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Jonathan Bombulie summed up the current state of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins lack of experience up front in a single tweet:
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The results were predictable. St. John’s goaltender Eddie Pasquale stops all of twenty shots faced and Wheeling Wilkes-Barre loses 5-0.
The two teams rematch tomorrow night.
News of the day was the recall of Harry Zolnierczyk to Pittsburgh and Andrew Ebbett to injured reserve with a fractured ankle. Mike O’Brien said on the pre game show that Ebbett is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. He also stated that Nick Drazenovic is about a week away from returning. He is hopeful for a return Wednesday vs. his old team the Springfield Falcons.
Eric Hartzell vs. Eddie Pasquale. With the Zolnierczyk recall, it was all hands on deck up front for the Pens.
First Period: Bobby Farnham fought J.C. Lipon for the hit Lipon put on Tom Kuhnhackl a few weeks ago in Wilkes-Barre, where Lipon was suspended for the hit. The Pens struggled to get shots in close on Eddie Pasquale. Seemed that anything from the face-off dot or higher that the Pens shot at Pasquale, he saw like a beach ball.
Finally, just past the halfway mark of the period, Eric O’Dell wheeled around the Wilkes-Barre net, threw a weak shot at Hartzell and Carl Klingberg backhanded it home over the left shoulder of the Penguin net minder.
Other than that, Hartzell was pretty flawless otherwise for the Pens in the period, stopping shots in traffic, on a power play and even on a give away at the blue line that saw Patrice Cormier skate in unabated.
Second Period: Pens came out with much more life to start the period. They’d be rewarded with a power play, and that seemed to halt all momentum as the Pens would gain center red and dump and chase.
Then, Peter Merth and ex-Penguin Ryan Schnell are fighting for a puck along the wall and Blair Riley comes flying in with a check on Merth. Merth’s head collides with Schnell, cuts him badly, and then Merth and Riley fight. Merth would pick up the extra minor. Then, my AHL Live feed wet the bed. During the outage and me rushing to bring it back, Carl Klingberg scored his second of the game with a one timer in front for a 2-0 St. John’s lead. Then, Zach Redmond scores on a power play to extend the IceCaps lead to three.
The Penguins obviously weren’t doing themselves any favors taking lazy penalties. They needed to kill a carryover one heading into the….
Third Period: They would, then would get a power play but about fifteen seconds later would take a penalty. But that wasn’t the story of the period. It was this:
What little offense the Pens could muster at Pasquale and the IceCaps, the St. John’s net minder handled easily. This display was the most heat in his kitchen all night, and he came up with ten bell save after ten bell save.
Oh, that thing I said about the Pens getting a power play then taking one? Happened again. Seemed that any momentum the Pens got rolling they just applied the brakes themselves with dumb penalties.
Jerome Samson and Andrew Gordon strike in 1:05. Samson strips Brian Gibbons, skates the length, and fires a shot on Hartzell that was deflected by a stick. So, it badly changed the speed and the angle as the puck approached Hartzell. It was an ugly goal. Then, Zach Redmond fires a shot on goal that Andrew Gordon gets a stick on that appeared to be a high stick. I have an iPhone 5S that has a slo-mo camera on it. I looked at the goal again. It looked like, to me, that Gordon’s stick was legal at the point of contact then a split second later, as Gordon was raising his stick, illegal.
Referee Darcy Burchell must have saw it that way too, as he emphatically ruled goal and there wasn’t a replay.
That was it. Five goals scored against. Ain’t that enough?
Three Stars: 3) Eddie Pasquale (20 save shutout) 2) Zach Redmond (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Carl Klingberg (two goals, +2)
Around the Division: Hershey storms back after being down 2-0 in the second period and get by the B-Sens 4-2 in Binghamton. Norfolk does the same and wins 4-3 in a shootout in Syracuse for Brad Thiessen’s first win on North American soil this season.
Standings: Penguins 29 — Binghamton 29 — Norfolk 26 — Syracuse 25 — Hershey 21
Conference: 1) MCH (34) 2) SPR (30) 3) WBS (29) 4) BNG (29) 5) ALB (28) 6) PRO (27) 7) STJ (27) 8) NOR (26)
Wheeling Update: You’d think that you should feel sorry for the ECHL affiliate Wheeling. Yeah, no. The Nailers beat the defending Kelly Cup Champion Reading Royals 4-3 at home in a shootout. The Nailers are 9-0-2 in their last 11 games and are a point factory despite being stripped of all their players by call ups.
SendToNews Highlights: Are here. Not much to look at if you are a Penguin fan.
Rematch tomorrow on The Rock between these two teams. Gameday will be here at 2 p.m.
Let’s Go Pens!
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 