Chirps from Center Ice

Pens up late 6-3 then cough up three unanswered Manchester goals and visions of Game 6 vs. Charlotte last year start dancing in my head. Pens take it to shootout and win, 7-6. They are now in sole possession of first in the East, two up on idle Norfolk, who plays in Binghamton tomorrow.

News o’ the day, which seemed to catch everyone off guard, was that Cal O’Reilly was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre from Pittsburgh. Here’s Jonathan Bombulie’s take from earlier, which I will cosign on. O’Reilly did not play tonight for Wilkes-Barre. Cody Chupp was recalled from Wheeling.

Scott Munroe vs. Jeff Zatkoff – scratches were Philip Samuelsson, Cody Wild, Matt Rust and Steve MacIntyre.

First Period: All Penguins. Forechecking had shots at 8-2 at the half way point.  Brian Strait turns the puck over to Justin Azevedo who scores on the third shot on goal for the Monarchs. Later, Stefan Legein scored a fluky goal to make it 2-0 on the Monarchs’ fifth shot on goal.

I tweeted at the end of the first that the score was not indicative of the effort, shots were 15-5 Pens and the Monarchs were 0/2 on the power play with no shot on goal during either man advantage.

Second Period: The jump wasn’t there to start for the Pens as Manchester had the first three shots on goal this frame and all good ones. Then Brandon DeFazio would score through a screen to put the Pens on the board. As a Penguins power play expired, Brian Gibbons would score to even things on a goal mouth scrum. Later, Jason Williams received a gorgeous pass from Colin McDonald which had like three Manchester players admiring it which Williams broke in on and backhanded it past Zatkoff to push the Pens ahead 3-2. Penguins, while on the power play, would be awarded a penalty shot when a Monarchs player covered the puck in the goal crease. Jason Williams took it and missed. Afterwards, Cody Chupp would get his first of the year from a nice centering pass from Brian Gibbons.

The period would end 4-2, and this would be the most productive second period of the season for the Pens. They scored three goals four separate times before this.

Third Period: Linden Vey would get a centering pass from Robert Czarnik he tapped in to bring Manchester to 4-3. Immediately thereafter, Jason Williams answers back to put the Pens out ahead by two goals. Almost right after that, Zach Sill would pick off a Zatkoff clearing attempt and scored to make it 6-3.

That goal chased Zatkoff. Martin Jones replaced him. That seemed to settle the Monarchs down some. Six minutes later, Robert Czarnik scored when the puck went in and out quickly. Referee Darcy Burchell immediately signaled goal, then went over to consult with the goal judge who confirmed it.

I had a strange feeling that this goal would be a tipping point of sorts for the Monarchs. Sometimes I hate when I am right. Linden Vey scored with 3:09 left to make it 6-5, then with Jones pulled Trent Hunter scored to tie it with less than a minute to go.

Overtime: Solved nothing. Hunter tried to end it, couldn’t. Then Street tried to do the same but it was off to the…

Shootout: Vey scored in the first round for the Monarchs. That was all for them. Lerg scored on his patented 650 deke move and Geoff Walker, who is perfect this season in shootouts, also scored and the Pens got the extra point.

Go back a second to the Williams penalty shot. I tweeted pre-game that the Pens have been involved in three of the last five penalty shots one way or another. Make it four for six now.

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (two assists, even) 2) Linden Vey (two goals, one assist, +5) 1) Jason Williams (two goals, +1)

Miscellany note: From the game sheet, looks like Manchester played a man down all night.

Around the Division: Hershey and Lake Erie squared off in the only other AHL game tonight. The Bears lost 4-3.

Standings: Pens outright number one for tonight at least with 71 points to Norfolk’s 69. Bears stuck at 67 points in third. Then it’s Syracuse 50, Binghamton 45.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-WBS (71) 3-CT (62) 4-NOR (69) 5-HER (67) 6-BRI (61) 7-MCH (59) 8-WOR (57)

Pens off tomorrow then Syracuse is in for a Saturday night game in front of a sold out crowd. Should be a fun one.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens get two power play goals when they need them and ride defense and sound all-around play to hold on and win this afternoon’s contest in Portland 5-3.

Lineup changes ruled the day with a cloud of questions at the start when it was announced that Eric Tangradi and Zach Sill were scratched. Tangradi was held out due to what Tom Grace called a “potential call-up” situation. (late edit: Tangradi has indeed been called up to Pittsburgh)

I’m not going to speculate what this means or could mean for Tangradi and his status as a Penguin. What I will say is he was awful in Albany and deserved to be sat, in my opinion.

