Chirps from Center Ice

Brett Sterling returns from recall from Pittsburgh and scores two goals in the third period to sink the Springfield Falcons this afternoon. The Falcons are a gritty, in your face team that ran with the Penguins to the very end this afternoon. They would not be fun to play against in the playoffs.

Brad Thiessen vs. Gustav Wesslau.

First Period: Zach Sill :37 in and the Pens were off and running. Springfield held the fort though and later Nick Holden tied the game while Thiessen was screened. Later, Ryan Craig would score on a hack and whack on Wesslau to make the score 2-1. What a pass from Keven Veilleux to pass it to the goal mouth area on his stomach. Shots this period were 18-5 in favor of the Penguins. I thought Springfield really withheld the onslaught brought by the more rested Penguins.

Second Period: Best news in forever was the announcement that Dustin Jeffrey, Joe Vitale and Brian Strait were all reassigned to Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. This I am told is to free up cap space for tomorrows trade deadline. Chris Kunitz is practicing with Pittsburgh and should be back any day now. I don’t know if Jeffrey gets called back up. We will have to see. Meanwhile, Springfiled had it’s own version of hack and whack, this time Falcons Captain Ben Guite did the honors. Then, the Pens were shorthanded and Tim Wallace fired a shorthanded answer goal to put the Pens back ahead. Later the Falcons would score when Brett Regner deflected a puck past Thiessen. The shots thus far were 25-13 in favor of WBS.

Third Period: The Ticket would score a beauty of a breakaway goal. A deft stickhandle move which was absolutely sickening. I am sure the Wilkes-Blog will have highlights later. Then the Pens sat on the lead until Nick Holden scored again to bring the score even again. It appeared to be headed to overtime but then Brett Sterling turned and fired the puck at Wesslau and it went in. The Falcons would take their time out but in the flurry to tie the game Ben Guite would get called for interference and that would be it.

Three Stars: Tim Wallace (goal, two assists), Nick Holden (two goals), Brett Sterling (two goals, one a game winner)

Every time we scored, they scored until time ran out eventually.

Around the Division: Hershey held off Bridgeport 3-2. Binghamton lost to Adirondack 5-2. Norfolk beat Albany in Atlantic City 4-3. Rochester beat Syracuse 2-1 in overtime.

Standings: WBS 88, HER 80, CHA 76, NOR 71, BNG 71, ADK 49, ALB 48, SYR 47.

This week: Third Quarter Grades are due. They will be posted here on the blog at noon tomorrow. Games wise, the Pens are off until Friday. Albany plays  Binghamton in Binghamton Tuesday. Hershey and Norfolk square off in Norfolk Wednesday. I will have Friday’s games posted as ones I am watching later this week on the blog.

Tomorrow is the Meet and Greet at 5 p.m. at the Arena. Time for autographs!

Go Pens!

You never leave a game early. There is no such thing as tickets that let you watch 7 innings of a 9 inning baseball game or three quarters of a football game. You just never leave early.

Fans that did about 10 minutes left to go in the third period of tonight’s game are kicking themselves at this hour or have no idea that the Penguins won in a shootout 3-2. None.

John Curry vs. Dustin Tokarski tonight. Brett Sterling was sent down to WBS this morning. Of note, Mark Letestu played tonight in Toronto for Pittsburgh, might we see Joe Vitale tomorrow afternoon vs. Springfield?

First Period: Jesse Boulerice turned the puck over in the Pens zone and Levi Nelson converted to make it 1-0 about halfway through. To here, the Pens were flatter than week old soda left out. Sold out house and the Pens were just awful. Somehow, the shots through 1 were 10-7 WBS.

Second Period: Pens still playing horrible. Blair Jones makes it 2-0 at 6:29. John Hynes went for a goaltender change, pulling Curry in favor of Thiessen. I think this was more to wake up the team and shake things up then it was a knock on John Curry, who I thought played well enough to that point to remain in the game. A forgettable period in my opinion, as Norfolk out shot the Penguins 14-6. At one point it was 11-2. Really bad.

