Chirps from Center Ice

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?

Penguins win a wild and crazy game in Syracuse tonight 4-1 with two goals from Eric Tangradi. Syracuse may have had the flu bug in their locker room as reported by Tom Grace on the radio. If so, it showed, the Crunch fanned on several open chances.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Dustin Tokarski. I tweeted something pregame that Tokarski hadn’t lost a game to the Penguins was January 10 of this year.

First Period: Coach John Hynes dressed a more seasoned lineup on defense this night with Carl Sneep and Brian Dumoulin scratched. :38 seconds in, just like last night, the Pens would find themselves behind 1-0 off the stick of Cory Conacher who banked in a shot off of a Penguins defensemans skate. Teams would trade penalties until Alex Grant digs a puck off a wall and feeds Eric Tangradi who scored to tie the game. Rookie Dominik Uher was everywhere this period, throwing hits and drawing penalties. Cory Conacher fanned on an open net and missed what normally is for him a sure goal late, thanks to the puck hitting the crossbar instead of the back of the net.

Second Period: Riley Holzapfel turns and shoots after a puck banks off the wall from the bottom of the far circle and it eludes Tokarski and goes in the back of the net. Most ridiculous goal for Tokarski which took a little bit of life out of the Crunch at the time I felt. Then, with Radko Gudas in the box for interference the Pens would waste no time with Warren Peters winning a faceoff to Benn Ferriero who shot the puck at Tokarski who did not corral the rebound and it found its way to Beau Bennett who scored it. His first AHL goal, on the power play. Later, Jeff Zatkoff really came up huge with save afer save after save, it felt.

Third Period: You got the sense watching and listening to the game that the Penguins were almost playing not to blow a 3-1 lead, especially with; a) starting the season 0-4 and b) what happened last night in blowing a two goal lead with 1:08 left vs. Rochester. It didn’t happen. Despite outshooting the Penguins 11-9, the Crunch never got anything by Zatkoff. With Tokarski pulled, Eric Tangradi would pick off a center ice pass and bury it from 100′ to seal it for the Pens at 4-1.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Zatkoff (35 saves on 36 shots) 2) Cory Conacher (goal, even) and 1) Eric Tangradi (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: The Hershey Bears shutout the Albany Devils tonight 3-0. Braden Holtby was back from a minor injury and earned the clean sheet and BAH GAWD! the 32 game winning streak is over!!! The St. John’s IceCaps defeated the Norfolk Admirals 3-2. Bingahmoton lost in Lewsiton, Maine tonight vs. the Portland Pirates 4-2. 

Standings: Syracuse 9 — Norfolk 8 — Binghamton 7 — Hershey 5 — Penguins 4.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers win in a shootout in West Virginia tonight over the Reading Royals 3-2. Goaltender Patrick Killeen stopped 37 of 39 and was named first star of the game.

Penguins are bussing straight to Hershey tonight for the 5 p.m. start in Chocolatetown tomorrow. Gameday setup for the affair will be here on the blog at 1 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

The optimist in me says that this is only the fourth game of a 76 game schedule and not even Halloween yet with a unit which has never played with each other before.

The pessimist in me says that this WBS team has a lot of so-called NHLers on the team that couldn’t even crack a third line of an ECHL squad.

Pens lose at home this afternoon 3-1 to the Syracuse Crunch dropping to 0-4 to start the season. All the damage was done in the first period. The Crunch get a tap in goal from Keith Aulie after a tic tac toe pass and two power play goals from Penguin killers Cory Conacher and Tyler Johnson while on an extended five-minute power play for boarding done by Joe Morrow on Vladislav Namestnikov. Things settled from there on with the Pens limiting the Crunch to 11 shots on goal the rest of the way. The Penguins did everything but score a goal, finally breaking through when it was too late via a third period power play goal from Philippe Dupuis to spoil the shutout for Dustin Tokarski.

The last time the Penguins started 0-4 was, well I will let beat writer / historian Jonathan Bombulie answer this for us all:

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Per Bombulie, the Pens did not make playoffs in 1999-2000, and 2001-02 and made playoffs in 2004-05.

Wait, am I talking about playoffs?

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Jeff Zatkoff got the start for the Pens in goal. Philip Samuelsson, Alex Grant and Joey Mormina were scratched. Carl Sneep made his season debut. Steve MacIntyre played, didn’t fight anyone. Penguins dressed six defensemen.

Three Stars: 3) Dustin Tokarski (20 saves on 21 shots) 2) Brett Connolly (two assists, +1) 1) Keith Aulie (goal, +1)

I noted pre-game that there was only one Penguin player who had a positive +/-. His name is Zach Sill, and he is out six weeks with an upper body injury.

Around the Division: Video replay bites the Hershey Bears as they lost in overtime 2-1 to the Binghamton Senators from newcomer Hugh Jessiman. The net got knocked off as the puck crossed, and the B-Sens are 3-1-1-0 with seven points and looking good.

My bold prediction to people I’ve talked to, didn’t really tweet this or Facebook it, was that if the lockout goes all year either Hershey or Wilkes-Barre will not make playoffs.

