Chirps from Center Ice

More internet issues hounded me tonight. I will put a call into the ISP tomorrow to find out what’s up. Regardless, Pens are back to their winning ways after a 2-1 victory in Western New York this evening.

Bryan Lerg, Corey Potter and Keven Veilleux were the scratches. Geoff Walker replaced BeastMode in the lineup. Jacob Markstrom vs. Brad Thiessen in net tonight. Brett Sterling, Ryan Craig and Tim Wallace had the A’s.

First period: After a Tim Wallace slash and a Geoff Walker hook it was end to end action the rest of the period. Really nice tempo by the Pens as from what I could see, and what I heard it sounded like the Amerks chased the Pens all over the rink the first period. Tangradi had a chance really late. Appeared Wilkes-Barre wanted to shoot high on Markstrom because all the shots kept going up and over him.

Second period: Tons of observations from other people watching the game that Wilkes-Barre maintained the pace and tempo. The Pens let their guard down for a few moments then BANG! Dustin Jeffrey from a nice setup from The Ticket. I love Brett’s versatility. He can score and be the ideal setup man. The very next shift Michael Caruso tied it about :30 later. Later, Eric Selleck leveled Jesse Boulerice. Geoff Walker took offense and they scrapped, Walker ended up with a 4-minute roughing call. Then in the penalty kill, Chris Collins was caught slashing. Wilkes-Barre ended up having to kill a 5 on 3. There ended up being :39 of carryover time on the 5 on 3 in the third.

Third period: Pens killed away all the penalties assessed. Jesse Boulerice made it back to the ice. Joey Mormina and Eric Selleck fought. I never got a good look at it through all the buffering. Apparently, it limits me in live-streaming video only and not blogging or twittering. Finally, Markstrom was caught slashing (yes, the goaltender) and Wilkes-Barre got its first PP of the evening. Rochester only allowed 1 SOG the entire 2:00. Later, Michal Repik was caught hooking and WBS got another man advantage. We did not score on that power play but just as Michal was coming out of the box, Ryan Craig scored to make it 2-1. After an Amerk time-out and empty net, Rochester never got the equalizer and Wilkes-Barre won the hockey game to start a new winning streak.

Eric Selleck, Dustin Jeffrey and Brad Thiessen were the three stars.

Analysis wise, I will turn you over to Jonathan Bombulie. From what I heard on radio it sounded like we controlled the game. But it’s tough to judge these when you are playing the third game in under three nights.

Around the league, Hershey lost to Charlotte 4-2. The bigger news in that game was that Keith Aucoin left with an injury. I am sure that Bears beat writer Tim Leone will have more when the team returns on Wednesday (they still have one more game in Charlotte Tuesday night) – Binghamton beat Syracuse 5-0 and Albany lost 6-4 to Providence.

Points look like this: WBS has 20 points. Charlotte, yes, Charlotte has 15. Norfolk and Bingo have 14 apiece. Hershey and Syracuse 13, Albany 12 and Adirondack 5. Hershey could have been 3 points back with a win and an Americans victory. Should be a fun year.

Penguins will have a day off Monday. Perhaps I will do something fun this week on the blog because of the slow news week that comes of life in the minors. If there are AHL stories of interest I’ll have an entry. Until then, Go Pens.

I realize that we cannot win every game. I realize that. But, I also realize that we should beat teams who are missing their big guns such as Syracuse. Top gun Kyle Palmieri is on recall to parent Anaheim. This was a game we should have won.

Well, they don’t play games on paper and we lost 4-3 tonight.

John Curry v. J-P Levasseur. Tim Wallace, Brett Sterling and Nick Johnson had the A’s tonight. Keven Veilleux was back taking the place of Geoff Walker and Corey Potter was announced as a scratch again.

Before the game Brad Thiessen and John Curry received their Goaltender of the Month Awards.

First Period: WBS had a ton of early opportunities. A ton. Came ready to play off the hop. Every shot was a legit scoring opportunity. Levasseur was leaving big rebounds all night. We steamrolled Syracuse in the first, but were unable to crack Levasseur and it was scoreless after one the shots on goal 17-9. Near scare in the game when Syracuse had a late power play on a Jesse Boulerice interference on the goaltender call when the puck deflected off Curry, hit the post then dropped straight down in the crease and out.

