Chirps from Center Ice

Penguins play arguably the best game of the young season this evening getting a 26 save shutout from Brad Thiessen and playing a defensive, gritty, shutdown game getting goals from Geoff Walker and Eric Tangradi and a shorthanded empty net goal from Bryan Lerg, winning 3-0 tonight in Springfield.

Brad Thiessen vs. Manny Legace

First Period: Thiessen was in form early making saves off of set Springfield faceoff plays early. Then, Dane Byers hits Eric Tangradi in open ice. Soon after, Byers and Joey Mormina mix it up and Byers ended up with a double minor for roughing. The ensuing power play saw very little from the Penguins. Passes were received on the backhand and every time Wilkes-Barre entered the offensive zone they were dispossessed by Springfield. Penguins would not capitalize. Some good saves from both netminders late.

Second Period: Thiessen robs rookie sensation Cam Atkinson in close to start the period. Defense really clamped down despite some near misses with Dane Byers jumping in behind the defense but Thiessen made the saves. Then Legace made some saves of his own on a couple of Penguins shots, best in the sequence being a Geoff Walker shot to a Bryan Lerg rebound. Late, John Moore would sit for a cross checking call and Geoff Walker would score a power play goal to put the Pens up late.

Third Period: Quick moving first half. Brian Gibbons is quite the playmaker, beating out an icing call. Thiessen made some quality, big saves. After killing a Bryan Lerg trip, the Falcons would buzz but Eric Tangradi would score after Bryan Lerg broke away being marked by Dalton Prout for Springfield. Lerg would spin, fall and dish to Tangradi who had an open net. Springfield would pull Legace late being a man up on a power play and Bryan Lerg would score to send Wilkes-Barre away with the two points.

Three Stars: Manny Legace (20 saves on 22 shots) Bryan Lerg (goal, assist, +2) and Brad Thiessen (26 save shutout)

I think everyone who cheers for this team needed this game for the psyche.

Around the Division: Tomorrow’s opponent Hershey beat Albany 4-1 tonight in the New York capital. Norfolk beat Binghamton 7-0 allowing the defending champs 14 shots on goal while taking 53 of their own. Wow. Syracuse won in overtime 4-3 at home against Lake Erie.

Standings: Hershey 9 points, Norfolk 8 points, Syracuse 7 points, Wilkes-Barre / Scranton 6 points and Binghamton 5 points. Things are tight.

Pens bus straight to Hershey for the 7 p.m. game in Chocolatetown. Gameday will be up at 3:30 here on the blog Saturday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

The keystones which guided the Penguins to the second best record in league history ever are missing right now. Defense being the largest gaping hole missing.

Right now whatever “it” is that is keeping WBS from winning games, one goal games especially, is not there. At all. It is almost a feeling of not a matter of if but a matter of when. It happened again. The Pens lost in overtime, 5-4.

Once again, I am pontificating. Someday I will stop. To the game…

Brad Thiessen vs. Robin Lehner

First Period: Brandon DeFazio beat Lehner with a clean wrister about 6 minutes in to put the Pens on top 1-0. Semi-scary moment as Nick Petersen returned from concussion this game when an Alex Picard clearing attempt off of a face-off struck Nick sitting on the bench in the face. He would go to the locker room but return, fine. Then, Eric Tangradi would score a garbage goal on a goal mouth scrum to put the Pens up 2-0 going into the first intermission.

Second Period: Derek Grant would skate in from his own blue line in alone, unmarked and put the B-Sens on the board to make it 2-1. Shaun Heska would sit for interference. Jim O’Brien would get a chance shorthanded on a breakaway but be denied by Thiessen. Then, Geoff Walker would score on the power play to make it 3-1. Then, right after that Mike Hoffman would score on what would be the B-Sens 4th shot of the game. After the two teams had chances on the power play the Pens would go into the second intermission clinging to a 3-2 lead.

