Chirps from Center Ice

       vs.       

1                                          2

–

If you have ever been to a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins game at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, then you are familiar with the in between music bumps that they play during stoppages in play. Well, there was one with 27.9 left in a tight game in a third period that was predicated by this save by Tristan Jarry. Here it is…

–

After the save, the Arena played Alien Ant Farm’s “Smooth Criminal” Here are some of the lyrics.

You’ve Been Hit By
You’ve Been Hit By
A Smooth Criminal

Apropos. That smooth criminal tonight was none other than goaltender Tristan Jarry, who stopped 34 of 35 shots sent his way in arguably his best game of the season for the Penguins. Since his reassignment by Pittsburgh, he’s 3-0 and has only allowed five goals during that time.

Tom with more from Donatelli post game…

Penguins win 2-1. Some breathing room on Lehigh Valley for the division lead, with three games in hand to boot.

Jarry opposed Dustin Tokarski

Lines were…

Thomas Di Pauli – J-S Dea – Reid Gardiner
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Adam Johnson – Greg McKegg – Colin Smith
Jarrett Burton – Teddy Blueger – Patrick McGrath

Jarred Tinordi – Ethan Prow
Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado
Andrey Pedan – Chris Summers

Tristan Jarry – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Zach Aston-Reese was recalled to Pittsburgh earlier in the day today when Patric Hornqvist was injured in last nights game. Conor Sheary was moved to IR. Tom Venesky highlighted Aston-Reese on the pay website The Athletic a couple of weeks ago for them. Now normally, I wouldn’t tell you to pay to read junk on the internet, but I researched them this week, and it’s a top quality website. This link explains more. If you don’t subscribe I suggest you at least check out the free seven day trial. No, I am not on their payroll, either. Tom is a quality guy, if he is going to churn out quality stuff featuring the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, the only AHL team I think that has someone dedicated on the beat on that website, it’s at least worth your time to check out.

Anyway. In the wake of the Aston-Reese recall and the injury to Ryan Haggerty last night, the Pens recalled Reid Gardiner, who was thrust right onto the top line for the Pens tonight and Troy Josephs, who had a hat trick for the Nailers Friday night.

First Period: :26 in, Phantoms killer J-S Dea wasted no time in establishing the lead for the home team.

Jarry was dialed in, denying a Mark Vecchione would be tap in.

Penguins double the lead, via this Daniel Sprong power play goal.

I love how when Sprong shoots, he knows it’s a goal. Goal scorers just have a feeling. More Tom with Clark on Sprong…

Second Period: No scoring in the period. Jarry continued to dial in. He had a certain swagger about him tonight and even I picked that up.

Period was really marred by a lot of penalties that didn’t amount to anything as it remained 2-0 Penguins heading into the…

Third Period: Jarred Tinordi was in the penalty box for a puck over gas delay of game and Chris Conner scored from the slot to bust up Jarry’s shutout bid.

–

Time started to run out on the Phantoms and Jarry made the save with under :30 left after Lehigh Valley pulled Tokarski for the extra man. They never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (goal, +1) 2) Daniel Sprong (gioal, even) 1) Tristan Jarry (34 saves on 35 shots)

Around the Division: Providence splits the home and home with Hartford, who beat the P-Bruins 3-1 at home tonight…Bridgeport beats Belleville at home 3-1 and Hershey finally is back in the win column in a wild game with Charlotte 6-5 in a shootout. Springfield was off.

Standings: Penguins (.682 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.638) — Providence (.609) — Bridgeport (.565) — Charlotte (.554) — Hartford (.510) — Springfield (.479) — Hershey (.457)

Wheeling Update: beats Wheeling in West Virginia 7-3.Fort Wayne Freddie Tiffels scored in the loss.

Video Highlights: 

AHL Power Rankings are Monday. Pens are back in action this Wednesday in Springfield.

Let’s Go Pens!

       vs.       

1                                          4

–

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton uses two goals in the third period and a pair of goals from Andrey Pedan to skate past rival Hershey 4-1 tonight at home.

