Chirps from Center Ice

          vs.      

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Two things that I take away from the game tonight, a 6-3 Wilkes-Barre romp.

1) The Penguins are really, really good right now and are clicking on all cylinders while other teams are finding their sea legs.
2) Adirondack is a bad hockey team. One that got out worked and out muscled from the drop of the puck. A good team like the Penguins should have manhandled this team and did.

I guess point one could be obscured a bit because of point two. But it doesn’t matter in the short term. The Pens are 4-0 and firing on all cylinders right now. The long term will sort itself out.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Cal Heeter

Chris Conner was called up to Pittsburgh before the game. My guess is that Harry Zolnierczyk will be back in time for tomorrows game in Worcester. We’ll see. Paul Thompson and Bobby Farnham took Conner and Zolnierczyk’s spots in the lineup.

First Period: Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons look like two entirely different players this season. They have some magic going early on. Gibbons steals an Adirondack exit attempt then passed to Jayson Megna who fished the puck out of his skates and scored to put the Pens on the board first.

Minutes later, Bruno Gervais beats Deslauriers with an NHL-style slap shot that tied the game. It would be the closest that the Phantoms would get the rest of the night.

I say that because this next goal was a thing of absolute beauty and should be the postage stamp of things early on and a look to the future. Dominik Uher and Tom Kuhnhackl win a battle up the ice and score a goal. Uher outworks a Phantoms defender, then centers to Kuhnhackl who beats his guy and scores a goal to make it 2-1.

If that goal is any indication of how the season is going to go, that is, manufacturing blue collar goals by outworking your opponent, watch out.

The Pens nearly let the Phantoms back into the game with some sloppy play late in the first, but it broke 2-1 after 20 minutes.

Second Period: Philip Samuelsson shot a puck from the blueline that Adam Payerl deflected in to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.

Jayson Megna scored his second of the night shorthanded setup by, who else, Brian Gibbons. That set off a line brawl of sorts that sort of woke up the Phantoms enough to see Nick Cousins score a goal on the doorstep to cut the deficit to two, 4-2.

Dominik Uher again with a slap shot bomb after he, again, outworked his guy to score a goal.

Link here to the picture of the scrum of the line brawl and here to the fight that Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond had with Zack FitzGerald.

Third Period: Brian Gibbons finished off a cross ice pass on the power play to put the Pens ahead 6-2. Pens buzzed after that, you could almost smell the killer instinct that the Penguins had. Rob Bordson scored a goal late when Deslauriers left a rebound.

Three Stars: 3) Dominik Uher (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brian Gibbons (gioal, two assists, +2) and 1) Jayson Megna (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey gives up four goals in the third period to lose to St. John’s on The Rock 5-1. Binghamton thumps Syracuse 6-2. Norfolk beats Albany in a shootout down in Virginia 2-1.

Standings: Pens 8 — Norfolk 7 — Binghamton 6 — Syracuse 3 — Hershey 1

Conference: Hartford 9, Wilkes-Barre, Manchester and Springfield 8, Norfolk 7, Binghamton 6, Albany and St. John’s 5

Wheeling Update: The Nailers kicked off their season at home vs. the Elmira Jackals and won 3-2. Christiaan Minella was named first star, with two goals.

SendToNews Highlights: Here they are. Pardon the terrible pun from Brian Coe.

Pens bus to Worcester overnight. The Sharks will be playing in just their second game of the season and tomorrow is their home opener. They lost to Springfield in their last game so you know they are going to be amped and ready to go. Tomorrow may be a trap game for the Pens if they aren’t careful….

Gameday for that game will be up tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

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6                                                3

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A five goal third period explosion in Syracuse by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins is enough to get by a tough Syracuse Crunch team and the Penguins are off to a perfect 3-0 start and are tops in the East Division in this very young season after topping the Crunch 6-3.

The Penguins have outscored opponents 10-1 in the third period this season.

The Penguins got goals from all types of players today. Quick players like Jayson Megna, gritty players like Harry Zolnierczyk and leadership players like Tom Kostopoulos, twice.

They scored shorthanded, even strength and on the power play. Even an empty netter.

Goals from all forms of players in all forms? I’ll take it.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. Riku Helenius

No lineup changes for the Pens from last night. Reid McNeill took warmups, Bobby Farnham did not.

First Period: Jeff Deslauriers stole the show early. Stopping a Crunch shot from a cross ice pass, bailing out the Pens on careless outlet passes. Late, Tom Kostopoulos scored his 101st goal in a Penguins sweater on a deflection of a Nick Drazenovic shot from the blue line while on the power play.