Third Period: Patrick Wiercioch would backhand a pass cross ice to Mark Parrish to tie things. A goal which, last year, a stick gets to and action goes the other way on. Then, another defensive breakdown nips the Pens and Kaspars Daugavins made us pay putting the B-Sens up 4-3. Bryan Lerg would score the last goal of the night about 1:30 later to tie things at 4. The Pens would seem to out work the Senators in the offensive zone, keeping lax clearing passes onside and getting good chances on Lehner, but the Pens would end up going to overtime but not before Binghamton used a timeout.

Overtime: Binghamton buzzed and buzzed and buzzed and finally broke through when Mark Parrish scored on another defensive breakdown. He toasted the defense.

Three Stars: 3) Eric Tangradi (goal, assist, even) 2) Bryan Lerg (goal, assist, -1) and 1) Mark Parrish (two goals, one of them the game winner, two assists, +3)

Around the Division: Hershey lost to Norfolk in overtime. The pesky Ads are a legit threat as they never went away and never backed down from Hershey all weekend. Syracuse. beat the hot Adirondack 6-2. Nick Bonino had 4 assists, Kyle Pamieri a hat trick.

Standings: Hershey 7, Norfolk 6, Syracuse 4, WBS 4 and Binghamton 3.

Right now we are the worst team in the division. No one pushes us around on home ice. Nobody. That team has yet to be seen.

Pens have to heal bodies. Expect Jason Williams and Robert Bortuzzo back next weekend. Tom Grace said on the post game show that Ryan Craig will be evaluated Monday. He also said that Matt Rust had a “long term” injury. Both of these maladies happened last night and no one saw how.

Here is a head scratcher. Springfield is a great team this year, class of their division. Providence is a bottom feeder and won’t make the playoffs this year. Guess who beat who tonight? If that’s not enough, picture being on the losing end of this debacle.

Updates, as they are made available this week. Back on the stick Friday night in Springfield, MA.

Let’s Go Pens!

Sometimes you have bad nights. This was one of them. A 7-4 loss on home ice to the Springfield Falcons. Lots of things went wrong tonight. Let’s examine:

1) The first five minutes of the game were a disaster. Springfield scored shorthanded and power play goals. Overall they would go 3 for 5 on the man advantage.

2) Ryan Craig left the game at some point with an injury. No one in the house saw it. This is related to #1, because he is our best penalty killer by far.

3) The defense was no where to be found tonight. But for Brian Strait who was a +3 tonight, there was nothing going on defensively for the Pens. Whenever the Pens answered, Springfield answered right back.

4) Both Springfield goalies (I will get to why both played in a minute) left big, juicy rebounds all night. The Penguins were not able to capitalize on the reality given them.

5) Springfield is just downright a good hockey team and the Pens right now are not.

Enough pontificating for now. Let’s get to the game…

Scott Munroe vs. Allen York

First Period: Brandon DeFazio would get whistled for a ticky-tack hooking call by referee Jon McIsaac and the Falcons would pounce immediately and score when Marty St. Pierre cleaned up a rebound which Munroe left for him. Then, Dane Byers would sit for a hook of his own and Nick Drazenovic would score shorthanded with no one around him. An unmarked man scoring a shorthanded goal is unacceptable. Right after that happened, Paul Thompson would score on a laser shot which handcuffed York. Things would settle down the rest of the period.

Second Period: Paul Thompson crashed the net early and took out goaltender Allen York. Not a dirty play in my eyes as Thompson is not that type of player. He would be replaced by Paul Dainton. Later Dalton Prout would get whistled for a hooking call and in the ensuing power play Eric Tangradi would crash the net and dish off to Geoff Walker who would score to even the game at 2 a piece. Then, Alex Grant would have a gaffe at center ice and turn the puck over to the Falcons which led to Mike Thomas scoring. Right after that, Bryan Lerg would score on a crash the net play to bring things even at three a piece. Then, it all fell apart. After getting whistled for too many men, Alex Picard would get nabbed for a boarding call which set up 1:05 of 5-on-3 time for the Falcons. Springfield would use its time out and score on both power plays, Cam Atkinson and John Moore the culprits putting the score at 6-4 and all of the air out of the Mohegan Sun Arena.