Second period: The Ticket opened up the period with a ridiculous wrap-around goal on Levasseur. 1-0. About six minutes later, Tim Wallace scored on a power play. 2-0. Cruise control from here right? No. Nick Johnson fought John Mitchell. Game got extremely chippy afterwards. Big hits. Whoops, Tim Wallace spotted interfering. In the ensuing power play with Robert Bortuzzo sprawled all over the ice, Maxime Macenauer flipped the puck over Bortuzzo and it found Brett Festerling’s stick on the back door of Curry. 2-1. Right after that, Levasseur misplays a puck, The Ticket basically did what he does when he is that close to the goal, and made it 3-1. The period would end that way, with Wilkes-Barre outshooting the visitors 30-16.

I wonder what was said in the Penguins locker room and also what was spoken by Mark Holick in the Crunch locker room. Play not to lose? Protect the lead? If you are Syracuse, get the puck in deeper and muck it up in front of Curry?

Third period: Brandon MacMillan scored as the Brett Festerling penalty for interference ended. 3-2. Four minutes later, Nicolas Deschamps scored to tie the game. Then, nearly two minutes later, Trevor Smith put Syracuse out in front to make it 4-3 at 7:46.

I seriously do not know how those goals happened. Apparently neither did Wilkes-Barre. In hindsight, we should have called timeout after the Deschamps goal. Nothing doing after that. So we lost.

Fourth line came to work tonight. Had all sorts of quality chances.

SOG ended 45-23 in favor of Wilkes-Barre. Three stars were Trevor Smith, The Ticket and Brandon MacMillan.

The collapse in the third has to be investigated. Think it was just lucky bounces by Syracuse versus just a complete implosion by Wilkes-Barre, but three unanswered goals in about a five-minute span is tough to explain away.

Back to Rochester tomorrow who won 6-4. The good news from tonight is that Norfolk lost at home against Charlotte 3-1. Bingo killed Adirondack 7-3 tonight. Former Senator Denis Hamel had two goals for the Phantoms.

So the standings look like this: WBS has 18 points to Norfolk’s 14. Hershey / Syracuse / Charlotte all have an identical 13 points. Albany / Bingo have 12, and Adirondack is the first AHL team to lose 10 games this year and have 5 points.

Boys are on the bus to Rochester. Rochester is probably half way home on I-90 from Albany. Game tomorrow at 5:05. We’ll start a new streak tomorrow.

Technical difficulties hounded me all night tonight on AHL Live. It was on my end with my internet service provider just being painfully painfully slow in buffering the action in Rochester tonight. Suffice to say, I wasn’t able to watch more than :30 of live action, so I gave up and simply relied on radio on 102.3 The Mountain.

Brad Thiessen v. Tyler Plante in goal this evening. Tim Wallace, Ryan Craig and Andrew Hutchinson had the A’s tonight. Brett Sterling was back from injury. Corey Potter tweaked something in the morning skate so Joey Mormina skated on D in his place. This was all before AHL Commissioner Dave Andrews. Whatever Potter had radio called, “not serious”.

Before the game was 9:30 old, Rochester was up 3-0. Ryan Del Monte even strength, Michael Duco on a power play after a Chris Collins hold to snap the penalty kill streak then Bill Thomas after a Brett Sterling slash.

At this point, we are down 0-3, and are 0-2 on the penalty kill and flirting with disaster. John Curry per radio had the stomach flu so Thiessen needed to ride the storm out. What happened next was a thing of beauty.

Chris Collins with the answer goal with 4:30 left to play in the first period. Then, Eric Tangradi cleanly puts an American into the boards. Michael Duco takes exception and fights the Big Dog, but Eric doesn’t throw punches and is rather body slammed to the ice. Referee Marcus Vinnerborg assessed a 5-minute fighting major and a high sticking call (could have called him for instigating) and Brett Sterling, back from injury, makes the Amerks pay. 3-2.

Second period saw fisticuffs in front of Tyler Plante’s crease. Apparently Mr. Plante doesn’t know who Jesse Boulerice is as per radio (again I was not able to see on AHL Live due to internet issues) Plante swung his stick at Boulerice. Jesse took exception and in the dogpile, outside of Plante’s crease he took some swings. Dumb. Momentum shift right there for WBS. Later, Chris Conner scored to tie the game at three.

Third period Eric Tangradi took a 4 minute double minor for a high stick. I thought at this point if Rochester was going to score, it was going to be here. No. Dustin Jeffrey, long known as a quality penalty killer, intercepted a pass and scored a shorthanded goal to make it 4-3 WBS.

After that, radio described Rochester buzzing all over Thiessen’s net in the offensive zone. Likely a forgettable game for Andrew Hutchinson as his name was called after some turnovers. Thiessen settled down and turned all the shots aside.

