Chirps from Center Ice

The tear continues.

The Penguins win again tonight, making it five in a row, and earn John Hynes his 115th all-time win as head coach, tying Glenn Patrick in that category. They do so by playing the system implemented by Hynes and his staff and skate away victors, 5-3 over the St. John’s IceCaps.

The game was exactly like last night’s vs. Syracuse, with the Penguins…. well, read on.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Eddie Pasquale — Zach Sill was back from injury. Paul Thompson was scratched again.

First Period: Could best be described as a carbon copy to the first period last night vs. Syracuse. That is, the Pens jump out on the IceCaps early via goals from Simon Despres and Warren Peters via deflection, then clamp down and do not allow St. John’s one shot on goal until about six minutes to play in the first. Then a pushback by the IceCaps late, Jason Jaffray for the visitors scores while the teams were four-on-four.

First Period Notes: Penguins hit anything and everything that moved that period. Tom Kuhnhackl left the game with an apparent injury and did not return the rest of the game.

Second Period: Probably the flattest period the Pens have played in recent memory. You could see the St. John’s momentum shift with every shift. Finally, an IceCaps faceoff win in the WBS defensive zone is won to Julian Melchiori who fires it at the goal. Ray Sawada gets a stick on it to deflect it past Zatkoff to bring St. John’s to tie the game. Then, late while on a power play, Dylan Reese gets a goal which deflected off of St. John’s defenseman Derek Meech’s stick and slowly trickled past Pasquale to give the Pens the lead late. It was the lift that the team needed as the period was a very uncharacteristic period for the Penguins.

Third Period: Riley Holzapfel sets up Benn Ferriero for a goal from behind the net. I’ll let WBS beat writer Jonathan Bombulie describe this one as he was right on top of it:

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In keeping with last night’s game, Spencer Machacek scored to make it 4-3 with just under seven minutes to play, then the IceCaps got a late power play, pulled Pasquale, and the Penguins found an empty net goal via Riley Holzapfel, who had just been sprung from the penalty box to seal it.

Three Stars: 3) Benn Ferriero (goal, +1) 2) Riley Holzapfel (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Dylan Reese (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Syracuse claws back from down 0-3 to win in Hartford tonight 4-3 in overtime vs. the Connecticut Whale. They get three third period goals to tie, then Mark Barberio scored the OT game winner. Norfolk beats Hershey 5-1 in Hershey. Braden Holtby took the loss for the Bears tonight. Hershey’s been riding him as of late, perhaps he was tired. But that’s me speculating. Binghamton, who has about 45 games in hand on the Penguins, were off tonight.

Standings: Syracuse 28 — Penguins 26 — Binghamton 24 — Hershey 19 — Norfolk 16

Conference: 1) SYR (28) 2) SPR (26) 3) MCH (23) 4) WBS (26) 5) BNG (24) 6) STH (23) 7) WOR (22) 8) BRI (21)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendtoNews Highlights: Still going up as I am typing this, but here’s the link to all the good stuff you will want to see. Sucks that WordPress won’t allow for me to embed this on my site. Oh well, extra clicks for you!

Pens are off until next Friday vs. Hershey. I’ll see what I can drum up blog content wise for you this week. As always, catch me on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest cooing over redheads, indie rock discussion and random pictures of animals and still life.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins are smoking right now. Just finished off a 10-2 month of November and sit two points back of the Syracuse Crunch after handing the Crunch their first regulation road loss of the season. Everything seems to be trending in the right direction, too. The Pens won the game 5-3.

Things seem to be clicking too. The Penguins were 6 for 7 on the penalty kill and 2 for 8 on the power play. The penalty kills came up huge as the Crunch have a unit which is deadly. The thing I liked the most about this game was the fact that the Penguins smothered the Crunch in the opening fifteen minutes of the game. Not only did they run with the “zoom zoom” that the Crunch are on the ice, they stifled them and held them to only one shot on goal for most of the first period. Winning games in the first period, then a “bend not break” mentality in the late stages and you have a recipe for a team on an absolute tear right now.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Dustin Tokarski — Paul Thompson was a mystery scratch. You guys know, if you read the blog earlier, that Keven Veilleux and Dominik Uher were sent to Wheeling.

First Period: Strange sequence in the opening three minutes. A Philippe Dupuis backhander hits the crossbar and the Penguins fans in attendance start to celebrate a goal. Play continues, finally a Dylan Reese from the blue line is deflected in by Trevor Smith. Referees looked at the Dupuis offering, but it did hit the post. Late pressure by the Penguins, cycling the puck in the Syracuse zone for a good minute lead by Beau Bennett. No dice. Then, while four-on-four late, Syracuse finally scores when Radko Gudas set up Richard Panik for a slam dunk goal to even it at one.

