Chirps from Center Ice

That is the way the best team in the league is supposed to handle inferior competition. A 5-0 WBS shutout of the hapless Crunch, now shutout in two consecutive games. Nice to have this monkey off of our back.

Brad Thiessen vs. JP Levasseur tonight. No lineup changes for the Pens as Geoff Walker was the scratch. John Curry was demoted to Wilkes-Barre later today and will rejoin the team tomorrow.

First period: Thiessen you could tell right off the bat was on his game, stopping 2-3 deflected pucks sent his way the first ten minutes. After coming dangerously close to scoring in the same shift multiple times, Nick Johnson finally did at 15:34. The period would end with the Pens on a power play after a Maxime Macenauer hook.

Second period: More Thiessen seeing the puck like a beach ball. More Thiessen bailing out Wagner and Potter’s spotty defensive play (both were +1) Trevor Smith took a tripping call off of a faceoff and Nick Johnson would score again on a power play goal. The second would end 2-0.

Third period: Ryan Craig appeared to take a puck in the man region very late in the second. He shook it off in the intermission to come out in the third and score a goal. Five minutes later, Chris Collins scored another stop-and-spin-on-a-dime-and-light-the-lamp goals to make it 4-0. At this point the rout was on. Later, after a scrum after a whistle, Patrick Maroon would sit on a rough and Nick Johnson would complete the hat trick. After that the Pens would just play out the string. Thiessen was still tested but denied all chances. Very very late Joe Vitale would take a puck off of the lower leg which crumbled him. He had to crawl off the ice.

I thought it was a complete game by the Pens. Everything seemed to click. Power play, penalty kill, even strength. All of it. Is it a case of playing a team in disarray? I guess we find out quick because the Bears are in Pittsburgh waiting for the Pens tomorrow.

Three stars were Ryan Craig, Brad Thiessen and Nick Johnson.Odd stat of the night: The entire team was +1 but for Brett Sterling, Jesse Boulerice, Eric Tangradi and Joe Vitale.

Around the Division: Atlantic leading Manchester defeated Adirondack 6-2. That was it.

Standings: Teams immediately behind Wilkes-Barre were dormant, so the Pens get a 7 point cushion on Norfolk and are the first AHL team to 50 points. Norfolk plays Charlotte tomorrow. They have 43 points and the Checkers have 40 points. The Bears sit in fourth with 39 points. They’d love to win tomorrow and an Admirals win as well. Binghamton sits in fifth with 34 points. Then Albany – 26, Syracuse 26 and Adirondack 16.

Pens bus to Pittsburgh tonight. Booster club is leaving tomorrow with yours truly. I will be the tall guy on the concourse with his iPhone in his hand. If you are in Pittsburgh and read the blog and plan on going to the game, find me on the concourse and say hello.

Let’s Go Pens!

Thought the Devils would be pushovers today. Boy was I wrong. Good, competitive hockey game this afternoon in Wilkes-Barre Township seeing the Pens win in a shootout 5-4.

Brad Thiessen v. Jeff Frazee. My first look at Patrick Killeen in warmups. Kid is humongous. 6’4. We had some fun in the warmup tweeting with different observers indicating that Killer got “killed” in warmups by getting sniped on. Here is my tribute to Allen Iverson.

Keven Veilleux was in the lineup as was Tim Wallace. Andrew Hutchinson is still out. Geoff Walker was the scratch.

Chris Cozzan was in the orange arm-bands. As a result, there were two penalties all game.

First period: Eric Tangradi got his AHL Player of the Week Award from a few weeks ago. Albany came out buzzing. Nick Palmieri would open up the scoring at 5:27. At this point, I tweeted that Albany had three or four scatterbrained shifts and got lucky and scored. Very late, Joe Vitale would chip a puck off of the side wall to the stick of Tangradi in the slot and the Big Dog would tie the game at one. That would come at 12:45. Then, Rob Davison would get his first goal of the year with a bomb from the blue line Thiessen would never see at 15:47. Then the fourth line would come out and Bryan Lerg would score at 17:06 to tie the game again.

Second period: Albany neutral zone turnover would see Chris Collins skate in and score at 5:18. Bortuzzo would sit for interference at 7:58 and Michael Swift would score on the ensuing PP. Albany set up shop in their zone, looked like they wanted to score, and did. Fourth line again, Bryan Lerg after a Sill point shot.

