Chirps from Center Ice

       vs.       

2                                          3

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This one was fun.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins battled the Springfield Thunderbirds tooth and nail tonight in Wilkes-Barre for the Penguins season opener. The Thunderbirds are going to be good this year and Michael Hutchinson is going to win them a lot of games. They didn’t disappoint, but it was the Penguins coming away with the two points with a 3-2 shootout win over Springfield.

When Tristan Jarry was re-assigned by Pittsburgh Friday, I thought that was the end of Anthony Peters here in Wilkes-Barre with John Muse already here on an NHL contract.

You will have to pry Anthony Peters out of the net with a crowbar. He was excellent. Sending him to the ECHL would be a waste of his talents, quite honestly.

Zach Aston-Reese didn’t have the best training camp with Pittsburgh so they sent him back to the AHL to work on things. Scoring a goal in regulation? Check. Scoring a goal in the shootout to help your team win? Check.

The only bit of concern was once again the power play. Wilkes-Barre could not score on the power play at opportune times and was 0-for-4 for the night.

Lines were…

Garrett Wilson / Adam Johnson / Jimmy Hayes
Zach Aston-Reese / Sam Lafferty / Anthony  Angello
Thomas Di Pauli / Teddy Blueger / Ryan Haggerty
Tobias Lindberg / Linus Ölund / Sam Miletic

Chris Summers / Stefan Elliott
Will O’Neill / Zach Trotman
Matt Abt / Ethan Prow

Anthony Peters / John Muse

Notes: The Penguins signed Matt Abt and Renars Krastenbergs to AHL contracts. Krastenbergs was sent to Wheeling….also this:

https://twitter.com/ScottStuccio/status/1048693147637874688

I knew that this was going to happen when Obie moved on leaving a spot open on color commentary. Stuccio won’t be at all the games, but will be filling in from time to time and it’s great to have him back.

First Period: Had everything. Goals, fights, more goals, more fights. Thomas DiPauli spilled a puck in the first minute of the game and Paul Thompson struck just :36 into the new season.

Thank you again to Taylor for first GIFing these things and second allowing me to run them here.

Ethan Prow scored the first Penguins goal of the season a few minutes later for the Penguins on a shot from the point that Hutchinson had to have been screened on and it was a tie game.

Zach Aston-Reese got the Penguins ahead with a nice curl and drag move here.

Hutchinson got most of it, but not all of it.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Garrett Wilson and Joel Lowry fought setting off an end of a period that had featured 46 PIMs.

Springfield’s penalty box had about six players in it at one point but the Penguins weren’t able to score on the power play. I said this at the end of the period…

Second Period: Thunderbirds connect on a power play half way through when a pin balling puck eludes Peters. Paul Thompson again, and it’s a brand new hockey game…

Penguins had a scare late when a puck dribbled through Peters but never crossed the line entirely. Pens killed a late power play and it was off to the…

Third Period: Goalie battle. Neither willing to give an inch. Michael Hutchinson was an offseason acquisition for the Florida Panthers from the Winnipeg Jets / Manitoba Moose and comes as good as his accolades with the Moose last year showed. But staring him down from 200 feet in the opposite direction was Anthony Peters, no slouch in his own right. No team scored here in the third, the Penguins had a late power play come and go.

Overtime: Anthony Peters with a ten baller here…

Aston-Reese came inches from ending it with 1.7 left but couldn’t get the extra oomph (I can say oomph on a blog, you couldn’t do that in a newspaper) to put it across the line and be the overtime hero.

Shootout: Zach Aston-Reese with the only goal. Anthony Peters stopped all three shooters he faced.

Three Stars: 

That graphic there saves me time. If anyone on Coal Street reads the blog, please keep doing this.

Around the Division: Charlotte, with an impressive weekend, sweeps a two game series with Rochester after a 4-2 win over the Amerks in Rochester tonight…Lehigh Valley beats a Bridgeport team that is built to contend 6-3…Providence coughs up a stunning 3-2 loss to the Laval Rocket, the Bruins are 0-2 to start the year…Hershey has their home opener spoiled by Syracuse with a 3-2 loss. Hartford was off.

Standings: Early days. No more percentages. It goes Charlotte with 4, Lehigh Valley, Hartford and Wilkes-Barre with 2, Springfield with 1 and Bridgeport, Hershey and Providence with 0.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are still in preseason, they get going next weekend.

If Coal Street runs a highlight package, I will edit it in here. I am probably going to cut my own for road games and stuff with the AHLTV platform. But it’s late, there were audio issues on AHLTV tonight in house and I want to get this gamer out at a reasonable hour so I could sit and cut up the stuff, but would rather just push this out now vs. try to do it all and and add it in.

Pens are off til Monday. My Power Rankings won’t run until Thursday. I am moving them there, for now, to see how it goes for me. It became way to strenuous on me on Sunday night’s trying to sort out and build the Rankings. Sometimes I would be sitting at the computer for 6 plus hours if the Penguins were playing on Sunday’s. I don’t want to do that anymore so Thursday it is. We will see how it goes.

Pens plan on making roster moves before they hit the road for two in Cleveland next weekend so when that news breaks, look for it here. Those games in Cleveland are next Thursday and Saturday.

