Chirps from Center Ice

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Hat tricks are a rare thing. Back to back hat tricks are extremely rare. But that is what happened Saturday afternoon in Laval, QC as Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defensemen Andrey Pedan scored a hat trick, his first of his professional career. Last night, Ryan Haggerty scored his first professional hat trick last night in Belleville.

Wilkes-Barre wins 4-3. Seven straight for the Penguins, their longest winning streak of the season.

Had the conversation on here a week ago whether the Penguins are, “back” after their horrific December. I think so. Today’s game was a terrific, physical and exciting affair between two teams that knocked the snot out of each other. It was a game that could have went either way, and Pedan and his heroics are enough to lift the Penguins past the Rocket today in Quebec.

Anthony Peters opposed Michael McNiven.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – Greg McKegg – Christian Thomas
Adam Johnson – Teddy Blueger – Thomas DiPauli
Freddie Tiffels – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Andrey Pedan – Kevin Czuczman
Jarred Tinordi – Ethan Prow
Chris Summers – Kevin Spinozzi

Anthony Peters – Adam Morrison

Lineup Notes: Freddie Tiffels, Jarrett Burton and Patrick McGrath replaced the fourth line from last night. Ethan Prow, Kevin Spinozzi and Chris Summers were in on the blue line. Thomas DiPauli bumped up to the third line, replacing Colin Smith.

First Period: :32 in, Eric Gelinas puts a shot on net that through a heavy screen to put the Rocket on the board first. Later, Andrey Pedan carried the puck through the neutral zone, unleashed a shot from high slot that McNiven got a piece of with his glove, but it went over the glove and in his net.

Christian Thomas assisted here, extending his point streak to four games.

Physicality picked up, as both teams were throwing big time hits.

Second Period: 1:03 in, the Rocket would jump out to another lead. A shot from the point was put in by Adam Cracknell. A Penguin lost his stick.

:23 later, Teddy Blueger scored. A great rush by Adam Johnson set the whole thing up…

Peters was keeping his team in the game, with this nice save here…

That was Noah Juulsen off a nice pass from Nikita Scherbak being denied by the Penguins netminder.

Andrey Pedan would add his second goal of the game while the Penguins were on a power play with this snapper of a shot that gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead…

Physicality was picking up huge. Neither team was backing down.

Laval drew even again on a power play goal. Wilkes-Barre found themselves in some penalty trouble and this one bit them. Adam Cracknell again, and it was tied again at three.

Pedan would complete his hat trick with four minutes to play in the second period exactly on a power play.

That’s Garrett Wilson down there setting the screen.

Penguins defensemen just don’t score hat tricks that often. Here is the last time that it happened…

Oh, and Ryan Haggerty assisted on that Pedan goal, giving him six points on the weekend. Give him AHL Player of the Week honors immediately.

Third Period: No scoring here, but it was a period highlighted by lots of fantastic saves from McNiven and Peters. McNiven with the toe denying Zach Aston-Reese and Peters here in a pile of bodies with time ticking down…

This time it was Laval that found themselves in penalty trouble late in the period, nullifying any attempted comeback that the home team would have planned.

Three Stars: 3) Ryan Haggerty (two assists, -1) 2) Adam Cracknell (two goals, +2) and 1) Andrey Pedan (hat trick, +1)

Around the Division: Toronto sweeps Charlotte 3-1. Checkers are in a free fall, out of a playoff spot and 3-7 in their last ten….Belleville beats Hartford 4-2…Bridgeport beats Providence and sweeps the P-Bruins this weekend beating them 2-1 in a shootout. The Sound Tigers take the fourth spot in the Atlantic….Lehigh Valley beats Hershey 2-1, the Bears five game point streak ends. These two teams rematch tomorrow in Hershey. Springfield had the night off.

Standings: Penguins (.681 percentage points) — Providence (.649) — Lehigh Valley (.628) — Bridgeport (.568) — Charlotte (.556) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.450) — Springfield (.436)

Wheeling Update: Nailers beat Norfolk 4-2. J.C. Campagna had a pair of goals.

Video Highlights:

Pens will travel home Sunday.

