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A Penguins fan will tell you that they had the Binghamton Senators all the way tonight.

A Binghamton Senators fan will say the same thing too, probably with a few expletives in there, after the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeated the B-Sens tonight by a score of 3-2 in overtime, on Anton Zlobin’s goal 8:40 into the first overtime.

So the Penguins beat the Sens 3-2 in a playoff game. Where have I read this before? Oh, right, last year when the Pens did it three straight times last year and swept the B-Sens out of the playoffs.

Tonight though, was a much more even game than what the Penguins are accustomed to in prior meetings to the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena this season. The home rink for the East Division Champion B-Sens has been nothing short of a house of horrors for the Penguins.

Peter Mannino vs. Andrew Hammond. Spencer Machacek was the veteran scratch. Mike Carman was scratched too. Conor Sheary took warmups. Matt Murray backed up Mannino.

First Period: Matt Puempel was sprung on a mini breakaway on a long stretch pass. Mannino made the save but in the ensuing chaos of reacting to what just happened and who had who, Adam Payerl was whistled for tripping and the B-Sens were off to the power play. Cody Ceci pumped one home for a 1-0 B-Sens lead early.

Here is what defined the Binghamton Senators to this point. You make a mistake of letting Puempel get in behind your D, you take a penalty and on the power play it ends up in your net. Actually, two mistakes. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you. Or something like that.

The Ceci power play goal jumpstarted the Penguins after that. Wilkes-Barre controlled about two thirds of this period. Brendan Mikkelson and Stephane Da Costa traded shots which rang loudly off the pipe but stayed out. The first ended with a 1-0 Binghamton lead but felt like the Penguins should be leading if not tied.

Second Period: Alex Grant wanted him some pipe too. He rang one off the post at the beginning of the period. Then Zach Sill popped Puempel into the boards on what may end up being some bad collateral damage for Binghamton. Puempel scored 30 goals for the B-Sens this season. He tried to give to a go in the third period but was not seen in overtime.

Harry Zolnierczyk scored to even the game at one for the Pens on the doorstep of Hammond.

But, just like that, Jean-Gabriel Pageau put the home team back ahead less than 90 seconds later.

Remember mistakes? Anton Zlobin boarded Mark Borowiecki and the B-Sens were headed to the power play. Time to step on the throats of the Pens and put this away, right? No! You’re wrong!

Andrew Ebbett scored shorthanded on a firecracker slapshot that beat Hammond glove side to even things again at two a piece.

Third Period: Pens had 1:51 of 5-on-3 time late in the second and some leftover in the third but were unable to capitalize on it.

Here’s where the “replay” part of my headline comes in.

Carter Rowney appears to have scored to put the Pens up 3-2. But it was ruled no goal on interference on the goaltender. After a conference between the four man officiating crew, the call stood. No goal.

Shot off of a face-off for Binghamton surprises Mannino. Nearly goes in, or does it? Goal light comes on. Officials look at it on replay and the tape doesn’t lie, no goal.

No one scored in this period. So it was off to…

Overtime: Shane Prince, a certified Penguin killer, appears to have scored to give the B-Sens the overtime winner. But referee T.J. Luxmore washes it out and rules it was kicked in. To replay!

Luxmore was joined in the booth by the second man in the arm bands, Keith Kaval. After a conference, it was confirmed as no goal.

The guys that cover the B-Sens for the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin tweeted this post game about the disallowed goal:

[tweet https://twitter.com/PSBSens/status/459882621544435712]

[tweet https://twitter.com/PSBSens/status/459882782651871233]

[tweet https://twitter.com/PSBSens/status/459883475085312000]

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Replay is new to the AHL. Well, actually it is in its second year. It’s an inexact science. I can say that from what I saw, it looked inconclusive really. I didn’t see a kick but then again the puck was deflected off of the man skating forward.

Zlobin ended it. Jonathan describes it best in his blog post game recap:

The play started after a neutral zone faceoff. Binghamton won it, but Zlobin and linemate Chuck Kobasew pursued defenseman Mark Borowiecki as he backpedaled with the puck, forcing a turnover. Zlobin raced toward the left half-wall to recover the loose puck. Kobasew screened off the other Binghamton defender, allowing Zlobin to walk pretty much unmolested to the slot.