Third Period: Brad Thiessen would replace Scott Munroe in goal. Bryan Lerg would score his second of the night after a nice dish pass from Colin McDonald. Then right after that, Ryan Russell scored a garbage, answer goal. After that, it was all downhill. Defense would get beat on an icing call. One scary moment was a point shot from Simon Despres which would hit Bryan Lerg in the face. Lerg would return to the game, however. Oliver Gabriel would score to make it 7-4 and it would end that way.

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (2 goals, +1) 2) Nick Drazenovic (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Marty St. Pierre (goal, assist, -1)

Around the Division: Hershey pumped Norfolk 7-5. Chris Bourque had a 5 point night (2-3-5) Syracuse beat Binghamton 5-4 in overtime. Nikita Filatov had two goals and an assist for the B-Sens in the loss.

Standings: Hershey 6, Norfolk 4, Wilkes-Barre 3, Syracuse 2, Binghamton 1.

Normally the Pens can get by with 4 goals for and ride solid defense to a victory.

Do you forget this game and start over tomorrow vs. Binghamton or keep it in the memory bank as a sign of things to come? Time will tell.

Gameday for Binghamton will be up at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. Let’s Go Pens!

Wilkes-Barre wins a big road game to put the first win of the year in the can tonight in Rochester by a score of 5-1. Both Brian Gibbons, Brian Strait and Bryan Lerg had huge nights, all going 2-4-6 and a +7 combined. Really a coming out party of sorts for Brian Gibbons who has been, at least to me, Wilkes-Barre’s best player in the three games played thus far.

Brad Thiessen vs. Drew MacIntrye.

First Period: First five minutes of the game WBS was giving away too many cutesy passes and playing lackadaisical defense. Rochester had its chances but Thiessen held firm. Then, Eric Tangradi stole a puck from an Amerks player and simply waited out MacIntyre to make it 1-0 Pens. Later, Geoff Walker would sit for goalie interference and Brain Gibbons would come in shorthanded with breakneck speed but not score. Later in the period Gibbons would set up Brian Strait on the point who would rifle one home while MacIntyre was screened to put the Pens up 2-0. Gibbons was everywhere this period.

Second Period: Colin McDonald would get in the goal column after a nifty Lerg pass to Philip Samuelsson pass to McDonald for the slam dunk. At this point Wilkes-Barre was in control. It really looked as if the Amerks were skating in sand this period but the shot chart would prove otherwise as Thiessen faced a ton of shots and made saves when he needed to.

I’m giving what happened next in the second period its own paragraph simply for what I am about to describe. Brian Gibbons would get whistled for a slashing call. 6 seconds later, Zach Sill would get called for delay of game, clearing the puck over the glass. What happened next is a thing out of a story book. Down 5 on 3, Joey Mormina loses his stick. Then, Brad Thiessen would lose his. 10-bell save after 10-bell save, the puck would find its way to Bryan Lerg who toasted the Rochester power play to score a shorthanded 3×5 goal. It was an absolute thing of beauty.

Third Period: Riding the wave of tremendous momentum, the Pens would get a goal from Niko Dimitrakos on a nice setup from (who else) Brian Gibbons. After that it was prevent everything but to no avail as Marcus Foligno scored late to spoil the Thiessen shutout. At the very end, Brandon DeFazio would buckle Travis Turnbull in a fight at the buzzer.

Three Stars: 3) Bryan Lerg (1-1-2, +2) 2) Brad Thiessen (29 saves on 30 shots) and 1) Eric Tangradi (1-1-2, +2)

We were the only game on the AHL slate, so there are no other games to examine.

Standings: Hershey and Norfolk are your division leaders with 4 points each. The Bears and Admirals play a home and home starting tomorrow in Norfolk which I will keep my eye on. Wilkes-Barre has 3 points, Binghamton none and Syracuse none but the Crunch open their season tomorrow.

