Chirps from Center Ice

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Penguins power play: 0/4.

Phantoms power play: 2/3.

That should tell you all you need to know about this one, a close game through two scoreless periods when the Phantoms power play comes to life. Lehigh Valley wins 3-1 to start a hellacious five game, seven night stretch for the last place Penguins.

Alex D’Orio opposed Felix Sandstrom. Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Anthony Angello, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Filip Hallander and Juuso Riikola replaced Jan Drozg, Sam Houde, Pat Watling and Taylor Fedun.

Watling was sent back to Wheeling. Fedun’s wife had their second child. The Pens signed Tristan Cote-Cazenave to a PTO. Reason? Tommy Nappier (along with Sam Houde) are in COVID protocols.

Filip Lindberg isn’t practicing anymore with his bad ankle and Michael Chaput is still week to week.

That was a lot.

First Period: Went scoreless. Alex D’Orio’s finest period I thought. He had a series of saves here which kept it deadlocked at zero.

He was indeed dialed in.

Second Period: Well if you are abhorrent to change, this period was for you! Same as the first! No scoring! I couldn’t tell if it was a battle of two evenly matched teams or two teams that weren’t very good.

Third Period: Jamie Devane takes a questionable interference call and seven seconds later Wade Allison scores.

The Penguins answer back when Jordy Bellerive tips in a Juuso Riikola shot from the point to tie the game at one.

But Jonathan Gruden staples a guy to the wall and is called for boarding….

It wasn’t seven seconds this time, but about a minute or so into the power play Linus Sandin scores to make it 2-1.

Here’s both power play goals.

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Maksim Sushko scored an empty net goal to seal it for the Phantoms.

Three Stars: 3) Jordy Bellerive (goal) 2) Adam Clendening (two assists) 1) Linus Sandin (goal, assist)

The Good: Alex D’Orio deserved a better fate. He kept the Phantoms off the scoreboard through two periods and was let down by his special teams unit.

The Bad: They had two clean power plays, one in the second and one in the third, and couldn’t do anything with them. Lehigh Valley scores seven seconds into their first real chance of the night. Special teams are an abject disaster.

Turning Point: Sandin’s goal in the third turned the game into a runaway at that point.

One note from the postgame, I heard Pens play by play man Nick Hart say that the Phantoms haven’t scored an even strength goal against the Penguins in some time. I don’t know where it matters when the Phantoms take two of three from the Penguins but it’s a stat!

Around the Division: Only other action in the division was Hartford hosting Toronto. Wolf Pack cool off the Maries with a 5-2 win. Toronto ran into Keith Kincaid and it didn’t turn out well for them.

Standings: I’m not hammering out percentage points for eight clubs when the club which matters most is in last with .419

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

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Back Friday against the Toronto Marlies.

A Note About Friday’s Game: It’s the AHLTV Game of the Week.

More after that game. Tune in if you can if you are from out of town. Should be a decent enough test.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I would consider this a successful weekend for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

They did everything right Friday and lost, but did everything right.

They did the same thing Saturday and won handily.

Sunday, they played the Atlantic Division’s best team tightly and eked out a 2-1 win on home ice.

4 points out of 6 when you should have got all 6 is okay. It’s excellent considering that you had just on in seven contests coming into the weekend.

Saturday, they theme was crawl before you walk. Today, I think you can start taking steps. Baby steps.

They have a lot of firepower up on a taxi squad in Pittsburgh. This present, playing unit in Wilkes-Barre was the best team in PA this weekend. Think of it, 0-7 against Hershey and the Phantoms come into the weekend on a six game win streak. Little ol’ Wilkes-Barre sticks to plan, plays the right way and gets 4 out of 6 points to start the climb out of the basement.

Tommy Nappier opposed Pheonix Copley.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: J.D. Forrest said on the pregame as I was driving in that Nappier earned back to back starts. Patrick Watling replaced Pascal Laberge up front.