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Three Stars: 3) Cody Ceci (goal, -1) 2) Patrick Mullen (two assists, even) 1) Anton Zlobin (overtime game winning goal, +1)

Elsewhere in the East: Providence evened its series with Springfield at a game a piece with a 2-1 overtime win tonight….St. John’s got a late goal to stun Albany 2-1 to go up 1-0 in that series and Manchester shut out Norfolk 2-0 to go up 1-0 in that series.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are on to the next round after sweeping the South Carolina Stingrays by a score of 4-2 tonight. Denver Manderson had a goal in the win.

SendToNews Highlights: How about YouTube, courtesy of the Binghamton Senators?

[youtube http://youtu.be/Uzd1-AYmTKU]

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Reactions after seeing the video: Awful call on the Rowney no goal. Contact was made with Hammond to his left. He goes down to make a save but the puck never gets through then Rowney slams it in two seconds AFTER contact on his right……the Prince goal in overtime should have counted, having looked at it in front of my computer screen. No kick. At all.

The washout on Rowney was made without replay. I don’t think those plays are reviewable. So both teams dodge bullets. You just shake hands and move on.

Game 2 is tomorrow night at 7:05 in Binghamton. I’ll make the trip and have it all covered. Gameday hits the blog Saturday at three.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Penguins dressed an all ATO lineup tonight and lost 2-0 to the Utica Comets. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will play the Binghamton Senators in Round 1 of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

I mean, that’s all you need to know, right? Pens conceded the East Division Championship to the Binghamton Senators last night, so it was all about who the Pens would play in the first round of the playoffs, right?

I’d consider that a cop out though, so read on for your recap.

The Penguins dressed an all ATO lineup. Goaltender Matt Murray started in goal for the Penguins and Eric Hartzell backed up. Scott Wilson and Jean-Sebastian Dea made their pro debuts up front. Scratches for Wilkes-Barre were Brendan Mikkelson, Harry Zolnierczyk, Nick Drazenovic, Chuck Kobasew, Mike Carman, Bobby Farnham, Andrew Ebbett, Tom Kostopoulos, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Matia Marcantuoni and Clark Seymour. Scott Harrington appeared in his 76th regular season game for the Penguins, the only player to claim that title this year.

The Penguins, to a man, did not look out of place playing against the eliminated Utica Comets. Joacim Eriksson started for the Comets and the Penguins played them straight up. A first period shot by Peter Andersson beat Matt Murray but Murray had no chance as he was heavily screened. Nice pace between the two teams. Dea really has a nose for the net and Murray plays bigger in net than any goaltender I have seen this season.

Penguins had several chances at the power play in this game but were unsuccessful. The power play was 0-for-7 for the night. If you are looking for a reason why the Penguins didn’t win the game tonight, look no further than that.

Pascal Pelletier scored a power play goal, amidst all the penalty killing that Utica had to do, to extend the lead for the Comets to 2-0. It was a blind pass by Alex Grenier that set up that goal by Pelletier. Murray had no chance.

Penguins fail to convert on two power plays late, and there is your ball game.

Three Stars: 3) Peter Andersson (goal, +1) 2) Pascal Pelletier (goal, even) 1) Joacim Eriksson (27 save shutout)

I have done the following for 75 post game write-ups so for completeness sake…

Around the Division: Binghamton beats Norfolk 4-2….Syracuse wins in Hamilton 3-1….Hershey bests Adirondack 2-1.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins close out the 2012-13 campaign with a 42-26-35 record, good for 92 points, second in the East Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.

Conference: 1) MCH (105) 2) SPR (100) 3) BNG (96) 4) STJ (99) 5) ALB (93) 6) WBS (92) 7) PRO (91) 8) NOR (90)

Your Round 1 Calder Cup Eastern Conference Quarterfinal schedule is as follows:

Game 1: @ Binghamton 4/25
Game 2: @ Binghamton 4/26
Game 3: vs. Binghamton 4/30
Game 4: vs. Binghamton 5/2*
Game 5: @ Binghamton 5/5*

* – if necessary

Here’s the entire Round 1 schedule for the other 14 teams.

Wheeling Update: Ton Kuhnhackl with the overtime game winning goal as the Nailers win 3-2, take 2-0 series lead against the South Carolina Stingrays as the series shifts back to Wheeling.

SendToNews Highlights: Not up yet. I’ll look again and link if available.

Blog schedule here at Chirps from Center Ice look like this:

Sunday: Final AHL Power Rankings
Monday: Fourth Quarter Grades
Tuesday: Western Conference Playoff Preview
Wednesday: Eastern Conference Playoff Preview
Thursday: Penguins / B-Sens Series Preview
Friday: Gameday Setup, tweeting and blogging of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Stay tuned. It’s about to get real.

