Chirps from Center Ice

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins opened their 2025-26 campaign with a 2-1 win Saturday night at home against the pesky, speedy and probably-deserved-a-better-result Hartford Wolf Pack.

They ran into Sergei Murashov, however, who was as good as advertised, stopping 23 shots and only being beat on a wicked deflection by Trey Fix-Wolansky while the Wolf Pack had an extra man.

But fear not, Wolf Pack fans, you have a quick team and a fairly good team. You just ran into a team that I think is better and has a hell of a goaltender.

Valtteri Puustinen and Owen Pickering scored the goals for the home team.

Murashov opposed Dylan Garand. Here’s how they lined up.

Let’s hope I remember how to do this…

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It is the year 2025 and there are still AHL teams that don’t post a lines graphic. The Hartford Wolf Pack are one of them.

Also, why the hell is Ryan Graves wearing #27? That number belongs to Dennis Bonvie in this town and Dennis Bonvie only. The number, along with the #29, should already be retired. The franchise is 26 years old. What the hell are they waiting for? He should change the number to something other than 27, in my opinion. I don’t know how some of you day one-ers feel about it, but I don’t like it.

Lineup Notes: Scooter Brickey and Taylor Gauthier are listed as injured….Scratches were Sebastian Aho, Boko Imama (veterans) Mathieu De St. Phalle. Also, Pittsburgh sent their only player who was healthy that doesn’t require waivers back to Wilkes-Barre, Ville Koivunen back after Bryan Rust came off injured reserve.

First Period: Hartford with a ton of pace, outshooting the Penguins 8-2 at one point, then Trey Fix-Wolansky finishes a nice tic-tac-toe play for a goal which was initially waved off by ref Damien Figueira. After video review (a new system and all this year) it was adjudged to be a good goal.

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I didn’t particularly like the first period, but this was live fire for a lot of guys in big moments for the first time in months.

Second Period: A much better response for the Penguins, who get a goal from Valtteri Puustinen flying down the wing and found by Joona Koppanen for a goal.

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Your goalie is keeping you in it, so you need your heavy hitters to get out there and muck one in. Good to see.

Third Period: Good to see them tie it, but job not done. Need to get the lead.

Enter Owen Pickering.

Perhaps given a raw deal from Pittsburgh and perhaps flirting with am-I-an-NHL-player-or-not territory, he scores a big goal here in this spot to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

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Seeing eye shot.

You would think that the Wolf Pack would throw the kitchen sink at Sergei Murashov, but nope. The Penguins defense held them just to five shots.

With Garand pulled for the extra skater with about two minutes to play, the Wolf Pack never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Sergei Murashov (23 saves) 2) Valtteri Puustinen (goal) 1) Owen Pickering (game winning goal)

The Good: Hoo boy, play like that every night and I don’t think there are many teams that can beat them. Hartford is a solid, speedy team. They should have and could have won the game, but the Penguins and Sergei Murashove in particular, were too much.

The Bad: Relying on the above paragraph night in and night out is a fools errand. They need a better start. It’s only game one, so we will give them a pass.

Turning Point: Don’t have to look far, the Pickering go ahead goal gets it here.

Around the Division: Hershey loses at home to the Syracuse Crunch 5-2….Lehigh Valley wins 5-2 over the Belleville Senators in the Phantoms home opener….Charlotte beats Springfield 4-3…Providence beats Bridgeport 4-3 in overtime.

Standings: Too early for this. Pens, Phantoms, Bruins, Charlotte, 2, Bridgeport 1, Hartford, Springfield, Hershey 0.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in preseason, they get ripping next week for real.

Video Highlights: 

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Back at it Sunday afternoon in Allentown. Talk to you then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are the first team knocked out of the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs after Helge Grans’ goal with two minutes to play in regulation in Game 2 on Friday night gives the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 3-2 lead in the game. Using the 31 saves from a 31-year old Parker Gahagen that has all of a sudden found the fountain of youth, the Penguins are again dismissed via sweep by their Pennsylvania Turnpike rival for the second year in a row.

A disappointing end to another promising season where they won 40 games under head coach Kirk MacDonald. The Penguins flaws were exposed in a bad way in the ever on the edge best of three series.

A broken Joel Blomqvist.

An aging, lax and sometimes broken defense.

A 21 year old phenom goaltender who has a lot to learn on rebound control in Sergei Murashov. Murashov was solid in the game, but the two goals he gave up in the third period came off of juicy rebounds. He has to get this under control and quickly if he wants to be the goaltender you want him to be.

The curse of the shutout in the final regular season home game has legs.

So it goes.

Here’s how they lined up…

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Lineup Notes: Mathias Laferriere for Chase Stillman up front,.  Dan Renouf for Nate Clurman.