Second intermission: I tweeted this:

http://twitter.com/#!/nafsnep/status/41674394061377536

Eerie how I know my team so well and have my finger right on the pulse of what is going on, I am an insurance adjuster by trade, have no formal journalism schooling and am not a beat writer, but what happened in the third really made me look like I know what I am talking about. (Which I never claim to know what I am talking about)

First ten minutes of the third: Wilkes-Barre had two shots on goal by my rough math. Second ten minutes, the comeback began. By rights, it really was the last 5 minutes that the comeback started. 4:27 to be exact, as with Blair Jones sitting for slashing, Robert Bortuzzo would fire a puck on net and cut the deficit to 2-1. About a minute and a half later, Ben Street would fire a puck at Tokarski which found what the back of the net. In soccer they call them “postage stamp” goals because the puck went in the extreme upper right hand corner. Celebrate good times. I went nuts. High fiving people all over the place. I cheered so hard my right shoulder hurt.

Overtime: Nothing to see here. Pens came out and were all over the Admirals.

Shootout: It went 11 rounds. Every time we scored, Norfolk scored. If we missed, they missed. Until…..

(credit: @gonzotherooster)

Joey Haddad saves the day. To here, Haddad was on a one way ticket back to the Wheelhouse. Sayonara Stephanie as he was taking dumb penalties and was a turnover machine. Rectified.

Robert Bortuzzo played like a man possessed the last ten minutes. Brett Sterling played big minutes. Final shots on goal were 32-27 Penguins with the Pens outshooting the Admirals 11-5 the final period.

Three Stars: Robert Bortuzzo (goal, -1), Ben Street (goal, assist, +1), Joey Haddad (game winning shootout goal)

Around the Division: Hershey wins 4-3. Keith Aucoin had assists on all the goals. Charotte shuts out Connecticut, 1-0. Mike Murphy the shutout in that one. Rochester beat Binghamton in a shootout 3-2. Hamilton beat Syracuse 3-2 and Adirondack beat Worcester 2-1 in a shootout.

Standings: Wilkes-Barre preserves an eight point lead over Hershey, 86 to 78. Charlotte draws within two of the Bears with 76 points in third. Binghamton is in fourth with 71 points. That is not an opening round playoff matchup I want right now. Norfolk is in fifth with 69 points. Albany is a distant sixth with 48 points, Adirondack close with 47 in seventh and Syracuse is last overall in the league with 46 points.

Tomorrow: Hershey is in Bridgeport. Bingo is in Adirondack. Norfolk travels to Albany. WBS still has a game in hand over Hershey.

Maybe we stole one tonight, maybe we didn’t. I will leave you with this money quote. Go Pens.

“We actually refuse to lose” – Joey Mormina, Penguins Defenseman

Normally when you allow a team 16 shots all game you should win. With a team as loaded as Wilkes-Barre is, allowing an opponent 16 shots on goal is a sure recipe for success Normally when you put 47 shots up on the board on a team the odds are high that you win the game right?

Not tonight. If you would have told me that the shots would be 47-16 in favor of WBS and the Pens would lose 4-1 I would have never in a million years believed you. It’s true.

This may be some post game knee jerk react from me but Barry Brust, with a better Binghamton team in front of him (the B-Sens have been decimated by call ups also) can outright in my opinion win a Calder Cup for the City of Binghamton. The man is just simply phenomenal. Wilkes-Barre is now 3-4 against this Binghamton team with one more game left to play. The Penguins are 0-3 in the Southern Tier of New York.

Barry Brust vs. Brad Thiessen. Earlier in the day Andrew Orpik was shipped back to the Wheelhouse.

First Period: Fifteen minutes in David Dziurzynski digs a puck off of the wall in the Pens offensive zone to the stick of B-Sens captain Ryan Keller who roofs it on Thiessen to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. When Bingo scores first it is 23-3-2-2. Shots on goal this period 9-7 for WBS. For what it’s worth, it was a feeling out period for both teams for the first half of the period for as weird as it sounds this many games into the season.