Let’s Go Pens!

The Penguins wrapped up their preseason slate in Hershey with an afternoon game with the Bears and won 3-2. Wilkes-Barre goes 3-0 on the preseason and now set their sights on setting a lineup, maybe naming a captain, and the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Here were a look at the lines:

Ryan Horvat / Cam Brown / Kevin Lynch
Renars Krastenbergs / Nick Saracino / Yushi Hirano
Troy Josephs / Cedric Lacroix / Patrick McGrath
Tyler Bird / Tobias Lindberg /

Matt Abt / Jeff Taylor
Kevin Spinozzi / Dane Birks
Johnny Austin / Tim Erixon
Dan Fick was the seventh defenseman.

Anthony Peters got the start, Johnny Muse backed him up. Penguins went 7 defensemen and 11 forwards.

In the first, Nick Saracino scored a power play goal to give the Pens a 1-0 lead. Logan Pyatt tried a clear, it ricocheted off of Bears starting goalie Ilya Samsonov’s skate and Saracino pounced on it and scored.

Later, a name that you are going to get familiar with and grow to hate if you are an opponent of the Bears.

That’s Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and that was a hell of a shot.

Penguins almost scored after the face-off that followed, but Tobias Lindberg wasn’t able to push it though.

In the second, the Pens had to kill off a carryover 5-on-3 power play and did so successfully. Later, Shane Gersich hacked and whacked at a loose puck in the crease to give the Bears a lead.

Off the face-off, the Penguins scored on a goal by Troy Josephs set up by nice pass by Tobias Lindberg.

In the third, Pens played bend but not break with penalties against, withstood the storm and got a goal with 7:31 to play from Renars Krastenbergs. Penguins maintained offensive zone time ad Krastenbergs was there to put the puck in and give the Penguins a lead.

Wilkes-Barre’s penalty kill went 8-for-8 and they scored a power play goal. Not a bad way to end the preseason, 3-0, and leading or tied for all but about a minute for all three games.

Highlights…..

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But it all starts for real beginning Saturday at home against the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Coaching staff will have some decisions to make Monday with who to send to Wheeling and who to cut. I’ll have stuff on Twitter once the announcements are made.

Schedule for this week going up on the blog is as follows:

Monday: Pacific Division Preview.
Tuesday: Central Division Preview.
Wednesday: North Division Preview.
Thursday: Atlantic Division Preview.

The previews will hit each day at noon. There is a drop down menu at the top of the blog to navigate from anywhere on the blog to get there once they debut.

I’ll drop in other news and notes as they come in. Gameday setup for Springfield will hit the blog Saturday at 3. Power Rankings will be back also, but on a new day. That day will be Thursday. I haven’t settled on a time just yet. I’ll let you know sometime next week.

Should be another fun year. Let’s Go Pens!

I don’t care if it’s preseason, it’s always fun beating Hershey.

A more regular lineup for the Penguins tonight who beat the Bears 6-2.

Lines were:

Garrett Wilson / Linus Ölund / Jim Hayes
Tom Di Pauli / Teddy Blueger / Anthony Angello
Adam Johnson / Sam Lafferty / Ryan Haggerty
Troy Josephs / Tobias Lindberg / Sam Miletic

Will O’Neill / Chris Summers
Johnny Austin / Stefan Elliott
Matt Abt / Ethan Prow

Anthony Peters / Danny Tirone

Craig Skudalski took warmups. He signed a PTO with Wheeling, who open camp next week.

Penguins jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on a nice clean up goal by Sam Lafferty and a set up pass by Troy Josephs to Sam Miletic a few minutes later.

Matt Abt, who played well enough Thursday to earn a second look tonight, took a shot on Vanecek that was stopped, but big body Anthony Angello dug it out, shifted it over to Lafferty for the first goal of the game. Nice play by Abt and forecheck by Angello.

Bears caught napping overloaded on the near side when Josephs wheeled around the net and set up Miletic for the second goal.

Two Sam’s scored in the first. There’s a pun in there somewhere.

:15 into the second, Hershey cuts into the lead with a goal by Jeremy Morin. He raced past two defenders and scored.

Penguins could not score on a 4:00 double minor, so at least the power play is in midseason form.

Ethan Prow scored on a dart from the blue line that beat Vanecek high. I don’t think there was a screen involved but Anthony Angello was close by. He’s a big enough body to cause disturbances in front of the net.

Steven Whitney scored for the Bears when the Penguins were caught standing around spectating to bring the Bears back within one.

But Wilkes-Barre got up on the wheel and got two goals by the end of the second, one by Teddy Blueger on a nice give and go with Ryan Haggerty and then another on a terrific shot between the legs of a Bears defender by Sam Lafferty, his second of the game.

If you have “Good Sam” in your pun pool this year as possible headlines for the blog, that one may go off the board quickly this season and be overused is Sam Miletic makes the team also.

We had fun with it on Twitter after Sam Miletic scored a power play goal that made it 6-2. Endless pun possibilities.

Anyway, Penguins were essentially on cruise control all period, finally got the power play to click and even killed off a Will O’Neill double minor.

Three stars were Haggerty, Lafferty and Miletic.

These two teams meet Sunday afternoon in Hershey at 5. Talk to you then.