Chirps from Center Ice

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Put this entire game on Jonathan Gruden’s highlight reel.

I’lll tell you, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will be in big, big trouble if Gruden gets a deserved recall or is injured. He was everywhere Sunday afternoon for the Penguins, who lose 4-3 to Hershey.

The Penguins had a feckless effort the first two periods of the game, trailed 4-0, outshot 26-13, but storm back with a 20-3 barrage of shots and come one goal short of a split with the Bears.

I mean it’s something to build off of after a 0-2 weekend, especially coming into the weekend as the sole unbeaten team in the AHL. Maybe Hershey let off, who knows.

But Gruden, man, what an effort.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Raivis Ansons for the now injured Jamie Devane was the only lineup change. Pittsburgh reassigned Drew O’Connor right at puck drop.

First Period: Pens play fast and loose with the puck in their own end and it costs them twice. Ty Smith turns the puck over to Shane Gersich and then Mark Friedman tiptoes through tulips and sees Mason Morelli score. Pens get two shots on a late power play and the shot board read 8-4 for the home team. Here were the goals…

Second Period: Ethen Frank, who is slowly budding into a Penguins killer, goes for a cross crease pass to a teammate which deflects in for a goal to give Hershey 3-0 lead.

The assault continued. Henrik Rybinski scored his first pro goal on a rebound and it was 4-0 Bears.

Third Period: :14 in and Gruden scores to kick start the comeback.

Wilkes-Barre continued to buzz. Filip Hallander scored his first of two. Bears defender’s stick breaks, Jonathan Gruden, out there stirring the drink, puts a shot on net that Hallander slams home for a rebound that brings the Pens within two.

Penguins get a late power play and like last night with the goalie pulled Hallander scores his second to bring the score within one.

Penguins nearly were mining for a fourth but a too any men call late sunk any chances of a comeback.

Three Stars: 3) Ethen Frank (goal) 2) Filip Hallander (two goals, assist) 1) Henrik Rybinski (goal)

The Good: Besides that third period kickstarted by Gruden and Hallander, can’t really come up with anything.

The Bad: You cannot sleepwalk in Hershey for two periods, have two of your better and more experienced defensemen cough up pucks in their own zone and expect to win. It’s magnified more because of the record you had coming into the weekend, and tonight it cost you two points you are going to wish you had in the Spring.

Turning Point: Hard to pinpoint one when it was so teeter-totter, but the too many men on the ice call late put down any faint but getting louder noise the away team had at tying the score.

Around the Division: Providence clips Bridgeport 1-0.

Standings: Providence 18 – Bridgeport 15 – Penguins 13 – Hershey 12 – Charlotte 12 – Springfield 11 – Lehigh Valley 7 – Hartford 6

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: I’ll edit them in if I see them.

This Week: Pens off until Friday against the Hartford Wolf Pack at home then Springfield rolls in Saturday. Hartford and Springfield play Wednesday in Hartford. Springfield will be in Allentown Friday before heading up to Wilkes-Barre Saturday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Well, I knew they wouldn’t go undefeated.

Penguins lose 2-1 in regulation, their first such loss of the season.

Biggest thing you could point to in this game is the Penguins lack of success on the power play. A paltry 1-for-6 Saturday including a 4:00 double minor back in the first period they could not score on. Hershey telegraphed the entires, which frustrated the Penguins.

Reigning AHL Goaltender of the Month Dustin Tokarski took the loss in net for the Pens but I thought he was fine and kept the team in in.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup: Caggiula for the recalled Drew O’Connor, Jack St. Ivany for Colin Swoyer on defense.

First Period: No scoring. Action flashed by. Bears took a too many men on the ice call late.

Second Period: Hershey took the first four penalties and one of them was a Bobby Nardella high stick which busted open Drake Caggiula. 4 minute power play to the Penguins. No dice. Few shots.

Later, no one marks Mike Sgarbossa in front (read: Taylor Fedun lost his assignment) and the Bears get on the board first.

Pens take a penalty. It’s Jonathan Gruden, one of their better penalty killers in the box. Hershey keeps it in the zone the whole time and Ethen Frank takes a high slot one timer for a goal that gives Hershey a 2-0 lead.

Third Period: Penguins with a too little, too late flurry, sees Alex Nylander bust up Zach Fucale’s shutout bid with under a minute to play. Ironically, it comes on a power play.

More late pushes by the Pens, but no dice for a tying goal.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Nylander (goal) 2) Ethen Frank (goal) 1) Mike Sgarbossa (goal)

The Good: The goaltender. If Tokarski wasn’t on his game Hershey may have one 5-1.

The Bad: Bears see their captain suspended for this game, a lot of offense get called up to Washington, and still waltz in here Saturday night and beat the Penguins. Can’t happen.