Second Period: Corey Locke would sit for hooking then Kaspars Daugavins for the same thing setting up an extended power play for the Pens, Bryan Lerg would score when Corey Locke attempted a steal leaving Lerg all alone to snipe one on Brust to tie the score at 1. Then the wheels would come off. Erik Gryba would score while a screen was set on Thiessen. The turning point of the game was later though when the Pens had a power play. The puck would get dumped in on Brust, he went out of his net to play it but it took a weird bounce and popped right in front of a wide open net. Instead of scoring, the Penss would take a hooking penalty, Ryan Craig to even it up at 4 on 4 for a brief period. After the original penalty on a David Hale rough call would expire Joey Mormina would get nabbed for interference and the top ranked in the AHL Binghamton Senators power play and top ranked at home Binghamton Senators power play unit would take the ice for :42 of 5 on 3. Soon, Kaspars Daugavins would make it 3-1. Then right after that, Corey Cowick would throw a shot at Thiessen’s pads which would deflect to the stick of Andrew Sweetland who jammed home the puck to make it 4-1. Shots on goal this period were 15-6 in favor of WBS and 24-13 overall.

Third Period: Pens would throw everything they could muster and more at Brust but the man from Swan River, Manitoba stood tall denying chance after chance. Chants of “Bar-ry, Bar-ry” were heard all night. The Pens would get two power plays but not convert. They put 24 shots on net in the third and only allowed Binghamton 3 shots at new goaltender John Curry, who relieved Thiessen to start the third.

Three Stars were Corey Cowick (2 assists, +2), Ryan Keller (goal, assist, +1) and Barry Brust (47 saves on 48 shots)

Bombulie said in his postgamer that the shots on goal number was skewed a bit and Senators coach Kurt Kleinendorst was furious at the off-ice officials for their liberal shot count. (It’s always like that in Binghamton)

It is the same old song and dance with Binghamton. Brust steals the show all the time. Nothing about Binghamton really impresses me that much. Corey Locke is an animal but outside of that it comes down to, at least for me, the yeoman-like effort of Barry Brust in net.

Around the Division: Hershey wins in a shootout 4-3 over the Toronto Marlies.

Standings: Hershey is back within 8 points. 84-76. The bigger concern is the Binghamton Senators who need to be reckoned with at this point, clearly in my opinion the best team in the division right now. They have won 7 straight and have points in their last 9 games. Just unreal hockey they are playing. Idle Charlotte has 71 points, Binghamton now has 68 points for fourth, Norfolk has 66 points in fifth. Albany, Syracuse and Adirondack have 48, 46, 45 points respectively.

Tomorrow and Friday: Hershey is in Lake Erie to take on the Lake Erie Monsters. Seems that every other division has a tight points race for first but ours. The Monsters are third in the North and sit two points out of first. I believe that game is televised on Fox Sports Ohio. I will be watching. Charlotte hosts the Connecticut Whale. Friday the Pens are off, but Charlotte and Norfolk do battle and Binghamton travels to Syracuse.

Go Pens.

Cardiac kids tonight. Pens take a 0-0 game into the 55th minute, then Corey Potter drives the net hard and Ben Street cleans up the mess to put the Pens ahead 1-0. Who else other than Street, right? Later, Norfolk would full court press the Pens and with three seconds left Mike Angelidis would score off of a really bad David Marshall turnover.

Pens would win it in the shootout, with Keven Veilleux and Andrew Hutchinson scoring for the Pens and Brad Thiessen denying all Norfolk callers.

The above summarizes this hard fought, playoff atmosphere-like game really. Guys really clamped down on this one. Defense wins, I suppose.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dustin Tokarski. New guy Tyler Murovich was in the lineup because Geoff Walker cut his leg yesterday and Tim Wallace is on recall (again) to Pittsburgh.

First Period: Lots of talk about a fight off of the faceoff but no dice. No fights all game. Norfolk brought it tonight but Thiessen was steady. Shots were 10-5 Norfolk after 1.

Second Period: Pens outshot Norfolk 13-2 this period. May I remind you this is without our top seven scorers. Tokarski held the fort this period for the Admirals.

Third period: See above. Potter drives the net. Street cleans up the mess, Pens lead. Then with three seconds left, David Marshall does not clear the puck out of the Norfolk end and the Admirals pounce and score. I know Tom Grace on radio really ripped the kid hard in the heat of the moment, but you have to remember that you have an ECHL kid playing in a high pressure AHL situation and mistakes no matter how huge will happen.