Second intermission. Ran into @TheDeathmaster who drove in all the way in from Altoona to see the Pens play tonight in a virtual blizzard here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. His travels will only improve as he goes past Williamsport, but man. Dedication.

Third period: Michael Swift slashing penalty and the ensuing Pens PP would come and go. Dan Kelly would fight a puck past the Pens and go five hole on Thiessen. Really a bad goal from what I saw but others saw Sneep tip it before it went in. Albany would turn on the jets and looked like the better team and had plenty of chances. Regulation would end a 4-4 deadlock.

Overtime: All Penguins. Plenty of chances. Dustin Jeffrey had two chances to end it. Brett Sterling, who has scored 100+ goals at this level, passes to Ryan Craig late who swings and misses at the puck. Blame the bad ice? I don’t know. But if I am Brett, I pick my spot and put it home. Neither team would score and we’d go to a shootout.

Shootout: Nick Johnson, Keven Veilleux and Brett Sterling would score. Thiessen turned away three of four. Pens would pick up the extra point. With Hershey beating the Norfolk Admirals in regulation, a huge boost to separate the Pens from the rest of the division.

Thoughts: Fourth line came to work again tonight. Zach Sill and Bryan Lerg were third and fourth stars (Sterling was the first star) and every time the Devils would punch, the fourth line would counter punch. The defensive pairing of Steve Wagner and Corey Potter are officially in suck mode right now. They will play on, because both were a +2. I have no idea how that could be. None. Bortuzzo was a -1. I can’t explain it.

Around the Division: Thanks Hershey. They beat the offensive juggernaut Norfolk Admirals 3-1. I don’t know how to feel about that. Hershey is down, but heating up. They have beat now Charlotte and Norfolk, two of arguably the best teams in the division, both in a row. I suppose, for now, I will take it. Binghamton beat Adirondack 7-1. Yikes. Rochester beat Syracuse 5-2. I am confused about this one. We beat Rochester three times this year, but they beat Syracuse whom we have not beaten yet.

Standings: With the Norfolk regulation loss, The Pens have 6 points now on the Admirals, 48-42 respectively. Idle Charlotte sits in third with 38 points. Hershey with the win draws a point behind the Checkers in fourth with 37 points. Bingo has 34 points good for fifth. Syracuse has 26 points for sixth, Albany 25 points for seventh and Adirondack has 14 points in eighth.

Pens practice Monday and Tuesday. I will prod Bombulie for updates on Hutchinson. I am taking off from work all week this week. I may see if I can fit a practice in sometime this week. No promises.

Let’s Go Pens!

When I write my “Why you should care” blurbs in my Gameday posts, they usually I have seen ring true to what actually comes true for the game that night. Call it what you want, that I know my team top to bottom or beginners luck in blogging, but let’s have a look at what I wrote for tonight’s 3-1 loss to the Syracuse Crunch:

This Crunch team beat Wilkes-Barre the last time the teams met but have only won 5 games since. This is a game on paper the Pens should easily win, but it has “trap game” written all over it. Truly elite teams have no problems dealing with inferior competition. Are the Pens truly an elite team? I guess we get a chance to find out tonight.

The answer to the question, in my opinion, is a resounding no. You just do not let a 7th place team in your division, a 14th place team in the Conference and an overall 29th place team run over you in a 3-1 victory. They talk about gimmicks in the AHL to get fans in the seats, well tonight the Crunch staff and their radio guy wore garlic necklaces and the staffers taped “lucky” pennies to the seats at the War Memorial to sort of change the luck of a team which got blown out to a mediocre Binghamton Senators team 7-0 last night.

John Curry vs. JP Levasseur tonight. No lineup changes from last night.

First period: First 5 minutes in, it’s all Syracuse. Only after a scrum in front of Curry’s net does Brian Strait and Patrick Maroon fight. Seconds later, Captain Ryan Craig gets credit for a goal which was kicked in by Syracuse’s Joe DiPenta. As that happened, Keven Veilleux went off the ice and to the dressing room with an apparent upper-body injury. Radio called it a hand, Bombulie called it a hip injury, we’ll have to see. He did not return. Very late in the period, after an Eric Tangradi goaltender interference call, Joe Vitale and Ryan Craig skated in shorthanded on a 2 on 1 but did not score after what looked like the puck in the net with Craig too. I was not at the game, rather watching on AHL Live, and the home angle for Syracuse was not the greatest. The period would end 1-0 Penguins.

