Chirps from Center Ice

It’s one of those games you wish you can put in a big bottle and take to a science lab and just duplicate 51 more times this season. A 3-0 Penguins shutout this time on home ice.

John Curry v. Jeff Frazee.

Carl Sneep was back in the lineup tonight as was Nick Johnson. As a result Bryan Lerg and Joey Mormina were scratched. Joey Haddad skated as the extra forward in warmups.

First period: A quick Nick Palmieri hook quickly converted into a wide open net for Andrew Hutchinson and a quick 1-0 Wilkes-Barre lead. Super-pest Louis Robitaille skated tonight for the Devils and took a slashing penalty right after. Keven Veilleux had a neat pass on the power play but it did not connect with Captain Ryan Craig. Then the Devils had the chance on the man advantage with Brian Strait off for holding. During the PK, Ryan Craig intercepted a pass and sprung Dustin Jeffrey on a breakaway and he buried it on Frazee to make it 2-0. Dustin is tied for the league lead in shorties. Then late in the period, Jeff Frazee was stung by a shot. He rode out the period but did not return. Geoff Walker and Louis Robitaille fought. Walker skated for Manchester last year so maybe there is history somewhere between the two. Who knows.

First period intermission found yours truly on the ice for a shoot and score type thing. I am right-handed, but used a left-handed stick. Here’s why: The guy I went up against I beat last year in the intermission puck race during the Black and Gold game. I figured I would let him use the right-handed stick. I lost by one goal, missing from the right face off dot and the blue line but cashing in from center ice.

Second period: Dave Caruso came in relief of Frazee. I did not spot Jeff on Albany’s bench second or third periods. This is not good for the Devils because Mike McKenna is on recall to parent New Jersey and Caruso is a call up from the ECHL Trenton Devils. Anyway, Carl Sneep and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond fought. Leblond is a true heavyweight and has an impressive fight card. He manhandled Sneep, but Carl did that to send a message to the coaching staff that he does not want to be scratched and fears no one or nothing. Louis was back to his antics again, this time goading Jesse Boulerice into an interference call. Curry was on his game tonight, especially in the second when the Devils were flying all over the place.

Third period: Chris Collins stays out while his line changes and chases a puck in deep. For his efforts, he stuffs in a goal to virtually put the game out of reach. That pretty much was it for the third period. Pens sat on the lead while Albany really couldn’t establish anything. What they did muster was sent away by John Curry who was just on a different planet tonight.

Late in the third I spotted Brett Sterling go hard into the side boards with the massive Alexander Urbom. Great pickup by Dylan Harrison or @CxJamesx9 on Twitter who tweeted that The Ticket was in some pain. Trainer Patrick Steidle never attended to him once that I saw but I did see some grimacing in his face after the final whistle.

Stars were Andrew Hutchinson, John Curry and Dustin Jeffrey in that order. I thought Curry deserved first star honors.

Elsewhere around the East, Hershey lost to Worcester 3-2 despite outgunning the Sharks by more than a 2 to 1 margin, 43-21. Bears PxP man John Walton tweeted that the Bears were having a closed-door meeting, as called by coach Mark French. I am not going to editorialize Hershey’s problems. They still remain a dangerous, dangerous team. Charlotte got revenge on Norfolk from the other night when the Admirals handed the Checkers a 7-3 drubbing on Monday. This time Zac Dalpe scores :11 apart in the third to push the Checkers past the Admirals 4-3. What a way to lose. Hamilton beat Adirondack 3-2.

Standings wise, Wilkes-Barre is 15-3 and has 30 points in first. Charlotte has 25 in second. Norfolk has 24 in third. Hershey among all their turmoil is in fourth with 21 points. Bingo is idle tonight they have 21 points and are in fifth. Albany is sixth with 16, Syracuse the same points in seventh and Adirondack has 8 good for last.

The Pens are off to Binghamton tomorrow for the Thanksgiving Day game up there. 37 years they have played hockey on Thanksgiving in Bingo. I will not be in attendance. I also will be in New Jersey tomorrow with family so there is a likelihood that I may not tweet at least the first part of the game. Senators beat writer Joy Lindsay will be at the game and live-tweeting. Follow her now at @PSBJoyOnTheSens.