Standings: Syracuse 9 — Norfolk 8 — Binghamton 7 — Hershey 3 — Wilkes-Barre 0.

The Penguins are the only AHL team without a single point in this 2012-2013 AHL season.

Wheeling Update: Our ECHL affiliate fared about as bad as we did this weekend, shut out in back-to-back games, losers today 3-0 to the Reading Royals. Patrick Killeen took the loss, stopping 25 of 28.

Penguins off Monday, and look to regroup the rest of the week for Friday’s game vs. the Rochester Americans. I will run what I can blog-wise this week.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins fall to 0-3 on the season losing tonight in their home opener 3-2 to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

News of the day is that Zach Sill will be out 5-6 weeks with an upper body injury. Tom Kuhnhackl and Dominik Uher were recalled from Wheeling earlier today.

Brad Thiessen vs. Kevin Poulin

First Period: Penguins came out the first seven minutes very aggressive, outshooting Bridgeport 6-1. It would continue, until Johan Sundstrum would score for the Sound Tigers. Then, to make matters worse, a Bridgeport dump in at the zamboni corner would hit an end board weird and bounce right in front of Thiessen’s crease where Nino Niederreiter was there to slam it home to make it 2-0. Best way to really describe that was the goal that sunk the Hershey Bears in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals last year. Karma. What goes around, comes around.

Second Period: Dylan Reese, making his Penguins debut, fires a shot from the blue line goal-wards. Beau Bennett was there for a rebound, backhanded it and somehow the puck found Riley Holzapfel for his first as a Penguin to put Wilkes-Barre on the board at 2-1. Late, a Sound Tigers steal on a Penguins defensive zone clear would see John Persson tap in the end of a tic tac toe pass to make it 3-1.

At this point, I felt the Penguins played the front end of the first two periods very well and the back ends poorly, which cost them ultimately the game.

Third Period: Penguins power play was executed very well, but not to perfection several times but unable to score on any. Late, a Simon Despres shot from the blue line would be rebounded and back handed home by Eric Tangradi to pull the Pens to within one. Thiessen stones his ex-teammate Colin McDonald late. Sound Tigers get a penalty shot they don’t cash on when the puck was covered in the crease but they weren’t able to score. Penguins would get a late power play but weren’t able to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Eric Tangradi (goal, seven shots, even) 2) Nino Niederreiter (goal, even) and 1) Johna Soundstrom (goal, assist, +2)

Penguins have defensive zone gaffes which end up costing them goals. Otherwise, a good game. I thought Thiessen played well.

Around the Division: Boy, goals were plentiful in other East Division barns. Start in Binghamton. The B-Sens are up 5-0 on the Syracuse Crunch. Then a goalie fight between Robin Lehner and Riku Helenius. The Crunch score six unanswered to win 6-5 in overtime. In Hershey, the Bears are up 4-1 on the Rochester Americans only to lose 8-7 in a wild game in Hershey. The Norfolk Admirals still haven’t lost since the Ice Age it seems, winners 6-3 at home vs. the Connecticut Whale.

Standings: Norfolk 8 — Syracuse 7 — Binghamton 5 — Hershey 2 — Penguins 0

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout 5-0 by the host Elmira Jackals.

Syracuse is in tomorrow afternoon at 5:05. Penguins still looking for win number one. Gameday here at 1 pm.

Let’s Go Pens!

Had a feeling driving up to Binghamton today that the Penguins were in for a trap game. I was right. They drop the season opener on the road 2-1.

Really not a bad performance by the Penguins as much as running into the very stout Robin Lehner. He is a Calder Cup MVP and a really good goaltender at this level. He is also very streaky. Ask any Binghamton fan. You can say he won the B-Sens the game tonight and not be wrong.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. the aforementioned Robin Lehner.

Philippe Dupuis, Joey Mormina and Warren Peters wore the A’s tonight. Dylan Reese, Jason Megna and Robert Bortuzzo were out all due to injuries. Carl Sneep was a healthy scratch.

First Period: No scoring this period, but the Penguins controlled the pace of play, firing 17 shots at Lehner but he was up to the task and kept the Penguins out of his net. The penalty kill for Wilkes-Barre was really great too.

Second Period: Not to be outdone, Jeff Zatkoff had some really great saves of his own, denying Binghamton on the rush multiple times. Finally, with just under 7:00 to play in the second, Trevor Smith would score the first and only goal of the young Wilkes-Barre campaign after André Benoit fell down making it a three-on-Lehner attempt for the Penguins. Then, you could feel the momentum the Penguins had built to this point slipping away or altogether stopping. Mark Borowiecki and Eric Tangradi fought with Tangradi slipping and no punches of substance thrown.

Third Period: Penguins solid penalty killing would continue, killing a Brian Strait kneeing penalty easily. Then, Jakob Silfverberg would score on a rebound to make it even at 1-1. More physical play with Warren Peters trucked into the boards hard by Fredrik Claesson. Rookie Adam Payerl sticks up for Peters and fights Claesson. Then, a defensive gaffe led to a Hugh Jessiman goal to push Binghamton out ahead 2-1. This would be all that Lehner would need as the B-Sens would be able to counter any attack Wilkes-Barre put on. Any shot, would normally find the glove of Lehner.