Second period: First ten minutes, not much of anything from WBS, the Crunch hung around. I tweeted something to this effect and seconds later, Steve Wagner and Corey Potter have a mixup defensively and the Crunch tie the game via a goal from the recently demoted Dan Sexton. The second period would end that way. I was still at that point waiting for the Pens to wake up and put this game away.

Third period: Dustin Jeffrey would hit the post twice this period and did not score. I recall Eric Tangradi having a frustrating night a few weeks ago I think against Binghamton and look what happened to him of recent. It’s hard when you have the skill set of Dustin Jeffrey to not be frustrated when you hit two posts in the third period of a tied hockey game to not be upset. Then, Carl Sneep unintentionally screens John Curry and Trevor Smith makes it 2-1. Less than two minutes later, Trevor Smith again and it would end 3-1. The Pens would get a late power play on a Syracuse delay of game and I really though head coach John Hynes should have pulled Curry to give the Pens a 6 on 4 advantage with 3 minutes to go but he did not, and we go into the Christmas break having lost 3-1 to the 29th best team in the 30 team league. Merry Christmas.

I love to compare this team to the Hershey Bears of last year, when the Bears were just murdering teams. Does last years Bears team put this Crunch team out of its misery in the first period tonight? I want to say yes. With this loss, this is three straight losses to division opponents. Not good when you have the pesky Norfolk Admirals which, oh by the way we haven’t beaten yet in three tries, breathing down your necks.

It’s just one game. It happens to the best. Yadda yadda. It stinks though because this sour taste is going to linger until next Sunday when the Pens are back on the ice vs. the Albany Devils at home.

Around the Division: Break up the Adirondack Phantoms. Winners of two straight in a long, long time. They beat the Abbotsford Heat 2-1 tonight. The Hershey Bears have lost three straight games. They were defeated by the Providence Bruins 2-1 in Hershey tonight. The Binghamton Senators, who last night destroyed this Crunch team as you know 7-0, lost to the Charlotte Checkers 4-2. I may spend all this week trying to explain that one. Finally, those pesky Admirals defeated the Albany Devils by a score of 5-1. I suppose the good news here is they can draw no closer to us as they too are off until December 26 as well.

Standings: WBS holds onto first with 46 points. Norfolk with the win is 42 points out. Charlotte is in third with 38 points. Hershey is in fourth with 33 points. Binghamton is in fifth with 30 points. Albany and Syracuse have 24 points apiece good for sixth and seventh respectively and the Phantoms are in last place with 14 points.

Can the Pens get caught sitting idle? No. As I mentioned Norfolk doesn’t play until next Sunday. Charlotte has a game tomorrow in Hershey. Binghamton is in Rochester tomorrow and the rest are too far back to matter so the Pens will remain first in the East.

Going to probably be quiet here on the blog this week with no games. Will probably check in with news and notes and stuff from around the league as best I can.

Let’s Go Pens!

Big night in Penguin land this evening with a 5-2 win and multiple point nights for a few guys. Luck in the standings tonight too with Norfolk losing in overtime to the Albany Devils. I think the Devils tied the score twice after being down to come back and win in overtime.

Brad Thiessen v. Leland Irving tonight. Dustin Jeffrey was back in the lineup after being in Pittsburgh. Jesse Boulerice and Robert Bortuzzo returned from their suspensions. Jason DeSantis took warmups but was scratched. Joey Haddad was sent back to Wheeling and Ben Street was the scratch as he did not partake in warmups.

First period: Wilkes-Barre, off the hop, was all over Abbotsford. Joe Vitale steals a puck from a Heat defenseman and he and Tangradi come down on a two on one. Joe passes to Eric he buries it. Later in the period Vitale would ge his goal while the teams were 4 on 4. Ryan Stone had a frustrating night for the Heat, he fought Keven Veilleux and hit a post later in the game. His frustrations capped off an overall frustrating night for the gritty Heat team.

Second period: Up 2-0, the Pens started the second flat-footed. Reacting instead of acting. Just letting Abbotsford dictate pace of play. Jesse Boulerice would sit for interference and (who else) Dustin Jeffrey would score shorthanded. At this point Joe Vitale had three assists and was for the evening a +3. Vitale would end +2 but he was right at the top of the +/- category, we’ll have to see where he shows up tomorrow in that category. Later, Heat rookie sensation Greg Nemisz would score to cut the deficit to 3-1. The last 8:00 of the second was just sloppy hockey by the Pens. If Abbotsford’s power play isn’t ranked last in the league or close to it we lose the game tonight in this time frame. The Heat went officially 0 for 4.