A gritty hard-fought game this afternoon in Wilkes-Barre saw the Penguins win 2-1. All the goals came from fourth liners on both sides.

Brad Thiessen v. Robin Lehner this afternoon.

First period saw Geoff Kinrade for Bingo score first. This was set up by a Steve Wagner failed clearing attempt. Steve’s been in a rut recently. Used to be a rock on D now it’s more iffy play. Later in the period a Derek Smith failed clearing attempt found Zach Sill’s blade for a 1-1 tie. Bingo really made a push to make the score more than what it was and just put the score out of reach after a long three in three weekend for both teams, as evidenced by the 16-7 shots on goal advantage for the Sens.

Second period, lots of back and forth action. Jeff Smith was the referee again and there were times he could have called something, but he gets it’s a man’s game and let the boys play. Jesse Boulerice of all people scored what would end up the game winning goal after a cycle behind Lehner’s net.

In the third period Bingo would press but not crack Brad Thiessen. About halfway in the period Brad was behind his net and Jim O’Brien had an empty cage to shoot at but Steve Wagner rectified his recent spotty defensive play of late to keep the score 2-1. Both teams would trade penalties but nothing doing and it was all she wrote. WBS improves to 14-3.

Couple of notes: Eric Tangradi had a really great game with a lot of scoring opportunities. Great work by the fourth line guys tonight, as Chris Collins, Zach Sill and Jesse Boulerice were stars three thru one. Another game WBS gets outshot and another game WBS wins while being outshot. A win finally on home ice to break the streak of three straight losses at home.

Could be trouble: Kyle M. (@ovifan8) reported on his Twitter feed that of all people, Chris Bourque was in the building tonight to watch the Bears and Hartford Wolf Pack tonight, a game Hershey would win 4-3. Nothing official from beat writer Tim Leone, the Bears or John Walton’s respective twitter feeds so take it for what it is worth. Washington owns Bourque’s Europe rights until December. He’d have to report there then get sent down, have to clear waivers, the whole bit. I don’t know if he would qualify as a veteran or not.

In the balance of East Division action, Syracuse coughed up three goals in :52 to lose to the Rochester Americans 5-4. This angers Chairman How’s Glorious Army. As it should.

Standings wise we look like this: WBS has 28 points good for first. Idle Charlotte has 23 good for second. Norfolk has 22 for third. Hershey, fourth at 21 points. Bingo has 21 points too but the first tiebreak is wins so they are in fifth. Albany and Syracuse have 16 a piece for sixth and seventh respectively and the Phantoms have 8 points good for last place.

J’ever wonder whatever became of Patrick Maroon? You know, the exiled Adirondack Phantoms forward who was basically thrown off the team a few weeks ago with no reason given? He was traded to Anaheim today, along with David Laliberte. In return, the Phantoms get Danny Syvret and Rob Bordson. Tim McManus has all you need over at his blog.

Just a note: I will be in New Jersey the better part of the afternoon on Thanksgiving and will probably not be able to tweet some, if not all of the Thanksgiving game between Wilkes-Barre and Binghamton in Binghamton. Joy Lindsay from the Press Sun and Bulletin in Binghamton live tweets every B-Sens game and will be tweeting this one as well. Lend her a follow, won’t you?

Multi-year season ticket holder meet and greet is tomorrow. If anything of substance happens there or if anything goofy starts with this Bourque to Hershey noise (which is all it is because it isn’t, as of 8 pm Sunday night confirmed) check me out here tomorrow afternoon. You can always follow along on Twitter too. Don’t forget you can always e-mail me too.

Let’s Go Pens!

Made my first ever regular season trip down to GIANT Center tonight for Wilkes-Barre / Hershey. One of the greatest rivalries in all of the American Hockey League. Left nearly needing to go to the emergency room because I nearly had a heart attack watching this game, at 4-3 Penguins victory. It felt like a playoff game.

