Chirps from Center Ice

There is a lot about this Springfield Falcons team that makes you go, “wow” – some examples:

–> Top 5 in both penalty kill (4th) and power play (5th) coming into tonight.
–> Not a single player on the roster a minus in +/-.
–> Five players with 10 or more points. Comparatively, the Penguins have none.
–> Team with the fewest goals allowed (17) coming into tonight.
–> Have a goaltender in Curtis McElhinney which leads the AHL in shutouts, and  many other statistical categories.

Someone forgot to tell Beau Bennett.

Riding two goals from the rookie, the Pens hold on and defeat the Springfield Falcons 2-1 tonight dealing the Falcons just their second loss of the season in regulation. It may be too early in the season to call this a “statement game” but by all senses of the word, it was. The Penguins played a solid 60 minutes of hockey this evening and they won the game.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Curtis McElhinney – Keven Veilleux made his debut, Brian Strait was benched scratched for this game.

First Period: By all accounts, the Penguins won this game in the first 15:40 of the period, as they did not allow the Falcons a shot on goal until then, meanwhile taking 11 or 12 of their own. It was a forechecking and puck possession clinic by the Penguins. They worked a full line change while in the Falcons offensive zone. Rookie Dominik Uher just grinded opponents, forechecking any Falcon player with the puck and driving them backwards. The Penguins did not score this period, but “worked the game backwards” it seemed by not allowing Springfield to do basically anything.

Second Period: Falcons, as you would expect, come out flying. Robert Bortuzzo takes an interference call. In the ensuing power play, Springfield registers five shots on goal. Later. Riley Holzapfel finds Beau Bennett camped out on the far dot and fires a long pass to him he deposits very quickly into the net behind McElhinney. Just a laser beam shot. More buzzing by Springfield. Penguins do not bat an eyelash. Again, Beau Bennett corrals a bouncing puck and scores his second of the night to make it 2-0.

About this period: According to the Falcons, this was the first game all year an opposing player has scored two goals in a game vs. the Falcons and Curtis McElhinney’s shutout streak ended at 166:40.

Third Period: This tweet sums up the period:

(replace “put” with out – I often misspell words when tweeting a game on my iPhone)

And this one, but with a few other players too, but this one stuck out:

–

Rinse and repeat all period. Falcons took 11 shots this frame and finally got one with 1:47 to go when Nick Holden fired a shot from just below the blueline that Tomas Kubalik deflected.

Falcons, with McElhinney pulled, never got the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Zatkoff (25 saves on 26 shots) 2) Riley Holzapfel (two assists, +2) and 1) Beau Bennett (two goals, +2)

Keven Veilleux looked okay in his first game back and fought Dalton Prout in the first period and earned a takedown.

The Penguins are over .500 for the first time all season.

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Syracuse 16 — Norfolk 14 — Penguins 14 — Binghamton 12 — Hershey 11

Conference: 1) SPR (18) 2) SYR (16) 3) WOR (16) 4) BRI (16) 5) MCH (15) 6) NOR (14) 7) WBS (14) 8) BNG (12)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight.

SendtoNews Highlights: Are here. This is a new thing that I am incorporating, so the video highlights may be uploaded later.

Penguins back at it Friday when they welcome the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Gameday for that will be up here on the blog Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.

If you noticed me on Twitter tonight you noticed a much more reserved game call. The reason for that was that Chris Roy from the Maine Hockey Journal contacted me earlier this week and asked if I would do some freelance work for him. Of course I volunteered. Chris was able to get me a press credential for the night so I sat in the WBS press box again which is why if you were at the game, you did not see me in my regular center ice seat.

There are rules up here that I must abide by. The golden rule is “no cheering.” So I went with that on the game call on Twitter and kept it level (as best I could)

I thought about writing two stories. One for Chris, one for the blog. I figured I would let you, the reader, see what I came up with for Roy and enjoy it from there.

Chris may edit this down to a humble paragraph. I won’t know till tomorrow. Without further delay, here it is. Let me know in comments what you think:

WILKES-BARRE, PA — The first ten minutes of Saturday’s game against the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton couldn’t have gone any better for the Portland Pirates.

The next ten, and ultimately the final 45 with overtime, were a much different story.