Third period: Pens up 3-1 to start the period. After Joe Piskula high sticked Keven Veilleux and drew blood for a double minor, Tangradi would sit for hooking and Jon Rheault for the Heat would score to bring it to 3-2. I felt at this point the game was going off the rails but Steve Wagner would fire a puck on net which Eric Tangradi would deflect in to make 4-2. I had not realized it at the time but tha ended any chance of a comeback for the Heat because the rest of the period they just spent chasing Veilleux and others, trying to get them off of their game instead of focusing on their own. Example: Tangradi scores at 6:17 on the power play. Ryley Grantham trip at 10:57. Brett Sterling scores on the power play to make it 5-2. Bryan Lerg throws a guy into the Pens bench, but Matt Pelech takes exception and pounds Lerg. Lerg doesn’t swing, and referee Mark Lemelin gives Lerg 2 for boarding and Pelech 4 for roughing. Instead of taking the obvious power play you get put yourself at a disadvantage and hurt your team. Undisciplined.

There were fights at the end. For two teams who are 3,000+ miles apart and only play each other in the Winter and Spring this season and may not again next year, the bad blood is evident. But, the Pens need to get used to this type of treatment because when you are the best team in the league, every team is going to send its goons after you to try to knock you off of your game.

Dustin Jeffrey, Joe Vitale and Eric Tangradi were your three stars in that order. All multiple points for them. Nick Johnson and Steve Wagner also had multiple points with two assists each.

Around the Division: Every team in the league played tonight. The AHL’s busiest night ever. Binghamton defeated Syracuse 7-0. Syracuse beat us way back when to give us our first loss of the year. Bingo is lukewarm and they hang seven goals on the Crunch? Imagine what Wilkes-Barre will do tomorrow… Hershey lost to Adirondack 3-1. Do not adjust your computer screens. You are reading that right. Lots of stories coming out of that game. Sheldon Souray looks like he hurt his knee, as he was hobbled and did not return. Patrick McNeill and Keith Aucoin returned from injury. None of it mattered though as Denis Hamel gets two goals, one of them being his 300th. The aformentioned Admirals lost to Albany 4-3 in overtime. Charlotte beat Providence 6-2. Certainly a much improved Checkers team from the one we swept in October in North Carolina.

Standings: WBS sits in first with 46 points. Norfolk gets the loser point in overtime and is 6 back in second with 40. The Checkers are in third, four back of the Admirals and ten back of Wilkes-Barre with 36 points. Hershey has 33 points and is in fourth. Bingo has 30 points in fifth. They would not crossover into the Atlantic if the playoffs started today. Albany has 24 points in sixth, Syracuse has 22 points in seventh and Adirondack has 12 points in last.

We will see how the team comes out and plays in Syracuse tomorrow. This can be a trap game for the Penguins. We will see how prepared they are.

Let’s Go Pens!

A 2-1 Penguin overtime victory tonight in what should have been a 1-0 Penguins shutout. Another quick recap tonight because no one pays me to do this.

John Curry v. Matt Keetley tonight. Leland Irving is the goaltender of the future for the Calgary Flames organization, but he’ll likely play when these two team tangle again Friday.

First Period: Off the hop, Keven Veilleux scored off of a Joey Mormina deflection at 3:43. Wilkes-Barre would then take three straight penalties in the first. A Jason DeSantis high stick at 10:21, a Brett Sterling trip at 13:01 and a Joey Haddad hold at 18:29. Abbotsford is in the bottom third in the league on the power play. You can really see why because it looks like, at least to me, that no one know what they are doing out there. It really to me at times looked like a Chinese Fire Drill. The first period would end with Wilkes-Barre up 1-0.

Second Period: The Pens had to kill off :28 of left over Haddad hold time from the first but that was easily disposed of. The second period would be all about Wilkes-Barre on the power play three times but no scoring. Both teams officially would be 0 for 5 on the powerplay. Our special teams looked just as bad, which can spell danger if the injuries and call-ups continue to pile up.

Third Period: I tweeted something about 15 minutes into the third period on how this was the sloppiest Penguins game I could recall in recent memory. I can’t put my finger on what the Pens were doing or trying to do the second half of the game. Finally Keith Seabrook tied the game at 18:17 while Curry was screened as John didn’t even flinch. After that, it was like the Heat woke up a sleeping giant or something because the Pens just jumped to life. Regulation would end tied at 1.