This win is significant for a number of reasons. First, it keeps the Penguins in first place in the Atlantic Division. Second, it improves the Penguins already league best home ice advantage and record to 18-6-0-1. Finally, the Penguins beat Hershey, which is always great and the Bears have lost nine straight games.

This news coms with collateral damage. Conor Sheary is week-to-week up top with a lower body injury. Carter Rowney was activated off of injured reserve today and J-S Dea was sent back down but Dea and likely another player may rubber band back to Pittsburgh tomorrow because Patric Hornqvist suffered a lower body injury in Pittsburgh’s 7-4 win over Washington tonight. That player should be Zach Aston-Reese, who has 20 points in his past 20 games.

Oh, and locally…

–

Walking wounded is back again folks. What a time to be alive.

One other thing…

–

Tristan Jarry opposed Pheonix Copley

Lines were…all messed up. Not because of Haggerty leaving the game with injury alone, but J-S Dea wasn’t part of this Obie tweet…

–

Dea centered the top line and Patrick McGrath was a scratch.

Defense was Andrey Pedan – Ethan Prow; Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado; Kevin Spinozzi and Chris Summers. Anthony Peters backed up Jarry.

First Period: Tyler Graovac stripped Kevin Spinozzi, skated in, pumped faked and dished to Riley Barber, only the pass never made it to Barber. Gage Quinney was the sole Penguin back, made a good read on the pass that Graovac made, only to see it deflect off of his stick and into his own net and gave Hershey a 1-0 lead.

On a power play, Andrey Pedan would score his first of the game when a puck put on Copley by J-S Dea rebounded straight to Pedan who scored to tie the game at one…

–

Majority of action felt like it was played in front of Jarry, yet the Penguins only trailed the Bears 10-8 in shots. Penguins shots came in rushes mostly.

Second Period: Tight checking. Ryan Haggerty never came out for the period and wasn’t seen the rest of the game. Both teams traded power plays.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre breaks in on a three on one and Pedan scores his second of the game to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead. Nice dish by Greg McKegg, leading the rush, to Pedan for the score.

–

Wilkes-Barre makes it 3-1 with a perfect screen set by Garrett Wilson on Copley that allowed Kevin Czuczman to score to make it 3-1 for the Penguins.

–

Zach Aston-Reese had a secondary assist on that goal by Czuczman. That gives him 20 points in his last 20 games (7-13-20)

Hershey had a power play that lacked punch. They floated all night. They don’t look like the Bears team you would come to expect. I have people that some times tell me when things are going bad for the Penguins that they are, “not a team, just a collection of players.” I think that classification applies here regarding the way the Bears are playing right now.

With Copley pulled, Daniel Sprong set up Jarrett Burton for a doorstep tap in that iced the game away and made it 4-1 Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Daniel Sprong (two assists, +1) 2) Tristan Jarry (25 saves on 26 shots) and 1) Andrey Pedan (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley scores a late goal to beat Charlotte 3-2 to keep the heat on the Penguins for tops in the Atlantic….Providence scores an overtime power play goal to beat Hartford 2-1…Springfield shuts out Bridgeport 1-0.

Standings: Penguins (.674 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.652) — Providence (.622) — Charlotte (.556) — Bridgeport (.556) — Hartford (.500) — Springfield (.479) — Hershey (.446)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers make it an organizational sweep night with a 7-3 win over the Indy Fuel. Troy Josephs had a hat trick.

Video Highlights: 

–

Gameday setup for a big 1 vs. 2 matchup featuring the Penguins and Phantoms hits the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

       vs.       

3                                          4

–

I wasn’t around for the early to mid 2000’s when the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and Binghamton hockey teams used to beat the piss out of one another.

Comebacks in the playoffs and upset wins? Wasn’t there, wish I was.

Stolen whiteouts? Novel concept, but again, I wasn’t there but wish I was.

I am now, and this edition of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and Binghamton Devils putting on a showcase in front of a sellout crowd in Wilkes-Barre is high theater. Cast aside the records, when these two teams get together its a knockdown, drag out affair between two evenly matched teams that happen to hate each other.