First Period: Both teams killed the other teams penalties. Emotions high. Murashov was calm. The Penguins were the better team.

Second Period: Penguins get two power play chances. Couldn’t score. Lehigh Valley opens the scoring when Jett Luchanko sets up Anthony Richard for a 1-0 lead.

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Dan Renouf has two Calder Cups. One with Grand Rapids and one with Charlotte. He’s aged twenty years since the start of the season. That was on him there.

Parker Gahagen was under fire in the period, standing on his head all period.

Wilkes-Barre gets a power play late and it felt like a turning point.

Tristan Broz cashes on it.

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The Penguins were the better team.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre has to kill of 1:57 of five on three. They may have lost this series, but the penalty kill in this game alone was aces. They kill the nearly two minute power play with ease.

They get a goal from their rookie Harrison Brunicke set up by Tristan Broz.

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Then they stopped being the better team.

You could see it in the faces of the crowd when the camera panned to them, the fans were worried. But then a Zayde Wisdom shot spills off the pads of Sergei Murashov to the tape of Jacob Gaucher and the Phantoms tie the game. Life.

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Pens had a brief :40 power play but couldn’t get anything going.

Are we going to overtime? Sure felt like it.

Until it didn’t.

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What the hell man.

Time out Wilkes-Barre. With. Murashov pulled for the extra man, the Penguins couldn’t win a face-off to even give them a shot to tie the game.

Three Stars: 3) Parker Gahagen (31 saves) 2) Anthony Richard (goal, assist) 1) Helge Grans (goal)

The Good: Young group that maybe didn’t know any better. They mastered Lehigh Valley in the regular season but playoffs are a different beast especially in a best of three series. They should keep the core together, add in a few more vets, perhaps a defensemen or two and maybe get back next season.

The Bad: I joked about it in the second half of the season about how the Penguins and Phantoms were destined to meet again in the playoffs. They (or I) have to stop looking past Lehigh Valley as a walkover. They started to sputter at the end of the season and that cost them a shot at the bye. Unless or until they change the format (they won’t) they will always be subject to the best of three format. It’s something that they need to avoid.

Turning Point: The Grans goal with two minutes left gets it here.

So that’s it. Thanks for sticking around for another year. I’ll continue to do this for as long as it remains fun. This season was fun, but as always, ended too soon.

I should be back sometime this week with a wrap up piece / grades on every player then it’s off to a long summer. As someone who prefers the warm over the cold, it’s something I am looking forward very much.

Have a great summer and we will talk to you soon.

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The guy that sits one row ahead of me who has been there since Day 1 summed it up best.

They brought a regular season effort to a playoff hockey game.

Lehigh Valley wins Game 1 5-2 off two goals from rookie Alex Bump, and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will be playing for their playoff lives Friday at 7:05 in Allentown. They must win Game 2 to advance to a Game 3 (Sunday in Wilkes-Barre) if they want their season, one where they won 40 games, to continue.

There is no margin for error in a three game series.

In contrast, Providence outshot Springfield 40-15 and lost 2-1 to Springfield on Wednesday and their season is on the brink. They ran into Colton Ellis who stole the show for the six seeded Thunderbirds when Springfield got two past AHL Goaltender of the Year Michael DiPietro in the first period.

Locally, the Penguins fourth ranked power play could not crack a Lehigh Valley penalty kill that finished 18th overall in the second period with 90 seconds of carryover power play time to start the period already down 1-0, a full two minute five on three power play and then an immediate full two minute power play right after when Jett Luchanko, one of the players put in the penalty box two minutes prior, played the puck while still in the penalty box.

The Phantoms kill off all what is essentially five and a half minutes of penalty kill, and then Bump scores his first goal that makes it 2-0. Rodrigo Ābols answers about five minutes later and scores on a rebound to make it 3-0.

The Penguins may have a goaltending problem as starter Joel Blomqvist was not on the bench to start the third period. Instead, Taylor Gauthier went in as the backup.

He didn’t fare any better.

With Nate Clurman boxed for a high sticking penalty at 5:51, Bump connects for his second of the night on a power play at 8:17 to make it 4-0.

And then when it rains, it pours because Filip Kral whiffs on a clear and the puck never leaves the zone. Luchanko is there to set up a streaking Anthony Richard and the rout at that point was on.

Avery Hayes scores with under five to play to bust up the Parker Gahagen shutout and then later sets up Gabe Klassen with under a minute to play to at least make it a semi-respectable but still not very good 5-2 score and that’s your ballgame.

Let’s go through the goals.

