

Sigh, go ahead with your NASCAR predictions already!

They are in Nashville. Ryan Blaney won it last year, but give me Chase Elliott. Ring that damn, sigh-reen in Dawsonville, Georgia and ring it loud and long!

New York City FC are off now until after the World Cup. So they can’t lose like they have been in of recent. Hey, progress!

–

Talk to you later after Game 1’s results.