Chirps from Center Ice

Penguins score five power play goals and defenseman Alex Grant has a hand in all five as Wilkes-Barre beats Syracuse tonight before a sold out crowd 6-2.

For Grant, he was 2-3-5 for the game. His five points is a season high for a Penguin and ties him with Hershey’s Chris Bourque twice, Syracuse’s Dan Sexton and Portland’s Andy Miele for league highs in points in a single game this season.

Scott Munroe vs. Marco Cousineau – Peter Merth was scratched for Philip Samuelsson.

First Period: Alex Grant would open things up at 11:46 of the first on a bomb from the point to put the Pens up 1-0. However, :24 later ex-WBS Penguin Luca Caputi would score to tie things at 1. The Pens outshot the Crunch 14-5 but despite this, the Crunch were everywhere. This is a really pesky hockey team.

Second Period: Patrick Maroon would score and the Crunch would be up 2-1. This was the point of the game which I felt things could get weird quick. However, the Crunch just continued the parade to the penalty box and Bryan Lerg would score on a 5×3 to tie things. Then, Ben Street would score on the back end of the second power play after slipping by the Syracuse defense to make it 3-2.

At this point the period ended with the shots 30-14 in favor of the Penguins. Despite this, these pesky Crunch were still in this game.

Third Period: More than nine minutes in and the Penguins did not have a shot on goal. I remember in my head that Syracuse to that point had six to our none. Somehow, Syracuse took two penalties to open the period with the 5’11, 185 pound Brandon MacMillan boarding the 6’6, 230 pound Joey Mormina. The second penalty was a Rick Schofield trip which Geoff Walker scored on. Then, while on yet another 5-on-3, Alex Grant would rip a howitzer from the point past Cousineau to put the Pens up 5-2.

To this point, five power play goals. Unheard of with the anemic power play that existed prior to his. Alex Grant figures in on all five. New power play quarterback? I would like to think so

Zach Sill would score the sixth and final goal after getting a nice pass from Brian Gibbons who cycled around the net and passed to him. This was an even strength goal Alex Grant was not on the ice for.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, even) 2) Geoff Walker (goal, assist, even) and 1) Alex Grant (two goals, three assists, even)

Thoughts: What atmosphere tonight with 8,172 in the house tonight and a TV game. If you frequent the blog and aren’t a season ticket holder, come out to a game. It’s really a fun time for all. Syracuse plays on an edge that either makes them wildly successful or horribly not.

Around the Division: Hershey loses to Manchester on home ice 5-4 which ended the Monarchs 7 game losing streak. Those two go at it again tomorrow. Norfolk goaltender Dustin Tokarski gives up goals on the first three shots he sees, yet the Admirals skate away with two points anyway winning 5-4 after relief goaltender Jaroslav Janus stops 9-of-10 Whale shooters in the shootout.

Standings: Bears have 55 points, Wilkes-Barre and Norfolk creep up with 53 points. Syracuse and Binghamton have 41 and 36 respectively.

Conference: 1-HER (55) 2-StJ (52) 3-CT (46) 4-WBS (53) 5-NOR- (53) 6-WOR (47) 7-POR (47) 8-MCH (46)

Wow, looking at Conference Standings now the Atlantic Division would send four teams if the playoffs started now. The Northeast Division, the tightest division in all of the AHL, would only send one.

Tomorrow the Crunch and Pens rematch at 3 p.m. The Pens bussed up tonight. Gameday will be right here on the blog for you at 11 a.m. Sunday morning.

Let’s Go Pens!

Note: The “rickroll” part of the subject line was part of a  joke that I have running with the team. The Pens allow you to tweet your favorite song to them to play in second intermission. I have tried since the season started to get them to play Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” to no avail. Whenever you hear that being played anywhere it’s commonly referred to as a “Rickroll.” Well, I finally got my wish tonight!

Pens win in their 1,000th regular season game in team history by a score of 4-1. In the existence of the team, only the Providence Bruins have never changed their name or affiliate. What stability.

