Chirps from Center Ice

Pens win their third game of the weekend, third in a shootout, winning today in Springfield 4-3 in a shootout. Patrick Killeen started the game and won his first AHL game. Pens finish off a perfect six point weekend.

But no one will remember any of that on this day. Why? Steve MacIntyre completely lost his mind and went into full rage mode. I will let the tweets of Penguins beat writer Jonathan Bombulie set this up:

MacIntyre received a five minute match penalty and a five minute roughing penalty which to me, was a bit lenient. However, the AHL is going to look at this and I would say that an undisclosed fine and a suspension in the neighborhood of ten games. More, if he went and struck a linesman, which may have happened.

Who knows. League usually announces these things Tuesday. We will see.

Anyway, another spirited tilt today in Springfield. For teams which played two games prior, three goals in 3:37. No flies on these teams in this third game in less than 48 hours.

Patrick Killeen vs. Paul Dainton – Brandon DeFazio was scratched for Matt Rust and Cody Wild for Philip Samuelsson.

First Period: Alex Picard takes a pass in the skates from Ryan Craig and scored. Next shift, ex-Pens prospect Nathan Longpre scored for Springfield to tie the game at 1. Then, Ryan Craig whacks in his won rebound to make it 2-1 Penguins. This was after lackadaisical defense from the Falcons blue liners, which let the Pens beat them to an icing call.

Second Period: Dainton made a pad save on a Craig shot, Jason Williams rebound. Joey Mormina took an interference penalty and Alex Giroux wasted no time in evening the score at two. Then, for some reason, Bill Guerin (yes, THAT Bill Guerin) got ejected for arguing a call. This put the Pens down two men as Brian Gibbons took a slashing call. In the power play, Alex Giroux scored a rebound goal to push the Falcons out to 3-2. Then, late, the MacIntyre insanity. He went full rage mode. He cross checked Amadio in the back, then went after Dainton. The scrum broke up then he suckered Dainton again. The Mass Mutual Center didn’t replay anything, but AHL Live will have it on archive probably tomorrow. I will take a look at it again to get a more better look. Out of it, the Falcons had an 8:00 power play.

Third Period: The Falcons could do little with the extended power play. They managed maybe one, two, shots on goal. Pens killed it all off. Then, Ryan Garlock (un)intentionally snowed Killeen and ended up in the box. On the power play, Alex Grant scored to even the game at three. Dainton had no idea where the puck was. He was looking the other way. Then it was on to…

Overtime: Solved nothing.

Shootout: Killeen let Cody Goloubef score in Round 1 but denied the next four shooters. Cal O’Reilly and Colin McDonald scored for the Pens. Game. Set. Match.

Three Stars: 3) Martin St. Pierre (two assists, -2) 2) Ryan Craig (goal, assist, +2) 1) Alexandre Giroux (two goals, -2)

Around the Division: Hey, a perfect three game weekend is great, but when the Norfolk Admirals have won FIFTEEN straight games, it’s downgraded to possibly insignificant. But the Pens remain on the heels of the Admirals, barely. The Admirals beat Bridgeport 6-3. A HUGE Wednesday tilt in Norfolk looms between the Pens and Admirals. The AHL record for consecutive wins is 17, set by the Philadelphia Phantoms a few years ago. Syracuse won 5-1 at home vs. Albany.

Standings: Admirals 87 / Pens 79 / Bears 72 / Crunch 60 / Senators 52

Conference: 1-NOR (87) 2-StJ (81) 3-BRI (72) 4-WBS (79) 5-HER (72) 6-CT (72) 7-MCH (65) 8-ALB (64)

Huge Wednesday game looms for the Pens. They will have help on the blue line as Simon Despres and Brian Strait were re-assigned this afternoon.

I drive home Monday morning. Fodder will be scarce otherwise as the team will most likely travel Tuesday. Stick with me on Twitter for the latest.

Let’s Go Pens!

Remember the time when the Penguins couldn’t win shootouts to save their tail? Remember when that was a concern? Not anymore. Pens win their second game in the three game New England trip by a score of 5-4, in a shootout for the second night in a row.