Tim Wallace scored at 16:52 of the third to make it 5-3 and it’s over right? Not so fast. Almost 30 seconds later, Scott Timmins makes it interesting to make it 5-4 unassisted. Rochester pulled Plante after a timeout but wasn’t able to get the equalizer, and Wilkes-Barre is a clean 9-0-0-0 to start the season.

Should be interesting to see what Bombulie thought of this game, as JB reported no issues in buffering from his home. I love the way we battled. It is obvious that this team can battle back from just about anything. If you are a Wilkes-Barre fan you are loving this.

Stars were 3) Duco, 2) Collins, 1) Wallace.

Elsewhere in the East, Norfolk beat Charlotte in a shootout, 3-2. Bingo, in front of 13,000+ at the Bell Centre in Montreal lost to Hamilton 5-2, Albany defeated Worcester 3-2 in a shootout and tomorrow’s opponent the Syracuse Crunch were defeated by the Springfield Falcons 3-2 in a shootout.

Points wise, we are four to the good over the nearest competition at this point which is Norfolk, with 18 points to their 14. They play Charlotte again tomorrow. Hershey is dormant until Sunday and can get leaped over in the points by Albany if the Devils defeat Rochester tomorrow.

That is about all. The boys are on the way back home probably as you read this. Get ready for some fun tomorrow vs. Syracuse. Let’s Go Pens!

Remembering my College Literature classes, I read Dante’s Inferno. I remember the famous phrase “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate“, or “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” which was inscribed over the entrance to Hell.

What does this have to do with minor league hockey you ask? The Hershey Bears just do not lose at home. They had some insane home win streak last year, where they went like three months without suffering a home loss. Wilkes-Barre did not win there at all last year. I personally hated seeing WBS going there because I knew it was going to be tough, and likely a loss. Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie had this nugget on his Twitter feed regarding the Pens efforts tonight:

The last time WBS won at Hershey, Janne Pesonen had two goals and Chris Cichocki was behind the bench as an assistant coach.

Onto the game. John Curry v. Dany Sabourin tonight. Steve Wagner, Ryan Craig and Nick Johnson had the A’s tonight.

:49 into the game, Keith Aucoin scores on Curry. Ridiculous angle. Where have we seen this fish before? Just like that it’s a 1-0 Bears lead.

Here we go…

Twenty-five seconds later, Chris Conner ties it. Same angle as the Aucoin goal. Sean Collins took an interference call about three minutes later and Andrew Hutchinson scored on the power play :45 later. 2-1.

Nick Johnson sat for a slash, WBS killed it. Jesse Boulerice took a ticky tack trip call from referee Ryan Fraser and we were back to the penalty kill again. Joe Vitale dispossessed a Bear at center ice and skated in on Sabourin for a shorthanded goal. 3-1.

Sabourin hit the showers after stopping 4 shots on 7 attempts. Todd Ford came in the game then. Teams traded some penalties then late in the first Keven Veilleux dangles through a crowd, puts a shot on Ford, which then finds its way to Eric Tangradi’s stick and it’s 4-1 after 1.

Second period came and saw The Champs buzzing all over the place. Pressure. Pressure. Pressure. Whoops, Chris Conner gets by the D and it’s 5-1.

Third period came and so did the chippiness. Boulerice and Patricak Wellar fought. At the same time, Trevor Bruess and Geoff Walker did the same. Bruess / Walker were turfed because you can’t do that while there is another fight going on. Zach Miskovic made things interesting with a goal to make it 5-2, but after trading an Andrew Gordon trip and a Steve Wagner hook, Zach Sill fired a dart at Todd Ford and it was game over. 6-2 final. 8-0. 16 points. 5 points up on Hershey.

Three Stars were as follows: John Curry, Andrew Hutchinson and Chris Conner. Brian Strait was a +3.

Around the league: Norfolk coughed up a 5-2 lead to lose 6-5 in overtime to the Portland Pirates. Maybe it’s good we don’t play the Pirates this year, they are good. Syracuse beat Albany 3-2. Charlotte beat Bingo by the same 3-2 score in overtime. 5 points up on Norfolk and Hershey who have 11 points. 6 points up on Albany and Bingo who have 10.

Thoughts. Curry exorcised some serious demons tonight. Especially against this Hershey Bears team. Wilkes-Barre winning against Hershey in Hershey is a statement to The Champs that we mean business. A 6-2 manhandling in GIANT Center just isn’t seen, as the league tweeted the last time this happened was November 25, 2009 vs. the Providence Bruins. Tim Wallace played his 250th game in a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton uniform. Penalty kill was perfect again. I will check later this week to see where we stack up against the league, have to be tops.