Some roster moves were made before the game with Ryan Schnell reassigned to Wheeling and Jason Williams called up to Pittsburgh (where he was a scratch tonight vs. Montreal) Here, Philip Samuelsson and Nick Petersen were scratched. Only Samuelsson took warmups.

Brad Thiessen vs. Jeff Zatkoff

First Period: Pens with the patented give up a goal in the first minute, this time Patrick Mullen through a screen to put the Monarchs up 1-0. But then, the very next shift, Ben Street scores to tie things on a goal Zatkoff would have loved to have back. Then, Paul Thompson sets up Colin McDonald with a drop pass off of the board that McDonald rifled home to put the Pens up 2-1. Later, Steve MacIntyre would blindside J.D. Watt. Watt would be fine and do the same thing to Cody Wild the next shift. Referee Graham Skilliter would rule interference on Watt and the Pens would get a power play. In the ensuing power play, Alex Grant would ferret a pass to Colin McDonald from the low circle McDonald would snipe home. Really a postage stamp goal as there was little space. This would chase Zatkoff and Martin Jones would come in and settle things a bit. Manchester would pressure the remainder of the period but Thiessen held strong. Finally Robert Bortuzzo would fire a shot from the point which would rebound to Zach Sill which Sill would put in to put the score at 4-1 Penguins. Despite being outshot this period 15-12 by the Monarchs, the Pens would get four goals and Thiessen looked strong.

Second Period: Teams would trade power plays and both goalies would make good saves on chances from both sides.

Third Period: Thiessen made a diving save on a Linden Vey rebound bid from a point shot by a Manchester defenseman. Not to be out done, Martin Jones would deny Colin McDonald the hat trick bid with a pad save. Bryan Lerg had a goal disallowed by deflecting it i on a high stick. Ryan Craig went town to block a shot and took the full force of one. He seemed fine but honestly I don’t remember if he took a shift after or not. Ben Street was hauled down on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. He did not score.

Three Stars: 3) Brad Thiessen (29 saves on 30 shots) 2) Bryan Lerg (goal, +1) and 1) Colin McDonald (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Great night for the Pens with Hershey losing 4-3 in Binghamton and Syracuse beating Norfolk 6-3 in Central New York.

Standings: Bears with 55 points. Penguins and Admirals tied with 51 points. Crunch have 41 and the Senators have 36 points.

Conference: 1-HER (55) 2-StJ (52) 3-CT (45) 4-WBS (51) 5-NOR (51) 6-WOR (45) 7-POR (45) 8-ADK (44)

The pesky Crunch are now the opponents for tomorrow at home and Sunday in Syracuse. The Crunch are simply on fire right now playing great hockey. The Pens are 0-for in televised games locally. Tomorrow night is a sellout as well. Would be a tremendous statement if the Pens could not only beat the Crunch tomorrow, but beat them handily. Gameday up at 3 p.m. here on the blog Saturday afternoon.

Here is to 1,000 more games with a Calder Cup somewhere in between!

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens win again on the road capping off a perfect six point road trip with a 4-3 win in overtime in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Pens will play their 1,000th regular season game this Friday when they host the Manchester Monarchs.

Scott Munroe vs. Edward Pasquale – Peter Merth was in for Philip Samuelsson and Ryan Schnell was in for Cody Chupp. Tom Grace did not elude to a Samuelsson injury but an eyewitness in St. John’s tweeted me that during his penalty on Carl Klingberg which awarded Klingberg a penalty shot last night, that Samuelsson looked to have taken a skate to the shoulder / collarbone area. We’ll have to see this week if anything is made out of it.