DeFazio replaced Sill and MacIntyre replaced Tangradi. On defense, Simon Despres returned and took Cody Wild’s spot.

Scott Munroe vs. Justin Pogge

First Period: A back and forth, crisp period for two teams playing a 1 p.m. Monday game. Petersen had a good chance on Pogge but didn’t score. Shots were an even twelve leading into the…

Second Period: Pens would kill a carryover penalty from the first period then Nick Petersen would score on a rebound goal to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Then Tyler Eckford scored on a slapshot a few minutes later to bring things even at one. Afterwards, a Mathieu Beaudoin shot rebounded to Ryan Duncan who had essentially an empty net to shoot into to put the Pirates up 2-1. Then, the Pirates would take a too man men on the ice call and Geoff Walker would push the puck in past Pogge to even things at two. The Pens would buzz and Ben Street would earn two penalties when he walked around a man at the blueline, would get hooked then come in on Pogge and get hooked again. In the full two minute five on three, Bryan Lerg would be the recipient of a perfect tic-tac-toe pass to put the Pens up 3-2.

In hindsight, a huge period for the Pens. Start up the period with a goal, then go down 2-1 then get two power play goals to push ahead.

Third Period: Simon Despres would fall down then ultimately in the end get whistled for holding. In the power play, a Patrick O’Sullivan point shot would deflect off of the stick of Brett MacLean to even things at three a piece.  Then, Brian Strait would score a goal from the blueline on a slap shot on a delayed penalty call. Portland would push back hard but the Pens would not break. Ryan Craig would take a slashing call with 2:15 left. The Pirates would pull Pogge and Alex Picard, attempting to clear the puck out of his defensive zone would bank it off of the glass and into the empty net to seal it for the Pens.

Two quick things: Twentieth road win for the Pens this season and the Picard goal would end up being the 11th road shorthanded goal and 13th overall shorthanded goal which is the best in the AHL this season.

Three Stars: 3) Geoff Walker (goal, assist, +1) 2) Brett MacLean (goal, assist, even) 1) Brian Strait (game winning goal, +1)

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

Standings: Penguins and Admirals are tied in points with 69 points each with 54 games played. Since the Admirals have more wins they are in first over the Pens. The Bears are in third with 67 points then it’s the Crunch with 48 points and then the Senators with 45.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-NOR (69) 3-CT (62) 4-WBS (69) 5-HER (67) 6-BRI (61) 7-MCH (58) 8-WOR (57)

I have a really big thing planned for the blog tomorrow. It’s a roundtable discussion between me, a Bears fan and an Admirals fan about what to expect over the last two months of the season. With the Penguins off until probably Wednesday, this will do well to carry the fodder on the blog until then. It will be out tomorrow on the blog at noon. Look out for that, some interesting answers from the five pack of questions I asked.

Let’s Go Pens!

I was debating running “looking for tail but getting the horns” as a title tonight but the blog is supposed to be family friendly so I scrapped it entirely.

Oh wait.

Anyway, the Pens lost this game 3-0 to the Albany Devils and ran into a hot goaltender in Jeff Frazee who was played out of his mind this evening. This is two shutouts in three games for the Pens. In this game, the Pens seemed to have the effort all night, outshooting the Devils 9/7, 11/8 and 12/8 in the periods and  32-23 overall. The Pens power play went 0-for-6 tonight including not scoring on five straight power plays handed to them by referee Jon McIsaac.

Brad Thiessen vs. Jeff Frazee. No lineup changes for the Pens tonight.

First Period: A back and forth period between the clubs with the teams committing two penalties a side. Eric Tangradi had a good chance on a power play late, parked at the top of Jeff Frazee’s net but completely missing the net.

Second Period: Frazee’s great play in net was on display all night. He denied a Ryan Craig chance when Nick Petersen centered a pass to him to open the second. Geoff Walker was snakebit all night. He fanned on an open net. More back and forth. Then Eric Gelinas scored on a wrist shot which beat Thiessen blocker side. It appeared as if Brad was screened. Then Tim Sestito takes an unsportsmanlike penalty. Devils kill it and Sestito gets the puck in alone on a breakaway. Joey Mormina is behind him, doesn’t appear to do anything to interfere with his scoring attempt, and McIsaac calls a penalty shot which Sestito cashed on. Penguins then come back and Robert Bortuzzo shoots a puck which eludes Frazee but dies on the line and does not go in.

Third Period: Frazee was really the star of the show, holding off all attempts by the Penguins. I called the penalty shot circumstance a turning point on the Twitter call and it turned out to be. It had the feel all night of playoff intense hockey. Pens would get a power play late but fail to score then Geoff Walker would take a late slashing call that resulted in Eric Gelinas scoring an empty net power play goal.

