Chirps from Center Ice

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As you will see as you dive into this recap of a 4-1 Penguins loss Friday night in Allentown, the Wilkes-Barre defense was unchanged from last Saturday in Hershey.

I would expect that to change for the home opener Saturday night against Utica.

The Penguins get trucked in shots 16-2 in the first, go down 2-0 and then Lehigh Valley runs away with it in the second and sits on it in the third and pick up their first win of the season, subsequently handing the Penguins their first loss of this very early 2019-20 campaign.

Casey DeSmith opposed Alex Lyon.

Lines were…

And for the Phantoms…

Lineup Notes: Well Adam Johnson was recalled Thursday and Friday afternoon as I was heading home from work I saw that Pittsburgh returned Andrew Agozzino and called up Joseph Blandisi. Agozzino wasn’t in the lineup Friday presumably because they didn’t want him playing four games in four straight games.

For the players still on the farm in contrast to last Saturday’s lineup in Hershey…

No changes to the defense pairings at all from last Saturday.

First Period: Phantoms with the jump off the hop bombarded the Penguins for sixteen shots in the period and led 2-0 at intermission.

The Penguins had just two shots all period and none on a power play about halfway through.

So it was just a matter of time before the dam broke and Lehigh Valley scored.

Jon Lizotte held a puck too long in his own end, lost it and it was academic from there.

Lehigh Valley would connect again on a power play off a very nice pass from Cal O’Reilly to Mikhail Vorobyev for a tap in goal that made it 2-0.

Thanks again to Taylor for the GIFs and allowing me to run her work again on these.

Second Period: Stefan Noesen, who has been an early godsend especially with all the injuries right now in Pittsburgh, pulled the Penguins to within one in the opening minute on a power play with this effort.

Penguins came out and stayed buzzing, until Joel Farabee walked P-O Joesph and then got a step on Casey DeSmith and scored to reestablish the two goal Phantoms lead.

1:09 later, Chris Bigras wound up, fired and scored and beat Casey DeSmith for a goal that made it 4-1 and started to put the game out of reach for Wilkes-Barre.

Things pretty much evened out from there, but I started to notice something that the Penguins were doing with their shots.

Pretty academic saves by Lyon in the period. He only had to make two in the first, got beat with the first shot he saw in the second, then his defenders in front of him limited the Penguins to shots from the blue line.

Third Period: Phantoms parked the bus and only had five shots on goal all period. The Penguins had this for a shot board in the third.

That is with the benefit of two power plays in the period for Wilkes-Barre as well.

Three Stars: 3) German Rubtsov (two assists) 2) Kurtis Gabriel (goal) and 1) Joel Farabee (goal)

The Good: Stefan Noesen did pretty much all he could to put the team on his back tonight offensively. Casey DeSmith was OK too, left out to dry by his inexperienced defense.

The Bad: Defense looked out to lunch, but it’s just game two and time to work things out.

Turning Point: Lehigh Valley’s response after the Noesen goal, reestablishing the two goal then eventually the three goal lead buried the Penguins and their chance of a comeback this evening.

Around the Division: Bridgeport spoils Charlotte’s banner raising and beat the Checkers 4-2…Springfield loses 2-1 at home against Rochester. The Americans put up 40 shots. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Providence and Hartford 4, Bridgeport 3, Lehigh Valley, Wilkes-Barre, Charlotte and Springfield 2, Hershey 1.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers open their season Saturday in Cincinnati against the Cyclones.

Video Highlights: If the Phantoms get around to them, which I believe they will, I’ll toss up the package here. Check back in the morning if you really want to see them.

Wilkes-Barre holds its home opener Saturday night at 7:05 against the Utica Comets, who make their only stop in this season Saturday night. Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday afternoon at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins made a move Friday morning and brought that piece with them to Hershey for their 2019-20 regular season opener.

Stefan Noesen was signed to an AHL contract Friday, is a big time offensive threat, almost a wolf in sheep clothing playing at this level with the way that he dominated and dictated play Saturday night in Hershey as the Penguins beat the Bears 4-3.

First win for new GM and Head Coach Mike Vellucci. The Penguins were prepared, unfettered after getting scored on in the first minute of the game and slowly took over and smothered the Bears.

Another mention was the play of Casey DeSmith. Shuffled out of Pittsburgh because of salary cap constraints, an argument could be made that DeSmith was the best player on the ice with the amount of saves that he made and the way that he made them. Noesen and the offense got the Penguins to the lead, DeSmith preserved it.

DeSmith opposed Vitek Vanecek.

Lines were…

And for the Bears…

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Lineup: That new name there on the second line is Stefan Noesen, a big time late addition made by Mike Vellucci and the Penguins on Friday. Provided Noesen, who has battled recent injuries, stays healthy, that is a hell of a lot of offense injected into this Wilkes-Barre lineup that is already paying dividends.

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First Period: Didn’t take long for the Bears to score, needing all of 62 seconds to find the back of the net when Wilkes-Barre misses change to clear and Alex Alexeyev pinches and scores to make it 1-0 Bears early on.

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Penguins would answer back with a rebound goal by Jake Lucchini on a Ryan Haggerty shot from the slot. Lucchini was left unmarked in front and cleaned up the rebound.

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Game started to run into a track meet, with odd man rushes a plenty. Andrew Agozzino busted up a Joe Snively would be breakaway chance.

Newcomer Stefan Noesen would score on this nice setup by Adam Johnson who went cross ice, found a seam and Noesen for the goal that made it 2-1 WIlkes-Barre.