The Portland Pirates earn a point in the first meeting of the year with the Penguins, 4-3 via the shootout.

The first ten minutes of the game were tight checking, disciplined hockey. Then, three seconds after a penalty to Pirates defenseman David Rundblad expired, Penguins center Riley Holzapfel cut to the net where Paul Thompson fed him a pass off a rebound of a Joe Morrow shot. Then, 1:23 later, Trevor Smith scored the first of two goals in the period for him off a pass from Penguins rookie Beau Bennett. Smith would later go on to pick the pocket of Phil Lane trying to get the puck out of the Pirates defensive and wired a shot over the glove of Visentin.

It was a second period of fortunes for the Pirates as they took advantage of special teams with Brandon Gormley scoring his first professional goal on the power play. Chris Brown and Chris Conner worked some magic with Conner feeding Brown with Penguins defenders draped all over him.

The third period would not slow the Pirates down in the momentum department. Despite being outshot by the Penguins 13-7, they still managed to pull even off a wild sequence when Captain Alexandre Bolduc would bring the Pirates even with his team leading 7th goal of the season. Portland continued to press but got caught by the referee’s whistle as they would have to kill two penalties, but the Portland penalty killing unit would successfully do so. They would then receive two penalties, one from Penguins defenseman Dylan Reese at the end of the third but could not get the go ahead goal.

In overtime, the Pirates outshot the Penguins 8-2 and really blitzkrieged Thiessen with an array of shots but the Penguins netminder held the Pirates out of his net.

Benn Ferriero and Eric Tangradi scored in the shootout. No Pirates were able to get past Thiessen.

“First ten minutes I thought we were fine, then we gave them room to move and to skate and they started to push back.” Coach Ray Edwards said after the game. “I liked the way we fought back there in the second and responded to get a couple back and ultimately fight to get a point. Managing momentum was a big part of the game.”

Mark Visentin stopped 38 of 41 shots to fall to 1-1-1 in the season. Brad Thiessen improved to 2-1, stopping 36 of 39.

Biddeford native and Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin was scoreless, but managed a +2 for the evening.

Heavyweights Joel Rechlicz and Steve MacIntyre both dressed but did not square off.

The Pirates were 1 for 4 on the power play and the Penguins were 0 for 5.

The Pirates face-off against the Hershey Bears tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 p.m.

—

Not bad, huh?

Alright. Paying off the rest of the blog with the stuff you read about after the game recap:

Around the Division: St. John’s beats Hershey in Chocolatetown 2-1. Binghamton beats Norfolk 4-2. Rochester beat Syracuse in my game to watch 5-2. Seems that the Penguins and Amerks have the Crunch’s number this year.

Standings: Syracuse 16 — Norfolk 12 — Binghamton 12 — Penguins 12 — Hershey 11

Wheeling Update: Nailers get dropped by the Walleye again 5-3. Keven Veilleux registered an assist, Cody Chupp a goal, Carl Sneep an assist. Patrick Killeen stopped 22 of 27.

Penguins are off until Wednesday when they host the Springfield Falcons.

Penguins penalty kill was ranked second overall in the AHL at 94.8% coming into the game tonight vs. the Hershey Bears. That will take a significant drop downwards tomorrow morning as the Penguins lose this game 3-1 with all three goals for Hershey coming on the power play.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Braden Holtby — no lineup changes for the Penguins tonight.

First Period: Can best be described as well-disciplined, very crisp period of hockey. Both teams had a chance on the power play, with the highlight of the period and probably the game and maybe the season coming when Jeff Zatkoff robbed Zach Hamill on a back-door play that the Bears are notorious for. Tom Grace on radio already dubbed it save of the year.

Second Period: Warren Peters takes an interference call at :19. Bears waste no time with Tomas Kundratek shooting the puck from the point and Boyd Kane providing the deflection in on the screen in front. That would snap a streak of 37 consecutive penalties killed. Penguins came out and really peppered Holtby this period but the NHL locked out goaltender made every save look routine. Bears go up 2-0 while the Penguins were killing a 5-on-3 penalty. Zach Hamill would finally stuff one past Zatkoff. At this point with goals at a premium, a backbreaking goal.

