Chirps from Center Ice

It is truly amazing sometimes what a team which has the majority of what makes it run not a part of it. Tonight, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins recorded their 500th win in franchise history by beating the Binghamton Senators 4-2.

With this, the Pens move into sole possession of first place in the East Division and the Eastern Conference. All while having half of its defensive corps in Pittsburgh and its power play quarterback in Jason Williams there as well.

Brad Thiessen vs. Robin Lehner. Chris Barton was called up from Wheeling but did not dress. The B-Sens dressed tough guy Francis Lessard tonight so Ryan Schnell was a late add for Paul Thompson.

First Period: Geoff Walker and Corey Cowick scrapped early, likely as payback top Cowick for injuring Joey Mormina at the end of last Wednesday’s game in Binghamton. Then the Pens found themselves down two men on a 5-on-3 for Binghamton when Matt Rust was caught holding and Zach Sill in the penalty kill batted a puck over the glass for a delay of game. Stephane Da Costa scored his first AHL goal to put the B-Sens up 1-0.

Second Period: Eric Tangradi passed a puck to Colin McDonald in the slot which McDonald wired over the shoulder of Lehner to even things at one. Then, the Pens found themselves down two men again on questionable tripping calls from referee David Banfield. Mike Hoffamn would score on a slapper which Thiessen didn’t catch all of to put the Senators up 2-1. This was all predicated from the B-Sens buzzing around in the offensive zone prior to going on the 5-on-3. Then, with Mark Parrish in the box for slashing late in the period, Ben Street would even things on a quick rush the other way. Huge goal by Street. The Pens are a dismal 0-5-0-1 when trailing after two periods.

Third Period: A Carl Sneep shot from the point was deflected down by Zach Sill and eluded Lehner to put the Pens ahead 3-2. Pens sat on the lead and really didn’t allow many good chances for Binghamton. An unselfish play by Eric Tangradi passing the puck to Colin McDonald sealed it late as McDonald would pot the easy empty net goal.

How Sweet it is!

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (power play goal, even) 2) Zach Sill (game winning goal, +1) and 1) Colin McDonald (two goals, +2)

Around the Division: No one else skated.

Standings: WBS sits first with 35 points. The Bears and Admirals have 33 points in second and third respectively. Syracuse is fourth with 25 points and Binghamton has 20 points in last.

Conference: 1-WBS (35) 2-StJ (34) 3-CT (33) 4-MCH (34) 5-HER (33) 6-NOR (33) 7-ADK (30) 8-WOR (28)

No one does more with less I would say. Astute Twitter follower Brandon chirped in with insight:

And also…

Good stuff and I agree.

If anything happens on the wires with guys shuffling to and from Wilkes-Barre, check me on Twitter first then on here if I can throw together enough to make a blog out of it.

Let’s Go Pens!

I lived in fear of this game all day long. One of the reasons was because half of our defense corps is in Hershey. Another being that Jason Williams was called up to Pittsburgh today and Joey Mormina was scratched as injured with an upper body injury. Bears are rolling right now. Pens were depleted. I expected a Bears win tonight.

Boy was I wrong. The Pens stuck with the Bears all game long then won the game in the first four minutes of the third period and won 4-2 this evening.

Scott Munroe vs. Braden Holtby. Zach Sill was back for the Penguins and Paul Thompson was scratched.

First Period: A spirited Ryan Schnell / Joel Rechlicz fight early set the tone. Credit Schnell for hanging in and dropping punches while having his head down. The Pens would have a 3-on-1 but not score. Patrick McNeill would go to the dressing room after getting a knee on knee hit from Paul Thompson but would return for the second.

Second Period: Ryan Potulny would score after a weird sequence which would see Carl Sneep clear a puck which trickled past Munroe but not in the net. Right after a Maxime Lacroix high sticking penalty Ben Street would score to even things at one.

I tweeted in the second period that Eric Tangradi looked disinterested in the game thus far as he was committing turnovers and just did not look like he was into the game to this point.

Third Period: :46 in, guess who? Eric Tangradi scored on a daft backhander to give the Pens the lead. About three minutes later, Tangradi would keep a puck in, pass to Colin McDonald who would find Bryan Lerg who scored on a wide open net to make things 3-1 Penguins. Hershey would muck things up post whistles to try an get the Pens to take penalties but WBS was 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. Late, with Holtby pulled, Graham Mink would knock the net off while McDonald was bearing down and Referee David Banfield awarded a goal. Late, Tomas Kundratek would get a goal to make it 4-2 but the Pens would hold on and win.

