Chirps from Center Ice

       @       

3                                         4

–

Headline tonight doesn’t contain a pun. A run and gun affair in Hershey ends in a shootout loss for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Something seemed off for the Penguins, who never trailed in the game, but never had more than a one goal lead in this Saturday night affair in Hershey.

Tristan Jarry appeared in net again for the Penguins in a back to back start and again was outstanding. Beat on a rim around and then shorthanded in the second and a blown assignment in the third. He opposed Ilya Samsonov, who won his first game in net for the Chocolate and White this season.

Penguins don’t score in the shootout round, Hershey elected to shoot first and scored in the top of the second and the third and take the extra point. Penguins lose 4-3.

Lines were…

Notes: No changes up front, same lineup as Friday at home. Will O’Neill returned and replaced Matt Abt. Ethan Prow and Jeff Taylor were paired up on defense.

First Period: :06 in, Liam O’Brien and Penguins captain Garrett Wilson dropped the gloves…

Wilson with a few stiff shots and the takedown.

Tristan Jarry looked dialed in as he was Friday at home. He had a glove save on one of the thirteen shots on goal for the Bears in the period. Then Stefan Elliott fell down and Liam O’Brien had a chance at Jarry that he made a save on.

Zach Aston-Reese scored the only goal in the period when a puck found his stick in his own end, he took it out and scored with a Bears defenders stick in his skates…

Chris Summers took a puck to the face in the final minute…

…and was helped off.

Shots were 13-5 Bears heading into the…

Second Period: Chris Summers returned for the second period but at some point Sam Miletic was lost to injury.

In the first minute of the period, Bears went for a dump in and the puck took a funny bounce where Mike Sgarbossa deposited it into the empty net when Jarry came out to play it.

Penguins re-establish the lead when Teddy Blueger raced and collected a puck off the side wall, then went back to the slot and flipped a puck past Samsonov to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

Penguins had two back to back power plays but they were a nightmare. So much so, that Hershey scored on one of them when Riley Barber snuck behind the Penguins defense and scored shorthanded.

Woof indeed, Taylor. Woof indeed.

Sam Miletic was injured in the second period. He was hit by Connor Hobbs. No penalty on the play. Here is the sequence…

Third Period: Adam Johnson found Ethan Prow for a wide open net off a nice pass that gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead.

But :51 later, Beck Malenstyn scored to tie the game again.

They lost him on defense, pass found him and connected.

Penguins had to kill a bunch of penalties which included a 5-on-3 against and got out of it. Tristan Jarry carried the Penguins to overtime.

Overtime: I Periscoped it. I remembered that I had that live streaming device and decided now was as good a time as ever to start a stream. Here it is, all 5:00, here for you.

If you didn’t click in and watch all eight minutes (there were stoppages) then you missed…

No scoring in overtime, so out was off to a shootout.

Shootout: Nothing doing in round one. Riley Barber went over Jarry’s glove in the top of the second, Jimmy Hayes was unsuccessful in his attempt and Shane Gersich scored in the top of the third to seal the extra point for Hershey.

That thing I talked about in the open? It could have been Sam Miletic who, it looks like, will be out for a bit.

Or something else, summarized here again by Tom…

Three Stars: 3) Tristan Jarry (35 saves on 38 shots) 2) Mike Sgarbossa (goal, assist) and 1) Riley Barber (goal)

Around the Division: Charlotte thumps Syracuse 6-3…Lehigh Valley beats Binghamton 5-2…Bridgeport beats Hartford 5-4…Springfield beats Providence 4-2.

Standings: Charlotte 16 – Springfield 12 – Lehigh Valley 11 – Penguins 11 – Hartford 9 – Bridgeport 7 – Hershey 7 – Providence 5.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers pick up their first win of the season with a 3-2 shootout win in Reading. Troy Josephs scored in regulation for the Nailers, he was assigned Saturday afternoon. John Muse picked up the win in his first regular season action of the season, stopping 37 of 39 and all four Royals shooters in the shootout.

Highlights: Hershey was the first, despite using the term I despise…

Penguins are off now until next Friday where they host the Hartford Wolf Pack for a pair of games next weekend on home ice before bussing to Bridgeport on Sunday afternoon. I will fill in news and notes as I get them here on the blog this upcoming week. The Week 4 AHL Power Rankings will be here on Thursday for sure.

Let’s Go Pens!

       vs.       

1                                          4

–

Tristan Jarry had that look tonight.

I could tell when he came out of his crease nonchalantly when the Penguins were on a power play here…

A confident goalie makes a move like that.

Jarry and the skaters ahead of him win tonight on home ice against the Hershey Bears who dressed a 100% max capacity lineup by a score of 4-1.

If you are Hershey starter Vitek Vanecek, those goals you gave up are goals that you want back. I don’t think any of the goals Wilkes-Barre scored tonight beat him clean. Vanecek was named AHL Player of the Week on Monday, by the way.

Lines were…

Notes: Anthony Angello was back and in for Tobias Lindberg. Ryan Horvat was in for Troy Josephs, Matt Abt for the suspended Will O’Neill on defense.

First Period: Anthony Angello scored shorthanded and beat Vanecek with this pretty shot.

What a shot.

Felt like Hershey had more shots in the period, but Wilkes-Barre led 10-6 on the shot board heading into the…

Second Period: Tristan Jarry continued to dial in, stopping a Brian Pinho shorthanded chance when Ethan Prow tried very hard to keep the puck in the zone on a power play.

Penguins double up on the scoreboard when Thomas DiPauli blows past Jonas Siegenthaler, puts a shot on that Vanecek saves but Adam Johnson was there for his first goal of the season…

Did Vanecek walk under any ladders on his way to the game today?