First Period: Great flow back and forth between the teams last night spilled into the opening period of today’s game. Then a controversial moment, with the Pens on the power play as Geoff Walker appeared to have scored but referee Tim Mayer ruled that the puck never crossed the goal line. The goal light never came on and the replays were inconclusive to me on AHL Live. Then, Bryan Lerg would score shorthanded with Alex Grant in the penalty box for a cross check. This was the second shorthander for Lerg in as many games and ties him with Hershey’s Chris Bourque for the AHL league lead (nice find, Mike O’Brien) Then, Robert Bortuzzo would rip a shot off from the point which rebounded to Paul Thompson who scored.

Second Period: IceCaps would come out guns blazing and Spencer Machacek would score to bring the score to 2-1. IceCaps would continue to knock on the door, but Munroe held the fort. Then, Geoff Walker would wait out Pasquale and score on the power play to push it to 3-1. Pens would continue to stave off most threats by St. John’s this period but the score would remain 3-1.

Third Period: Really weird sequence about five minutes into the period. Joey Mormina would dive to break up a scoring chance by Carl Klingberg and would trip Klingberg. IceCaps PP. Then, Bryan Lerg would do the same thing, only this time to ex-Penguin Jason DeSantis. 5×3 for St. John’s. They would use their time out. Then, off the faceoff, Ryan Craig would dive on the puck and get whistled for delay of game. But wait, they weren’t done! Brian Strait would go to the box on a hooking call. Credit to play-by-play man Tom Grace for math on the fly. Penguins would have to kill periods of :04, :55 and 1:05 of 5 on 3 consecutively. Then, Spencer Machacek would get nabbed for holding to negate the extended two-man disadvantage for the Pens. When it was all said and done, all penalties would get killed and the score would remain 3-1.

Going to a second paragraph here. St. John’s would even the score at three. Ben Maxwell would bring St. John’s to one, then Jason Jaffray 1:04 later would tie it on a power play. Things would settle, the IceCaps would look for the go ahead, but the Pens would make sure the game went to overtime.

Overtime: Scott Munroe made a save on a Zach Redmond shot, I think I saw Jason Williams block a shot then start the rush the other way. Joey Mormina would blast a shot from the far wall which deflected to Street in for the game winner.

What a story for Mormina, who was injured earlier in the game when a puck rolled up his stick and into his face and Street, who has family in St. John’s to end the successful road trip for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Jason Williams (two assists, +2) 2) Jason Jaffray (goal, -1) and 1) Ben Street (game winning overtime goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Worcester beats Syracuse 4-3 in a shootout. Binghamton loses in Bridgeport, 3-.

Standings: Hershey leads with 55 points. Norfolk and the Penguins nipping at the Bears heels with 49 points each. Syracuse separating itself from Binghamton with 39 points to the defending champions 34.

Conference: 1-HER (55) 2-StJ (50) 3-CT (44) 4-NOR (49) 5-WBS (49) 6-WOR (45) 7-MCH (44) 8-ADK (42)

Pens will fly home tomorrow and will probably either have a light skate Tuesday or off and get back into the swing of things Wednesday but never fear! I have the Second Quarter Grades queued up ready to go for noon Monday. That should hold you until midweek when I’ll have something to blog about by then, hopefully.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens get three shorthanded goals in this game including a penalty shot from Ben Street to win this back and forth game 6-4.

Peter Merth and Ryan Schnell are the extras. Nick Petersen is home. I erroneously identified Petersen as missing in the game tweets. He is technically “day to day” with an ailment. Joey Mormina returned from injury.

Brad Thiessen vs. David Aebischer

First Period: IceCaps would strike first after a failed clear by the Penguins and a turnover from Kendall McArdle to put the IceCaps up 1-0. Right after, Arturs Kulda took a penalty off the faceoff for a high stick. On the ensuing power play, Bryan Lerg scored off a nice cross ice pass from Paul Thompson to even things at 1-1. A nice answer goal by the Pens.