Overtime: Uneventful. Terry Koharksi really swallowed his whistle this series which is uncharacteristic of #10 in the orange arm bands but I have seen the officiating this year improve a ton. I would rather “let the boys play” rather than going 8/9 on a penalty kill any day of the week.

Shootout: Veilleux, the Pens most accomplished player in the shootout, now 3 for 3, scored as did Andrew Hutchinson, who had no prior shootout experience. Thiessen would deny Troy Milam, Mattias Ritola, Stefano Giliati and Mark Barberio.

Three Stars: Mark Barberio (assist), Dustin Tokarski (34 of 35 saves) and Brad Thiessen (26 of 27 saves)

Around the Division: Braden Holtby is back for the Bears and won tonight 6-4 over Bridgeport. Charlotte beat Adirondack 3-2 in a shootout. Binghamton pulls into a tie for fourth tonight after defeating Albany 4-3. Syracuse defeated Rochester 7-1 tonight. Razor with the win for the Crunch in goal. Seven different Crunch found the back of the net.

Standings: Wilkes-Barre 84, Hershey 74. Division lead is still 10. Hershey loses all of its games in hand when they take on Charlotte tomorrow in Hershey. Checkers sit in third with 68 points. Binghamton actually pulls into fourth in the division due to the fact that the Senators have won 30 games to Norfolk’s 27 despit being tied for points with 66. Albany has 46 points good for sixth while Syracuse and Adirondack are tied for last in the division with 44 points.

Tomorrow: Only game of interest is the Hershey / Charlotte game at 5 p.m. from GIANT Center. I will tweet intermission scores and probably blog a quick recap here.

You should be proud of your hockey team. I am. Let’s Go Pens!!!

Off the hop, Nick Johnson suffered an “upper body” injury in Pens practice today. You would think that recent demotion Tim Wallace would get sent back right? Well, no. He was a scratch tonight with “flu like” symptoms. The only two guys left in Wilkes-Barre on NHL deals are Keven Veilleux and Joey Haddad. Veilleux, if needed, will likely get the call tomorrow to join the parent Penguins in Chicago for the Sunday game. Meanwhile, WBS acquired a guy by the name of Tyler Murovich from Springfield and assigned him to the Nail today. Gotta think that if Johnson cannot play Sunday and Wallace is still sick and Veilleux gets the call that this Murovich kid will be dressed tomorrow for the Pens in the rematch vs. the Admirals.

Anyway, the Pens defeated the Norfolk Admirals tonight 3-0. Brad Thiessen got his sixth shutout of the season and now boasts an insane 5-1 record with a .978 SV% with three shutouts. He is 23-5 on the season. Astronomical numbers. Also, he kept the Pens in the game tonight stopping all 35 shots seen.

Thiessen vs. Mike Smith. No M-A Pouliot or Johan Harju for Norfolk. Pouliot injured and Harju on recall to parent Tampa Bay.

First Period: Geoff Walker and Chris Durno would fight right off of the opening faceoff. The good news is that Walker would win the fight but the bad news is that he would not return from the fight. Radio said he cut his hand but @CxJamesx9 tweeted that Walker’s leg was cut. Keven Veilleux would sit for a ten minute misconduct. Then, Ben Street would score on WBS’ first shot of the game. How Street was in Wheeling all this season baffles me. He will probably not return. From the very beginning, Thiessen would keep the Pens in the game with a pad stop on a deft Mathieu Roy offering. Later, Veilleux centered a puck to Zach Sill and Sill tucked it under Smith’s pad to make it 2-0. The rest of the period would see Smith and Thiessen trading ten bell saves. Ben Street by rights should have had a hat trick in the first period alone. Got to think that if it is anyone other than an NHL goaltender down on recall he gets at least another goal.

