Chirps from Center Ice

I put the following up on Facebook, but figured it’s too good to go there, so we blog.

Only I am in bed, sleeping. This is a scheduled blog for you night owls enjoying NHL playoff hockey, West Coast baseball, late night TV or something else…

Chris Conner was sent to Wilkes-Barre for conditioning. This puts the Pens at two over the veteran limit.

Jonathan reports that Reid McNeill is out this weekend with a lower body injury but will be ready for playoffs.

Binghamton burned their game in hand on the Penguins tonight. They lost in overtime to the Toronto Marlies 5-4. The B-Sens and Pens are now tied in points for the East Division lead. 

Easiest way for the Penguins to win the division is win the next two games. They get the B-Sens Friday then Utica Saturday. The Comets were eliminated from playoffs today. If Bingo wins in regulation, because they have the tiebreaker on WBS, they are the East Division Champions.

Bingo gets Norfolk Saturday. The Admirals will have bussed in from Virginia the night before. They beat Hershey tonight 4-3 in regulation. If they do that again Friday in the rematch they eliminate the Bears.

The Albany Devils have clinched a playoff berth. Albany’s first since the old River Rats days. The Devils are going to be a tough out. I project them as a 6 seed, meaning that the East Division Champion (either WBS or Bingo) gets them round one in the 3-6 matchup.

It all may be meaningless, as the Texas Stars locked up the best record in the AHL tonight and are my odds on lock to represent the West in the Calder Cup Finals in June.

Unless something big breaks Thursday, next blog update comes Friday afternoon for the setup vs. Binghamton.

Now, go to bed already!

Flashback to the evening of February 28. The Penguins had just been shutout by the Syracuse Crunch in Syracuse and were reeling.

Jeff Deslauriers had a terrible month in goal. He put up a 2-4-1 record with a robust 3.43 goals against average and a tepid 0.863 save percentage.

Rookie Eric Hartzell, the reigning January Goaltender of the Month, fared worse. A 1-3 record, with an even higher goals against average (4.45) and lower save percentage (0.838).

The Penguins as a whole, went 3-5-3 and were in fourth place in the East Division with 65 points and in a three way tie with the Hershey Bears and Providence Bruins for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Playoffs, seemed like a longshot.

Enter Peter Mannino.

Mannino, suspended by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in November for failing to report to the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers, later reported to the Nailers in January and was re-assigned to the Penguins on February 28 in a swap for Eric Hartzell.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Mannino was named the March AHL Goaltender of the Month today. His March numbers are nothing short of staggering: 7-2-1 record, 1.09 goals against average and a 0.950 save percentage. In the 11 games Mannino appeared in, he never allowed more than two goals. The two losses to Utica and Providence were 2-1 defensive setbacks where, had the offense clicked better, we would have been talking about a goaltender that plays 10+ games in a month without losing a single one, with those numbers.

The Penguins now? Two points off of the division lead and solidly in playoff contention, sitting in the 5th seed in the ultra-competitive Eastern Conference. The magic number the night of the 4-0 blanking at the hands of the Crunch was a robust 43. Mannino’s magical month trimmed that number to a paltry 10.

The Penguins can, with help, wrap up their 12th consecutive trip to the Calder Cup Playoffs this weekend and enter the postseason with the League’s hottest, best goaltender. Other teams better take notice.

Let’s Go Pens!