Week 15 AHL Power Rankings are yours Monday at 4 but for anything breaking between now and then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Wlkes-Barre / Scranton uses six goals tonight in Belleville, Ontario to extend their winning streak to six wins with a 6-2 win in Canada tonight.

Ryan Haggerty had three goals, his first ever hat trick as a professional. Anthony Peters picked up his fourth win as a Penguins goaltender since coming in on his second PTO and coupled with a Providence loss, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are once again atop the Atlantic Division.

Another methodical win by the Penguins, who seemed numb to a better Belleville team tonight in my opinion. The Pens have been using the KISS method to win them hockey games recently and it’s been working. Anthony Peters is more than capable enough to win games for the Penguins in goal. The defense remains intact for Wilkes-Barre and the Penguins are getting scoring from the likes of Haggerty, Christian Thomas, J-S Dea, Teddy Blueger and others and it’s turned their season around.

Anthony Peters opposed Marcus Hogberg.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – Greg McKegg – Christian Thomas
Adam Johnson – Teddy Blueger – Colin Smith
Cody Wydo – Gage Quinney – Thomas Di Pauli

Pedan-Czuczman Tinordi-Trotman Taylor-Corrado

Anthony Peters – Adam Morrison

Lineup Notes: Casey DeSmith was recalled to Pittsburgh earlier in the day today because Matt Murray is away on a personal matter. For the Penguins in Belleville, Gage Quinney was back in for Wilkes-Barre along with Cody Wydo on the fourth line. On defense, Frank Corrado and Jeff Taylor were in for Chris Summers and Ethan Prow. On Thursday, Christian Thomas was selected for the mens hockey team for Team Canada. That’s Olympian Christian Thomas to you.

First Period: Ryan Haggerty got the Penguins on the board early when he unleashed this shot that eluded Hogberg that gave the Pens a 1-0 lead…

That’s a five game point streak for Haggerty and a six game point streak for Zach Aston-Reese, who picked up an assist on the goal. He’s assisted on nine of fourteen goals by Haggerty this season.

Pens had to kill a Jeff Taylor penalty and had a few shorthanded rushes but couldn’t add another goal.

Later, Max McCormick wheeled around the net of Peters and dished a pass to Colin Smith on the far post that Smith pounded home make it a 1-1 game.

Pens had a late power play, and assistant coach Tim Army put five forwards out for it, something that I have noticed the Penguins do recently, but there was no scoring with that man advantage.

Wilkes-Barre ended the period on a 7-0 shot run.

Second Period: Momma, there’s that man again…

Haggerty’s modus operandi coming over from Rockford when the Penguins signed him two years ago was that he had a great shot. He never used it as much last year as he is this year.

1:15 later, Olympian Christian Thomas scores to make it 3-1 for the Penguins.

That was Thomas’ fourth goal in his last three games.

Kurt Klinendorst replaced Hogberg with Danny Taylor in goal. It worked, to some extent, as Belleville would get one back :06 into an Andrey Pedan interference call. Ben Harpur got the Senators back to within one with his quick goal off of the Senators face-off win.

Third Period: Haggerty completes his hat trick here with this firecracker…

Pens made it 5-2 when Garrett Wilson got in on the scoring by finding daylight from a low angle on a power play…

With time dwindling, Belleville pulled Taylor for the extra man. But then Frank Corrado iced a puck down ice that J-S Dea beat everyone to and he scored an empty netter to salt the game away for Wilkes-Barre…

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Three Stars: 3) Christian Thomas (goal, +2) 2) Colin White (two goals, +1) and 1) Ryan Haggerty (hat trick, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Bridgeport edges Providence 3-2. This Bruins loss catapults the Penguins to first in the division….Toronto defeats Charlotte 4-1. These two teams rematch tomorrow in North Carolina…Springfield smokes Lehigh Valley in Allentown 6-2…Hartford loses to the Penguins Saturday opponent, Laval by a 4-2 score.

Standings: Penguins (.671 percentage points) — Providence (.653) — Lehigh Valley (.618) — Charlotte (.581) — Bridgeport (.543) — Hershey (.513) — Hartford (.462) — Springfield (.436)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers come back from a 3-0 deficit to stun the Norfolk Admirals 4-3 in overtime at WesBanco tonight. Riley Bourbonnais scored the overtime game winning goal 2:19 into overtime to give the Nailers the win.

