Chirps from Center Ice

Pens remain winless coming out of the inflatable igloo for introductions.

On a more serious note, the Norfolk Admirals are more of a threat to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins then the Hershey Bears or for that matter any team that the Pens square off against. The Admirals are now 4-1 against the Pens this season.

We also have serious problems against…well, I am just going to let Norfolk Admirals broadcaster Pete Michaud explain this for you:

After tonight, a 5-1 loss to the Admirals, you can add eight goals to Conacher’s totals and eleven points to Smith’s totals.

Penguin killers, if there ever were ones.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski

First Period: Went something like this, tweet for tweet:

Then…

Then a TV timeout and after…

And that can be best described as a lob, “I’m just going to put it on net and not even shoot that hard, and why not lean back and shoot from one leg” kind of shot Thiessen never saw until he fished it out of his net.

Second Period: Nick Petersen scores a goal only he knew he scored initially as there was a scrum, then a delayed celebration by the Pens, then the goal horn, then the official acknowledgement from the referees that the goal was scored all in the span of a minute. Pens pressured after that but the second goal never came. Then a scary moment with Bryan Lerg being boarded by Radko Gudas. Gudas would get a five minute major and would get tossed from the game. Lerg would go to the locker room and not return.

Third Period: Pens could do nothing with the extended power play time and that would really be the game. Seriously, the Pens woes on the man advantage are just a sight to see. The power play is putrid. I have no idea what the setup is. A rush up ice then a drop pass in the neutral zone, then a dump behind the net which leads to a turnover. I never played hockey and I can scout against that. I’m pontificating, but at some point we lost Alex Picard as he was not seen on the bench late. Cory Conacher would get a goal while the Pens were killing a 5-on-3. Late, Jeff Dimmen would get another goal late for good measure.

Three Stars: 3) Richard Panik (goal, +1) 2) Trevor Smith (three assists, +2) and 1) Cory Conacher (two goals, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Bingahmton beat Adirondack in Glens Falls 4-3.

Standings: Hershey and Norfolk tied with 44 points. WBS has 41 in third. Syracuse fourth with 32 points and Binghamton has 32 also.

Conference: 1) HER (44) 2-MCH (44) 3-CT (43) 4-NOR (44) 5-StJ (43) 6-WBS (41) 7-WOR (38) 8-POR (37)

Going to be interesting next couple of days in run up to the Rochester game Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!

Jekyll and Hyde.

If the Pens win in regulation tonight that is the headline that is run on the blog. They didn’t, rather having to battle back from a 5-3 deficit in the third period to even the score at 5 and win in a shootout via a Geoff Walker goal in the bottom of the ninth round, 6-5.

Teams were tied at three heading into the third. Bears got two quick ones. 12 minutes left in the third with the visitors staring at a two goal deficit in front of a sellout crowd of 10,801. 25 of 28 teams fold up shop and go home losers. Not Wilkes-Barre. Read on….

Scott Munroe vs. Dany Sabourin – Bears scratched Joel Rechlicz for Andrew Carroll. Pens called up Peter Merth for the injured Boris Valabik.

First Period: Pens came out much better, limiting chances to Hershey across the board. Wilkes-Barre would buzz, but Sabourin made the saves to keep thing scoreless. Shots were 10-6 Pens this period.

Second Period: Much different from the first, there were six goals this period. Sean Collins would board Bryan Lerg, it looked nastier than it was. Colin McDonald came to challenge and Collins would get 4:00 for roughing and an extra 2:00 for the board and McDonald would get 4:00 for roughing. In the ensuing play, Alex Grant would fire a shot from the blueline which Eric Tangradi would tip in for the goal to put the Pens up 1-0.

Taking this to a second paragraph because the Pens looked like they just stopped playing after the Tangradi goal. Graham Mink scored his league leading 10th power play goal of the season with Paul Thompson in the box for a rough. Then, Cody Eakin scored to make it 2-1 on a 4×4. Then, Geoff Walker scores to make it 2-2 after a Bryan Lerg face off win. Then, Ryan Craig takes a defensive zone holding penalty. Zach Sill scores the shorthanded goal to put the Pens ahead 3-2, but before my tweet on the matter is even a minute old, Tomas Kundratek scores on the power play to even things at three.