I attended Saturday Mass in Hershey so I can sleep in Sunday, so I missed warmups. It was John Curry vs. Semyon Varlamov. Expect Holtby any day down from parent Washington and Varlamov to be recalled. Lineup change to note for the Pens found Carl Sneep scratched and Joey Mormina in his place.

First period: Brett Sterling made it 1-0 after a rebound stuff in under the pads of Varlamov. I was doing yardwork earlier this afternoon and said to myself he was going to have a great game tonight. The rest of the period saw Joey Mormina absolutely flatten Andrew Joudrey along the benches and that was about it. Referee Jeff Smith ran things this evening. You pretty much have to have your arm ripped off in order for him to call a penalty. I am of the opinion that you let the boys play, and not make yourself part of the game by raising your arm every five seconds. Here’s a quick preview for the Binghamton game tomorrow, Smith is the ref for that one too.

First intermission I did a walk around GIANT Center. I saw this and it made me very sad.

Second period: Tim Leone tweeted that Wilkes-Barre hadn’t a shot since 8:18 of the first period, which was the Sterling goal. We went about 5 minutes into the second before Joe Vitale got two in one shift. Steve Wagner was spotted for a hook, and four seconds into the power play Lawrence Nycholat rifled one home to tie the score. Almost immediately afterwards, Sheldon Souray sat for interference, and the calls were even up. The score would be 1-1 after two periods.

Third period: Keven Veilleux scored a hightlight reel goal. Eric P at the Wilkes-Blog has it over on his postgame recap there. Please make sure you are on an empty stomach. It is that sickening. Later, Varlamov was screened by fellow Russian Dmitri Kugryshev and Brian Strait of all people scored a goal for us. His game isn’t scoring goals guys, it’s playing defense. Then, Chris Collins jumped Mathieu Perreault. Collins would sit for interference, :08 seconds into the power play and Boom! Andrew Gordon scored. At this point I felt like this was the tipping point of the game. The fans were crazy, the Bears are back within one with just over 10 minutes left to play, oh don’t wake up that sleeping bear!

Gordon would get another chance and I thought for sure he would score but somehow either he missed the net or Curry made the save. Later, Dustin Jeffrey would knock down a Lawrence Nycholat clearing attempt and this would prove to hold up as the game winner to make it 4-2. Andrew Gordon would score another power play goal after a Joe Vitale delay of game. Hershey would press, press, press but wound not score with Varlamov pulled and it’s game over.

Three Starts were Kyle Greentree, Dustin Jeffrey and Brett Sterling in that order.

The power play was AWFUL. You cannot, can. not. go 0-fer on the penalty kill. Hershey didn’t have Keith Aucoin tonight. and still scored goals 4 seconds, 8 seconds and 77 seconds into their man advantages. This needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed QUICKLY!

Like I said at the beginning, a fun game to watch but one that for sure leaves you breathless and all you are doing there is sitting watching. Man.

Bombulie with his postgamer. Love the mention about if Nygel Pelletier had this game the score would be 11-4.

Around the division: Norfolk beat Adirondack 3-1, Hartford downed Bingo 3-2 in OT, Springfield beat the Crunch 5-4, and Albany blanked Rochester 4-0 in Rochester.

Standings: Penguins sit atop the division with 26 points. Charlotte is idle till Monday. They have 23 points. Norfolk has 22. Bingo has 21. Hershey has 19 points. Albany and Syracuse have 16 points apiece and the Phantoms have 8 points.

Afternoon game vs. the Binghamton Senators at home. Last time we played Bingo we got destroyed 5-2. The last time Bingo played the tail end of a three-in-three they got smoked 8-3 by Hershey. We are terrible on home ice of recent. I guess we’ll see tomorrow afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

I don’t even know where to begin on this one. A 4-1 Norfolk win tonight which depending on which side of the ice you sat on, could have been sheer domination by the Admirals tonight in every sense of the word. I mentioned on Bombulie’s blog this week after the Albany game when hearing that Wednesday practice would be canceled about complacency. Never rest on your laurels. Well, tonight kind of proved me right, don’t you think?