Second Period: Pens would have to kill off 1:57 of carryover Jesse Boulerice delay of game. But the period wouldn’t senter around penalties, but more on the fact that Wilkes-Barre was getting killed in the faceoff dot. I think they maybe won only two faceoffs all period. This is in large part due to the fact that you don’t have your best centers manning the draws. You basically have ECHLers facing off against decent AHL centers. Keven Veilleux would have a goal waved off due to a high stick. The second period would end with the Pens leading on the scoreboard 2-0 but trailing in shots, 26-17.

Third Period: AHL Live would cut out for me at about the halfway mark. The only thing you need to take from this period is that Thiessen would make 9 saves this period. Norfolk would ring a few off of the post as well. Wilkes-Barre would only muster 4 shots, but one would be on an empty net with Ben Street doing the damage.

Street would end the game with two goals but would not get a star of the game. They went to Keven Veilleux (1 assist, +2), Zach Sill (goal, +1) and Brad Thiessen (35 saves, shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey lost to Rochester 4-3. The Bears now are 10 points behind us and have lost two in a row and have one game in hand. Binghamton defeated Charlotte 6-2. Jim O’Brien had a hat trick in that one. Albany trails Worcester 4-3 with a minute to go in the third period and gets goals from Adam Henrique and Steven Zalewski to win 5-4. Connecticut nips Adirondack in a shootout 2-1. Ray Emery returns to pro hockey and loses 4-2 as the Crunch are now in last place overall in the AHL having been defeated by the San Antonio Rampage.

Standings: WBS clinches yet another winning season in just 56 games and enjoy 82 points to Hershey’s 72 points. Charlotte does not make any ground up on Hershey and has 66 points good for third. Norfolk now feels the heat from the Binghamton Senators, as the Admirals have 65 points to Binghamton’s 64. Albany has 45 points in sixth, Adirondack pulls itself out of last place with 43 points and Syracuse is at the bottom with 42 points.

Tomorrow: Every team in the league is skating tomorrow. Hershey hosts the last place in the Atlantic Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Charlotte goes to Adirondack, Syracuse hosts Rochester, Albany travels to Binghamton and WBS and Norfolk rematch.

Stay with me on Twitter for any call-up news. Let’s Go Pens!

Face it. No one expected Wilkes-Barre to win today. Nobody. I go on a lot of AHL boards, a lot of beat writers comment sections and follow a lot of fans on Twitter. No one had this Wilkes-Barre this afternoon.

Except me.

About two hours before puck drop…

http://twitter.com/#!/nafsnep/status/36829920189624320

Prior to that, I read this commentary in Sunday’s Citizens Voice from beat writer Jonathan Bombulie.

Penguins blitzkrieged the Bears today, winning 7-1. Now I will say that I did not expect a 7-1 whooping that the Penguins put on the Bears today. I expected a much tighter game.

Brad Thiessen vs. Todd Ford.

First Period: Corey Potter hook at 1:05 in. Bears have the 2nd ranked power play in the AHL. Here we go right? Nope. Zach Sill is no Dustin Jeffrey, but he scored a shorthanded goal and the floodgates opened. Later, Hutchinson came down the slot and chipped in a Ben Street feed from behind the net to make it 2-0. Later, Brian Strait would fire a puck from the blueline Ford could not see to make it 3-0. I love when Strait scores. They are postage stamp goals and boy are they pretty. The Bears would pressure the last third of the period but would not score. I though had they did, all the momentum would go out the window.

Second Period: Andrew Orpik would feed David Marshall to make it 4-0 and chase Ford. Have you driven a Ford lately? Jared DeMichiel would come in relief of Ford. Pens would have to kill off :56 of a 5 on 3 but would end up killing it and getting a power play. Ben Street would make it 5-0. Veilleux again would fire a shot at DeMichiel which Street cleaned up on the rebound. Pens didn’t stop there, Robert Bortuzzo came down the slot and received a Chris Collins centering bid to make it 6-0. He just picked a corner and it went in.

Third Period: Not much here in this period. The defense would not allow Hershey many chances, only allowing 4 shots all period. One of those however was a Brian Willsie rebound goal from a Sheldon Souray shot from the blueline. But later, Ryan Schnell would pick up his first AHL goal on a nice feed from David Marshall.