Solid effort tonight against a really good Bridgeport Sound Tigers team.

Scott Munroe vs. Kevin Poulin – Steve MacIntyre was in for Matt Rust as the Sound Tigers dressed pest Trevor Gillies but the two never fought.

First Period: Kevin Poulin was sharp, denying Nick Petersen and then Geoff Walker while the Pens were on a power play. In that power play, Colin McDonald would score from the bottom of the right circle to put the Pens up 1-0. Then, Ty Wishart tried to get the puck up ice past Poulin but instead of finding a teammate, it found Nick Petersen’s stick and in for a 2-0 Penguins lead. Penguins would have to kill off a 5-on-3 for :53 on two high sticking penalties. Late, Aaron Ness got run over by Robert Bortuzzo and then Cody Wild. Bortuzzo fought Brett Gallant for it.

First period thoughts – Wilkes-Barre controlled the period. For a Bridgeport team that has only lost twice since last playing the Pens on December 31, a positive thing. Also, with the first period scoring woes the Pens have had in the past few weeks this was a breath of fresh air leading into the…

Second Period: Kind of a physical period for both teams. Tony Romano scored when the puck went up in the air, and like in baseball, Munroe and Cody Wild didn’t call off one or the other with the “I got it” and it went in. Right after, Tyler McNeely scored to tie things at two. Much like last night in Providence. Kevin Poulin was diving all over the place, stopping attempt after attempt.

Third Period: Ping pong to Justin DiBenedetto who scores to make it 3-2. Then next shift Ben Street scores to tie the game at three. Street would score again on the power play then get denied by Poulin later for the hat trick. Late, with Poulin out, Rhett Rakshani scored to tie things with 1:20 to go. It was then off to…

Overtime: Goalies made some good saves, Brian Gibbons would take a hooking penalty but the Sound Tigers did not score.

Shootout: Much like last night, Munroe denied all Sound Tigers shooters and Cal O’Reilly and Colin McDonald scored for the Pens.

Three Stars: 1) Rhett Rakhshani (goal, +2) 2) Ben Street (two goals, +1) and 1) Colin McDonald (gaol, -1)

Around the Division: Hershey lost to St. John’s in the shootout 3-2. The Norfolk Admirals win their 14th game in a row 3-1 beating the Connecticut Whale in Hartford. Rochester thumped Binghamton 6-1 and Springfield edges Syracuse 6-5.

Standings: Admirals 85 / Pens 77 / Bears 72 / Crunch 58 / Senators 52

Pens wrap the three game series tomorrow afternoon in Springfield, where I am headed now. Remember to turn your clocks ahead an hour!

Let’s Go Pens!

Wonderfully tight checking game tonight here in Rhode Island and felt like a playoff game. A playoff game where neither team could score any pretty goals. Scott Munroe comes back from stopping no shots on Tuesday to stop all shots in the shootout and the Penguins skate away with the extra two points here in Providence winning 3-2.

Scott Munroe vs. Michael Hutchinson

Lineup notes: Simon Despres was called up to Pittsburgh today and Cody Wild took his spot Steve MacIntyre took warmups but was scratched. Matt Rust was in for the ailing Bryan Lerg.

First Period: Brian Gibbons was dispossessed at the blue line and Jared Staal and Kyle MacKinnon came in on a two on none nearly. Staal missed but MacKinnon put the rebound past Munroe and in to put the P-Bruins up 1-0. The very next shift, Josh Hennessy gets a puck fed to him off the wall and wrists a shot past Munroe to put the Bruins up 2-0.

Really nothing else happened this period. The Pens were just stuck in a bad minute of hockey where the P-Bruins scored two goals in :50.

Second Period: Ben Street crashed the net and Geoff Walker tapped in the rebound past Hutchinson to put the Pens on the board and cut the Bruins lead in half at 2-1. Zach Sill on a penalty kill took two David Warsofsky shots off the ankle but was fine. The second was a really tight checking period.