At this point the Penguins had been shutout for 105+minutes going back to the 65 minutes of game they played scoreless in Binghamton and the 40 minutes played at Hershey plus whatever time that eclipsed in Bridgeport. All of these offseason acquisitions have not been scoring.

Third Period: Penguins finally score when Riley Holzapfel gets a nice pass from Bobby Farnham to make it 2-1. I had the sense at this point that the Bears started playing prevent and not looking for an offensive opportunity. Holtby weathers the storm and keeps the Penguins out of his net. Bobby Farnham takes a penalty late and ex-Penguin Jeff Taffe gets an empty netter with 1.1 seconds to play.

Three power play goals allowed after not allowing 37 in a row. Overall though, a good effort by the Penguins when playing even strength. You have to think that the offense will come around.

Three Stars: 3) Riley Holzapfel (goal +1) 2) Garrett Stafford (two assists, -1) 1) Zach Hamill (goal, -1)

How Holtby doesn’t get a star for his work baffled even Tom Grace postgame.

Around the Division: Syracuse drops Hamilton in Montreal, Quebec at the Bell Centre in front of 18,000+ fans by a score of 4-1. Norfolk and Binghamton had off tonight.

Standings: Syracuse 14 — Norfolk 12 — Hershey 11 — Binghamton 10 — Penguins 10

Wheeling Update: Keven Veilleux scores his first ECHL goal but it is not enough as the Toledo Walleye come in to WesBanco Arena and deal the Nailers a 5-2 loss. Patrick Killeen stopped 20 of 24 in net.

Penguins at it tomorrow again at home vs. the Portland Pirates at 7:05. Gameday will be here tomorrow at 3 p.m. for that one.

Let’s Go Pens!

Any doubt as to who the number one goaltender is between the pipes for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins has been answered soundly. Jeff Zatkoff pitches a 32 save shutout, his second in three games and was by far outstanding tonight as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins outlast the Binghamton Senators by a score of 1-0 in a shootout.

Zatkoff was opposed by Robin Lehner, who by all accounts was outstanding in his own accord. These are the I-81 wars that I yearn for.

Tom Kuhnhackl potted the game winner in the shootout in Round 8. Bobby Farnham made his WBS debut and by all accounts was a good as advertised as a guy who does not by any circumstance want to be demoted back to Wheeling. More on him later.

Jayson Megna was scratched along with Joe Morrow. The Farnham signing now makes enough sense with Dom Uher also not in the lineup this evening.

First Period: First opening sequence the B-Sens put three shots on goal. Then, with the help of some power plays the Penguins ran their total to eight. Shots for the period would end up 11-8 Penguins with both teams really getting decent looks.

Second Period: Penguins had almost a full two minutes of five on three to work with with a 4:00 high stick penalty to B-Sens Mark Borowiecki but were unable to get anything going offensively despite the power play, to me, looking better than it had in the past. Outside of that, Lehner and Zatkoff continued to steal the show.

Third Period: Highlight of this period was Bobby Farnham. The book on this kid is that he never stops skating and hits anything in sight. “Fan favorite” has been tossed around by those who have seen Farnham play both in Wheeling and collegiately. He lived up to it tonight. He runs into B-Sens goalie Robin Lehner, gets jumped by Andre Petersson and Shane Prince then leaves the ice bloodied. Just a stream of blood from his forehead all the way down his face. In skating off, he is screaming at the Binghamton bench using words that would get me fined if I used them here. Out of it, at a surprise to me, he was only assessed four minutes in penalties and allowed to continue in the game.

Now if the Penguins weren’t running into a brick wall such as Lehner tonight, it would have jump started them offensively and Farnham is a hero and the game ends in regulation. Not tonight.

Overtime: Uneventful, but for a late WBS power play with under a minute to go that they could not get anything going on so it was off to the…

Shootout: Paul Thompson scores in Round 1, Mika Zibanejad for the B-Sens in Round 2, Trevor Smith for the Pens in Round 3, Andre Petersson for the B-Sens in Round 4, then finally Kuhnhackl for the Pens in Round 8.

If the AHL had an award for “game of the week” this one would run away in a landslide.

Three Stars: 3) Tom Kuhnhackl (shootout game winning goal, even) 2) Robin Lehner (34 save shutout) and 1) Jeff Zatkoff (32 save shutout)

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Two years removed from being awarded AHL Goaltender of the Year, Brad Thiessen has been relegated to backup. Depending on the work load Zatkoff sees Friday vs. Hershey, you could make a case to ride Zatkoff all three games.