Wild period of hockey with two heavyweights trading blows. Shots were 12-9  Bears this period.

Third Period: Pens take an unnecessary too many men penalty, Jacob Micflikier takes a slashing call then Brian Strait high sticks Christian Hanson. Chris Bourque scores on the right dot off a feed from Ryan Potulny to make it 4-3. Then, Peter Merth takes a trip and Ryan Potulny scores to make it 5-3 on a 5-on-3 from the same spot Bourque did minutes ago.

Another paragraph split. Pens would kill off the remaining mess. Then Eric Tangradi scores to make it 5-4. Patrick Wellar and Boyd Kane then take penalties to give the Pens 1:41 of 5-on-3 power play time. Pens take a time out. They don’t score. Nick Petersen finally scores with 1:53 left in the third to even things at 5. Hershey would use their time out late but would not score.

Overtime: Pens outshot the Bears 7-0 in this frame ut would need the shootout to decide it.

Shootout: Cody Eakin and Bryan Lerg score in round three. No one else does until Geoff Walker steps up in the bottom of the ninth to walk-off and win it for the Pens.

Final shots on goal were 36-28 Penguins. Nine straight wins at Giant Center for the Pens going back to last year. Much needed win for a number of reasons. First, we can win in the shootout against a sniper unit in Hershey. Second, we can come back against arguably the best team in the league in its own home down multiple goals late. (I’ve gone as far as calling the Bears a Category 5 superteam)

Any one want to make sense of the 6-0 embarrassment yesterday on home ice and the comeback win tonight in Hershey in the comments? Don’t be shy…

Three Stars: 3) Ryan Potulny (goal, two assists, -2) 2) Eric Tangradi (two goals, even) 1) Geoff Walker (goal, assist, +2 and the game winning shootout goal)

Around the Division: Norfolk beat Bridgeport 2-1. They rematch Friday. Syracuse beat Springfield 5-2 and Binghamton thumped Adirondack 5-2.

Standings: Bears 42, Admirals and Pens 39, Crunch 29 and Senators 28.

Conference: 1-HER (42) 2-StJ (41) 3-CT (40) 4-MCH (40) 5-NOR (39) 6-WBS (39) 7-WOR (36) 8-ALB (33)

Pens are off Friday. So are the Bears. I’ll be watching the Admirals / Sound Tigers game carefully Friday and will have a retweet or something on Twitter and may, depending on outcome, have something here Friday night.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

(blogger note: Gold star to you if you read this novel in its entirety. I need an editor, or another hobby…)

(edit: Carl Sneep’s name wasn’t heard after the second. radio never noted his absence. observers in Hershey tweeted me that Sneep was conspicuous by his absence in the third period. we will see…)

I’ve been getting into the practice of running some pregame nuggets on the opponent for the evening vs. the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Let’s take a look at a few from tonights contest vs. the Albany Devils:

Well, tonight the Pens lost for the first time ever vs. a New Jersey Devils AHL franchise by the score of 2-1. The Pens were 0-for-5 on the power play tonight.

They also couldn’t win a face-off to save themselves tonight and that malady cost them the game ultimately.

Scott Munroe vs. Jeff Frazee. Brain Strait, Carl Sneep and Paul Thompson were in for Peter Merth, Dan Henningson and Ryan Schnell.

First Period: Pens took two consecutive penalties but killed them easily, as I mentioned in the nuggets that Albany has only scored on four road power plays all season. The face-off trouble reared its head early, as Munroe was forced to make three tough saves after the Pens could not win the battle in the dot. The period would end with no score.

Second Period: Mike Hoeffel scored a laser beam goal over Munroe’s glove to put the Devils out front 1-0 at 7:49. Then, Boris Valabik and Harry Young both fought to the dislike of the crowd as they both had a hold of each other where the other was not allowed to get a square punch in. The fans actually booed!