Second Period: The description of what follows will not do justice to what actually happened. Beau Bennett scored an NHL quality goal in close over Tokarski’s left shoulder. There was literally no room for Bennett to shoot except for a small area above Tokarski’s shoulder in the corner of the net. Bennett fit it there for a 2-1 Penguins lead. Then, while on a power play (after multiple WBS kills of Syracuse power plays) Brian Dumoulin scored his first of the season to make it 3-1.

Penguins only allowed 5 Crunch shots on goal that period.

Third Period: Bennett springs Riley Holzapfel on a 100′ saucer pass that Holzapfel had all day to skate in and score to make it 4-1. Big goal at the time because you could almost feel the Crunch pushback coming. It did come, via a Brett Connolly goal, then a Philip-Michael Devos goal. Score is now 4-3. With Tokarski pulled and an extra attacker on, Cory Conacher fans on a bouncing puck. It then finds its way to Trevor Smith who fires a 180-foot dart to seal it.

Three Stars: 3) Brian Dumoulin (goal, even) 2) Beau Bennett (goal, assist, even) and 1) Riley Holzapfel (goal, two assists, even)

Around the Division: The Binghamton Senators have won seven straight. Oh, they also have two games in hand on the Penguins. They hang seven on the Adirondack Phantoms tonight and win 7-4. The Hershey Bears are also righting the ship, winners of three straight, as they cut down the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 5-2. Norfolk was off.

Standings: Syracuse 26 — Binghamton 24 — Penguins 24 — Hershey 19 — Norfolk 14

Standings: 1) SYR (26) 2) SPR (26) 3) STJ (23) 4) BNG (24) 5) WBS (24) 6) MCH (21) 7) BRI (20) 8) POR (20)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 4-2 over the rival Elmira Jackals 4-2. Keven Veilleux had a goal.

SendtoNews Highlights: Are here. The Bennett goal is there. Hold onto your stomachs. That goal was a beauty.

St. John’s is in tomorrow. Should be an interesting matchup. If things break the right way, the Pens could be in first place in the division at the end of the night. But then there’s games in hand, percentage points, etc. Gameday for that will be up tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Brian Gibbons has been a scratch lately. It’s perplexed me because it doesn’t seem that he is ever at issue whenever something goes awry for the Pens. John Hynes & Company have seen it another way, because Gibbons hasn’t been seen in a few games now.

Tonight, he drew back into the lineup and made his presence felt for all sixty minutes.

Riding a two goal game by Penguins rookie Tom Kuhnhackl, Gibbons and Kuhnhackl turn in a three point night and the Penguins defeat the Albany Devils 5-4 in a shootout.

A game, by all rights, the Penguins should have lost. Stark contrast by the game last night vs. Toronto. In fact, if the Pens would have lost this game, “Eggs for Sale” would have been the headline for this postgamer.

They didn’t, and are red hot. 8-2 in the last ten games after starting the season 0-4.

Brad Thiessen vs. Keith Kinkaid – The aforementioned Brian Gibbons and Tom Kuhnhackl were back in the lineup joined by Dylan Reese, Philip Samuelsson and Alex Grant. Lots of shuffling going on.

First Period: Simon Despres, who by all accounts had an awful game, had his pocket picked on the Devils blueline by Mattias Tedenby and the Devils were on the board first. Then Brian Gibbons fed Tom Kuhnhackl from below the goal line for the rookie’s first AHL goal. They reversed places later and Kuhnhackl fed Gibbons to make it 2-1. Then, on an Albany power play, Bobby Butler scores from the slot to make it 2-2. A huge goal for the Devils at the time, because their power play is putrid, I mean there is no other way nicely to put it. It is dead last. At the buzzer, Trevor Smith scores to make it 3-2.

Phew. What a period for both teams who played two games before and had to travel to get here.

Second Period: Nice flow between the two teams. Lots of good back and forth. Through a period of penalties, both teams come out unscathed. Then, locked out NHL-er Adam Henrique scores a nifty goal over the glove of Thiessen to even things at three a side.

Third Period: I’ll tell you. The Penguins just let the Devils run around on them. I haven’t seen much of the Devils this season, so really am not intelligent enough to speak on the last place showing they have put up so far, but it almost looked as if the Penguins were playing down to them. Penguins get a power play, Jacob Josefson scores a shorthanded goal on a rush after picking the pocket of Simon Despres. Later, Kuhnhackl set up by Jasyon Megna in the slot and he rifles it past Kinkaid to bring it even at four again. Both teams had chances late but it was on to….