Around the Division: Bridgeport beat Norfolk in a day game 4-2. Syracuse blanks Hamilton 3-0. Hershey was off.

Standings: Syracuse 14 — Norfolk 12 — Penguins 10 — Senators 10 — Hershey 9

Wheeling Update: Nailers cough up a 3-0 lead in the third period and lose 4-3 in overtime to the Reading Royals at WesBanco Arena tonight. Carl Sneep was a +2, Patrick Killeen stopped 26 of 30 and Keven Veilleux was scoreless in his first meaningful game in over a year and a half.

Pens host Hershey on Friday at home in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05. If I get content tomorrow, I’ll have it. Always check me out on Twitter and Facebook for the latest nonsense.

Let’s Go Pens!

Paul Thompson natural hat trick in the second period lifts the Penguins to a 5-3 win in Bridgeport this afternoon. Jeff Zatkoff stops 37 of 40 shots and was really sharp all weekend and the Penguins have won four of five and are warming up.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Kevin Poulin – Yesterday Denver Manderson and Carl Sneep were assigned to the Wheeling Nailers. Jayson Megna played in this afternoon’s game.

First Period: Penguins get an early power play. Philippe Dupuis feathers a pass to Dylan Rees breaking in from the blue line and sneaks it past Poulin to put the Penguins ahead 1-0. Then, Reese gets smoked by Nino Niederreiter as Niederreiter just powered by him and slipped the puck under Zatkoff to even the score at one apiece. Best way to describe this period was the teams were simply feeling each other out it seemed.

Second Period: Paul Thompson’s playground, basically. Penguins chip a puck out of the defensive zone Thompson corrals on the far half wall and lasers it past Poulin for his first goal. Pressure from WBS would continue in the form of two full line changes with the puck in deep. Thompson’s second goal came with him standing in the slot and sniping it past Poulin. His third was a pass received from Bortuzzo and a shot that looked like totally confused Poulin.

It was the first regular season road hat trick for the Penguins in four years and two days since Chris Minard did so against the Houston Aeros. Nick Johnson did it in the 2010 Calder Cup Playoffs vs. the Albany River Rats.

Meanwhile, Jeff Zatkoff put on a goalie clinic in that second period with Bridgeport coming basically in waves when they weren’t fishing Thompson goals out of their nets.

Third Period: Poulin was replaced by Kenny Reiter. John Persson drew the Sound Tigers within two, but then Brian Gibbons was sprung and scored on Reiter to make it 5-2. Zatkoff was really sharp all period and really all game, stopping the Sound Tigers attempts. Brock Nelson would score a goal with :31 left to make it 5-3 late.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Zatkoff (37 saves on 40 shots) 2) Brian Gibbons (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Paul Thompson (natural hat trick, +3)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Norfolk 12 — Syracuse 12 — Binghamton 9 — Hershey 9 — Penguins 8.

Penguins bus home tonight then get ready for the Bingahmton Senators on Wednesday night.

Jeff Zatkoff returns to his old stomping grounds and stomps a mud hole in his old team, pitching a 33 save shutout as the Penguins get a big, big win in Manchester winning 3-0.

Couple of personnel moves to note before we hop into the postgame recap. Carl Sneep will be re-assigned to the Wheeling Nailers. Denver Manderson is already there but has not been officially reassigned. Once Keven Veilleux gets the all clear to play, he will also get sent there for conditioning. Tonight was Warren Peters’ 500th AHL game.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Martin Jones – Robert Bortuzzo was back from injury. Jayson Megna may be ready to go Sunday.

First Period: Best way for me to describe this period is it was a puck possession clinic by the Monarchs and a goaltending clinic by the Penguins. I settled in and watched the Penguins passes out of the defensive zone and in the neutral zone. They make too many cutesy passes which either get intercepted or don’t connect. Also, Philippe Dupuis passes too much. He needs to start shooting, but, who am I to tell him that.