Second Period: Helenius traded some saves with his counterpart Deslauriers in this period, a period dominated by the Crunch, who outshot the Pens 13-4 in the period and got two goals, one from Vlad Namestnikov on a power play and another from Cedric Paquette shorthanded.

Third Period: Simon Despres and Artem Sergeev fought to a draw to open the period. Then the goals came….

– Tom Kostopoulos again. On the power play, again.
– Nick Drazenovic, while the Pens were on a 5:00 major power play.
– Jayson Megna shorthanded, which really tilted the tide the Penguins way and took all air out of the Crunch and the building.

(Matt Taormina scored a goal from the blue line that Deslauriers was screened on in between this flurry of goals)

John Hynes used his timeout at this point, as you could feel the dam breaking for the Pens as the Crunch were pressuring and just scored. A well placed timeout.

– Harry Zolnierczyk even strength.

Jeff Deslauriers made a point blank save on JT Brown late, then Dominik Uher potted an empty netter for good measure.

Three Stars: 3) Matt Taormina (goal, assist, -1) 2) Nick Drazenovic (goal, two assists, -1) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (two goals, even)

Around the Division: No one else representing the East Division skated.

Standings: Penguins 6 — Norfolk 5 — Binghamton 4 — Syracuse 3 — Hershey 1

Conference: Hartford / Manchester 7, Penguins and Springfield 6, Providence / Norfolk 5, Binghamton 4, Syracuse 3.

Wheeling did not skate today.

SendToNews Highlights: Aren’t up yet. I will look later if I remember.

Penguins get a week off before hosting Adirondack Friday, then traveling to Worcester Saturday then Manchester Sunday.

Content wise, my Week 2 AHL Power Rankings are coming together nicely. It’s nice to have an idea that fills space when there isn’t anything original to blog about during the week. Check those power rankings out sometime around dinner time Monday.

Let’s Go Pens!

          vs.          

1                                                3

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Yep. This one felt like a playoff game.

But it’s only both teams second game of a 76 game journey.

Not to mention the first of a dozen meetings.

Penguins get yet another third period push and skate past the Hershey Bears tonight by a score of 3-1.

Two old faces are really making an impact on this team. They are Jeff Deslauriers, who was stellar in goal tonight for the Penguins, robbing the Bears of  many chances and Chris Conner, who just makes players like Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons that much better on the ice. Conner buried a drop pass from Gibbons on a breakaway to push the Penguins up 2-1 late in the third. Gibbons finished a cross ice pass from Megna in the second while shorthanded to tie the game for the Pens.

Zach Sill buried any chances of a Bears comeback late when Dominik Uher wheeled around the Hershey net and fed Sill who picked a corner.

Jeff Deslauriers vs. David Leggio.

Lineup notes: Bobby Farnham took warmups, but with Joel Rechlicz scratched on the other side, did not play. Paul Thompson did not dress either.

After a scoreless first filled with a lot of back and forth and a few near misses for both sides, Penguin Killer Tomas Kundratek scored for the Bears early in the second.

Tom Kostopoulos took a penalty, and the Bears right here could have buried the Penguins. Instead Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons work shorthanded magic and Gibbons finishes off a pass from Megna to tie the score at one a side.

Real high intensity, end to end hockey between the two clubs after forty minutes of play.

Jeff Deslauriers and David Leggio were stealing the show, both making stunning saves for their respective clubs. Leggio on Chris Conner on a mini breakaway and Deslauriers time after time for the Penguins. Deslauriers was the reason the Penguins were in the game this late on into the third period.

As always between these two teams, things boiled over. Game had a powder keg feel to it at the time, like one shot or one kit would blow things up in favor of the team that shot or the team that threw the big hit.

Brian Gibbons steals a Hershey D-to-D pass, skates in, drops to a trailing Chris Conner, who buries it to push the Pens up 2-1.

1:25 later, Zach Sill picks a corner off a feed from Dominik Uher to seal it for the Penguins late. It seemed to me that the Pens kept pushing after the goal because you knew Hershey was going to make it interesting but instead they stalled out and the Penguins took advantage.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (18 saves on 19 shots) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Chris Conner (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton avenges a 5-0 whooping the night before by the Norfolk Admirals and win 4-1. Syracuse thumps Rochester 5-1.

Standings: Norfolk 5 — Penguins 4 — Binghamton 4 — Syracuse 3 — Hershey 1

Conference: Hartford and Manchester have 7, Norfolk and Providence 5, Penguins, Springfield, Binghamton 4, Syracuse 3 are your Top 8.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are still in preseason. They lose 6-2 to the Fort Wayne Komets in Indiana. Local product Patrick McGrath with 9 PIMs, including a fight.