All of this was done without The Ticket. Inject him into the lineup and what do you think the score is? Pittsburgh is getting healthier by the day. WBS is the winner on whoever loses the battle for 7th D up in the 412, either Engelland or Lovejoy. Imagine one of those two back skating in Wilkes-Barre Township.

Get on this train. Perfect October. I could not have predicted this. This team is looking more and more by the second to be better than advertised. Please believe that.

Next game is Friday up in Rochester. The Amerks sit on top of the North Division at present and would love to be the first team to drop the Pens.

Bring it. Go Pens.

Welcome back to Wilkes-Barre Andrew Hutchinson. Two assists in a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre victory tonight in Glens falls tonight. Ran the powerplay tonight and didn’t look out of place.

Eric Tangradi played his first AHL game tonight and did look a bit out of place. He was in front of the net all night as always. Give him a few more shifts and he’ll be right at home again real soon.

Brad Thiessen v. Johan Backlund. Ryan Craig, Tim Wallace and Corey Potter wore the A’s tonight. Tom Grace said on the radio that a Captain will not be named until Game 20. That is a November 27 home game v. Rochester in case you are wondering.

Ryan Craig had a tip in goal at 2:02 of the first. WBS was buzzing in front of the Phantoms net prior to that. A Robert Bortuzzo point shot was tipped in by Craig. Outshot Adirondack 10-4 in the first period.

Second period, Carl Sneep was crushed by Zac Rinaldo. Carl had the wind knocked out of him. I was watching on AHL Live, and Adirondack does not have replay, but just looked like he got caught by Rinaldo. Thankfully, he skated off on his own power and was fine. Later, he potted his first professional goal to make it 2-0.

The fourth line put work in tonight. In the third period, Zach Sill hustled down the right point, put a shot on goal, Backlund left a delicious rebound up for Jesse Boulerice on the left side and it was 3-0. Even before that, the fourth line was getting chances. If the fourth line on any hockey team can get quality scoring chances, your team is stacked.

David Laliberte answered back 1:30 later. WBS killed off two consecutive penalties, and then got a power play of their own when Benn Holmstrom was called for a hook. Nick Johnson did what he is supposed to do, camp out in front and potted a power play goal to put the game out of reach at 4-1. No penalties the rest of the way, no real pressure from the Phantoms and we are 7-0.

Andrew Hutchinson, Nick Johnson and Brad Thiessen were Stars 3 thru 1. Tim Wallace skated on the top line with Dustin Jeffrey and Eric Tangradi and had 5 SOG. Ten Penguin skaters were +1 tonight. That is depth.

The big news out of Glens Falls was that Patrick Maroon was sent home by the team. As in, home home. Phantoms beat writer Tim McManus will probably find out more in the coming days if you so choose to follow this story but that is a huge blow to the Phantoms as he was one of the best players for them.

I missed this because well, I was watching Wilkes-Barre, but apparently Evgeni Malkin was injured and left the game tonight in a 3-2 loss to Philly. If there is a callup, stick with me over on Twitter and check me out here tomorrow afternoon if indeed there is a promotion.

Elsewhere around the AHL, Albany beat Providence 3-2 in regulation. Norfolk lost in a shootout to Portland and Hershey beat Syracuse 4-3 in overtime. We have 14 points, Hershey and Norfolk are in second with 11 points a piece, Albany 10, Bingo 9 and it goes on. As long as we keep winning, no one can catch us. That has to be the philosophy.

Back on the schtick tomorrow as Wilkes-Barre tries to escape Hershey 8-0 and set a tone in the minds of The Champs that we are the team to beat this year. Gonna be a good one. Gameday drops around 4 p.m. tomorrow. Check it out.

If you think Binghamton is going to be a pushover this year, think again. This was one of the tightest regular season games I have seen in a while. If this is the way the next seven contests are going to be, hold on.

A 2-1 shootout win tonight. Would have been a 1-0 shutout but for Corey Locke’s shot with 10.6 left in regulation with Barry Brust pulled. I thought John Curry had it in his glove and stood to applaud, but then when the red light went on and Chris Brown pointed down I went from pure jubilation to pure ohmygodwhatjusthappened mode.

I like the way we battled tonight. Should be interesting what Bombulie has to say about tonight’s game. Great teams find ways to win no matter what, good teams find ways not to lose and lose to great teams. It may be too soon to call WBS a great team, but we survive another weekend unblemished in the loss column, 6-0-0-0 in 1st place and 12 points in 6 possible games.

As mentioned earlier, John Curry vs. Barry Brust tonight. Ryan Craig, Joe Vitale and Steve Wagner had the A’s.

Basically a back and forth, back and forth game for two periods. We basically sleep walked the first period but yet somehow outshot Bingo 12-9.