First Period: No scoring. Pens spent a good majority in the offensive zone, and you could argue, despite a 7-7 even shot count, that Wilkes-Barre was the better team in the period.

Second Period: A power play goal by Alex Nylander had the Penguins out front. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either and I was at the game, my first since the Friday after Thanksgiving.

But Hershey would respond in kind with 7.7 left when the Bears version of the Phantoms Felix Robert in Shane Gersich scores on a puck left uncovered by Nappier to tie the game at one.

Puck left uncovered, referee right there on top of it, gotta cover up.

Third Period: Bears opened with a blitzkrieg to start but the Penguins withheld the charge. Pens get caught down low on a shot in their own end and Hershey charges out of the zone on a four on one. Here comes Nathan Legare, the subject of a healthy scratch last weekend, to make a back check and steal the puck away. He finds Patrick Watling, the last to exit the Penguins end on a naked breakaway. Watling,  one of the Wheeling Nailers leading scorers and up on a PTO, does this…

Big goal by a guy filling a hole in a big moment. All you can ask for.

Bears pull Copley for the extra man but don’t find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Alex Nylander (goal) 2) Tommy Nappier (23 saves) 1) Patrick Watling (goal)

The Good: Bears had just one power play opportunity, but the Penguins played that fair and played an overall solid, sixty minute hockey game.

The Bad: Nitpicking, 1/4 on the power play for Wilkes-Barre. It isn’t so close if you score on the delay of game call against Hershey there in the third period.

Turning Point: Legare’s back check and Watling’s goal is what gets it here.

Around the Division: Texas beats Charlotte 6-5. Goaltender Matt Jurusik signed an SPC with Texas and won the game for the Stars. You may remember him as the guy that came out of no where and shut out the Springfield Thunderbirds a few weeks back…Toronto cuts down Lehigh Valley 4-3 in overtime…Providence roughs up Bridgeport 6-3.

Standings: Bears with the loss drop to third in the division on .603 points to Providence and Springfield’s .621 and .606 respectively. Hartford (.597) Charlotte (.563) Lehigh Valley (.467) Bridgeport (.446) and the Penguins in last at .433.

Wheeling Update: Nailers win in OT in Orlando 4-3. Justin Almeida scored two goals and the OT game winner.

Video Highlights:

Back at it Wednesday against Lehigh Valley.

Let’s Go Pens!

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First win of the 2022 calendar year for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins breaking a 8 game winless streak good for their tenth win of the season (dude, it’s January) with a 5-2 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Saturday night.

They win this game doing the same thing they did Friday against these same Phantoms, tons of shots for, few against. You’ll win a hell of a lot more than you will lose employing that strategy, but they lost Friday. They won tonight.

They showed fire in Utica last Friday and lost to the Eastern Conference’s best team. That’s what good teams do, they find ways to win.

They were competitive-ish against Hershey in parts, few and far between, but still haven’t beat the Bears this season.

But this one felt good. Three goals in 97 seconds in the second period blew it open and while they still have a ton of holes (special teams are an abject disaster) they still were able to call this an easy victory.

Crawl, before you walk. There is still a lot of time here to make a push back up the standings.

Tommy Nappier opposed Felix Sandstrom. Here is how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Pascal Laberge (who used to play for the Phantoms) was signed to a PTO by the Penguins Friday and made his debut, replacing Nick Hutchinson. Chris Bigras replaced Cam Lee on defense.

First Period: Exact copy as Friday, Phantoms had three shots all period (two came in an early power play and the other at the end of the period) and the Penguins score first. This time it was Valtteri Puustinen kicking off the scoring.

Shots were 13-3 in favor of the Penguins. Listen, it’s been a hellacious month with the team losing games, losing games to COVID, losing their favorite blogger covering the team and still losing games. This was a good period. Crawl before you walk. Don’t plan a parade yet.

Second Period: Three goals within 97 seconds and the Penguins turned the game into a runaway.