Third Period: Penguins only allowed the Bruins one shot on goal the entire period. They took ten themselves, including a Ben Street goal when Hutchinson didn’t seal the post and the puck went in the goal off of his back and in. The pressure really was ramped up by and for the Penguins.

Overtime: Solved nothing.

Shootout: No one scored in the first five rounds. Colin McDonald comes in and scores in Round Six, and Scott Munroe denied Jamie Tardif to seal the win for the Pens.

Three Stars: 3) Josh Hennessy (goal, +1) 2) Ben Street (goal, assist, +2) 1) Colin McDonald (game winning shootout goal, -2)

The Geoff Walker, Ben Street and Nick Petersen line was the best line for the Pens all night. They literally won the game for us.

Around the Division: Norfolk wins its 13th game in a row beating Adirondack in Glens Falls 3-1. Hershey loses a crazy game in St. John’s that saw Braden Holtby start the game, get pulled when he lets in the third goal for Dany Sabourin, who then got pulled when St. John’s scored its fourth goal. The IceCaps went on to win 6-1. Rochester beats Binghamton 3-1. Syracuse beats Albany in a shootout 2-1.

Standings: Norfolk has 83 points to the Pens 75. The Bears are stuck on 71 points. Syracuse 58 then Binghamton 52.

Conference: 1-NOR (83) 2-StJ (79) 3-BRI (71) 4-WBS (75) 5-HER (71) 6-CT (70) 7-ALB (64) 8-WOR (63)

Pens travel on to Bridgeport tomorrow to face the white hot Sound Tigers. Gameday will be up here at 3, I will have the live tweets from Harbor Yard at 7.

Let’s Go Pens!

If they went ahead and never kept score, you would think that the Penguins dominated parts of, if not all of, this game tonight. If there is anything to be taken from a 5-2 loss on home ice tonight by a very well put together St. John’s IceCaps team it is this: The Penguins can bang with anyone and run with them too.

However when your starting goaltender lets in the first three shots he sees and you don’t have your star player and leading point getter in Bryan Lerg in the lineup, you get what you got, a hard fought game in the end, decided by goals which matter.

Scott Munroe vs. Eddie Pasquale

Lineup Notes: Bryan Lerg was out again with an injury. He played Sunday in Adirondack and missed the Norfolk game last Sunday, so whatever it is that he has, is nagging him. Matt Rust took his spot. I blogged earlier in the day about Clear Day rosters. You can click here or just scroll down if you are on the main page of the blog.

First Period: Penguins were on a power play when John Albert scored on a 2-on-1 pass from Garth Murray. Nothing really Munroe could do about that one. Penguins were buzzing all about the place, narrowly missing chance after chance. Then Brandon DeFazio took an inopportune roughing penalty and in the ensuing St. John’s power play, Paul Postma turned his stick into a rifle and picked off both Matt Rust and Zach Sill with shots and then ultimately fired a puck on net that Carl Klingberg got a stick on and the IceCaps were up 2-0 on two shots. Sill went to the locker room and returned later, Rust never missed a shift. Later, Ex-Penguin Jason DeSantis scored from the blue line and that was the end of Munroe, rearing three goals on three shots. Patrick Killeen came on in relief. Still, the Penguins were gravely outplaying the IceCaps and finally, with :31 left, Simon Despres scored from the blue line to make it 3-1.

Shots were 11-4 in favor of the Penguins and again, the IceCaps were being outplayed.

Second Period: Really a rough sequence for referees T.J. Luxmore and Francis Charron. The NHL wants to develop referees in the AHL to be full time someday in “the show” – they use a four man officiating system in the NHL. The AHL is slowly implementing a four man system as well. Tonight, you could have have ten referees out there and they would have still missed both Carl Sneep and Paul Thompson getting sliced wide open on sticks from the opposing team. Both Sneep / Thompson left the ice for repairs with no calls of penalties.

To game action, Brian Gibbons snuck behind the defense and scored to make it 3-2. Really a big goal in the moment cause you could feel the comeback coming.

Third Period: St. John’s would take a too many men on the ice call and Arturs Kulda would score shorthanded on a blue line snipe which eluded Killeen. Really a deflating goal in hindsight because later Ray Sawada would score after Killeen comes out square to stop a shot, drops the rebound, realizes he is out too far when Sawada pounced on it and scored it.