Again, was I expecting this? No. With the depletion on defense and Hershey running at near 100%, I was expecting a bit of a Bears blowout. I always harp  on those who doubt this team. Perhaps I need to harp on myself!

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (goal, assist, +2) 2) Scott Munroe (33 saves on 35 shots) 1) Eric Tangradi (goal, assist, +1)

So, basically, you need your best players to be your best players.

Around the Division: Norfolk beat Binghamton 5-2. The Ads and Penguins are tied in the East Division with 33 points a piece. Hamilton beat Syrause 4-1 in the Salt City.

Standings: WBS and Norfolk sit atop the division with 33 points. Norfolk actually gets first place on wins. Hershey is third with 31 points. Syracuse sits fourth with 25 points and Binghamton is last with 20 points.

Conference: 1-StJ (34) 2-CT (33) 3-NOR (33) 4-WBS (33) 5-MCH (32) 6-HER (31) 7-ADK (30) 8-ALB (27)

Tomorrow the Bears host the Norfolk Admirals in a game I’ll be watching on AHL Live.

Elsewhere, if you are looking for some Sunday reading or whatever, my fellow WBS blog pal Butch Petit caught up with Bryan Lerg in a neat interview. Check it out.

Pens back in business again Tuesday as they host the Binghamton Senators. If we should by chance get bodies back from Pittsburgh, I’ll do what I can keeping the blog updated.

Let’s Go Pens!

You need your best players to be your best players on a nightly, consistent basis. You also can’t have individuals trying to do it all themselves. If you have these elements working for you, you lose most often than not and the Pens were on the losing end of this one 5-2 this evening.

Brad Thiessen vs. Iiro Tarkki. Matt Rust was scratched in favor of Ryan Schnell. Zach Sill was still out with an upper body injury.

First Period: Ben Street would sit for an early cross checking penalty and the Crunch would put its second ranked power play unit on the ice and score as Brandon McMillan scored his first of the season. Colin McDonald was everywhere this game, sticks in passing lanes and causing commotion in the offensive zone.

Second Period: Kyle Palmieri scored off of a Jason Williams turnover to make things 2-0. Another defensive breakdown would see Nicolas Deschamps come in all alone but Thiessen made the save. More Colin McDonald stirring up things with he and Geoff Walker but McDonald was unable to find the back of the net. However, Geoff Walker was able to score to make it 2-1. Pens would then come in 3-on-1 but were not able to even things. Then, Kyle Palmieri scored off of a lightning quick faceoff draw to make it 3-1.

Really a backbreaking goal for the Penguins, who to this point in the Period, did everything but score more goals.

Third Period: Just like the two previous periods, the Pens would get scored on. This time a Mat Clark shot on goal would get tipped in by Troy Bodie. Alex Grant would fight Bodie a few minutes later. This would fire up the Pens and Brian Gibbons would score to make it 4-2. But, Peter Holland would make it 5-2 to put the game out of reach.

Three Stars: 3) Troy Bodie (goal, even) 2) Nick Bonino (two assists, +1) and 1) Kyle Palmieri (goal, assist, +2)

Pens were just as flat as four day old soda tonight. Nothing else to say here.

Around the Division: Norfolk rallied late and won 2-1 at home against Adirondack. The Bears throttled the Pirates 7-1 and Binghamton lost 2-1 in Worcester.

Standings: Things getting tighter. WBS and Norfolk are tied with 29 points. Norfolk wins the tiebreaker (wins) and sits first with the Pens second.  Hershey is closer now with 27 points. Syracuse has 23 points and Binghamton 18.

Conference: 1-CT (31) 2-StJ (30) 3-NOR (29) 4-WBS (29) 5-ADK (27) 6-HER (27) 7-MCH (27) 8-BRI (26)

Penguins are off until Wednesday when they play in Binghamton. Updates from here to there dependent on roster moves and general things that occur which directly or indirectly affect this team league wide.

Let’s Go Pens!

Big news of the day besides the 4-1 win over the Pirates tonight was that Niko Dimitrakos was released from his professional tryout agreement (PTO). Normally with a player such as Dimitrakos (points in multiple games coming into today) the standard players contract (SPC) is normally announced right after the team announces the PTO expiring.

Not this time. Niko is gone as a Penguin. From what Tom Grace said on radio, both sides amicably parted ways. WBS beat writer Jonathan Bombulie has more.

Other than that, a big win for the Pens tonight who at times, stifled the Pirates. They held them to five shots on goal in the first and second period and physically dominated the offensive zone all night long.