Second Period: Coming into this game, the Monarchs had outscored opponents 11-3 in the second period. I felt coming in that a team full of NHLers in Manchester would feel out the Penguins in the first period, make adjustments in intermission and come out flying in the second. Not so. Dominik Uher keeps his feet moving and draws an interference call. In the ensuing power play, Benn Ferriero keeps a puck in, passes to Trevor Smith who shoots, and Eric Tangradi is there to collect the rebound and put the Penguins out in front 1-0. It’s Tangradi’s fifth goal in as many games. Later, with the Penguins on another power play, defenseman Dylan Reese scores a seeing-eye puck to put the Penguins up 2-0. Manchester would press and press and press but Zatkoff stood firm.

Third Period: More of the same from the Monarchs. Penguins clamped down and try as they might the Monarchs never scored. Paul Thompson buried an empty netter with Jones pulled.

Three Stars: 3) Martin Jones 26 saves on 28 shots 2) Eric Tangradi (goal, even) 1) Jeff Zatkoff (33 save shutout)

Around the Division: Syracuse wins in Glens Falls 4-1. Hershey beats Springfield 3-2 in a shootout. Binghamton wins 4-3 on Hampton Roads and ends the Norfolk Admirals 19 home game win streak and were trending on Twitter earlier.

Standings: Syracuse 12 — Norfolk 10 — Hershey 9 — Binghamton 9 — Penguins 6

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost to the expansion Evansville IceMen tonight 4-3. Cody Chupp had two goals in the loss.

Penguins travel to Bridgeport tomorrow and have the night off. They face the Sound Tigers Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Don’t forget to set your clocks back Saturday night and I will check you out here on the blog at 11 a.m. for the gameday setup for the game here on the blog Sunday morning.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins get bit in Hershey by a goal they think should not have counted that did not get replay and a goal that they scored that replay took away. They lose 3-2.

Penguins really looked aggressive in the first half of the game then gradually ran out of gas in the second half of the contest which is to be expected when you play three games in under three days.

Dany Sabourin vs. Jeff Zatkoff – Brian Dumoulin and Joe Morrow were back in for the Pens.

First Period: A lot of high flying, intense hockey with both clubs getting chances. Zatkoff really was sharp this period keeping what normally are sure Bears goals on backhand plays out of his net.

Second Period: :14 in, Mike Carman backhands one in on Zatkoff. So, ideally, 38/2 = 14. Pens get scored on in two games at :38 of the first period, then at :14 of the second period in the third. Numbers are fun!* Then something strange where Alex Grant was playing forward on a fourth line. Then Zach Hamill comes in while the Bears were shorthanded and scored, it appeared as if the puck clanked off a crossbar and back out, but referee Darcy Burchell was right on top of the play and signaled goal immediately and did not go to video replay. Right after that, Adam Payerl got his first of the year to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Third Period: Philippe Dupuis looked to have scored, but the puck was kicked in. The referees did use replay in this instance and overturned the goal call on the ice. Bombulie noted that Dupuis kicked the puck into Sabourin’s pads then whacked at the pads and then the puck went in. Later, Ryan Stoa scored on the only shot of the period for the Bears to put the game at 3-1. Later, Trevor Smith cross checked Tomas Kundratek into the bend wall and was assessed a 5:00 penalty for cross checking and thrown out of the game on a game misconduct. Kundratek returned to the game almost instantly, so I am not anticipating a suspension of any kind. Tangradi cut the deficit to 3-2 when he fit the puck in between Sabourin and the post in a very tight space. Pens pull Zatkoff but never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Cameron Schilling (assist, +2) 2) Zach Hamill (goal, +2) and 1) Ryan Stoa (goal, +1)

I can’t really offer much dissection on this game being its the tail end of a three in three for both teams, and the first of 12 meetings. Allowing the high octane Bears offense just 16 shots on goal and 1 in the third period is something you take every day of the week.

Around the Division: Norfolk beats St. John’s in Newfoundland 2-0. Binghamton loses to Manchester 4-0 and Syracuse lost to Adirondack 4-3 in overtime.

Standings: Norfolk 10 — Syracuse 10 — Hershey 7 — Binghamton 7 — Penguins 4

Wheeling was off tonight.

Penguins back at it Friday in New Hampshire.

Hurricane Sandy is churning off of the DelMarVa coast, gunning for just about all of the entire AHL Eastern Conference cities. Please stay safe!

* – who am I kidding?