After that, nothing big happened.

Three Stars: 3) Jason DeSantis (goal, +1) 2) Ray Sawada (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Arturs Kulda (goal, assist, +3)

Around the Division: They all watched us as no one skated.

Standings: Norfolk 81. Penguins 73. Hershey 71. Syracuse 56. Binghamton 50.

Conference: 1-NOR (81) 2-StJ (77) 3-BRI (70) 4-WBS (73) 5-HER (71) 6-CT (68) 7-ALB (63) 8-WOR (61)

Don’t want to be too wordy, but the Penguins needed this game and these points if they wanted to be serious about a comeback for East Division leaders. Hopefully Coach Hynes uses this as a learning tool and the guys learn from it and adjust. I think we are past the “crumble it up and forget it” phase. Especially when the home record is a sour 12-13-2-2. Maybe this three game road trip shakes some sense into them.

Late Edit: One thing I wanted to mention was that Lightning goaltender Mathieu Garon left the game vs. Ottawa tonight with an injury. Look for Dustin Tokarski to get the call. Aftermath, Garon will need an MRI.

Depending on content, I will try to keep the content on the blog fresh. I am planning on chasing the Pens this weekend, so there’s that.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins get two bang bang goals :20 apart from Paul Thompson and Brandon DeFazio to surge ahead late in the third period down 2-1 to win their only game of the weekend in comeback fashion 3-2.

Scott Munroe vs. Michael Leighton

Lineup notes: This was Leighton’s fourth straight start for the Phantoms in where he was 3-0 with a 1.33 GAA and a 0.962 save percentage. Steve MacIntyre, Cody Wild and Philip Samuelsson were not on the trip. Scratched was Matt Rust for Bryan Lerg and Carl Sneep for Alex Grant. Grant is 19th in defensemen scoring.

First Period: You couldn’t tell that the Phantoms played two prior games and that the Pens were off all weekend. The Phantoms jumped on the Pens early but Munroe held the fort early. Then Oliver Lauridsen fired a puck on the goal line from the corner at goal which popped to Matt Ford which he nudged in to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead.

Second Period: Brandon Manning put a hook in on Nick Petersen. In the ensuing power play, Ben Street would backhand one home past Leighton to even the score at 1. Phantoms would later come in two on none on a slow developing play and I tweeted at the time that Munore had been sharp. Well, next sequence with Brian Strait breaking his stick trying to clear the puck out of his zone, Matt Ford would score from the slot to put the Phantoms back out ahead 2-1.

Third Period: Penguins would get two power play chances but did not score on any of them. Then, Paul Thompson scored in a scrum to tie the game then Brandon DeFazio would score on Leighton’s doorstep to push the Pens up 3-2. The Phantoms were then denied by a spawling save by Scott Munroe on his back from a Shane Harper shot from the low left circle. Adirondack would pull Leighton but were unable to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Garrett Roe (two assists, +1) 2) Ben Street (goal, -1) and 1) Matthew Ford (two goals, +1)

Notes: Adirondack was undefeated leading at home after one period (10-0-0-1) Penguins get their overall third come from behind and AHL leading 21st road victory. O’Reilly on faceoffs is amazing. Mark my words him in the dot come late in the season is going to be an enormous asset to have. Penguins missed Alex Grant in power play situations I think today, going only 1 for 5.

Around the Division: The Hershey Bears win in overtime 2-1. Ryan Potulny netted his 22nd goal at :22. He also wears number 22. The St. John’s IceCaps avenge their loss to the Bingahmton Senators last Tuesday by winning 5-2 in the Southern Tier of New York. Syracuse beats Albany 2-1. Norfolk is idle till this Friday.

Standings: Norfolk leads the Division, Conference and League with 81 points. Penguins are second in the Division with 73 points. Bears draw two back with 71. Crunch have 56 points and the B-Sens 50.