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Olle Lycksell digs one out of the pads of Blomqvist to get the Phantoms on the board in the first period. Lehigh Valley had speed and jump, and the Penguins looked like they just woke up from a pre-game nap and were not able to match the intensity.

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Never any good when the kid scores, I realize he’s going to be a problem this series and next year, and I already have my headline.

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Lineup: Never any good when I work these in reverse.

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Three Stars: 3) Emil Andrae (two assists) 2) Olle Lycksell (goal, assist) 1) Alex Bump (two goals)

The Good: I am hoping that the little bit of life they showed in garbage time gives them hope.

The Bad: Vasily Ponomarev and Sam Poulin. did not record a shot. The power play, which has been seemingly automatic, went 0/4 at a critical juncture of the game and series.

Turning Point: You are at the pinnacle of the mountain point and can get to the top if you just go another 100 feet. Instead, you turn around and go back down the mountain. That’s how I felt when I saw the seconds tick away from the five on three the Penguins had where they were unable to score. You may be looking at the turning point of the series if not the season, right there.

Postgame Highlights for the Brave and Curious:

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So that’s it. They will practice Thursday, look to regroup and bus down for a 7:05 start in Allentown Friday with their lives on the line. Are they really going to make me come to a series deciding game on Sunday at 6:05?

I sure hope so.

Let’s Go Pens!

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To steal a wrestling term, Taylor Gauthier maximized his minutes Saturday.

A 32 save shutout for Gather making his Penguins season debut in the final game of the regular season and the Penguins win a tight contest 3-0 over the visiting Cleveland Monsters.

A nice way to roll into Wednesday’s Game 1 of the First Round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Or is it? The Penguins shutout their opponent in the 72nd game of the season last year, and were swept.

I get the sense this team is built different, however.

Here’s how they lined up

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Lineup Notes: Jack Beck, Matty De St. Phalle, Boris Katchouck and Pietila the forward were out for Valtteri Puustinen, Vasily Ponomarev, Joona Koppanen and Sam Poulin up front. Pietila the defenseman was in for Sebastian Aho.

First Period: No scoring. I don’t want to call it a feeling out process, but it felt like it. Penguins made short work of the only power play in the period, awarded to Cleveland.

Second Period: Dan Renouf slams home a ridiculous pass from Tristan Broz and the Penguins were up 1-0.

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Only Renouf’s second goal of the season. He will replace Boko Imama on scoring on your poverty franchise.

Third Period: A pair of goals just :19 apart.

It’s spring time in Wilkes-Barre and Avery Hayes is getting hot again. You love to see it.

This tip of a shot from Tristan Broz gave the Penguins some breathing room.

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Penguins were killing a 4:00 Zach Gallant double minor for high sticking at the time but that goal came four on four. Then Joona Koppanen scored on this ridiculous pass from Vasily Ponomarev and the floodgates opened.

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There was a bit of a fracas at 17:28 when Harrison Brunicke was back body dropped which set off both lines.

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Seven Monsters players and six Penguins players were all given ten minute misconduct penalties.

All that was left was whether or not Gauthier would get a shutout. He was dialed in, with saves like this:

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Three Stars: 3) Vasily Ponomarev (assist) 2) Joona Koppanen (goal) 1) Taylor Gauthier (32 save shutout)

The Good: Good to go out of the regular season with a shutout.

The Bad: You can’t come up with anything after a shutout.

Turning Point: The Hayes tip set the Monsters off, they get scored on again :19 later and then half their team gets ejected.

Around the Division: Providence beats Bridgeport 3-2 and that means the what I said two months ago will come true. Get ready for the first round series with Lehigh Valley, buddy.

Other scores essentially irrelevant, Lehigh Valley beats Hershey 4-3, Charlotte shutout Springfield 5-0.

Final Standings: Hershey 96 – Charlotte 94 – Providence 90 – Penguins 88 – Lehigh Valley 80 – Springfield 74 – Bridgeport 37

Wheeling Update: Nailers await Game 3 with Norfolk down 2-0 in the series.

Here’s your First Round Schedule…

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Blog wise, the final AHL Power Rankings will go up Monday and then the Calder Cup Preview Tuesday. How far do the Penguins go?

I can give you a bit of a preview. I think they get by Lehigh Valley easy. Providence does the same to Springfield. That leaves Pens / Bears, Checkers / Bruins in Round 2. I can see both series going five. Slight edge I think to the Penguins and Bruins, based on run of form.

Then it’s Pens / Bruins for the Division Finals, best of five. Well, you better hope someone else takes out the Bruins because you won’t get me to pick anything other than the Bruins in a sweep or four games.

Video Highlights: 

That’s as we sit here on Saturday. Things can change, and likely will.

Let’s Go Pens!