Three Stars: 3) Hugh Jessiman (goal, +1) 2) Jakob Silfverberg (goal, +1) and 1) Robin Lehner (35 saves on 36 shots)

Around the Division: Norfolk runs its regular season win streak to 30 games, albeit with a new season and new affiliation, but they nip the Worcester Sharks 4-3 in a shootout. The Hershey Bears opened in Syracuse tonight and lost 4-3.

Standings: Way early for this, but it’s: Norfolk 4 / Syracuse 3 / Binghamton 2 / Penguins 0 / Bears 0

I’ll get into conference standings next week. It’s the first game! Only 75 more of these postgamers to write!

New feature I want to add this season where possible and that’s keeping tabs on the Penguins ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers. Here it is:

Wheeling Action: The Nailers opened their season on the road in Cincinnati and lost 3-2 in a shootout. Patrick Killeen was in net for the Nailers and stopped 28 of 30 shots faced.

Penguins are off until next Friday in Springfield. If you will excuse me, with having content every day this past week with the AHL Previews (bring the drop down menu above to check out the divisions) I’ll have what I can between now and Friday here on the blog.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins dressed a lineup of a lot of guys who will be shipped to Wheeling or flat out released tomorrow and actually play a much better game than the last two prior games. But again we are talking preseason games which mean diddly.

Brad Thiessen vs. Braden Holtby – both netminders played the whole game.

First Period: No goals this period. Very spirited back and forth. A name which stood out to me was Jayson Megna. Really was either creating chances or making chances for himself all game, really. Dominick Uher and Steve Oleksy fought and Uher dropped Oleksy after he switched hands. Teams traded a bunch of power play chances but neither was able to capitalize.

Second Period: Braden Holtby was in mid-season form denying good Penguin chances. Penguins and Bears were 4-on-4 when Brett Flemming was left unmarked in the slot and scored on Thiessen. To this point, the Bears had about five shots on goal this period.

Third Period: Two Bears goals in what seemed like a flash, Alex Berry corralled a rebound and scored and Jeff Taffe picked the pocket of Adam Payerl and scored shorthanded to make it 3-0. Penguins would tighten up, get a goal from jayson Megna off a 2-on-1 feed from Brian Gibbons but weren’t able to sneak anything past Holtby.

No three stars in Hershey for preseason, so I unofficially offer 3) Jayson Megna (goal) 2) Braden Holtby (27 saves on 28 shots) and 1) Alex Berry (game winning goal)

Now that’s out of the way. Cuts coming tomorrow at some point. Also, the much anticipated Chirps from Center Ice AHL Previews begin at midnight tonight (yes, midnight) with the AHL South Division. At noon tomorrow, the Midwest Division as I wedge the two divisions the Penguins will not see into one day. The rest of the schedule looks like this:

Monday: South / Midwest Divisions
Tuesday: North Division
Wednesday: Atlantic Division
Thursday: Northeast Division
Friday: East Division

Every day, except for Monday, a new division is previewed at noon. Regular Penguins news will be wedged in between the previews as warranted.

If you are a night owl, check back here at midnight.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first 15 minutes but cannot hang on the remaining 45 as the Hershey Bears come back tonight and win 3-2.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Braden Holtby. Zatkoff played the whole game and radio said postgame that Brad Thiessen would play tomorrow. Who backs up remains to be seen.

Trevor Smith, Philippe Dupuis and Joey Mormina wore the A’s tonight.

First Period: Early bits of power plays for both sides see no scoring until the Pens finally get a goal on the power play courtesy of Joe Morrow, who rifled it crossbar and in past Holtby. After that, the Pens had another power play and Alex Grant shot a puck from the blue line which Jayson Megna got a stick on and deflected past Holtby to put the Pens up 2-0. Late, Julien Brouillette picked off a Pens D-zone pass and scored to put the Bears on the board at 2-1.

Second Period: While a delayed penalty vs. the Penguins was ongoing, Stanislev Galiev scored a low angle shot banking it in off of Zatkoff to tie things at two. I felt that the Penguins had the better chances this period but the Bears were up to task.

Third Period: Hershey scores at the end of a power play for them when Alex Berry bats a puck in from the air. Penguins wanted a high stick, but referee Keith Kaval ruled good goal. Looked good to me too. Jayson Megna was denied by the diving stick of Sabourin, which was probably the save of the game. Penguins get two straight power plays and do not convert. Warren Peters then gets a 4:00 penalty for arguing a hook, but the Bears did not score. Any chances of a comeback died when the Penguins were called for too many men trying to get goaltender Jeff Zatkoff off the ice.

Three stars were 3) Joe Morrow (goal) 2) Jayson Megna (goal) 1) Alex Berry (game winning goal)

Not what I wanted to see in a preseason game, but it’s just that, a preseason game.

Rematch tomorrow at 5 in Hershey. Penguins will probably dress a younger lineup against a more experienced Bears one.

Let’s Go Pens!