Right after they announced in house the weekly Player of the Week Award (it was Vanecek, the fans booed) Johnson did this…

Bar down and in. Faked a pass to Stefan Elliott which froze Vanecek.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre was caught watching again in the slot and stone in the shoe Liam O’Brien scored in front to break up the Jarry shutout bid with this goal.

I was still planning on using some variation of “Bear in a Jar” regardless if Jarry got the shutout or not, so there.

Wilkes-Barre regains the three goal lead when Jim Hayes deflected a Matt Abt shot…

Game was speeding along, but hit snag after snag. As time started to dwindle, these two teams realized they were rivals and the hitting started picking up. Patrick McGrath pummeled Connor Hobbs in a fight at center ice. Game ended without further incident.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Charlotte improves to 7-1 with a 4-3 overtime win in Binghamton tonight. All the other slackers teams were off tonight which is rare for a Friday.

Standings: Charlotte 14 – Springfield 10 – Penguins 10 – Lehigh Valley 9 – Hartford 9 – Bridgeport 7 – Providence 5 – Hershey 5

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in Reading, but they play the Royals Saturday.

Highlights: Both teams were quick on them tonight. Here’s Wilkes-Barre’s…

These two teams rematch Saturday in Hershey. Gameday setup hits the blog at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

       vs.       

6                                          3

–

It’s good to see that there are teams out there that don’t lay down easy and pack up and call it an evening when they are faced with adversity.

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms will be bussing to Bridgeport, Connecticut Saturday night into Sunday morning for an afternoon affair with the Sound Tigers. After going down 2-0 in the first period Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre, some players for the Phantoms could have packed it in, started conserving energy and coasting a bit for tomorrow’s game in Bridgeport.

But not Scott Gordon’s crew. Undeterred, the Phantoms would go on to outscore Wilkes-Barre 6-1 and turn what looked like a Phantoms rout into a Penguins rout. Lehigh Valley wins 6-3.

If Clark Donatelli is the coach I know him to be, this will be a teachable moment.

Anthony Peters opposed Alex Lyon. Tristan Jarry backed up, it may be time to get a look at what Johnny Muse can do for the Penguins in the pipes. That’s not a knock on either Jarry or Peters, Muse hasn’t played a regular season game yet for the Penguins and may be due.

Lines were…

Notes: Troy Josephs was in for Ryan Horvat up front and Matt Abt was in for Jeff Taylor.

First Period: In a period where the Penguins put up an eye popping 20 shots on goal, they would race out ahead of the Phantoms and took a 2-0 lead off the stick of Sam Miletic.

A redirect of a Will O’Neill point shot here…

And again on a rebound of a Summers point shot…

1:11 later, Mark Freidman goes bar down and in to cut the Penguins lead to one…

A quick start by Wilkes-Barre who were at time running around on the Phantoms but Friedman’s goal had them sticking around heading into the…

Second Period: German Rubtsov wrist shot beat Peters clean to tie the game for Lehigh Valley for exactly the answer the Phantoms were looking for coming out of the intermission…

In a game where few penalties were called (and none against the Phantoms) the last thing the you wanted to see was Lehigh Valley going on a power play.

:06 into a Teddy Blueger slashing penalty, Phil Varone scores to give the Phantoms a 3-2 lead…

Ethan Prow would answer 2:54 later on a shot from the point that floated through and in for a tie game.

But then the Penguins would get caught in a bad line change and German Rubtsov would score his second of the period and gave the Phantoms a lead they would never relinquish.

Third Period: Rout was on when Philippe Myers put a shot on that changed speed and direction and got past Peters for a 5-3 Lehigh Valley lead.

Woof indeed. 🐩

Lehigh Valley connects again on a power play when TJ Brennan finds Chris Conner backdoor to make it 6-3.

Two power plays that took :16 total. Price Chopper Market 32 in Kingston sponsors the Penguins penalty kill and Bobby Day never was able to get the sponsor read out. I’d be calling this week to get the money back on this one, but I just named them here. I shop there sometimes. It’s a nice grocery store. They have a seafood department, a butcher shop and a nice deli. You can always tell the quality of a grocery store by its deli.

Anyway.

After some rough stuff in the games final minute that saw Will O’Neill get assessed a game misconduct, a regular misconduct, a fighting major and an instigating minor, the game concluded without further incident.

Update: Lost among the madness is the fact that O’Neill did indeed receive an instigator penalty in the games final five minutes. That carries an automatic one game suspension with it unless it is rescinded. I don’t really see any reason for it to be taken off the board, so expect an announcement from the League Monday or Tuesday announcing that O’Neill is suspended for the next game which will be Friday at home against the Bears.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: Don’t look now but Hershey collected 5 of 6 points this week and in turn hand Charlotte their first regulation loss of the season, beating the Checkers in shutout fashion 2-0. A 25 save shutout for Vitek Vanecek, who most assuredly you can expect first out of the tunnel at around 6:20 on Friday night in Wilkes-Barre….Springfield sweeps Laval 4-2…Toronto beats Hartford 3-2 and Providence beats up on Bridgeport 5-2.

Standings: Springfield 10 – Charlotte 10 – Hartford 9 – Penguins 8 – Lehigh Valley 6 – Bridgeport, Providence and Hershey with 5 all in that order.

Wheeling Update: I’ll let Taylor sum it up.

That was Kevin Lynch with the lone goal.

Highlights: 

Pens are off Sunday and have an optional skate Monday. I’m back here Thursday with the Week 3 Power Rankings for sure, may fill in with news as I can scratch them together between now and then.

Let’s Go Pens!