Brad Thiessen v. Cecrick Desjardins this evening. Brett Sterling made his return to the Pens lineup.

The way Chris Cozzan referees a hockey game, it can get boring on the ol’ twitter feed. Six penalties tonight resulting in only two power plays for Wilkes-Barre and all in the first period and nothing thereafter. Don’t get me wrong, I love the way Chris Cozzan referees hockey games, but sometimes it can tend to get boring.

Regardless, after a Radko Gudas hook, Tim Wallace scored to make it 1-0 Wilkes-Barre. After that, Norfolk just went into pure shutdown mode after that. Desjardins is as good as advertised. He was not challenged much tonight. When he was, it was an ohmygodhowdidhemakethatsave moment.

I knew the night wasn’t going to go our way when Bryan Lerg stickhandled through a crowd then fell flat on his face near Desjardins. Later, a Matt Fornataro blast was flicked away by the pad of Thiessen, right to Chris Durno’s stick. Period would end tied at 1.

Second period is not a minute old, a Mike Vernace change-up shot is sent towards Thiessen and Blair Jones deflects it past him. Really a bad goal. Later in the period, guess who? Blair Jones again! After this, that was all the Admirals needed, as they just went into shut down mode after that. Nothing doing in the third. Alex Berry got an empty net goal and that was all she wrote.

Bombulie with some great quotes from Coach Hynes and Eric Tangradi in his postgamer. Tangradi played a horrible game. He knew it too. He knows he played bad, knows he needs to finish on Desjardins’ doorstep, so I am not going to rip on him.

Pedestrian effort by Steve Wagner defensively. I’ll say no more.

Around the Division: Bingo beat Hershey 4-2 tonight. Tomorrow nights tilt at the GIANT Center just got that much more interesting. Albany beats Syracuse in a shootout 4-3 and Charlotte beats Adirondack 4-3 in OT. Standings wise it looks like this: We are still in first with 24 points. Charlotte sits alone in second with 23 points. Norfolk jumps to third with 20 points. Bingo has 20, Hershey 19, Syracuse 16, Albany 14 and Adirondack 8. The Checkers are off tomorrow night. They do not play until Monday vs. Norfolk at home.

I will be in Hershey tomorrow for the Pens / Bears. Just a note that depending on what time I get back home tomorrow night and how I feel, a postgame update may not be had until Sunday morning.

Go Pens.

Really a dominating performance this evening in the New York Capital District, a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre romp which by rights should have been a 7-0 thrashing or something like that.

Brett Sterling was a scratch. Joey Haddad took his spot on the fourth line. Nick Johnson as advertised did not play. Brad Thiessen got the nod in net in an unprecedented 2nd game in a row which to date has been unheard of. I was fully expecting John Curry against the broken Devils.

First period: Albany drew a quick 5 on 3 after a Brian Strait hook and a very soft Corey Potter trip. Tyler Eckford sniped from the blue line while Thiessen was screened. Later in the period, Adam Henrique took a cross check and Dustin Jeffrey scored to tie the game. More on him later.

Second period: Chris Collins bomb from the point finds a Ryan Craig stick to make it 2-1 early at 2:42 of the period. Albany beat writer Bill Cain tweeted that the Devils were being outshot 18-3 at 4:30 into the 2nd period. It really was a dominating performance for the Wilkes-Barre defense tonight. Radio called the corps a “man amongst boys” tonight. Later in the period, Joe Vitale drew an Alexander Urbom slash, and Andrew Hutchinson blasted a one timer from Dustin Jeffrey from the blue line past Frazee to make it 3-1. Then, Pierre Luc-Letourneau-Leblond and Jesse Boulerice scrapped in what was the fight of the year in my opinion. Both men struck each other so hard they cut each other. I mean open gashes which required stitches for both. Boulerice was hit so hard it knocked me out (not literally). Referee Terry Koharski reffed the score and called a bunch of penalties on WBS, but it just didn’t matter. We had shorthanded chance after shorthanded chance. Only 1,478 in attendance tonight and they booed the effort tonight. Bronx cheers on any legit shots on Thiessen who probably didn’t even break a sweat tonight.