Turning Point: The Gruden penalty which led to the power play goal. I knew this when it happened. Turns out my premonition comes true.

Around the Division: Providence beats Springfield 3-2….Bridgeport beats Hartford 5-3….Lehigh Valley slips past Laval in overtime 3-2….Charlotte is shutout at home 4-0 by Syracuse.

Standings: Providence 16 — Bridgeport 15 — Penguins 13 — Charlotte 12 — Springfield 11 — Hershey 10 — Lehigh Valley 7 — Hartford 6

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose 4-3 in Reading. Power play problems? What power play problems? Reading went 3-for-5 on the power play while the Nailers went 2-for-4. Tommy Nappier takes the loss in goal, stopping 21.

Video Highlights: 

More tomorrow after the rematch in Hershey.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I told you yesterday that if the Iowa Wild beat the Manitoba Moose, the other unbeaten in regulation team in the AHL, and if the Penguins beat the Hershey Bears in any form or fashion, you would get that headline.

Iowa thumped the Moose 5-2 Saturday afternoon. The Penguins beat the Hershey Bears 2-1 in overtime.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are the sole unbeaten in regulation team in the 32 team American Hockey League.

6-0-1-0 to start the season. Unbeaten (in regulation) in October. I mean you can’t ask for a better start.

How are they doing this? They are grinding teams to dust.

Take the second period of this game as a classic example. Taking the Bears best shots, starting goaltender Filip Lindberg turning way all 13 shots faced and killing off a penalty. Nothing too flashy, nothing to tough to figure out, just grinding in what was a 1-1 contest at the time.

Taking nothing away from the aforementioned Lindberg and his counterpart Hunter Shepard, who both played outstanding in the contest, it was another methodical takedown of yet another rival of the Penguins.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Only change was in goal. You love to see it.

First Period: Slow strait, which as it went on had a thought it played into the hands (paws?) of the Bears, and my premonition came true.

Sonny Milano opens the scoring with a dart past Lindberg.

Pens were being outshot. It wasn’t for a lack of pucks at Shepard, they just weren’t on target.

Shepard was dialed in and below shows how dialed in he was, going post to post to deny a Valtteri Puustinen one timer on a Penguin power play.

Corey Andonovski with a Herculean effort to carry two Bears defenders with him down the slot and slip a shot past Shepard and in to tie the game at one.

Second Period: Gave it to you in parts in the lede. Nothing much to write home about here.

Third Period: Scary moment for the Penguins as they forget about Aaron Ness in the penalty box. Ness strips a Penguins defender of the puck and sets up Sonny Milano for a chance that Lindberg makes the stop on.

Bears took two late penalties, the Ness infraction being one of them, but they get out of it OK. Off to…

Overtime: This happened…

But then this happened…

Notable that Lindberg himself had a barrel roll save almost immediately after the Shepard stop on the 2-on-1.

Three Stars: 3) Hunter Shepard (27 saves) 2) Sonny Milano (goal) 1) Filip Hallander (overtime game winning goal)

The Good: Giant Center has been a house of horrors of recent for the Penguins, nice to see the Pens keep the unbeaten streak alive for another week in a place they don’t win often at of recent.

The Bad: Can’t put a finger on anything really. When you are good, you are good. I think tonight was a solid 60+ minute game by the team from the goalie out.

Turning Point: The Hallander goal, duh.

Around the Division: Providence takes down Springfield 4-3 in a shootout….Bridgeport keeps rolling and beat the Phantoms 6-3….Hartford takes down the Charlotte Checkers 3-2 in overtime.

Standings: Penguins 13 – Providence 11 – Bridgeport and Charlotte 9 – Springfield 7 – Hershey and Hartford 6 – Lehigh Valley 5

Wheeling Update: Busy night for minor league hockey, but the Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

Gonna open the mailbag this week. Haven’t done that in a while but I think it’s high time to bring its back. It will be here on the blog Monday. No game Friday for the Pens so it’ll make for good fodder between now and the Pens next game Saturday against these same Bears. Check it out then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Something was made out of nothing late in this one, a 3-1 Penguins win, their fifth in a row, when it was 1-1 late and it looked like the game was headed into overtime.

Well, Tyler Sikura is likely salaried, like me, and salaried folks don’t get paid overtime. Why work overtime and just get all the work done in regulation?

Pens get two goals in under 90 seconds late in the third and the Penguins just keep rolling. Points in every game played thus far, still undefeated in regulation and finding ways to win.

It’s getting fun again. It’s always been partially fun in some respects, but it’s fun when you are winning and that’s what the Penguins are doing now.

Dustin Tokarski opposed Sam Ersson.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Jamie Devane for Kyle Olson and Colin Swoyer for Jack St. Ivany. Devane and Swoyer were making their season debuts.