Binghamton is the worst team in the AHL and the Penguins are in the top five, but styles make fights.

Wilkes-Barre wins 4-3 in overtime. Game had everything. Comebacks from Binghamton, fights and scrums after every whistle. Questionable officiating after that product has vastly improved. Pens take a lead, Binghamton ties it right back up. Tom Kostopoulos returned from injury.

Zach Aston-Reese’s overtime game winner seals it for the Pens, who hit the All-Star break at the top of the standings in the Atlantic Division and pushing to keep their consecutive playoff appearance streak alive and intact.

Nice game for Tristan Jarry, who made the saves when he needed to to push his team to overtime and the team took over from there. It’s been said that Casey DeSmith has outplayed and won spots over Jarry at every point imaginable when these two have been up for a spot. Getting this hard fought win to go in his favor is a step towards getting back to the NHL for Jarry.

Jarry opposed Mackenzie Blackwood.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Colin Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Adam Johnson – Greg McKegg – Jarrett Burton
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Tom Kostopoulos

Jarred Tinordi – Ethan Prow
Kevin Czuczman – Frank Corrado
Andrey Pedan – Chris Summers

Tristan Jarry – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: 

Also, Prow for Zach Trotman. Colin Smith yielded to Kostopoulos, Dea was in for Thomas.

First Period: J-S Dea gets in behind everyone and scores to make it 1-0 Pens early on…

Penguins controlled long parts of the period, outshooting the guests 10-5, and lead after one. So just a carbon copy of the first in the second and it’s over right?

Wrong.

Second Period: After Kevin Czuczman dunked on Blackwood with this goal…..

…Binghamton responded and was on the Pens like a cheap suit the rest of the night. They were on the Pens at the drop of the puck, controlling offensive zone time.

On a power play, Nick Lappin scores his first of two power play goals for the Devils on this sequence:

Tim Kennedy puts one on the tape of Bracken Kearns who and dishes to Lappin for the near side slam dunk.

Physicality broke out after this. Every whistle was met with a shove or a fight. It was usually the Penguins on the short end of the whistles off of the fingers from referees Andy Wilk and Beau Halkidis, and Lappin made the Penguins pay on yet another power play the Devils had in the period, to tie it with 1:27 left in the second:

Same setup as the last power play goal. As if it were always this easy.

Third Period: Powder keg feeling was diffused a bit by long stretches of play between the two sides that made for a much quicker third period.

Garrett Wilson scored with 1:38 left in regulation to give the Penguins the lead on this snipe:

But Binghamton would get it back seconds later when Bracken Kearns scores on what looked like a high stick deflection that the officials discussed but confirmed and it was a 3-3 game with 63 seconds left to play.

No one scored in regulation so it was off to…

Overtime: Referees had a tough game. They missed a two many men on the ice call then a blatant slash on Gage Quinney in regulation. Then, in overtime, Ryan Haggerty was tripped and Nick Lappin had a name breakaway with the nearest player a good 10 feet behind him. For the hat trick and the game winner. he was turned away by Jarry as play continued.

Zach Aston-Reese….

Ballgame.

Three Stars: 3) Garrett Wilson (goal, +1) 2) Nick Lappin (two goals, even) 1) Zach Aston-Reese (overtime game winning goal, +2)

Around the Division: Losing streak is at eight for the Hershey Bears, who drop a 3-1 contest to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in Connecticut….Utica ties it late with the extra attacker, then wins it in overtime against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms by a 3-2 score….Springfield beats Providence 5-2 and Hartford shuts out Charlotte 4-0.

Standings: Penguins (.667 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.644) — Providence (.614) — Charlotte (.568) — Bridgeport (.568) — Hartford (.500) — Springfield (.468) — Hershey (.456)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose 5-2 at home to the Manchester Monarchs. Cody Wydo and Nick Sorkin score for the Nailers in the loss.

Video Highlights: 

AHL is off now for the All-Star break. My AHL Power Rankings will be out sometime Sunday. Check in Sunday evening.

Let’s Go Pens!