The shots were 27-7 after two.

Third period: More shorthanded chances by WBS. Eric Tangradi lit the lamp at 5:50 from a delicious pass from Dustin Jeffrey. After that it was cruise control. Zach Sill got in late shenanigans but it didn’t matter it was a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre romp. 8-0 on the road and Thiessen undefeated.

Tyler Eckford for Albany, Andrew Hutchinson and Dustin Jeffrey for WBS were the three stars:

Thoughts: 1) As I said in my Gameday Preview, Albany’s core is fractured. Injuries and call-ups will hurt any team. Right now WBS is an elite team, so the 1-0 deficit early meant nothing to them, they just went on lockdown afterwards with the final SOG tally being 32-19. 2) Thiessen. Why start him twice in a row? Especially against a downtrodden Albany team? Unless you are naming him your #1 and going Thiess, Thiess, Curry this weekend v. Norfolk, Hershey and Bingo. My thought is it’ll be Curry-Thiessen-Curry this weekend. 3) The fourth line. Sill-Boulerice-Haddad worked hard and should have had a goal tonight. Really impressed by the depth on this team. 4) Bryan Lerg really played great tonight, which speaks again to the depth this team has. 5) Dustin Jeffrey. Really making a case to get called up to Pittsburgh and stay there. Eric P at the Wilkes-Blog has a post this week you should read. He was 1-2-3 tonight. Radio called his goal an “NHL caliber goal” and basically called this game his “breakout” game. Hard to disagree.

No other team in the East skated tonight, We are 12-2 right now with 24 points. Hershey and Charlotte have 19 a piece. Charlotte plays Adirondack tomorrow and Friday. Hershey plays in Bingo Friday.

Gigantic test coming against the Norfolk Admirals Friday which are going from pretender to contender. Get your popcorn ready.

We needed a bounceback game after last night’s debacle v. Binghamton. The Sharks are not a push over. But, we somehow managed to stick to the basics and won 2-0 tonight.

Brad Thiessen v. Alex Stalock on Alex Stalock bobblehead night. No Sterling tonight. Bryan Lerg skated in his first game in what seemed like forever for him.

After an early Andrew Hutchinson high stick, Wilkes-Barre generated chance after chance after chance this evening.

The big story out of this game may not be a save, goal or fight but Nick Johnson’s left shoulder. After Dustin Jeffrey nearly scored in the first period, Worcester’s Mike Moore shoved Juice to the ice and he went down and stayed down. No penalty called. At first he went to the bench, then he and trainer Patrick Steidle went to the locker room.

This was all during a Sean Sullivan cross check penalty and a subsequent Ryan Craig power play goal. I tweeted very early this morning that Worcester boasted the best power play and penalty kill in the league. So much for that.

Wilkes-Barre penalty kill was perfect. Worcester could not set anything up. You can see that they focused on tightening that up. What made it even better, Tim Wallace scored in the second period on a shorthanded 2 on 1 with Dustin Jeffrey after a Corey Potter boarding call.

After that, Worcester had guns blazing late in the 2nd with multiple chances.

Third period was fast paced. You get that when Chris Cozzan is in the orange arm bands. I spoke with some Sharks fans during the action. Worcester is smack dab in the middle of Atlantic Division country, merely 2 hours away from Portland and Bridgeport and under an hour everyplace in between. Would love to be a season ticket holder here. Would probably attend close to 70 AHL games if I did.

Anyway. I counted only 17 Penguin skaters on the bench and did not see Nick Johnson in the third period. I can tell you that I saw him post hit. Perhaps they just rested him. I hope it’s nothing serious.

Eric Tangradi, Ryan Craig and Brad Thiessen were the three stars in that order. Final shots on goal were 38 for Worcester to Wilkes-Barre’s 26.

I liked the way we responded tonight after the 5-1 whipping Bingo put on us 24 hours ago. Nothing went right yesterday. Today, different story.