Three Stars: Eric Gelinas (two goals, +1) 2) Tim Sestito (goal, +1) 1) Jeff Frazee (32 save shutout)

Around the Division: Bears win in Manchester 2-1 on two power play goals. Binghamton rebounds from the 6-1 loss the Penguins laid on them by beating the Portland Pirates 6-2 tonight. Norfolk wins in a nine round shootout to win at home in front of a sold out Scope Arena 3-2. The Admirals had trailed 2-0 to open the third but came back, tied it and won in the shootout.

Standings: Norfolk 69 points, 54 games played. Wilkes-Barre 67 points, 53 games played. Hershey 66 points, 52 games played. Syracuse 47 points, 51 games played. Binghamton 45 points, 52 games played.

Conference: 1-StJ (72) 2-NOR (69) 3-CT (62) 4-WBS (67) 5-HER (66) MCH (58) 7-BRI (57) 8-WOR (55)

Hershey can leapfrog us as they play the Bridgeport Sound Tigers tomorrow in Connecticut. I will likely have a RT of a final score tomorrow afternoon.

Pens will bus to Portland tomorrow. Game will be at 1 p.m. Monday so it’s a super early Gameday at 10 a.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins make up for scoring only one goal in two games by scoring six in sixty minutes and winning 6-1 in Binghamton.

Scott Munroe vs. Robin Lehner. I tweeted earlier in the day Munroe’s stats vs. the B-Sens vs. Thiessen’s stats vs. the B-Sens. Nick Petersen was in for Brandon DeFazio. Simon Despres is on the trip, but did not play either.

First Period: Binghamton has the AHL’s worst penalty kill. The Penguins took advantage of it by scoring early when Alex Grant did so from the blue line to put the Pens up 1-0. Then the goals came in a bang bang fashion as Ben Street would score a rebound goal and Matt Rust would score a goal on a delayed penalty. The B-Sens would answer with a one-time goal from Corey Locke when they were on a 5-on-3 to cut the deficit to 3-1.

Second Period: Alex Grant broke up an Andre Petersson breakaway chance. Defense then fails to clear twice leading in chances for the Sens but no goals. Then, on the power play again, Alex Grant would score another power play goal to make it 4-1. Geoff Walker had the screen in front of Lehner on both of Grant’s power play goals.

Third Period: Alex Picard point shot resulted in a Matt Rust tip in goal to essentially squelch any chances of a comeback by the defending champs. Teams would trade hooking penalties and Nick Petersen would score a late rebound goal in his return to make the score the final, 6-1.

Three Stars: 3) Joey Mormina (two assists, +2) 2) Matt Rust (two goals, +2) and 1) Alex Grant (two goals, +1)

I would have given a star to Nick Petersen who had a goal and two assists and was a +3 but sadly, fan bloggers don’t have a say in who is chosen.

Around the Division: Norfolk beats Syracuse at home 7-4. The Admirals are simply rolling right now. The Bears get shut out in Providence 6-0 by the Bruins.

Standings: Pens and Admirals have 67 points. Pens have the game in hand so they are slotted above the Admirals, who have more wins. Hershey has 64 points. Then Syracuse with 47 and Binghamton with 43.

Conference: St. John’s lost to the Hamilton Bulldogs in regulation tonight 4-3 so they remain at 70 points. The rest goes like this: 2-WBS (67) 3-CT (60) 4-NOR (67) 5-HER (64) 6-MCH (58) 7-BRI (55) 8-WOR (55)

Pens are in Albany tomorrow night. I had planned on going up, but the uncertainty of weather coupled by the fact that I am currently chasing my running nose and stiffing a cold, I decided to stay behind. Gameday for the affair will be up here Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

Oof. Pens drop this game 4-0 and have now lost to the Hershey Bears and Norfolk Admirals in back to back games by a combined 9-1. Tonight’s affair included a limp effort which resulted in a 4-0 whitewashing.

Scott Munroe vs. Dustin Tokarski – Eric Tangradi and Cody Wild were both in while Nick Petersen remained a healthy scratch.

First Period: Robert Bortuzzo and Scott Jackson fought very early. I questioned Bortuzzo, one of our better defensemen, going off for 5:00 on a fighting major so early on in the game. Mike Angelidis and Geoff Walker fought afterwards. No one had the advantage on either player in either fight. Penguins would get 4:00 of power play to work with later in the period erased by Joey Mormina roughing after a whistle. All of it would get killed and it was scoreless after one.