Pens back at it Sunday afternoon in Syracuse at 5 p.m. for another huge test against a division rival. Gameday for that will be up at 1 p.m. here on the blog.

Let’s Go Pens!

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  5                                              2

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After a deadlocked 40 minutes, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins score two goals in :11 and cruise to a 5-2 victory in Bridgeport and are on pace for a 76-0 record.

Alright, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Chris Conner and Harry Zolnierczyk both scored two goals a piece and are on pace to score 152 goals this season.

Okay, now I am just being silly.

Pens played a fundamentally sound game all night, caught the Sound Tigers napping for :11 in the third period, and won the hockey game. Jeff Deslauriers was sharp when he needed to be. Defense looked sharp. Promising start to the very young year.

The aforementioned Jeff Deslauriers vs. Anders Nilsson

Lines looked like this:

Kuhnhackl-Ebbett-Conner
Kostopoulos-Drazenovic-Thompson
Zolnierczyk-Gibbons-Megna
Leblond-Sill-Uher

Despres-Samuelsson
Harrington-Mikkelson
McNeill-D’Agostino

Deslauriers-Hartzell

Scratches were Peter Mannino, Peter Merth, Brian Dumoulin, Mike Carman, Anton Zlobin, Dustin Stevenson, Harrison Ruopp,, Bobby Farnham and Adam Payerl.

Payerl was an interesting scratch. After being arguably the best player for the Penguins in the 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs last season, he found himself a scratch in Game 1. Jonathan had some thoughts on this, indicating that Dom Uher essentially beat out Payerl for the spot.

First Period: Penguins jumped all over the Sound Tigers in the the opening twenty, they got an early power play but weren’t able to score. Unfazed by taking a penalty of their own, they continued to pressure Bridgeport. Then, Scott Harrington scored the first goal of the season then Tom Kostopoulos won a faceoff to Harrington’s left. Harrington jumped on the loose puck and had only the goaltender in front of him, shot and it went in.

Pierre Leblond fought Brett Gallant. Leblond was bloodied in the fight which was a draw.

First period was all Penguins really. Anything that the Sound Tigers threw at the Pens, Wilkes-Barre had an answer for.

Jeff Deslauriers had a heck of a save on a Ryan Stome shot when Simon Despres turned the puck over.

Second Period: Complete opposite of the first. All Sound Tigers. Anders Lee scored when Jeff Deslauriers was thinking poke check. Then, Kirill Kabanov finishes off a tic tac toe pass to him to push the Sound Tigers up 2-1 on a power play. Penguins go on a power play late, Brendan Mikkelson shoots from the top of the blue line and Chris Conner is right out in front to deflect the puck home to tie the score at two with 2.1 left in the period.

Third Period: Penguins didn’t register a shot 8:23 in the period in what I called at the time a winnable game for both sides at the time. Then, Chris Conner and Brian Gibbons work a 2-on-1 and Conner finishes off a pass from Gibbons to make it 3-2 Penguins. It’s going to be nice to see these two speedsters work together all season long.

Then, :11 later, Andrew Ebbett wheels around the Sound Tigers net, passes to Harry Zolnierczyk who scores to make it 4-2. Two quick bang-bang goals by the Penguins. Zolnierczyk then scored again when he looked off Tom Kuhnhackl on another 2-on-1 and shot it past Nilsson to make it 5-2 Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Deslauriers (21 saves on 23 shots) 2) Harry Zolnierczyk (two goals, +2) and 1) Chris Conner (two goals, +1)

So a good win to start the year. A winnable game for both teams half way through the third period. Penguins step on the gas and blow it open. You want to see this trend continue.

Around the Division: Norfolk wins 3-2 up in Hartford in a shootout. Binghamton, down 3-1 at home vs. Syracuse, rally and win 4-3 in overtime. Hershey loses in overtime to the Adirondack Phantoms 4-3.

Standings: With points for every team tonight, it’s WBS / NOR and BNG with 2 points and SYR and HER with 1 point.

Conference: Will not recap a bunch of 2’s and 1’s and 0’s until the first team in the conference reaches 10 points.

SendToNews Highlights: Will throw a late edit up Sunday if they go up.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in preseason. They lost 5-4 to the Elmira Jackals. Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath had a goal and a fight in the loss.