Bombulie had a nice postgamer himself. In it, Pens got a mountain of offense from a bunch of guys who you have never heard of. Seven different Penguins scored goals. More role players than anything, as Veilleux and Haddad and your more purer scorers did not find the score sheet. I could not be more proud of this organization and that group of guys that played today.

Around the Division: Charlotte beat Albany 3-2. Bingo beat Adirondack 4-3 in overtime and swept the weekend. The Senators are for real.

Standings: If we manufacture this kind of offense yesterday, we have a 12 point division lead. Instead we only have a 10 point division lead. 80-70 right now over Hershey. Charlotte sits third with 66 points. Idle Norfolk (who plays Hershey Tuesday at Scope) has 65 points for fourth. Binghanton has 62 points in fifth. Syracuse is sixth with 42 points. Albany seventh with 41. Adirondack gets the loser point and has 40 points.

This week: Hershey is in Norfolk Tuesday, and Albany plays a third game in a row in Charlotte. I’ll probably update periodically on Tuesday night on Twitter and will probably have something here on the blog then.

Proud of this team. You should be too. 80 points! WOO! Let’s Go Pens!

I hope there isn’t a theme to be had here in that subject line. Pens shutout by one of the teams on the up and up with a ridiculous goaltender in Michael Leighton who, in 4 games, is 2-1 with a 1.16 GAA, .968 SV% and a shutout streak of 1:35:14. (thanks Tim)

One shot is all the Pens needed, but they could not find it and lost 1-0. Veilleux, Lerg and Walker all had chances.

Micheal Leighton vs. Brad Thiessen. No idea was Hynes is thinking going with Thiessen two nights in a row. I suppose you continue to ride the hot hand and give your team it’s best chance to win.

First Period: Pens were given an early power play but could not convert. Erik Gustafsson would score at 14:54 to put the Phantoms ahead. The Pens would have to kill off a Geoff Walker trip, then on the ensuing faceoff a Cach Sill trip to give the Phantoms 1:55 of 5 on 3 time. Then, while killing the 5 on 3, Robert Bortuzzo would get called for slashing. Then when the two trip penalties expired, the penlaty box attendant let the wrong guys out! It was mass chaos.

Second period: What was left of the Bortuzzo slash was killed off. What I liked about the 5 on 3 kill was it was a block party of shots. I would see tons of communicating back and forth between the guys which was good to see. Lots of big hits this period. Zach Sill would catch Denis Hamel in open ice and J.P. Testwuide would board Boulerice. Everyone was fine. Lerg would get a great chance on the backhand in close but couldn’t elevate the puck. Wilkes-Barre would throw the kitchen sink at Leighton but could not crack him this period.

Third period: Quick moving period. Dan Jancevski would get nailed for hooking and the Pens couldn’t do anything with it. That was the only penalty call all period. There would then be about 5 minutes of green flag hockey. Pens would pull Thiessen and with the empty net not manage maybe more than two shots on goal.

Final SOG were 28-18 WBS.

Thoughts: Maybe “not enough horses” isn’t the right term here. After all, Adirondack only had 18 shots on goal. Defense was stout. Just didn’t get that one goal to force overtime or a shootout.

Three Stars: Brad Thiessen (17 saves), Erik Gustafsson (game winning goal, +1), Michael Leighton (28 save shutout)

Around the Division: Oppurtunity lost for Wilkes-Barre as Hershey lost for the first time since 1986 it seems 4-3 to Binghamton. An angry Bears team is a dangerous Bears team, regardless if they will be tired from playing 5 in 7 or whatever it’s been. Albany beat Charlotte in overtime 4-3. Norfolk shuts out Syracuse on back to back nights, this time by a score of 4-0.

Standings: Nothing lost, nothing gained for WBS on Hershey. It’s still 78-70. Norfolk gets to 5 of the bears with 65 points. Charlotte loses a point in the OT loss and is now in fourth with 64 points. Binghamton now has 60 points in fifth. Syracuse / Albany / Adirondack are all withing three points of each other, 42 /41 /39 respectively.

Tomorrow: Only games that matters is Wilkes-Barre / Hershey. I want to see what this current team can do against a great team in Hershey. Albany and Charlotte rematch and Binghamton goes to Adirondack.

Let’s Go Pens!