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Hershey would even it late when the Penguins looked scrambly in their own end and Christan Djoos made them pay.

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Second Period: Wilkes-Barre would edge back ahead with another goal by Stefan Noesen which came off of an Oula Palve face-off win. Palve would take it himself where Noesen would cash in on the rebound.

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The Penguins would withstand a 15 shot effort from Hershey but Casey DeSmith would be cool in net and stop them all.

Third Period: Penguins would take a too many men on the ice call and killed it with DeSmith making saves, then Niclas Almari found a streaking Anthony Angello out of the penalty box for this goal that made it 4-2.

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DeSmith continued to dazzle in net for the Penguins, with this save added to the highlight reel night he had in the crease.

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Matt Moulson would finally figure out DeSmith with a near side goal that brought the Bears back within one with 1:19 left to play.

(No GIF of this one, sorry.)

With Vanecek vacated for the extra skater, the Bears never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Alexeyev (goal, even) 2) Casey DeSmith (36 saves on 39 shots) and 1) Stefan Noesen (two goals, +2)

The Good: Couple things. Bears retooled this season and are set to be dangerous. Penguins going down early started smelling of trouble but DeSmith and Noesen made sure that the stench of the bad start wouldn’t remain….Noesen was quite the find, wasn’t he? Cut from Dallas’ camp, Mike Vellucci, who knows Noesen and coached him prior, rings him up, signs him to an AHL deal and he has an immediate impact. That’s something, despite my allegiance to all that Clark Donatelli did last year for this team, wouldn’t be able to do.

The Bad: Goals that came when they came for Hershey was when the Penguins defense was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. No, it’s not game just one and time to figure things out, the Atlantic is a bees nest this season and every point is crucial. I get that you’re not going to shutout every opponent, but there was a pattern tonight that didn’t look good.

Turning Point: Angello’s third period goal out of the box gave the Penguins that two goal cushion they were desperately seeking.

Video Highlights: 

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Around the Division: Lehigh Valley and all that offense they signed in the offseason get shutout in the Phantoms home opener 3-0 to the Big Bad Providence Bruins….Springfield trucks a good Bridgeport team 5-1….Hartford takes down the defending champion Charlotte Checkers 5-3.

Standings: Way early for this but we’ll do it anyway. Providence, Springfield, Hartford and Wilkes-Barre all on two, Hershey, Charlotte, Bridgeport and Lehigh Valley all on zero.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are still in preseason and don’t get going until next week for real.

Pens are off till next Friday when they are in Allentown taking on the Phantoms. News and notes as they come. I’m not going to put up the Pens expanded stats yet until after next week and no Power Rankings this week either, those will debut the week after. But for any news and notes before then, have a great week and we’ll talk to you next Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!

There are too many preseason games.

That out of the way, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins played their final preseason contest Sunday afternoon in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and lost a special teams duel 3-1.

Lines were:

And for the Phantoms,

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So no preseason for Penguins goaltender Dustin Tokarski. It could be something, or it could be nothing. You don’t really need to run the risk of a guy who you know will be on your opening night roster vs. evaluating two goalies in Emil Larmi and Alex D’Orio who are competing for the backup job, barring any roster jockeying with Jim Rutherford and Company up top in Pittsburgh.

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In the first, it seemed like there were way too many penalties; three aside for each team. The Phantoms cashed on a late one when Andy Andreoff tip din a Greg Carey shot for a goal at 19:26 for a 1-0 Phantoms lead.

In the second, there were just three penalties, with two for the Penguins but no goals. There were chances both ways.

Nick Aube-Kubel scored 56 seconds into the third period that gave the Phantoms a 2-0 lead.

With just under seven minutes to play, David Warsofsky takes a shot which is deflected off the end wall, corralled by Ryan Haggerty and put in to put the Penguins on the board.

But the Phantoms would strike back in the same minute on the power play when Mikhail Vorobyev would score on a power play which reestablished the Phantoms two goal lead.

Penguins went with an empty net in the final 90 or so seconds of the game, but didn’t get any closer.

Impressions: Seemed like a game which was largely decided on special teams and with an offensively explosive team built like Lehigh Valley, not a game you want to start playing if you are the opponent of the Phantoms. With the two teams playing twelve times this season, it is something that they may need to key in on if they want to have any success against the Phantoms.

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In other news, the Pittsburgh Penguins re-assigned Adam Johnson back to Wilkes-Barre Sunday afternoon. Wilkes-Barre also made a round of cuts Sunday which were sent to Wheeling who one their training camp this week. They are Forwards Christopher Brown, Jan Drozg, Brandon Hawkins, Yushiroh Hirano, Renārs Krastenbergs and Myles Powell and defensemen Macoy Erkamps, Blake Siebenaler, Craig Skudalski and Aaron Titcomb. Sum total of 10. No real surprises.

So that concludes the preseason. It counts for real this Saturday in Hershey. The Penguins play just one game on opening weekend, then are back in Lehigh Valley next Friday, home for the opener against Utica on October 12 then in Hershey Sunday afternoon.

This week, I’ll have a new feature here Monday that requires participation from you, a mailbag! Look for that around 9:15 Monday morning. Then, news and notes as it comes during the week, a look at the Penguins opponents this Friday. I opted against a full 31 team division by division preview because I found the exercise pointless because the Penguins don’t play every team. One shot of all the teams and outlooks the Pens play. Look for that Friday.

Back here Monday morning with the stamps for you to send me stuff for the mailbag.