Second Period: Zach Sill digs a puck away from an IceCap behind Aebischer’s net and shovels it to Ryan Craig who scores on the open net. Then it would be the IceCaps to score right back when Brett Festerling was in the right place at the right time when Jason King took a puck off of a Penguin and fired it at Thiessen, who was unsuspecting to what was going on. He actually was standing up when the puck went in. Just a realy fluky goal by the Pens. Then, with the Pens killing off of a Matt Rust hook, Ben Street would get hauled down on a breakaway. He would be awarded a penalty shot and would score on it. Only the third time in WBS history that the Pens would score on a penalty shot (Rico Fata in Binghamon in January 2006, Dustin Jeffrey against Manitoba in Winnipeg in October 2009). Jonathan Bombulie had this gem of a tweet:

Third Period: Philip Samuelsson hauls down Carl Klingberg on a breakaway and Klingberg would get a penalty shot. Thiessen would make a kick save to keep things 3-2. Ben Maxwell would score right after to even things at three. Then, Cody Chupp would get whistled for boarding and the Pens would score two shorthanded goals on a Ben Street pickoff in the St. John’s offensive zone and would rush in with Bryan Lerg who scored backhanded. Then, on the same penalty kill :21 later, Mormina would score on a drop pass from Lerg to make it 5-3. Jason Gregoire would score with 5:26 left to bring St. John’s back withing one but that would be the closest they would get as with Aebischer pulled, Ryan Craig would score an empty net goal.

Big win, Big, big win for the Pens. They rematch tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. Wilkes-Barre time.

Three Stars: 3) Spencer Machacek (assist, -1) 2) Jason Gregoire (goal, assist, -1) and 1) Bryan Lerg (two goals, assist, -1)

Around the Division: Hershey scores four unanswered goals in the third period to comeback and win 6-4 in Binghamton. Norfolk breaks a 2-2 deadlock in the third vs. Connecticut to win 4-2 in Hampton Roads and Syracuse wins 3-2 in a shootout in Albany.

Standings: Bears are overall AHL leaders with 55 points. Norfolk has 49 points in second, Penguins with 47 points in third. Pesky Syracuse now is nine back with 38 points and Binghamton has 34 points.

Conference: 1-HER (55) 2-StJ (49) 3-CT (44) 4-NOR (49) 5-WBS (47) 6-MCH (44) 7-WOR (43) 8- ADK (42)

Let’s Go Pens!

Penguins get three goals in the first period, two from Paul Thompson and hang on to win 3-2 tonight in Norfolk. Norfolk had enjoyed the AHL’s best third period goal differential at +18.

Prior to the game, Simon Despres was called up to Pittsburgh but was hurt and Eric P from the Wilkes-Blog tweeted this postgame:

Damn.

Anyway, pressing matters on the farm. Cody Chupp, Ryan Schnell and Peter Merth were in. Nick Petersen was the lone healthy scratch. Personnel wise, Joey Mormina is on this trip. So too, Scott Munroe. Tom Grace said on radio that the Pens will practice tomorrow in Norfolk then bus to Philadelphia where they will fly out of Thursday morning to St. John’s, Newfoundland. They will not return to Wilkes-Barre / Scranton till at least Monday. He further went on to say that if Scott Munroe has a good prcatice we may see him at some point this coming weekend. For now, it was…

Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski

First Period: Paul Thompson would find a puck in front and put it in the right top corner over Tokarski to put the Pens up 1-0. Then, :16 later after a Ryan Schnell and Eric Neilson fight, Thompson would score again to put the Pens up 2-0. Late, with Evan Oberg in the box for a trip, Ben Street would score on a nice wrist shot predated by an aggressive Wilkes-Barre forecheck.

Second Period: :53 in, ex-WBS Penguin Michel Ouellet would find the back of the net to put the Pens on the board. Norfolk would then build momentum but Thiessen shut the door the rest of the period, which was highlighted by Alex Grant dropping the aforementioned Ouellet with a right hand.