Conference: 1-NOR (81) 2-StJ (75) 3-BRI (68) 4-WBS (73) 5-HER (71) 6-CT (68) 7-ALB (63) 8- WOR (61)

Tomorrow is Clear Day, or the AHL’s equivalent of the trade deadline. Depending on moves, I will probably have something here in the form of a blog post tomorrow evening. Of course, for immediate reactions, please follow me on Twitter @nafsnep

Pens most likely will have off or a light skate tomorrow. St. John’s in town for the first time ever as the IceCaps Tuesday.

Let’s Go Pens!

Norfolk skates away with a perfect six point weekend after defeating the Binghamton Senators on Friday, the Hershey Bears on Saturday and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins today by a score of 3-2. The Admirals now open up a four point East Division lead over the Penguins.

Patrick Killeen vs. Dustin Tokarski. Pens brought in Brad Fogal on a PTO this afternoon, an undrafted goalie out of Division-III Adrian College in Michigan. Steve MacIntrye was scratched as was Bryan Lerg who had an “undisclosed illness” as described by radio. In was Cody Chupp and Nick Petersen.

First Period: Off the opening face-off, Jason Williams was spring and nearly scored on Tokarski. The Penguins had the best opening shifts I think all year. Every pass was with purpose. They really came out flying. Teams would trade power plays but no scoring this period.

Second Period: Penguins appeared to score but referee Matt Kirk called an interference on the goaltender penalty on Ryan Craig. Later, with Radko Gudas in the box for crosschecking, Ben Street would receive an Alex Grant blue line pass he would fire past Tokarski to put the Pens up 1-0. Then, with Jason Williams in the box for a hook, Mark Barberio would score in the slot to tie the game on his own power play goal. During the process, Barberio was pushed from behind by Zach Sill. Sill would get a penalty for roughing, but the Pens would kill it.

Then I tweeted this about the Norfolk Admirals third period goal differential:

–

Third Period: Former Penguin J-P Cote scored to put the Admirals ahead 2-1 on a shot from the blue line off an Admirals face-off win. Later, Alex Picard (the good Picard, not the one who plays for the Admirals) fired a shot from the blue line which beat Tokarski to even things at two. Pens would have to kill a 5-on-3 for :38. Then the Pens would get a power play late with P-C Labrie in the box for delay of game for clearing the puck out of his defensive zone. Then, Alex Grant gets whistled for a very minute hook on Tyler Johnson, who admittedly was everywhere tonight, and the Adimirals got a power play on the back end of 4-on-4 they cashed on when Carter Ashton scored a back door play through a mass of bodies. The play was away from me and I didn’t exactly see just what happened, other than the puck going in the net behind Killeen. Pens would pull Killeen late but never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) J-P Cote (goal, +1) 2) WBS’ Alex Picard (goal, even) 1) Carter Ashton (game winning goal, even)

Thoughts: 1) Cal O’Reilly is really good in the face-off dot. For what I noticed, I don’t think he lost a single face-off. 2) Patrick Killeen will be fine at this level. I thought he played a fair game. Teams have a book on him that you shoot high on him apparently, because the Barberio and Cote goals were both up on him. 3) Norfolk is a really, really good team. Quick forwards and stout goaltending. They are not going to be easy to knock off the top spot in the East.

Around the Division: Syracuse lost to Adirondack 4-3 after being down 4-0 in the only other East Division action.

Standings: Admirals 75 — Penguins 71 — Bears 67 — Crunch 52 — Senators 46

Conference: 1-NOR (75) 2-StJ (73) 3-BRI (66) 4-WBS (71) 5-HER (67) 6-CT (64) 7-MCH (61) 8-ALB (60)

Looking ahead to the trade dealing tomorrow I would anticipate that Brad Thiessen and Eric Tangradi will be assigned here. They will need to be in order to be on the AHL’s Clear Day list the following Monday.

As for trades, if anything affects Wilkes-Barre, I will have a blog on it Monday evening and reactions on Twitter as it happens.

Penguins are off until next Sunday. In the meantime, the Admirals and Bears tangle again in Virginia on Wednesday. That should be a good game.

Let’s Go Pens!