Remember that Saturday’s game from Laval starts at 4. Don’t be late! Gameday setup will hit the blog here Saturday at noon.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins needed a game like this.

The Belleville Senators have been bad all season, their 6th place showing in the North Division is only bested by last place Binghamton, who the Penguins have struggled with.

So the Penguins rightfully should crush a young, inexperienced Belleville team.

It’s exactly how the outcome turned out tonight.

A 6-0 win. Casey DeSmith was marvelous in goal tonight for the Penguins, stopping all 24 shots sent his way. The game had some lulls to it as any game would, but when called upon DeSmith was there to preserve his clean sheet. Now five wins in a row for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Two goals from J-S Dea tonight and two more from Christian Thomas who must be pushing hard to get noticed for Team Canada and the Olympics. Secondary scoring from defensemen in Ethan Prow and Zach Trotman and that’s your ballgame.

DeSmith opposed Chris Driedger.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – Greg McKegg – Christian Thomas
Adam Johnson – Teddy Blueger – Colin Smith
Freddie Tiffels – Jarrett Burton – Thomas Di Pauli

Jarred Tinordi – Zach Trotman
Andrey Pedan – Kevin Czuczman
Chris Summers – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Earlier in the day, the Pittsburgh Penguins placed defenseman Frank Corrado on waivers. Lineup wise tonight, Patrick McGrath was out for Freddie Tiffels.

First Period: Christian Thomas used a Belleville defenseman with a screen and ripped home a shot from the high slot that went in to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

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Zach Trotman a few minutes later doubles the Penguins lead to 2-0 with this shot from the point that makes it way past Driedger for a 2-0 Penguins lead…

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Despite the fact that it was a low shot period for the Belleville Senators, Casey DeSmith was dialed in, stopping a deflected puck from the point then the rebound attempt.

Second Period: Belleville tried to push back with a lot more offensive zone time then they had in the first period, but the Penguins played a bend but not break style of hockey that preserved the 2-0 lead when J-S Dea scored to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead. Dea had to be called back onto the ice by referee David Banfield after an icing call, won the face-off that ensured in his own zone, then skated the length of the ice and scored to give the Pens the 3-0 lead.

It was Dea’s first goal in 15 games, so he took the proverbial monkey on his back and threw it into Section 102.

Third Period: J-S Dea again, this time off of Driedger and in. Check this out…

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Power play goal by Dea made it 4-0 Penguins. Dea’s first multi-goal game of the season, his last coming March 5, 2017. Oh, and also…

Ethan Prow fired and scored his first goal of the season to make it 5-0.

Christian Thomas scored his second of the night that made it 6-0.

Twelve Penguins recorded at least a point and four of them had multi point nights.

It was the definition of a great team tearing apart a bad team.

Three Stars: 3) J-S Dea (two goals, +1) 2) Casey DeSmith (24 save shutout) and 1) Christian Thomas (two goals, assist, +4)

Around the Division: Really good results here if you are a Penguin fan. Providence beat Springfield 6-2…Rochester beat Lehigh Valley 3-1…Hershey crushed Charlotte 5-1…Syracuse beats Hartford 3-2…Toronto steamrolls Bridgeport 6-1.

Standings: Providence (.691 percentage points) — Penguins (.662) — Lehigh Valley (.635) — Charlotte (.614) — Bridgeport (.544) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.472) — Springfield (.405)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were in Cincinnati and lost to the Cyclones 4-2. Kevin Schulze and Cam Brown scored for the Nailers in the loss.

Video Highlights:

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I’m not really convinced that the Penguins are back, so to speak, rather than just playing out of their terrible December by getting pieces back together and beating some really bad teams. That week where Wilkes-Barre hosts Lehigh Valley on January 17 and then travels to Providence on the 19th is circled on my calendar as the true tests for this team.

If Frank Corrado is claimed on waivers, I’ll put a blog post up Sunday noting same. If not, Week 14 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog Monday back on their regular time Monday at 4.