Joe Vitale is quickly becoming my favorite player just because he works his tail off shift after shift. Had his stick in the Binghamton passing lanes all night long. I can only imagine what our record would be if we did not have Vitale.

Saw our first fight of the year. Keven Veilleux and David Dziurzynski. Dziurzynski, you will recall, boarded Alex Grant in the first rookie tournament game up in London, Ontario and sent Grant to the injured list with a  broken wrist. The other fight was Francis Lessard and Jesse Boulerice but it wasn’t even a fight, they grabbed each other and went down, that was it.

This was the most chippiest game of the year, even with two Hershey contests in the bag. Bingo is on the rise folks.

Penalty kill was flawless again. 24 of the last 25 have been killed.

Steve Wagner had the lone WBS goal, pinching deep and receiving a cross ice Chris Conner pass and burying it.

Overtime saw both teams trade penalties. Nothing doing.

The shootout went 8 rounds, with Chris Conner stickhandling around a diving Brust poke check to seal the deal.

Bryan Lerg signed after the game and you can find a photo of him and me here.

No Sunday or Wednesday game this week for Wilkes-Barre. Back in action in Glens Falls Friday night. I’ll probably be back here Monday night after the Booster Club meet and greet. Get me on Twitter for the latest.

Complete role reversal tonight on the ice. If you looked at only the shot total at the end of tonight’s game and had to pick who won the affair given the 11-time Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears and the Brett Sterling-less Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, who do you think wins the game?

32-15 was the shot total for the Bears. 3-2 was the final for Wilkes-Barre.

Brad Thiessen vs. Dany Sabourin. Sterling did not take warmups. Nick Petersen did as the healthy scratch. Ryan Craig returned tonight and had an A. He was joined by Corey Potter and Tim Wallace. Sterling’s scratch shouldn’t surprise anyone. If this was playoffs, he’d be in. Keven Veilleux also was back. Lawrence Nycholat was a veteran scratch for The Champs.

Hershey’s potent powerplay was 0 for 5. They weren’t able to set up anything all night.

Pace of play was a huge factor tonight. I mean, Wilkes-Barre dictated what Hershey did. It was a complete role reversal for Hershey because they are always the team who dictates the pace and the play. Sticks were in passing lanes and it was just a frustrating night for the ever dangerous Bears.

Joe Vitale scored two goals. One shorthanded in the second on a 2 on 1. Then on a busted play in the second. The kid never quits. I mean he never does. He leaves it all out there. He is a smart hard working player. Things are starting to click for him offensively.

Brad Thiessen played a hell of a game in net. He was not fooled by the infamous Hershey back door play. He caught Keith Aucoin and was overall perfect but for a point shot from Patrick Wellar which deflected up on a Boyd Kane stick and in. This was the turning point of the game in my opinion. WBS, outshot all game, now only up 2-1, what do they do? Play not to give up the lead?

Brian Fahey was whistled by referee Terry Koharski for holding the stick and Robert Bortuzzo let loose from the right point and it was 3-1. A power play goal. An answer goal.

Late in the third, Bears just buzzing. Sabourin could have taken a nap. Less than five minutes left and it’s shot after shot after shot after shot. Andrew Gordon scores with 1:47 left with Sabourin pulled with commotion in front of Thiessen’s net and the blood pressure raises. Faceoff won by Hershey, extra man out. Hershey takes a late icing call and there is your ballgame.

Undefeated hockey. 5-0. Last undefeated team in the American Hockey League. Norfolk lost tonight to Syracuse 3-1 so it’s first place hockey. Binghamton (more on them in a bit) winners 1-0 over Hartford tonight here tomorrow. Strange days we live in. Why? Hershey has lost two games in a row. You have to go back almost a year to find the words, “Hershey” and “losing streak.”

In other news, the Penguins sold autographed Halloween pucks. If your puck is signed by a player in silver you win a game used stick. I bagged Zach Sill’s stick courtesy of this.

Tim Wallace signed after the game. Picture of him and your blog author here.

The Binghamton Senators sent me three pucks in the mail today. Not just any vulcanized rubber, but three retro pucks from when they were the Binghamton Rangers, Binghamton Whalers and the Broome (County) Dusters. They featured each puck in each period on their October 8 home opener v. Adirondack. They tweeted that they were doing this, so I asked them if I could get those three pucks. Well, stick tap to Katie Krenzer in the front office, they were delivered to my home today. The fact that a team would even entertain an idea that a fan of a rival team would have interest in such pucks and then mail them to said fan speaks volumes about the organization. Thank you Binghamton. Now prepare to lose tomorrow.

Go Pens.