Sam Poulin, Phantoms killed Felix Robert and Nathan Legare all with goals. These guys are the guys that you want to see get hot offensively and get on a roll.

Crawl before you walk.

Sick angle there by Sam Poulin.

Suomi says Upper Grandma. Listen to the WBS Pens podcast and you will know what I am talking about.

Transition, dishing and swishing.

Three penalties a side for both teams. No scoring.

Third Period: Lehigh made a push and scored on their two opportunities of the period to make it a 4-2 game and just maybe you thought that the Pens were about to throw the game away.

But no, time worked against the Phantoms and Taylor Fedun hit an empty net to make sure that the Phantoms would not come back.

Connor Bunnaman and Wade Allison scored for Lehigh Valley.

Three Stars: 3) Connor Bunnaman (goal) 2) Felix Robert (goal, assist) 1) Sam Poulin (goal)

A note on Robert, he had three points Friday (1-2) and two more Saturday. A nice game against Hershey and that’s AHL Player of the Week territory.

The Good: Nice to get the win after so long without one.

The Bad: Special teams is bad and we should all feel bad.

Turning Point: Those 97 seconds were hell for the Phantoms and it was fairly easy sailing for the Penguins after that.

Around the Division: It’s really a meaningless exercise when the team you cover is in last but we will skip around anyway. Bridgeport was off. Hershey loses to Toronto at home in overtime 3-2. Bears haven’t won all week, but they haven’t been playing the Penguins….Providence beats Springfield 5-3. Hartford shuts out Laval 4-0. Keith Kincaid continues career renaissance with a 31 save shutout. Charlotte throttles Texas 8-3 in the rare Eastern Conference / Western Conference matchup.

Bonus: Not the only East / West matchup tonight as Cleveland was in Rockford and won narrowly 5-4.

Standings: Again, meaningless when you are in last, but the Pens pick up a few percentage points and sit with .414. Idle Bridgeport has .458 in seventh.

Video Highlights: 

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 4-1 down in Orlando. Jared Cockrell with a hat trick for Wheeling.

Pens wrap the weekend with a 3 p.m. start against Hershey.

So they outshoot their opponent 42-16 and lose it in the third period 4-3. They faced another goalie I never heard of and of course the kid plays out of his mind and befuddles the Penguins.

When it rains, it pours.

Here is how they lined up, Alex D’Orio opposed Garrett Metcalf:

First Period: Penguins outshot the Phantoms 16-6. It was good to see, especially with how they got pushed around by the Bears these last however many games they have played Hershey. Felix Robert opened the scoring with a low shot in the slot that beat Metcalf to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

But Linus Sandin scored a goal for Lehigh Valley on a power play that tied the game at one.

But for that blemish on the penalty kill, a decent first period for the Penguins.

Second Period: No scoring, Pens continued to pepper Metcalf.

Third Period: Phantoms get two goals, another from Linus Sandin and one from Cal O’Reilly, to go up 3-1. Refs let them play so there wasn’t many power play opportunities. Not that it would have mattered with the Penguins dead last power play.

Valtteri Puustinen got a goal with just under 4 minutes to play to make it 3-2. J.D. Forrest pulled D’Orio and Adam Clendening scored on an empty net to make it 4-2 but as fate would have it Alex Nylander would score to make it 4-3.

Amazing. They did everything possible to score in the first two periods and in the games last four minutes, score two and still lose.

Three Stars: 3) Garrett Metcalf (39 saves) 2) Felix Robert (goal, two assists) and 1) Linus Sandin (two goals)

The Good: The quantity of shots was a good thing to see.

The Bad: The quality of shots were a bad thing to see. Most were routine.

Turning Point: Felt like the next goal to be scored would win the game in the third period and it came to fruition with Sandin bagging one for the Phantoms.

As fate would have it the empty net goal by Clendening stands as the game winner. What’s that about luck again?

They get a chance at revenge Saturday against the Phantoms.