Pens get a week off to rest and ready for their home opener next Saturday vs. Hershey.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins defeated the Hershey Bears tonight by a score of 2-1. The Bears didn’t feature player names on the back of the jerseys, so there was no way of me knowing what kind of lineup they brought with them to Wilkes-Barre. Brandon Anderson and Riley Gill split time in goal. I know that it’s a safe bet that those two will be in the net for the ECHL Reading Royals when their season gets going soon.

The Penguins dressed a lineup which is going to be really close to the one that they will debut in Connecticut Saturday. Mike O’Brien after the game said that there will be cuts made. Here were the lines:

Tom Kuhnhackl-Nick Drazenovic-Adam Payerl
Paul Thompson-Brian Gibbons-Jayson Megna
Harry Zolnierczyk-Zach Sill-Tom Kostopoulos
Pierre Leblond-Mike Carman-Dom Uher

Philip Samuelsson-Brendan Mikkleson
Scott Harrington-Barry Goers
Reid McNeill-Nick D’Agostino

Jeff Deslauriers backed up Eric Hartzell, who played the whole game. Christiaan Minella took warmups and was scratched.

Nick Drazenovic scored a nice goal on a cross ice pass from Brian Gibbons when the Pens were on a 5-on-3 in the first period.

Paul Thompson took a skate to the face, went to the room and had work done and came back.

Although they didn’t score, I liked the chemistry between Jayson Megna and Brian Gibbons tonight, especially on the penalty kill.

Ryan Stoa scored on a tip in from off a Julien Brouillette blast from the point in the second period.

Eric Hartzell had some really nice saves all night. Saves in close, saves getting over stopping one timers and saves in the final seconds with an extra Bears attacker. I know it’s only a preseason game, but he won some points off of me by tonights performance.

Philip Samuelsson scored a goal when he crashed the net and backhanded one past Gill in the third period. He did that once in the ECHL too. 

Penguins really clamped the Bears from there. All game really. There isn’t much you can do on a deflection in front on the Stoa goal. So it was a nice dress rehearsal for Saturday.

That’s about all. I could write more, but it’s a meaningless preseason game for a blogger like myself.

A move was made during the game that will have implications on Hershey. They got John Mitchell from Norfolk in a trade with Anaheim for Mathieu Perreault. Mitchell is a Mike Haviland disciple.

Here’s a piece from Bob Howard on Binghamton’s top six.

The Chirps from Center Ice AHL Previews get going at midnight. If you want to stick around, the West Division debuts in a few hours. Then the Midwest as I do the “wedge two divisions in one day” thing. The regular division a day starts Tuesday with the North Division and run till Friday concluding with the East Division.

Will probably drop a line in between tomorrows previews with who cleared waivers and who was cut from Coal Street.

Let’s Go Pens!

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton dressed a young lineup. The Hershey Bears dressed a more experienced lineup. The results were predictable, a 6-1 Bears rout.

Again, with this being preseason, not much analysis is going to go into this offering.

Andy Chiodo vs. Philipp Grubauer

Mike O’Brien offered lines:

Sylvester – Megna – Thompson
Thompson – Carman – Payerl
Severyn – Manderson – Johnson
Minella – Rowney – Zurevinski

McNeill – D’Agostino
Seymour – Merth
Ratchuk – Goers

Jeff Deslauriers backed up Chiodo. Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath took warmups but was scratched. Three players wore the “A” for the Pens tonight. They were Jayson Megna, Paul Thompson and Peter Merth.

Bears came out and jumped on the Penguins in the first five minutes. Tyler Ruegsegger set up Patrick Wellar and screened Chiodo to get the Bears on the board first.

Off the next faceoff, Mike Carman picks off a Hershey D-man and sets up Adam Payerl who gets a breakaway on Grubauer and scores on a deke to answer :23 later.

Jayson Megna had a quick start for his first preseason game for Wilkes-Barre. He stepped around a Bear and put a tough shot on netminder Grubauer.

Bears scored late when Casey Wellman pounced on a puck during a miscommunication by the Penguins. The puck dribbled through Chiodo and just over the line. Then, nearly right after that, Jeff Taffe scored on a blast from the top of the left circle to extend the Bears lead to 3-1.

Shots were 10-10 after the first. At one point, with six minutes and change to go in a 1-1 game, the shots were 9-4 Penguins. Same story from last night. Final five minutes of the period, Bears get two quick goals, and it’s a 3-1 game and the Pens stop playing and get outshot 6-1.

I mean it’s preseason and all and I am overanalyzing, but you just cannot let off against a team, any team, especially a dynamite offense that lies in Hershey.

