Chirps from Center Ice

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6                              3

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There were SEVENTEEN power plays awarded by Nick Isaacson and Alex Gagné Saturday afternoon in Cleveland. Newsflash guys, the paying customers aren’t there to watch you skate up and down the ice and pretend like you know what goaltender interference is. This display set the standard of AHL officiating back about 15 years.

Nevertheless, Wilkes-Barre wins 6-3 in The Land, scoring on three power plays of their own today, but so do the Monsters. It was a stellar performance from both Rutger McGroarty (two goals and an assist) and Mikhail Ilyin (goal, three assists) to carry the Penguins through a game dominated by useless holds and stick fouls.

Wilkes-Barre seemed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck early on and never really released, Cleveland backed their way into making it closer than it should have been late in the third.

Here’s how they lined up:

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Lineup Notes: David Gustafsson returns from the injury list and takes the place of Brayden Edwards up front. On defense, Phil Kemp came out for Chase Pietila.

First Period: After killing a penalty just :10 in. Hugh McGing opened his Penguins scoring account with this goal that gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 2:54.

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A flurry of saves from Evan Gardiner about halfway through on three different Penguins shots, but then Avery Hayes finally solved the Monsters goaltender with a goal that made it 2-0.

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But then a late pair of penalties by Owen Pickering put Cleveland on essentially back to back power plays and you could see the desperation watching on FloHockey, and it’s Oiva Keskinen breaking through with 6.4 seconds to play in the period that gave the home team life.

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Second Period: Took them a bit but it was Melvin Fernström scoring 12:50 in to the period that made it 3-1 then :57 later Rutger McGroarty scores a power play goal that makes it 4-1.

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Monsters take a bunch of penalties at the end of the period and that forebode into bad things for them at the open of the…

Third Period: Mikhail Ilyin scores :28 into the period to turn it into a runaway for the Penguins at the time, and makes it 5-1.

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The penalties continued and, much like the end of the first period in this one, allowed the Monsters to gain some momentum.

Luca Pinelli scores here that makes it 5-2.

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Steven Lorentz scores to make it 5-3 for the Monsters third power play goal of the game and then it started to get weird.

(no GIF here, I hate when teams do this, cut up all the goals!)

McGroarty tacks on a late power play goal that ices it away here.

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(bless you Coal Street for cutting up all of your goals)

Three Stars: 3) Taylor Gauthier (30 saves) 2) Rutger McGroarty (two goals, assist) 1) Mikhail Ilyin (goal, three assists)

The Good: Nice to see the power play come alive, I guess? But do you toss this because this game was an anomaly with everyone and their mother being awarded a power play?

The Bad: Owen Pickering is going to be the next Derrick Pouliot. He’s been in the league for three years, close to 130 AHL games under his belt and he still takes consistently dumb penalties. Every passing day, his NHL window closes more and more in my opinion. A quality AHL defensemen most nights, but nothing that screams, “call me up, I have nothing left to prove at this level” out of Pickering, much like Pouliot.

Turning Point: The Ilyin goal that made it 5-1 coming out of the gate in the third period gets it here as it proved to be a big goal, considering what Cleveland was going to produce on the power play later in the period.

Around the Division: Since they started at 3, the rest of the scoreboard will come in later tonight. I’ll toss in the edit later, provided I remember or get sick of looking at my closed pool.

Standings: See above.

Florida Update: See above.

Video Highlights: 

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Talk to you next week to set up the weekend when Belleville and Hartford drop in for a pair next weekend.

Let’s Go Pens!