Brad Thiessen vs. Curtis McElhinney.

First Period: Geoff Walker and Igor Gongalsky got into a “fight” early. Both received roughing minors. During the 4-on-4 action, Brett MacLean danced right around Philip Samuelsson and beat Thiessen glove side to put the Pirates up 1-0. This seemed to awaken the Pens as they simply dominated every aspect of the period from there on, finally getting a goal from Ben Street. The Street goal really should not have counted, as the Penguins were badly offsides. I mean at least by three feet minimum, but linesman Leo Boylan signaled good and they scored. Later, with Matt Watkins in the box for holding, Joey Mormina would put the Pens up 2-1 on the power play.

Second Period: Penguins would get another power play goal from Eric Tangradi after Alex Grant kept a puck onside. He would fire towards the net and Tangradi would collect the rebound and jam it past McElhinney. After that, Walker and Gongalsky would fight again, this time it was an actual “fight” – lots of hand fighting and Gongalsky had the takedown.

Third Period: Really a quick moving period. Two penalties, both :04 apart from one another. Before you knew it, there was a minute left and the Pirates would opt for the extra attacker. Geoff Walker ensured there would be no comeback by getting the empty net goal.

Three Stars: 3) Ben Street (goal, +1) 2) Alex Grant (two assists, +2) and 1) Joey Mormina (game winning goal, even)

Around the Division: Norfolk lost to Adirondack 5-1 in the other game I was watching on Twitter. All the while the Phantoms played with only 5 defensemen. Really an impressive showing by them against one of the top offensive AHL teams. Hershey beat Syracuse 4-1 and Binghamton finally got back into the win column by beating Manchester 4-1.

Standings: WBS back to tops in the division with 29 points. Norfolk with 27 for second, Hershey sits third with 25. Syracuse has 21 points in fourth and Binghamton has 18 points in fifth.

Conference: 1-StJ (30) 2-CT (29) 3-WBS (29) 4-ADK (27) 5-NOR (27) 6-HER (25) 7-ALB (25) 8-MCH (25)

Penguins travel to Syracuse tomorrow. Gameday will be up here at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

News of the day was that Robert Bortuzzo and Alex Picard being recalled to Pittsburgh as Kris Letang and Zbynek Michalek are out with undisclosed ailments. As a result, Wilkes-Barre drops this one 5-2.

After the game, I mentioned that final shots on goal were 32-18 Norfolk and wondered if this was an indirect effect of Bortuzzo’s and Picard’s absence. Well, Jonathan Bombulie tweeted me the following:

https://twitter.com/#!/CVBombulie/status/141711773974806528

Regardless, it was Scott Munroe vs. Dustin Tokarski this evening. All hands on deck defensively tonight.

First Period: Early, Walker had some odd touches which lead to him turning over the puck in his defensive zone twice in one shift. Then, with ex-WBS Penguin J-P Cote in the box for cross checking Eric Tangradi, Nick Petersen would feed Niko Dimitrakos on the power play where Niko would have all the time in the world to rip a shot past Tokarski to put the Pens up 1-0. Late, with matching minors to Ryan Craig and Cory Conacher for roughing, Mike Angelidis would redirect a Mark Barberio offering to even things.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre came out and played the first three and a half minutes like gangbusters. Then Mark Barberio hooks a Penguin and on the ensuing power play the Penguins looked like the Keystone Kops. Norfolk easily killed the penalty. Then, a weird sequence. As a Norfolk power play expires, Blair Jones scores when Munroe was interfered with. Referee T.J. Luxmore rules that a WBS player pushed a Norfolk player into Munroe so therefore no interference and a good goal. Then, off of the ensuing faceoff, Ben Street would score a weird goal redirecting a Nick Petersen shot. Then, Simon Despres and Bryan Lerg would sit for slashing and hooking respectively and Cory Conacher would score on an easy backdoor while up 5-0n-3 to put the Admirals up 3-2.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre, down a goal on the road, would only take two shots on goal all period. Meanwhile, Norfolk would get a power play goal from rookie sensation Cory Conacher who is absolutely tearing it up right now. Norfolk would clamp down, Penguins would pull Munroe late and Trevor Smith would pot an empty netter from center ice to ice it and the Pens would lose at Scope for the first time in eight games.

Three Stars: 3) Trevor Smith (goal, two assists, +2) 2) Blair Jones (goal, two assists, +1) and 1) Cory Conacher (two goals, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey lost in Hartford to the Connecticut Whale 4-2. Big news there was that Mattias Sjogren was returning to Sweden.