Overtime: Nothing to see here. On to….

Shootout: Four rounds, no one scores. Jasyon Megna with a pretty dangle move and he scored the only goal in the shootout in Round 5.

Three Stars: 3) Bobby Butler (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, two assists, +2) and 1) Tom Kuhnhackl (two goals, assist +3)

Penguins are off again until Friday when they face the high flying Syracuse Crunch team.

Around the Division: The aforementioned Syracuse team absolutely bombed the Worcester Sharks 6-1. How deep are the Crunch? Eleven players registered a point in the win for the Crunch. The Bears are back in the win column beating the Toronto Marlies 4-2 in Chocolatetown. Hershey’s Jon DiSalvatore registered his 500th AHL point in the game.

Standings: Syracuse 26 — Binghamton 22 — Penguins 22 — Hershey 15 — Norfolk 14

Conference: 1) SYR (26) 2) SPR (24) 3) MCH (21) 4) BNG (22) 5) WBS (22) 6) BRI (20) 7)WOR (20) 8) CT (19)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

SendtoNews Highlights: Since it’s a neutral site, no idea if highlights will go up or not. Here is the website. If they go up later I will throw a link in.

I have to come up with some blog content between now and Friday. Don’t want this postgamer to sit stale all week up on the blog. Check back.

What a statement game by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight. After basically being run around the rink and being out-physicaled by a very experienced and well coached Toronto team, they claw back and win 2-1 tonight.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Ben Scrivens

The game basically came down to the third period. The first forty minutes were uneventful if you like offense and really exciting if you like goaltenders standing on their heads and physical, defensive hockey. Teams traded power plays, got close but could not score. Both teams were sprung for breakaways but Messrs. Zatkoff and Scrivens both up to the task. This all led up to the….

Third Period: Marlies were pressing, pressing and pressing some more. Finally, Jerry D’Amigo sets up Will Acton cutting to the net and he beats Zatkoff for the first score of the game.

Now here is where the Penguins, who were pretty much out-classed by the Marlies who play the same kind of physical style that Wilkes-Barre is synonymous with could have folded up the tent and packed it in. They could have started the next shift off with a fight, a bone head penalty or a dumb home-run pass.

No.

Next shift, Beau Bennett shoots the puck from the high slot, Benn Ferriero is right in Scrivens’ kitchen. He can’t corral it, Simon Despres swoops in from out of no where, corrals the puck and roofs it up past Scrivens and in. Tie game.

Later, the physicality boils over with Nicolas Deschamps with a silly cross check penalty in on Beau Bennett near the benches. Exception is taken by the Penguins on Deschamps for doing that to the rookie. Out of it, a scrum ensues. Who other than Bobby Fanham is in the middle of it. A Penguins power play ensues. On it, Despres again unloads a bullet from the point that Riley Holzapfel gets a stick on via deflection in past Scrivens. 2-1 Penguins. The 5,841 in attendance were alive, the building was hopping, it was really cool to be a part of. Marlies get a power play late, but could not find the equalizer.

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I really was impressed with the way the Penguins played all night. In my opinion this was a statement game. This showed to me at least that the Penguins could run with any team in the league. I really hope that they are able to build on this, and not rest on this.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Zatkoff (31 saves on 32 shots) 2) Simon Despres, (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Riley Holzapfel (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Syracuse drops Albany 4-1. Adirondack beats Hershey 3-1. Connecticut beats Norfolk 5-2 and Binghamton continues their hot streak and beats Bridgeport 6-1.

Standings: Separation staring to form. Crunch have 24 points. Binghamton (yes, Binghamnton) have 22 points. Penguins have 20. Then it drops off to Norfolk with 14 and the Bears with 13.

Conference: 1) SYE (24) 2) SPR (24) 3) MCH (20) 4) BNG (22) 5) BRI (20) 6) WBS (20) 7) WOR (20) 8) ADK (18)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout on home ice 2-0 by the Cincinnati Cyclones.

SendtoNews Highlights: Are here. As I am linking, there aren’t any video highlights, but if you wait long enough they eventually go up.

Penguins bus to Atlantic City for a 4 p.m. tilt with the Albany Devils. Gameday for the affair will be up at noon here on the blog.

Jeff Zatkoff is making a case for goaltender of the month. His third shutout of the season, Penguins play a sound sixty minutes of period and finally beat the Bears this season.