Overtime: Back to the twitter feed, I mentioned that if WBS had played the last 5 minutes of game time the entire game, I am in my truck heading home a winner. Finally a Steve Wagner point shot was deflected in by Nick Johnson and the Pens won it in overtime.

Final shots on goal would end up 30 for Abbotsford and 22 for the Penguins with the Penguins not allowing a shot in overtime and taking two.

The three stars were Keven Veilleux, John Curry and Nick Johnson.

Thoughts: Keven Veilleux had a solid game in my opinion. Really looked like the best player for Wilkes-Barre this evening. Call-ups Jason DeSantis and Ben Street didn’t look out of place to me much and weren’t really liabilities out there. It should be interesting to see what happens Friday when these two teams play again and with Leland Irving the likely starter for the Heat.

Around the Division: Only three other games on the docket tonight. One of the them saw the Adirondack Phantoms mount a comeback but ultimately lose again, this time to the Connecticut Whale 6-4.

Standings: WBS, Norfolk and Charlotte have all played 28 games apiece. The Pens are in first place with 44 points, Norfolk is in second with 39 points, Charlotte has 34 points in third. Hershey has played 27 games and has 33 points in fourth. Binghamton has played 28 games and is in fifth place with 28 points and Albany and Syracuse have played 27 games and have 22 points apiece, good for sixth and seventh respectively in the division. Adirondack has 29 games played and has only 10 points good for last in the division.

If I heard the postgame radio show correctly the next win for the Penguins would be its 450th all time. Boulerice and Bortuzzo return from suspension Friday and will be back in the lineup. Should be interesting to see if Jason DeSantis and / or Ben Street play or get scratched or sent back to Wheeling.

Let’s Go Pens!

A quick recap because I need to get to bed for a 8 a.m. booster club bus to Atlantic City for the 4 p.m game vs. the Albany Devils at Boardwalk Hall.

Pens got slapped in the mouth tonight by the Norfolk Admirals and lost 7-4. This was after being down 4-1 to start the third period, having chased starting goaltender Brad Thiessen and tying the score at 4 about 8 minutes in.

As mentioned, Thiessen vs. Cedrick Desjardins. Tim Wallace was out due to a minor injury. Joey Haddad was back from The Nail and played.

First period: Three fights before the game is :30 old. Keven Veilleux dropped Tim Marks, Jesse Boulerice and Pierre-Cedric Labrie spun around and what not and Chris Durno and Zach Sill slipped and fell during their scrap. Later, Eric Tangradi and Radko Gudas would fight after the Big Dog interfered with Desjarsdins and also before referee Jamie Koharski could blow his whistle boarded an Admiral. In the four-minute power play that would ensue, Matt Fornataro would score.

In the first period intermission, I would be lucky enough to snag a signed Marc-Andre Fleury signed puck. Better look at the signature here.

Second period: Eric Tangradi would continue his torrid pace and tie the game at one. Nearly two minutes later, Paul Szczechura would push the Admirals back in front at the very end of a Jesse Boulerice interference call. Then, less than a minute later, Mark Barberio would score. He had an entire lane open to just drive down and snipe on Thiessen. Two minutes later, Troy Milam from the blue line would score as Thiessen was screened. That was all for Brad as John Curry came in to relive him.

Unacceptable defense by Steve Wagner tonight. If I had more time I would break down his spotty play and where he in my opinion cost us the game. This cannot continue.

Third period: Comeback would be on. Tangradi on a deflection at 2:41, Keven Veilleux on a rebound at 5:20 and Joey Haddad backhanded at 7:46. The Mohegan Sun Arena was jumping. It was electric. It felt good. It felt refreshing.

Norfolk wasn’t impressed. After the Haddad goal it appeared we stopped playing. Radko Gudas again while Curry was screened in front by his own man. After that it was all she wrote. Newly acquired Levi Nelson would pot an empty netter.

Line brawls at the end. Check the scoresheet for the culprits. Robert Bortuzzo took a 5 minute elbowing major. I hate misconducts at the end of games cause guys get suspended. We’ll have to see. In the ensuing 5 on three after another mini line brawl Troy Milam would rub it in and score at 19:59.

I said in my Gameday post that if Norfolk won, it’d send a notice to the League that the Admirals are for real. They did, and they have.