Second period had the games first penalty and the first power play for Wilkes-Barre. Jayson Megna had a breakaway attempt denied by Tomas Kundratek. The Bears would kill off the remainder of the Penguins power play, then shortly score again to make it 4-1. This time David Marshall would be the recipient of a Tyler Ruegsegger steal and centering pass from behind the Penguin net to extend the lead to three for the Bears.

Jeff Deslauriers replaced Andy Chiodo at the halfway point of the game. Right before the Bears went on the power play but the Penguins killed it somewhat easily.

Christiaan Minella and David Marshall fought. Marshall already had an assist and a goal, so he completed his Gordie Howe hat trick.

Bears with a late power play, Nathan Walker for the Bears appears to score, referee TJ Luxmore signals goal, then takes a look at it on replay and overturns his call.

Shots were 23-16 Bears through two.

Couple of almost goals for both teams to start the third. Chay Genoway sweeps a puck away from the crease of Philipp Grubauer from a shot by Jayson Megna. Back the other way, Jeff Deslauriers stops Jeff Taffe on a 2-on-1 for the Bears.

Garrett Mitchell and Cody Sylvester had a memorable fight. Lots of punches. Hoping the Bears put together a SendToNews highlight package so I could link over.

David Marshall had quite a game. Scored a back hand goal and made it 5-1 Bears. That was four points for Marshall.

If the Bears can get scoring from secondary and tertiary players, while still getting points from regular scorers, there may be something brewing in Chocolatetwon and it may not be good for the rest of the League.

Rowdy third period really. Patrick Wellar and Scott Zurevinski fought.

Derek Whitmore scored a late power play goal for the Bears for good measure on the power play and made it 6-1. The first power play goal given up by the Penguins in the preseason.

That was that. The two teams rematch in Wilkes-Barre Sunday at 5:05.

Rosters are due for the NHL tomorrow. That means that there will players put on waivers. They need to hit waivers by noon tomorrow. We will see who Pittsburgh puts on there. Stick with me @nafsnep on Twitter tomorrow and we’ll find out together.

Let’s Go Pens!

Exciting parts of this second exhibition game between the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and the Rochester Americans, a 2-1 Pens win in OT. Just some observations:

— Penguins manhandled the Amerks in the games opening fifteen minutes. Not allowing the Amerks a single shot on goal.

— Power play looked sharp. Passes were on point. Pucks kept in. Everyone was in position.

— Penalty kill looked even sharper. A perfect 7-for-7.

— When the Penguins let off, even the slightest, Rochester was right there to take advantage. The final five minutes of the first were a great example. Pens were outshooting the Amerks 7-0 and at the end of the period the shots were something like 8-7.

— Jeff Deslauriers started for the Pens and looked sharp. Then again, Rochester didn’t exactly dress a lineup that will debut opening night. A lot of youth in the lineup for the Amerks this evening.

— Matt Hackett started for Rochester and had laser like focus all night. Deflections? Saw em. Shots? No rebounds. Out of position? He gets over. Really nice showing from him.

— Eric Hartzell played the final 30 minutes for the Pens, replacing Deslauriers at the 10:00 mark of the second. He left a rebound on a shot that Colton Gillies pounced on and stuffed home but otherwise was solid in goal for the Penguins.

— Hackett looked destined for the shutout but the Penguins, on the power play and with the goaltender pulled, score a goal with 2.7 left when Brian Gibbons finds Mike Ratchuk cross ice for a backdoor goal.

— Cody Sylvester scored in overtime on a goal which was initially washed out by referee TJ Luxmore who ruled interference on Hackett after Sylvester bowled into him. Luxmore conferred with his linesmen and after review, overturned his call. The goal was before the interference, so the right call was made.

— Local product Patrick McGrath was in the starting lineup and had himself a memorable game. First, it’s with pride that I look at the lineup and see a player from Wilkes-Barre, PA listed as his hometown. Second, the kid is fearless. Take a look:

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The guy he fought is no slouch either. It was Frederick Roy, or Patrick’s son. McGrath eats three uppercuts then pops Roy’s helmet off. McGrath would go on to fight Johnny McGuire, who also fought Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. Nothing was as memorable as that fight above though.

Not really much else to analyze here. Systems wise, Pens looked in midseason form. Penalty kill was spotless. Power play looked vastly improved. We’ll see as the season gets going.

Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures of the inside of the arena that I will run later tonight / Saturday morning in a photoblog of sorts. Keep a lookout for that, if you are a night owl.

Penguins travel down I-81 for a meeting with the Hershey Bears tomorrow at 7 then close out the preseason slate with a rematch with the Bears Sunday at 5.