Third Period: While the side were 4-on-4, Ben Street scored on a 2-on-1 break with Colin McDonald to even things at one. Then, a scary incident when a WBS player crashed the Albany net and right into Jeff Frazee. Frazee appeared to have injured his arm but would remain in the game, but in obvious pain. Brian Gibbons then had a good chance while being pulled down and actually hit the bottom of the post but the puck did not go in. After an icing call, the Penguins don’t win the face-off and Mike Hoeffel scores his second of th game to put the Devils up late. Brad Mills would sit for a late high stick on Boris Valabik but the Pens with Munroe pulled were unable to get one past Frazee and lost.

The pessimist in me is going to say that the Penguins couldn’t beat a team they have mastered in previous attempts and score on a one armed goaltender when they needed to. The optimist says that they learn from this, better to make these mistakes now than in May.

Three Stars: 3) Jeff Frazee (25 saves on 26 shots) 2) Ben Street (goal, +1) and 1) Mike Hoeffel (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: We were the only game in town division, and league wide.

Standings: 1-HER (37) 2-NOR (37) 3-WBS (37)4-SYR (27) 5-BNG (24)

Strange, how percentage points work in hockey. Penguins go from second to first yesterday when Norfolk beat Hershey. Now, with the loss and same amount of points and the Bears and Admirals, drop to third.

Conference: 1-StJ (39) 2-HER (37) 3-CT (36) 4-MCH (38) 5-NOR (37) 6-WBS (37) 7-WOR (32) 8-ADK (32)

Looking Ahead: WBS breaks for Christmas and is off again until next Tuesday nights game vs. Hershey. This week, Hershey hosts Syracuse on Wednesday. Norfolk is already off.

Expect blog updates to be scarce between now and then. I’ll probably run a brief recap of the Bears / Crunch game. I’ll have no news on demotions to Pittsburgh because the NHL roster freeze is in effect until December 27. That means Pittsburgh can call up whoever they want, but can’t send anyone down until the 27th at midnight.

Let’s Go Pens!

Let’s start tonight’s recap with a nugget from Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie from the Citizens Voice:

What happened tonight was an expected result, as the Pens dropped this one 5-2.

Breakout passes from their own defensive zone looked a mess. Really a game where you can get down on things but I need to constantly remind myself that this is a patchwork team right now.

Anyway, Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski. Ben Street was back in. Boris Valabik was in as well.

First Period: I tweeted in my pre-game nugget session that you have to stay disciplined when playing Norfolk with how good their power play is (second best on the road) – well, :32 in, Cody Wild was nabbed for interference. It did not take long for the Admirals to score as Matt Fornataro made it 1-0 before most of the sell out crowd were settled into their seats. Then, Radko Gudas fired a shot from the blue line which Carter Ashton deflected him to put the Admirals up 2-0. This shook up the Pens a bit as they came to life and started the comeback. Dan Henningson shot the puck from his own blue line and Ben Street deflected it past Tokarski to make it 2-1. Pens looked to carry the momentum into the…

Second Period: Geoff Walker threw the puck at the net at an odd angle and the puck deflected off of a Norfolk defensemans skate and in. Bryan Lerg would get credit for tucking it last. Then, after the Penguins killed off an Alex Grant hook, Tyler Johnson would score from the slot by zipping a shot over the glove of Thiessen. This was three goals on ten shots. Thiessen would get the hook after that and Scott Munroe would come in. The Admirals seemed to be the ones shook up after that as they continued to buzz. Later, Cory Conacher outworked the Penguins fourth line by blowing past everyone to score on a wraparound. Then, with under a minute, ex-WBS Penguin Michel Ouellet scored to make it 5-2.

Third Period: Thiessen returned to the WBS nets. The good news coming out of this period was that Wilkes-Barre limited Norfolk to three shots. The bad news was that they themselves only took six and scored on none of them. The Pens had two chances on a power play but did not convert.