Wilkes-Barre busses home tonight for a 7:05 game vs. Springfield tomorrow. Gameday will be up here on the blog at 3:30 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!

The effort is there, the scoring is not.

That is the synopsis of this very young season in a nutshell. The Penguins fired 41 shots at Whale goaltender Chad Johnson but could not find the back of the net in regulation and overtime. In the shootout the would lose the extra point to the Whale and the game 1-0.

Scott Munroe vs. Chad Johnson.

First Period: Teams traded power plays but did not score. Geoff Walker had a mini-breakaway but could not get a good shot off. Some crash the net opportunities for both teams but both goaltenders were very good. Quick moving period with the lack of a penalty whistle every minute. Shots on goal through one were 9-8 for Wilkes-Barre.

Second Period: Same as first period, both teams traded power play chances but could not convert. Couple of near misses both ways. Scary moment with Paul Thompson driving the net and needed to get helped off by trailer Patrick Steidle. He did return in the period. Both Zach Sill and Bryan Lerg would miss the net on two separate 2-on-1’s.

Third Period: Pens would get two straight power plays handed to them but could do little even to set up in their offensive zone. Then the Whale had the same thing happen to them with the two power plays handed to them in a row. They had more quality chances I felt. At some point, Ben Street went to the locker room with Steidle. I did not see the injury nor did I see him go down the tunnel.

Overtime: Pens would get a power play when Kris Newbury went to the box for tripping. This would be Newbury’s third of four penalties (he’d get whistled for a hook with :12 left in OT) but the Pens would not even able to get setup to get any decent scoring chances. To the shootout we went…

Shootout: Colin McDonald did not score and John Mitchell did in the first frame. Niko Dimitrakos scored and Andreas Thuresson did not in the second. Then Brian Gibbons and Kris Newbury scored to make it even at 2-2 in the shootout. Bryan Lerg did not score and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault scored in the fourth frame. Simon Despres did not score and the game was over.

Where would Ben Street slot into that lineup if he did not get injured? Is it a different result?

Three Stars: 3) Jonathan Audy-Marchessault (shootout game winning goal) 2) Scott Munroe (technical 23 save shutout) and 1) Chad Johnson (41 save shutout)

We were the only game in town division wise.

Standings: Hershey and Norfolk are your first weekend leaders out of the gate with 4 points each. Wilkes-Barre has a point, Binghamton is 0-2 and Syracuse has not played yet.

Pens will probably get tomorrow off then they get back at things prepping for Rochester Thursday in Western New York, Springfield and Binghamton Friday and Saturday.

FInally, I don’t think I tweeted this or blogged it, but here is what looks like the St. Patrick’s Day jersey the Pens will be donning this March:

Let’s Go Pens!

Exciting game tonight watching the Penguins run with the Bears tonight. And they did run with the Bears. Keith Aucoin scored a power play goal from the left dot, something he’s done countless times in this league, in the third period and the Bears would hold on and win 3-2.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin.

Ryan Craig wore the C tonight. Alex Picard and Joey Mornina the A’s.

First Period: Early scrums after whistles when goalies made saves and each team would get a chance on the power play. Then, while Eric Tangradi was in the box for a slashing call Bryan Lerg would be denied on a breakaway shorthanded. Right after the Pens killed the penalty, Kyle Greentree would score to make it 1-0 Bears after he got the puck fed to him down low, dekeing Thiessen for the goal. Then, while newcomer Niko Dimitrakos was in the box for a delay of game call, Brian Gibbons would muscle a puck coast-to-coast and past Sabourin to make it 1-1. Really a fantastic individual effort by Gibbons. As the arena was celebrating Matt Ford would score :20 later to put the Bears back up 2-1. A sloppy Penguin turnover led to Thiessen being screened.