Second Period: Weird opening sequences. Penguins would get a power play to work with. Trevor Smith scored shorthanded. Then, Carter Ashton would get awarded a penalty shot while the Pens were still on the same power play but he would not score. Then later, the Penguins think they score when the puck crosses (or does it?) the line. The play would continue a good four minutes later until referee Jon McIsaac went over to the goal judge to see if the goal had been scored. It had not. Later, Ondrej Palat bats a puck in the net after Scott Munroe fails to corral the rebound to make it 2-0.

I went over to the patrons who sit in Section 223 which is an end section overlooking the WBS net. The fans I spoke to told me that the puck was in the net in the corner of the net and over the line. They also told me that the goal light above was inoperable.

Officials saw it different, obviously.

Third Period: Pierre-Cedric Labrie scores after a nice cross crease pass from Richard Panik set him up to make it 3-0. Then, the Pens would take an Alex Picard rough and a Robert Bortuzzo high stick soon after to put the Admirals on a 5-on-3 for 1:34. Trevor Smith banged home his own rebound to put the Ads up 4-0. Robert Bortuzzo would be awarded a penalty shot and not score in an attempt to break up the Tokarski shutout bid.

Three Stars: 3) Trevor Smith (goal, +2) 2) Ondrej Palat (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Dustin Tokarski (24 save shutout)

Around the Division: Syracuse beat Albany 7-1 in the only division action. The Crunch halt the Devils three game winning streak.

Standings: Color me shocked. AHL Standings has Wilkes-Barre still in first place. I thought this game was for first. (edit: No, it wasn’t the Pens still have a game in hand on the Admirals which is why it is seeded higher, for now. Thanks to all who corrected me on the Twitter side) League standings still have Wilkes-Barre in first with 65 points, then Norfolk “technically” second with the same 65 points. Hershey is third with 64 points. Syracuse has 47 points and Binghamton 43.

Conference: 1-StJ (70) 2-WBS (65) 3-CT (58) 4-NOR (65) 5-HER (64) 6-MCH (58) 7-BRI (55) 8-WOR (55)

Pens will practice tomorrow in preparation for the three game road trip to Binghamton, Albany and Portland. I will be with them for 2/3 of the trip, making Binghamton and Albany and watching the Portland game from home.

Let’s Go Pens!

Assistant Coach Alain Nasreddine may want to burn the tape of this game with the defensive zone gaffes which resulted in an easy 5-1 Hershey win tonight.

It’s either that, or Wilkes-Barre will never be really able to pull away from Hershey or the rest of the division for that matter, as a Penguin regulation win would have put the Penguins five points up on the Bears and the rest of the East.

Alas, it is a one point cushion for now. The Bears hit the road for a weekend set of games next weekend and the Penguins host the Norfolk Admirals in what could easily be one of the the three most important games of the year.

Brad Thiessen vs. Braden Holtby. Eric Tangradi was out attending to a family issue so Steve MacIntyre took his spot and Philip Samuelsson was in for Cody Wild. Those were the only lineup changes.

First Period: The game was ten minutes old. It was really a spirited affair with the shots 10-6 favoring the Penguins. There was a stoppage and I overheard someone yell behind Thiessen’s net, “Boring!” Well, it ramped up from there. A bad defensive zone clear by the Penguins resulted in Ryan Potulny’s first of two of the night, then a Penguins penalty as Philip Samuelsson headed to the box on a slash.  Jacob Micflikier scored on a power play goal to make it 2-0. Here’s what I said at the time the First period ended:

Second Period: Brian Strait would take a hooking call and the Bears sans Keith Aucoin power play took the ice and Jacob Micflikier would score his second of the game as it would deflect in past Thiessen.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Steve MacIntyre and Patrick Wellar would have a pretty uneventful fight. Then Paul Thompson would get cut and go to the locker room bleeding. Tomas Kundratek got him. The next shift, Brandon DeFazio just lit up Kundratek, who stood there the whole time and tok every punch without dropping his gloves. The Bears headed to a SEVEN MINUTE power play. The Bears weren’t able to do anything with it. In fact, Matt Rust would clear a puck over the glass putting the Bears on a 5-on-3 for a whole two minutes. The Pens not only killed that, but the whole seven minutes.

Third Period: Garrett Mitchell would score on a nice D.J. King pass from down low to basically put the game out of reach, although I though it was out of reach at 3-0 but the seven minute successful penalty kill swayed me a bit. Colin McDonald would bust up the Holtby shutout to bring the Pens to 4-1 but Ryan Potulny would score to make it 5-1 to put matters out of reach for good. For what it’s worth, I tweeted this right after I tweeted the score:

Rough stuff would end the game with 2.3 seconds left. Alex Grant and Andrew Carroll would fight here and referee Terry Koharski ended the game for fear of things getting completely out of hand.