Three Stars: 3) Scott Jackson (two assists, +2) 2) Tyler Johnson (goal, +1) and 1) Carter Ashton (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey thumped Bridgeport 5-0 on a Dany Sabourin 32 save shutout. The Bears are now tied with the Penguins with 37 points each. Binghamton lost to Worcester 5-2. Syracuse lost to Adirondack 4-3.

Standings: Hershey, by way of percentage points, claims top spot. Wilkes-Barre is second. Norfolk is third with 35 points. Syracuse has 27 points in fourth and Binghamton has 22 points in last.

Conference: 1-StJ (37) 2-HER (37) 3-CT (36) 4-WBS (37) 5-MCH (36) 6-NOR (35) 7-WOR (32) 8-ADK (32)

Tomorrow the Admirals play the Bears in Hershey. If Norfolk wins, its another three way tie for first in the East. If they lose, the Bears are outright the number one team in the East and could, depending on how St. John’s does against Portland tomorrow, be tops in the Conference.

Albany comes to town Monday. They are much improved so this game won’t be easy.

Craig Adams left tonight’s game in Pittsburgh with the ever specific “lower body injury” so if there is a call up made from Wilkes-Barre, it probably won’t come till Monday for cap reasons. Hopefully bodies heal and we can get back to somewhat bit of normalcy soon.

Let’s Go Pens!

Wilkes-Barre, on a patchwork conglomeration of bodies, wins it’s fourth straight game to put themselves back on top of the Eastern Conference standings by winning 3-2 this evening in Syracuse.

Eric Tangradi and Alexandre Picard’s recalls to Pittsburgh prefaced this from this morning.

Scott Munroe vs. Iiro Tarkki. Chris Barton made his WBS debut.

First Period: Penguins play sixteen minutes of bad hockey and nearly allow Syracuse to score multiple times but Munroe did not give many rebound chances and really made some big time saves in the game. Late, Brandon DeFazio cleaned up a rebound to put the Pens up 1-0 then Ryan Craig received a nice pass from Colin McDonald to put the Pens up 2-0 heading into the break.

Second Period: Munroe continued to see virtually everything. He did not give up many rebounds in the process which really was a plus. Ryan Schnell took an attempted head-butting call to put Syracuse on a double minor power play. I don’t think that afterward, Tom Grace called his name the entire rest of the evening. Wilkes-Barre would kill it with Munroe continuing to make ten bell saves.

Third Period: Ryan Craig blocked a shot with his hand. He would be fine. Patrick Maroon score at 5:37 to spoil the Munroe shutout bid. Brandon DeFazio was really everywhere this game. A late Bryan Lerg trip would put the second ranked Syracuse power play back on the ice but the Pens were perfect on the penalty kill all night. Munroe with more solid saves. Then, Brandon DeFazio fired a dart at Tarkki which surprised him and ended up in the net to make it 3-1 Pens. J-F Jacques would score late with Tarkki pulled but the Pens would hold on and win their fourth straight game.

Three Stars: 3) Patrick Maroon (goal, assist, even) 2) Ryan Craig (goal, assist, even) and 1) Matt Rust (assist, +1)

Pretty sure Brandon DeFazio should be the first star of the game, but whatever.

Around the Division: Hershey won a barn burner in Norfolk 4-3 and Binghamton beat Adirondack 3-1.

Standings: Wilkes-Barre leads Hershey 37 points to 35. Norfolk has 33 points in third. Syracuse has 27 points and Binghamton 22.

Conference: 1-WBS (37) 2-StJ (36) 3-CT (35) 4-MCH (36) 5-HER (35) 6-NOR (33) 7-WOR (30) 8-ADK (30)

Norfolk busses overnight here for a 7:05 start. Hershey busses home to host Bridgeport.

Doing more with less is what Wilkes-Barre is doing. Stupendous goaltending right now.

Gameday will be up tomorrow at 3 p.m. Let’s Go Pens!