Interesting to see what Bombulie will have to say about this game. Check him out later.

Around the East: Worcester beat Albany 6-3, Portland beat Adirondack 2-1, Rochester defeated Binghamton 4-3 in a shootout and Syracuse lost 4-3 to the Providence Bruins.

Standings: WBS 42, NOR 39, HER 33, CLT 32, BNG 26, ALB 22, SYR 22 and ADK 20.

Back on the schtick tomorrow at 4 in Atlantic City. I am off to bed. Gameday post will be up at high noon.

Let’s Go Pens!

The Norfolk Admirals tweeted something which really rubbed this 4-2 loss in tonight. That is, that the Pens have lost 5 times this year and Norfolk is responsible for 40% of those losses.

In case you have been sleeping all day and are just now waking up, Dustin Jeffrey was recalled to Pittsburgh today as Mike Comrie was placed on injured reserve.

Dustin Tokarski vs. John Curry tonight. Curry starts his second straight game of the year.

No lineup changes from Wednesday. With Jeffrey recalled, Geoff Walker was back in the lineup. Bryan Lerg centered Tim Wallace and Chris Collins in the place of Dustin.

First Period: Before the game was :12 old, there were three fights. Tim Wallace and Tim Marks got the fisticuffs started at :05, Jesse Boulerice and Pierre-Cedric Labire at :08 and Geoff Walker and Chris Durno at :11. Finally things settled down and after a Robert Bortuzzo hook at 1:41, Alex Berry deflected a Mike Vernace point shot to put the Admirals up 1-0 before the game was three minutes old. Paul Szczechura would get caught hooking Eric Tangradi after he crashed the net and Nick Johnson would cash in on the power play. The Big Dog has 7 points in 3 games for the Penguins. AHL Live had some early technical difficulties, and during the blackout, Mike Angelidis would score to make it 2-1.

Second Period: Lots of chances by WBS in the first half of the period with two 2 on 1’s for the Pens but no conversions. Looking like we have all the momentum in Eastern Virgina, Troy Milam scores to make it 3-1. We’d get within one again quickly as Ty Wishart would sit for interference. Corey Potter would blast one from the blue line which would find its way to Nick Johnson’s stick and in the back of the net to make it 3-2. At this point, the Pens are sitting back playing rope-a-dope. The Admirals are flying all over the ice to start the game, the Penguins are just sitting back, letting the game come to them. Period 2 would end 3-2 for the Admirals.

Third Period: Stefano Giliati scores on a backhanded shot which John Curry was not expecting apparently, as AHL Live showed a lot of space for Giliati to shoot at on the back side to push it to 4-2 Admirals. That shot and goal was Norfolk’s first of the period at 6:21 of the third. To that point, the Pens had been controlling pace of play. Nothing really of substance happened after that. Wilkes-Barre would pull Curry late but Norfolk just played full on shutdown hockey to hold on for the win.

Lots of chirping post whistle. Tomorrow is going to be fun. The game is almost a sellout at this point, with less than 500 tickets remaining. WBS has not lost two games in a row, but has not beaten Norfolk yet this season. The Admirals are now more of a threat to us than Hershey is at this point in the season. How we respond tomorrow night is going to be huge.

Around the Division: Hershey beat Charlotte in a shootout, 2-1. Injuries and call-ups piling up for the Bears. Binghamton shutout Albany 5-0. The Adirondack Phantoms beat the Syracuse Crunch 5-2 this evening for their fourth win and their 10th point.

Standings: Norfolk creeps up on the Penguins, closing the gap to 5 points for tops in the league with Wilkes-Barre’s 42 points to Norfolk’s 37. Hershey gets a point up on Charlotte good for third and 33 points to Charlotte’s 32 points. Binghamton gets to 25 points in fifth. If the playoffs started today there would be no crossover for the Sens as fifth place Springfield in the Atlantic has 26 points. Syracuse is sixth and Albany seventh, both have 22 points and Adirondack is still in the East Division cellar but have 10 points.

Tomorrow by far is the biggest game of the year for both teams, actually. A regulation win by Norfolk puts them three points behind us and the psyche that we can’t beat them is instilled in the Penguins players and fans minds. If we win, it’s a push for the weekend. If you don’t have a ticket for tomorrow’s game what are you waiting for? 570-208-PENS. Do it!

Gameday post for tomorrow’s rematch will drop at 3 p.m. Let’s Go Pens!