#digdeep

Let’s Go Pens!!

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The Binghamton Senators are the East Division Champions.

But it didn’t look like it in the third period of this game, a 5-4 Wilkes-Barre setback. The Penguins outshot the Penguins 26-7 and outscored them 2-0 and nearly tied the game late. Brian Dumoulin shot a puck right at Chris Conner camped out on the right of starting goaltender Andrew Hammond’s crease but Conner didn’t get all on the tip which would have forced overtime.

But they don’t play hockey on what ifs. The now is that the Penguins will need to start the 2014 Calder Cup Campaign on the road, without home ice advantage.

The aforementioned Andrew Hammond vs. Peter Mannino.

Chris Conner was in the lineup, down on conditioning. Zach Sill and Carter Rowney are the names you know that were scratched. Josh Archibald and the rest of the ATOs were scratched. Scott Wilson took warmups. The veteran scratch was Spencer Machacek.

First Period: Shane Prince took a pass from below the goal line and was parked right in front for a 1-0 Binghamton lead. A turnover in front of the Wilkes-Barre net and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored his first of three to make it 2-0. Jonathan Bombulie says that the Binghamton Senators make you pay for your mistakes. He wasn’t lying.

Second Period: On a carry over power play from the first, Pageau scored his second on a power play. Then, nifty passing by Alex Grant to David Dziurzuynski and it was 4-0 Penguins. With Dominik Uher in the box for a hook, Pageau finished off his hat trick to make it 5-0 Penguins.

Looking back at the recap so far, it was an all out assault by the Binghamton Senators. Or was it? Did Binghamton just capitalize on turnovers and nifty passes or were the Penguins that bad?

Adam Payerl got one back. Then the Penguins started their comeback.

Bobby Farnham shorthanded. Farnham tore up ice quick, put a wild shot on net that wasn’t close, tracked down the carom and had a wide open net to shoot into. The momentum that Wilkes-Barre had was broken by intermission and the start of the….

Third Period: All Wilkes-Barre from start to finish. Hammond made big saves though. A setup by Chris Conner to Barry Goers was stopped. Anton Zlobin draws the Binghamton net minder out of the net and attempts a wrap around but is stopped. Andrew Ebbett got one past Hammond to cut the deficit to two. While on a power play, Hammond made a sprawling save to keep it a two goal lead. Chuck Kobasew gets one by Hammond to make it a one goal lead for the Senators. With Mannino pulled, the Penguins got close, but never found the equalizer. Dumoulin had Conner at the far post but Conner missed it or else who knows what….

Notes: Mannino hadn’t given up more than two goals in a game since November….the Penguins goaltenders as a whole have a 5.33 GAA and a .809 SV% in Binghamton this season.

Three Stars: 3) Chuck Kobasew (goal, assist, +2) 2) Mark Stone (three assists, +1) and 1) J-G Pageau (three goals, +1)

Around the Division: Syracuse loses to Rochester 5-1….the Norfolk Admirals are headed to the playoffs with a 3-1 win against the Hershey Bears. With a 2-1 Providence overtime win, the Hershey Bears are eliminated form Calder Cup Playoff contention for the first time since 2005-2006.

Other Games that Matter: I gave you the Providence box above. St. John’s is locked in at the 4 seed and Albany was off. It’s still up in the air as to who the Penguins can face in the first round.

Basically how it runs is this. If Wilkes-Barre loses tomorrow in Utica in regulation and Albany (vs. SPR) AND Providence (@ WOR) win, the Pens are a 7 seed. That’s as low as they can go. Win, and the Pens are a 5 no matter what. OTL and SOL get tricky depending on competition. It’s something that I hope that Jason Chaimovitch and the brain trust in Springfield are working on at this ungodly hour (11:44 p.m. on a Friday)

Standings: Binghamton 94 — Penguins 92 — Norfolk 90 — Hershey 86 — Syracuse 73

Conference: 1) MCH (105) 2) SPR (100) 3) BNG (94) 4) STJ (97) 5) WBS (92) 6) ALB (91) 7) PRO (91) 8) NOR (90)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers won Game 1 in South Carolina 3-0.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Gameday for the final regular season game vs. Utica will be up at 3. If the Springfield brain trust manages to put together scenarios, I may run a mini blog post with the who’s and how’s.

Let’s Go Pens!!