Third Period: Penguins would generate early chances, but a Radko Gudas point shot would elude Thiessen. Wonky shot by Gudas. Replay showed the puck hop over Thiessen’s pad to imply a deflection with traffic in front. Midway thorough this period Grace mentioned that the Penguins looked “nervous.” I mentioned in the game tweets that you can’t play not to lose. Especially against Norfolk. This theory would be tested, as the Pens would take two unnecessary delay of game calls in succession but the Pens killed both. Late, with Tokarski pulled, the Admirals were unable to find the equalizer and the Pens hung on fo the much needed win.

Pens win fifth straight on the road and 14th overall away from Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

Three Stars: 3) Radko Gudas (goal, +1) 2) Ben Street (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Paul Thompson (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: No one else skated.

Standings: Hershey is idle with 49 points. Admirals and Penguins are tied in points with 45 points. Syracuse and Binghamton are tied in points as well for fourth and fifth respectively with 34 points between them.

Conference: 1) HER (49) 2-StJ (47) 3-CT (44) 4-NOR (45) 5-WBS (45) 6-MCH (44) 7-WOR (41) 8-ALB (39)

Probably won’t have much in the way of a blog update tomorrow or Friday with a travel day. If there’s call up I’ll have it here on the blog. Pens are off Friday, so we may be scarce content wise here on the blog but Twitter is the best way to stay on top of the minutiae.

Let’s Go Pens!

Woes versus the I-81 neighbors to the North continue as the Pens drop this game 4-3. Robert Bortuzzo was re-assigned and played for Peter Merth. Speculation to any ailment to Thiessen last night proved wrong as…

Brad Thiessen vs. Jeff Deslauriers

First Period: Goals traded within about :45 of one another between Matt Smaby on the power play and Matt Rust off a rebound made it a 1-1 game going into first intermission. Pens were killing a Geoff Walker interference penalty when they turned the puck over to Smaby who was off to the races and scored.

Second Period: Ben Street is in the box for a hooking call. Ex-WBS Penguin Luca Caputi works a tic-tac-toe pass to Kyle Cuminsky who puts it past Thiessen and in to put the Crunch up 2-1. Then, Kyle Palmieri takes the puck behind Thiessen’s net, and backhands one past Thiessen to put the Crunch up 3-1. Pens couldn’t do anything with a Syracuse too many men on the ice call late.

Third Period: Alex Grant ripped a shot from the far point which Geoff Walker tipped home to cut the Crunch lead to 3-2. Deslauriers stood on his head twice when Brian Gibbons and Jason Williams had chances in on him close. Syracuse took another too many men on the ice call which the Pens couldn’t cash on. It would prove to be the momentum that Syracuse would need to win the game as shortly after, a defensive breakdown led to a Kyle Palmieri goal from the slot. It’d prove to hold up as the game winner as late Paul Thompson would tip a Geoff Walker shot from the left face-off dot to make it 4-3. Pens would have chances late with Thiessen pulled but couldn’t find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Luca Caputi (two assists, +1) 2) Geoff Walker (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Kyle Palmieri (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey beat Adirondack at home 5-2. Albany sweeps Norfolk down in Virginia by winning 3-1. Binghamton lost to Rochester 3-2.

Standings: Hershey 47, Norfolk 45, Wilkes-Barre 43, Syracuse 34, Binghamton 34.

Conference: 1-StJ (47) 2-HER (47) 3-CT (44) 4-NOR (45) 5-MCH (44) 6-WBS (43) 7-WOR (39) 8-ALB (39)

Hershey plays tomorrow in the game in hand they have on Wilkes-Barre versus Rochester at 5 p.m. I will likely have a retweet of a final score on the Twitter side.

Pens will be off tomorrow, bus to Norfolk Monday for the game vs. the Admirals Tuesday at 7:15.

If I have material to run between now and then check the blog or stay with me on the Twitter side.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens do not come out of the inflatable igloo during intro’s tonight and win the game.

Goodnight everyone and we’ll tweet and blog at you tomorrow!

You expect more out of me, so click here to read the rest of the recap. Fooled you!