Second Period: Pens had carryover time on a power play. With :02 left, Niko Dimitrakos would score to bring things back even at 2. The teams would trade quality chances. Then, the Pens would have to kill off 1:09 of 5-on-3 as Devin DiDiomete and Cody Chupp would sit for boarding and cross checking, respectively. Hershey would use its timeout but not score. The Pens would then get a chance on the power play but not score either.

Third Period: With Philip Samuelsson in the box for slashing, Keith Aucoin would do what he is notorious for and score from the left dot to put the Bears up 3-2. Wilkes-Barre would get two chances on the power play but not convert. If they do on one it may be a different result.

Three Stars: Niko Dimitrakos (goal, -1) Matt Ford (goal, +2) and Keith Aucoin (game winning power play goal, even)

Thoughts: Fun game to watch. Going to be interesting seeing these two teams play 11 times more this year. Not a blowout by any means. A bounce here, a bounce there and maybe a different result.

Around the Division: We don’t have to go too far this year because there are only 5 teams in the division. Toronto dropped Binghamton 3-2. The defending champs are 0-2 to start the season. Norfolk beat Charlotte 4-3. The Admirals are 2-0 to start the year. Syracuse doesn’t play until next weekend.

Standings: Hershey and Norfolk are tied with 4 points. No one else in the division has a point.

Pens get back on the horse tomorrow afternoon vs. Connecticut, which blew a 3-1 lead in Glens Falls tonight vs. the Adirondack Phantoms and lost 6-3. Gameday post will be up on the blog at 12:30.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens get a 3-1 win tonight in the preseason finale. Brad Thiessen was sharp again in net tonight getting beat by a laser beam of a shot late by Olivier Lauredsen with the Phantoms were shorthanded.

Brad Thiessen vs. Jason Bacashihua.

Ryan Craig, Eric Tangradi, Joey Mormina and Colin McDonald were in for the Pens. The line of Tangradi-Craig-McDonald ran the first power play unit and were successful on two power plays tonight.

First Period: Lots of good saves by Jason Bacashihua by robbing Chris Barton on a cross crease pass to Barton. Later in the period he was standing on his head making some ten-bell saves. Really this period was all Penguins, outshooting the visitors 10-5 on the shot sheet.

Second Period: Little bit more of a tightening up by the boys as Cody Chupp toasted a Phantoms defensemen to put the Pens up 1-0. Nice backhand of a goal by Chupp. I really hop Chupp makes the team. Later, the Pens would cash in on a full 2:00 5-on-3 that referee Jon McIsaac handed them when Kevin Marshall slashed a Penguin and Benn Holmstrom was caught roughing post whistle via Paul Thompson to put the Pens up 2-0. Really solid effort by the penalty kill unit tonight and it never hurts having Brad Thiessen back there. He gloved a Cullen Eddy point shot thru traffic.

Third Period: Lots of good chances by both teams about 6:12 in. Then, Alex Grant and Benn Holmstrom fought when Holmstrom was whistled by McIsaac for a head check. About :30 later, Kevin Marshall would get a cross-checking penalty and that would put the Pens back on the 5-on-3 again. This time with the McDonald-Craig-Tangradi unit on, Eric Tangradi slammed home a goal to put the Pens up 3-0. Penguins never let off as Bacashihua made save after save. Olivier Lauredsen scored to ruin the shutout on a laser beam of a goal that went in and out as quick as it went in. It would end up being too little, too late as the Pens would hang on and win 3-1 to improve to 3-1 in preseason.

Three Stars: Colin McDonald, Cody Chupp and Brad Thiessen.

You can now throw all of this away, as when we wake up tomorrow there will be 6 days to the real hockey season.

Can’t go without acknowledging and welcoming Wilkes-Barre’s new Public Relations Director Mike O’Brien to Twitter. You can follow Mike on Twitter @MikeOBrienWBS and it looks like he will be live-tweeting all of or parts of the games. Welcome Mike!

Housekeeping: AHL Previews start again tomorrow. West Division rolls out tomorrow at noon Wilkes-Barre time. In fact, they all roll out each day at noon all the way up to Friday.

Let’s Go Pens!