Abbotsford’s Barry Brust may have something to say about Zatkoff getting goalie of the month, but still.

Anyway. Penguins play a solid sixty minutes and win 4-0.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Braden Holtby – Jayson Megna and Alex Grant were back in the lineup. Megna’s first action since November 4, and Grant’s first action since October 28. Brian Strait battling a nagging something. Brian Dumoulin scratched for Grant. Megna dressed over Tom Kuhnhackl. Brian Gibbons, Zach Sill, Dominik Uher and Joey Mormina were the other scratches.

First Period: Solid period by both teams. Scary moment for Eric Tangradi while on the power play he was struck by the ever powerful slap shot of Alex Grant. He left the ice and did not return until the….

Second Period: Pens get a power play goal via Beau Bennett that banked off of a Bears skate and in between the legs of Holtby. Later, Bobby Farnham sells a penalty and then Simon Despres scores when Riley Holzapfel wins a faceoff to Dylan Reese making it 2-0.

Then, depending on if you believe anonymous sources telling freelance writers in Hartford a thing or two about bounties, the tension hits a boiling point. Steve MacIntyre and Matt Clackson fight. MacIntyre gets a hand free and drops Clackson. He rightfully gets a game misconduct for continuing to reign blows upon Clackson and is tossed. Then Bears captain Boyd Kane gets a double minor. Tensions at this point were very high. However, no other altercations ensued. Credit referee Mark Lemelin for keeping things under control.

Third Period: Bears on a 1:45 power play, need to get a goal, but Benn Ferriero scores his first goal and the first shorthanded goal for the Penguins, essentially taking the air out of the Giant Center and making the period pretty much a boring period. Probably the most boring period of hockey between the Penguins and Bears I have seen. Bears manage one shot on goal in the period. Warren Peters nets a goal late to make it 4-0. That was about it.

Three Stars: 3) Simon Despres (goal, +1) 2) Benn Ferriero (goal, assist, +2) 1) Jeff Zatkoff (15 save shutout)

Around the Division: Norfolk falls to Charlotte 5-2.

Standings: Syracuse 22 — Penguins 18 — Binghamton 16 — Norfolk 14 — Hershey 13

Conference: 1-SPR (22) 2-SYR (22) 3-MCH (17) 4-BRI (20) 5-WBS (18) 6-BNG (16) 7-WOR (16) 8-STJ (16)

Wheeling Update: Nailers finally get back in the win column with a 4-0 shutout of the Evansville IceMen.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Penguins off until Saturday when they host the Toronto Marlies.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I mentioned this in the game story that I filed for The Citizens’ Voice that the Penguins master the Bears in their own barn for nearly two years and now have lost four straight going back to last year. I also mentioned that the Pens have pretty much mastered teams while on the penalty kill but haven’t figured out the Bears special teams yet.

The Pens lost tonight 4-1. The defense corps looks pretty anemic right now. That didn’t make the game story, obviously cause it’s my opinion.

Anyway, I am writing this just after 10:20, 10 minutes before my self imposed deadline. No quotes from players or coaches, just writing. I have to say I was nervous, and don’t know how guys like JB and the like do it.

Brad Thiessen vs. Braden Holtby — Keven Veilleux and Philip Samuelsson were in for Steve MacIntyre and Brian Strait

First Period: Garrett Mitchell picks the pocket of Brian Dumoulin. Dumoulin hooks him on the breakaway. Referee Geoff Miller signals penalty shot. Mitchell scores on his attempt. Thiessen has been involved in two of the eight penalty shots awarded in the AHL and stopped one of them.

Second Period: Pens draw even when Beau Bennett setup Trevor Smith. This was all predicated by the physicality ramping up. There were fights. Joe Morrow involved in his first with tough guy Matt Clackson. You almost got the feel that things were going to turn bad. The Pens prevailed and tied the score though. Then, Mitchell again. A low angle backhander that goes in and out in the upper right hand corner of Thiessen’s net. I knew it was a goal when I saw it. It was ruled no goal at the time but Miller went and had a look at it and ruled goal. Then with .4 seconds remaining, Tomas Kundratek scored a goal off a bouncing rebound from a shot from Garrett Stafford.

Third Period: Nothing doing for the Pens offensively. Boyd Kane hits an empty net goal from center ice with Thiessen pulled.

Three Stars: 3) Braden Holtby (23 saves on 24 shots) 2) Tomas Kundratek (goal, +1) and 1) Garrett Mitchell (two goals, +3)

Around the Division: Binghamton beats Rochester 3-2 and Norfolk loses to Springfield 5-2. Syracuse drops Adirondack by a score of 5-2 and the Crunch are the first team to 20 points in the East Division.