Standings: Norfolk tied with Wilkes-Barre in points, but since they have more wins are first in the division with 27 points. Hershey has 23 points in third. Syracuse sits fourth with 21 points and Binghamton last with 16 points.

Conference: Missed opportunity for WBS tonight as a win would have put us in sole possession of first place overall. Standings look like this. 1-StJ (28) 2-CT (27) 3-NOR (27) 4-WBS (27) 5-MCH (25) 6-BRI (24) 7-ADK (23) 8-HER (23)

Wilkes-Barre travels home tonight. Here’s Bombulie’s postgamer. Pittsburgh also confirmed that Letang and Michalek are out for Thursday’s game at Washington. I would expect a calllup from Wheeling in the form of Andrew Hotham. If that occurs, you’ll see it from me on Twitter first.

Penguins will practice Thursday morning then Portland comes calling Friday night.

Let’s Go Pens!

Been dogging on Philip Samuelsson a bit here and on Twitter. Tonight, with two primary assists on two Penguins goals he silenced those including myself who said that he needs to get shipped to Wheeling in a 3-2 Wilkes-Barre victory in Binghamton.

Scott Munroe vs. Robin Lehner. Binghamton didn’t dress a single veteran player because bodies are banged up. Zach Sill was out for the Pens with an upper body injury, Cody Wild, Alex Grant, Matt Rust and Ryan Schnell joined him in the press box. Niko Dimitrakos was in, Brian Gibbons as well. Lots of shuffling going on. The Walker-Lerg-McDonald line was back, too.

First Period: Philip Samuelsson point shot was saved by Lehner and the rebound came to Bryan Lerg who gave the Pens an early 1-0 lead. Then, David Dziurzynski dangled around Robert Bortuzzo and unleashed a wrist shot snipe which beat Munroe to even things at one. Later, with Derek Grant in the box and then Dziurzynski in the box for boarding on Nick Petersen, Colin McDonald would clean up the rebound to push the Pens back out in front 2-1.

At some point I tweeted that this was the first lead WBS had in quite a while. They did not lead vs. Hershey, Syracuse or Worcester. You had to go all the way back to last Saturday in Manchester when the Pens enjoyed a lead in a hockey game.

Second Period: Mike Hoffman had a breakaway but was unable to score on it. Then, Sneep was whistled for holding and the Pens in the penalty kill did not allow the B-Sens a shot on goal. Really a quick moving period with the teams going up and down the ice.

Third Period: Binghamton started out guns blazing, taking 11 shots in the period before Wilkes-Barre registered one. During, Joey Mormina covered his hand in a wild scrum in Munroe’s crease on the puck which was a penalty shot awarded to Nikita Filatov. He was unsuccessful on the penalty shot, however. Then, with Alex Picard in the box for tripping, Josh Godfrey would throw a change up at the net which either fooled Munroe or he was screened on. This evened things at 2. Late, a Samuelsson point shot again was deflected this time by Brandon DeFazio. After some rough stuff, the Pens held on and won.

Three Stars: 3) Colin McDonald (goal, assist, +1) 2) Philip Samuelsson (two assists, +2) and 1) Brandon DeFazio (game winning goal, +2)

Around the Division: Hershey lost to Lake Erie 5-4 in a wild game which saw the Bears even things at four late only to have Lake Erie storm back and win it on a wild goal mouth scrum. Norfolk edged Providence 3-2. Syracuse was idle.

Standings: 1-WBS (27) 2-NOR (25) 3-HER (23) 4-SYR (21) and 5-BNG (16)

Conference: St. John’s lost 6-3 to Toronto tonight so they are still in first with 28 points but now Wilkes-Barre sits a point behind them with 27. The rest of the conference looks like this: 3-CT (25) 4-NOR (25) 5-ADK (23) 6-HER (23) 7-BRI (23) 8-MCH (23)

Credit Binghamton for running with Wilkes-Barre tonight. When asked about the lineup tonight, here is what head coach Kurt Klinendorst told Bob Howard of the Power Play Post Show:

Our line-up vs WBS tonight, are you kidding me? We couldn’t even compare but we sure did compete. That’s a good thing.

Debate amongst yourselves if you think a team that “couldn’t compare” with the Penguins nearly won the game tonight on whether this is good or bad.

Penguins ship to Norfolk Monday. That is one trip I would love to take but am not. Updates may be scarce here on the blog till then. So if you will, take a look at the First Quarter Grades I ran on Thanksgiving, after the Syracuse game.

Let’s Go Pens!