First Period: Pretty inert start until a Lizotte turnover to Max Willman finds the back of the Wilkes-Barre net to give the Phantoms a late 1-0 lead.

(no GIF here)

If you are wondering that getting scored on 5×5 on Dustin Tokarski doesn’t happen often, well you are right.

Second Period: Coupla things about this period: 1) No team had a shot on goal for the first 10+ minutes; 2) Phantoms took all the penalties (4 total) in the period; 3) Valtteri Puustinen scored a power play goal and 4) That is a three game point streak, a career high, for Puustinen.

Here’s his goal that tied the game at one.

Third Period: Penguins navigate through back to back Jon Lizotte penalties carefully. Looking like overtime. But no, Tyler Sikura’s hips don’t lie and he scores his first to put the Pens ahead 2-1.

Rattled, Lehigh Valley lets Corey Andonovski sneak in behind their defense and he slips one through Ersson’s five hole for a goal that put the game away and out of reach for the home team.

Three Stars: 3) Samuel Ersson (32 saves) 2) Max Willman (goal) 1) Corey Andonovski (goal, assist)

The Good: They keep finding ways to win and keep grinding teams offensive outputs to dust.

The Bad: I didn’t think Jon Lizzote had a particularly strong game. As a matter of fact he sucked tonight. He needs to be better and the Pens are lucky to have won the game based off of his play.

Turning Point: The Sikura goal jumpstarted the Penguins to a victory in regulation tonight. The Andonovski goal which followed was icing on the cake.

Around the Division: Hartford beats Hershey 4-2 up in Connecticut….Providence hands Charlotte their first regulation loss of the season, beating them 2-1….Springfield beats Bridgeport in an absolute barnburner 7-6 in overtime.

Standings: Penguins 11 — Providence and Bridgeport 9 — Charlotte 8 — Springfield 6 — Hershey 5 and Lehigh Valley 5 — Hartford 4

The Penguins and Manitoba Moose are the final two teams in the AHL left who are unbeaten in regulation. Manitoba was off Friday. Lucky bastards. Moose host the Iowa Wild Saturday afternoon. If Tim Army’s Wild beat the Moose in regulation tomorrow and the Penguins beat the Hershey Bears in any fashion Saturday, the headline will be, “Last of the Unbeatens” – now that’s not a prediction, that’s a spoiler.

Wheeling Update: Nailers were shutout at home 4-0 by the Cincinnati Cyclones.

Video Highlights: 

More Saturday against Hershey.

Let’s Go Pens!

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So I have been doing this blog for about 12 years. I may or may not have recycled this blog headline a time or two before.

A methodical takedown of the high scoring Cleveland Monsters tonight by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins who crush the visitors 5-1. Drew O’Connor with a pair of goals. Dustin Tokarski a wall in the net for the Pens and the penalty kill was 5-for-6. The Cleveland power play is really good, but looked pedestrian Wednesday.

Work night, so let’s get through this one.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Same lineup as Sunday in Providence but for different guys on different lines.

First Period: Pens race to a 2-0 lead on a ridiculous through traffic deke by Ty Smith who, by all accounts, doesn’t belong at this level and Drew O’Connor’s breakaway goal. Penguins took three straight penalties but Tokarski and notably Jon Lizotte were blocking everything. Here are the goals:

Nice pass from Corey Andonovski to set up “OC” there for the goal.

Second Period: Alex Nylander scores a goal through a screen to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead.

Cleveland snaps the patented, “Would be Dustin Tokarski Shutout Bid™” with a power play goal scored by Cole Fonstad.

The Penguins were taking way too many penalties yet seemed like they were in cruise control. Game felt like it was never out of the favor for the home team but we’ve all seen two goal leads evaporate quicker than summer dew on the uncut grass you have to cut on a Saturday.

Third Period: Whatever hopes that Cleveland had for a comeback were quickly squelched when Valtteri Puustinen scored a power play goal then Drew O’Connor followed up for his second of the game for a 5-1 lead.

Kyle Olson challenged Cole Clayton and left the game after the fight. Looked like his eye was swelled shut based off of what my 43 year old eyes were telling me.

Three Stars: 3) Filip Hallander (two assists) 2) Dustin Tokarski (32 saves) 1) Drew O’Connor (two goals, assist)

The Good: Game was questionable coming in as to how the Penguins would bottle up Cleveland’s explosive offense. It was a no doubter type of game for the Pens tonight from about five minutes in and out felt good to watch.

The Bad: Too many penalties.

Turning Point: If it wasn’t the Nylander goal that made it 3-0, the response by the Pens to open the third period was.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins 9 – Charlotte and Bridgeport 8 – Providence 7 – Hershey and Lehigh Valley 5 – Springfield 4 – Hartford 2

Have I mentioned how much I don’t miss percentage points?

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

Back at a it again Friday in Allentown.

Let’s Go Pens!