Standings: Syracuse 20 — Binghamton 16 — Penguins 16 — Norfolk 14 — Hershey 13

Conference: 1) SPR (22) 2) SYR (20) 3) WOR (16) 4) BRI (18) 5) BNG 16) 6) WBS (16) 7) MCH 15 8) POR (14)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lost 6-1 in Toledo tonight. Patrick Killeen drubbed for all 6 Walleye goals.

SendToNews Highlights: Haven’t been uploaded by the Bears yet. If I see it Sunday, I’ll throw a link up here. edit: here they are

Pens have off until Wednesday when they face off against the Bears in Hershey.

Penguins get three power play goals from Eric Tangradi and Jeff Zatkoff continues to be a rock wall in net as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers by a score of 3-1.

I really don’t know who was more of a story in this game. You have Tangradi scoring a hat trick, the Penguins special teams unit scoring three power play goals in the game or Jeff Zatkoff who was pretty much awesome in the third period keeping the Sound Tigers out of his net. Since there is no “I” in team, you can say yes to all three.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Kevin Poulin – Brian Strait returned from scratchdom. Brian Gibbons took warmups and was scratched again. Keven Veilleux did not take warmups and was a scratch. I am very curious to see what is up with that.

First Period: Tangradi wastes no time in getting the Penguins on the board. After getting cross checked into the boards by Bridgeport’s Travis Hamonic, Trevor Smith centered Tangradi who snuck it past Poulin to put the Pens on the board first. Penguins did not let up. It seemed that whenever a Sound Tiger touched a puck, there were three Penguins in the vicinity to take the puck off of him. Later, on a power play, Johan Sundstrom finishes off a nice passing sequence to tie it at one apiece. Even later on a power play, Beau Bennett skates out from behind the goal line and passes to Benn Ferriero who passes to Tangradi who scores his second.

Second Period: Heard someone say in my section that Simon Despres takes a lot of silly penalties. Well, they were right. He high sticks Ty Wishart and took his 21st PIM of the season, second to only Brian Strait for the WBS defense who was a healthy scratch last game. I personally don’t think Despres will ever get scratched, but it is worth noting. Regardless, the infraction was killed. Penguins really ramped up the physicality this period just mugging Bridgeport whenever they came close to a puck. On yet another power play, Brian Dumoulin wrister from the point gets deflected in past Poulin by Tangradi for the hat trick. Initially, there was confusion on who scored it, but I heard the tip and knew it was Tangradi’s hat trick.

Third Period: Bridgeport really ran over the Pens this period. Here’s where Jeff Zatkoff earned his postgame meal because it really could have been a tie game on several occasions. It essentially was a reverse of the first forty minutes for the Penguins. Thankfully for the Penguins, no Sound Tiger was able to get one past Zatkoff.

Three Stars: 3) Trevor Smith (two assists, even) 2) Benn Ferriero (two assists, even) and 1) Eric Tangradi (hat trick, even)

See I would have replaced either Ferriero or Smith with Zatkoff. He deserved a star tonight for his work in the third period alone.

Around the Division: Syracuse beats Hershey 6-1. Braden Holtby started the game, but was chased in the second after allowing four straight Crunch goals. Binghamton beat Adirondack 5-2. Norfolk loses to Springfield in Virginia 3-2

Standings: Syracuse 18 — Penguins 16 — Binghamton 14 — Norfolk 14 — Hershey 11

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight, tomorrow they play the Toledo Walleye in Toledo.

Conference: 1) SPR (20) 2) SYR (18) 3) WOR (16) 4) BRI (16) 5) WBS (16) 6) MCH (15) 7) BNG (14) 8) POR (14)

SendToNews Highlights: Have Tangradi’s first goal and Johan Sundstrom’s only goal.

Penguins travel to Hershey tomorrow for a date with the Bears at 7. Gameday for that will be here at 3 p.m.

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I will be making the trip. Not as a fan, but as Jonathan Bombulie’s proxy. Yes, you read that right, I will be covering the game and writing a story for The Citizens Voice for Sunday’s paper. I was honored when Chris Roy from the Maine Hockey Journal asked me to write for him last Saturday. To have Jonathan Bombulie, who I consider one of the best at what he does, ask me, a yak with a blog and too much time on his hands, to write and cover for him is humbling.

Look for my tweets of the game tomorrow. I’ll be “reporting” on the game and not “cheering” on the game. Then make sure you buy a paper Sunday.