East Division scoreboard: Bridgeport beat Norfolk 3-2 in OT. Thanks, Sound Tigers. 2nd place Charlotte was idle. Checkers don’t play till Wednesday. Portland beat Albany 5-2. The Abbotsford Heat beat the Adirondack Phantons 4-2. Toronto beat Binghamton 4-3 and Hershey shutout the Syracuse Crunch 3-0. Dany Sabourin with the shut out for the Bears. Go figure. Copycats.

The AHL website was having issues tonight. Here is all you need to know. Wilkes-Barre is in first with 22 points. Charlotte is idle with 19. With the technical difficulties, I am not confident saying anything else, so here is the link to the AHL standings.

Please check out Jonathan Bombulie for more intelligent analysis.*

We’ll be back in the 570 tomorrow. Albany Tuesday in the Capital District of New York.  I have some fodder regarding the radio show I will run between now and Tuesday.

Go Pens!

*- JB reports in the postgamer that The Ticket made the trip, worked out today but did not play. He further mentioned Juice was banged up twice and Joe Vitale was limping late. I know I counted 17 players. I know I did because I did it five times, three times with my fingers. (4 lines, three players to a line = 12 players, plus 6 defensemen = 18 players) — we’ll see Monday what the walking wounded looks like and if there is a call up from The Nail.

Nothing can be said about this game, a 5-1 loss to the Binghamton Senators. Reminded me of flat soda. No pop. No fizz. Just flat. Like week old soda that sat out.

John Curry v. Barry Brust tonight. Joey Mormina was a scratch tonight and he really shouldn’t have been because Steve Wagner had a forgettable game.

Two power play goals by Binghamton in the first period tonight set the stage for a disastrous night for Wilkes-Barre. A Bortuzzo trip led to a Corey Locke goal then a Johnson hook led to a Bobby Butler goal. Butler is on a tear his rookie season.

Shots wise, WBS had the lead all night but if you just looked at who played better that last shift or block of time from whistle to whistle, Binghamton outplayed us. Strange too, because yesterday, Sens beat writer Joy Lindsay reported on her Twitter feed that practice was cancelled due to ice issues at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena yesterday. Perhaps the day off was just what the doctor ordered after getting smacked around by Rochester 6-3 on Wednesday.

Referee Ryan Fraser gave Wilkes-Barre every opportunity to make a game out of it. 0 for 6 on the power play and there is nothing to see here.

Eric Tangradi had a forgettable game. Andrew Hutchinson as well. Both played iffy games. Tangradi whiffed on a one-time on a power play in the 2nd and Andrew Hutchinson tip-tapped in the pussy willows in the same power play, in his own zone and it led to a Binghamton scoring chance. If anyone in Pittsburgh who reads this blog wonders why Eric and Andrew are here in Wilkes-Barre, look no further than this game.

I can’t make much more of a story tonight. Perhaps Jonathan Bombulie can in his postgame wrap. Bobby Butler scored two goals. He’s among the AHL rookie leaders. It’s never any good when Francis Lessard lights up the score sheet instead of the penalty sheet. He score late in the third to make it 5-1 and rub it in Wilkes-Barre’s faces.

Chris Collins got the lone Penguin goal late in the third. Roman Wick had the other Binghamton goal in the second at 35 seconds on a daft 2 on 1 with Jim O’Brien.

Brust, Locke and Butler were your three stars.

Around the division: Denis Hamel snipes for two goals and the Adirondack Phantoms cooled off the Norfolk Admirals. Hammer had the game tying and game winning goal (in overtime) as the Phantoms won 4-3. Hershey lost 3-2 to Toronto. Charlotte beat Bridgeport 6-5 and Syracuse shut out Albany 3-0. Standings wise: We are still in first with 20 points, Charlotte has 19 points, Norfolk and Binghamton have 16, Hershey and Syracuse have 15 points, Albany 12 and Binghamton 7. Not a bad night for Wilkes-Barre in the long run.

Off to Worcester tomorrow. I will be there. Booster club trip. They beat ManchVegas 3-1.

Yuck.