Three Stars: 3) Chris Bourque (three assists, +1, which is good for a tie in the AHL points lead with Keith Aucoin) 2) Jacob Micflikier (two goals, even) 1) Ryan Potulny (2 goals, 1 assist, +2)

Bombulie had a great analysis regarding the Bears and defeating opponents at home by four or more goals. Giant Center is a rats nest for opponents, although I must say for opposing teams fans (me) Bears fans could not be nicer to me. But what he was saying was that if opponents go down by two or more goals, they get blown away most times than not.

Around the Division: St. John’s beat Binghamton 6-3. The IceCaps are the first AHL team to 70 points. Norfolk beat Charlotte 3-1. Syracuse does not render a point all weekend having lost to Hershey Friday. Albany Saturday and Lake Erie in Cleveland 2-1 tonight.

Standings: Penguins have a slim one point lead in the division 65 to 64 over Hershey. Oh, the Admirals are nipping! 63 points and can takeover first place in the division with an outright win Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre. They have 63 points. Then an 18 point chasm between third and fourth with Syracuse with 45 points and Binghamton with 43.

Conference: 1-StJ (70) 2-WBS (65) 3-CT (58) 4-HER (64) 5-NOR (63) 6-MCH (58) 7-WOR (55) 8-BRI (55)

Pens have off tomorrow and then practice Tuesday. Blog fodder will run as content allows as always. I’ll probably have something Tuesday.

I’d like to run a feature or two between now and the weekend coming. Just with upcoming opponents or maybe something else. Stay tuned.

Let’s Go Pens!

On a night where the Pens celebrated their own comeback kid in the front office in the form of staffer Chris Kobela, Wilkes-Barre does it again on the ice for a stunning 4-3 overtime win against the Portland Pirates.

It’s the second time this year they have come from behind to win trailing after two periods.

Brad Thiessen vs. Marc Cheverie. Boatloads of lineup changes with the returns of Alex Picard on defense and Jason Williams and Colin McDonald from Pittsburgh. Nick Petersen, Steve MacIntyre and Philip Samuelsson were the scratches.

First Period: The game isn’t :20 old, and David Rundblad for the Pirates scores to put the Pirates on the board 1-0. (:18 exactly) Then, Rundblad would strike again, this time on the power play to put the Pirates up 2-0. Penguins responded with a flurry of shots and clamping down on the Pirates. Colin McDonald would get high sticked to put the Penguins on a 4:00 power play. Right at the tail end, the puck would get kicked in by Mathieu Beaudoin to put the Pens on the board. Geoff Walker would get credit. Then the Pens would get another power play which would carry over into the…

Second Period: The Pirates would kill the penalty and Patrick O’Sullivan would streak to the net and score to put the Pen down 3-1 off of a nice feed by David Rundblad. Penguins clamped down a bit after bing scored on but the Pirates would outshoot the Pens thos frame 7-6.

Third Period: Brian Strait would get the comeback going with a point shot from the top of the blue line which Brian Gibbons scored on the rebound. This was Gibbons second goal in three games. Is he finally warming up? The goal came at 11:51. Then, seven minutes later, Nathan Oystrick would fan on a pass and the Pens came in three on two, Matt Rust had a cross ice pass to Paul Thompson who went top shelf past Chevrie to tie things to go into…

Overtime: Alex Picard ended it :36 in. Thanks for coming!

 

Three Stars: 3) Paul Thompson (goal, two assists, +3) 2) David Rundblad (two goals, assist, +1) and 1) Alex Picard (overtime game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Binghamton lost a heartbreaker in St. John’s 4-3. Bears lose in a shootout to the Worcester Sharks in a scrappy affair 3-2. Sharks Head Coach Roy Sommer’s 500th win. Norfolk thumped Adirondack 7-3. Syracuse continues to nose dive into irrelevance with a 4-1 loss to Albany at home.

Standings: 1) WBS 65 points. 2) Hershey 62 points. 3) Norfolk 61 points 4) Syracuse 45 points 5) Binghamton 43 points.

Conference: 1-StJ (68) 2-WBS (65) 3-CT (57) 4-HER (62) 5-NOR (61) 6-MCH (58) 7-WOR (53) 8-BRI (53)

Penguins bus to Hershey tomorrow. I will be with them tomorrow in Hershey. Not on the bus, but I am making the trek to Chocolatetown. Gameday will be here at 1 p.m. on the blog. Recap will be delayed a bit as I drive back home.

Let’s Go Pens!