Chirps from Center Ice

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.

A 4-3 comeback win by the visiting team this afternoon in downtown Charlotte. The bigger news is the health of Brett Sterling’s right leg.

It was late in the third period and from where I sat, Sterling turned and went straight down after he turned to play the puck. A Checkers player was nowhere near him. I saw him holding his right hamstring. Trainer Patrick Steidle came out to Brett, and Jesse Boulerice helped him off the ice. He didn’t put any pressure on the leg whatsoever. Could be a hamstring, could be a quad, could be a knee, I don’t know. I am not a doctor and I am not affiliated with the team. If I see any of the players I will ask, but I’m not going outta my way to run up to them and ask them a question they may not have an answer to. It is not my place.

Mike Murphy v. John Curry in net. Corey Potter, Steve Wagner and Tim Wallace wore the “A’s.”

WBS found themselves in a 0-2 hole before the game was even 10 minutes old. Zach Boychuk took a nice cross ice pass from Oskar Osala and wired a shot over Curry’s right shoulder, then less than a minute Jerome Samson works hard to dispossess a Penguin and goes five-hole on Curry. At that point the scoreboard read 2 goals, and 1 SOG. At that point, Wilkes-Barre couldn’t get out of its own way.

Brett Sterling answered right back about three minutes later, on a nifty backhand. He had a breakout game. He had a goal and an assist. Prior to his injury, he took 8 SOG. Zach Boychuk scored again to make it 3-1 as the 1st period ended 3-1. I tweeted it was going to be interesting to see how the team would respond to being down like this and overwhelmed.

Tim Wallace scored 15:17 into the second period after a scramble in front of Murphy’s net, he shot the puck and Mike must have been screened because there was no reaction.

Tim Wallace scored again when Dustin Jeffrey tossed a backhanded shot at Murphy and it was deflected in.

Then Sterling got injured. I felt at that point that if Charlotte was going to score, it was going to be here. We just lost our most dangerous player, on the road, late in a game. Do we turtle and pack it in? No.

Nick Johnson came in close quarters and scored to make it 4-3. Or did he? AHL scoring gave it to Wagner. Eric P over at the Wilkes-Blog has video of it. You be the judge.

Regardless, we won the game and move to 4-0 this young season. Hershey is Friday. We have three points separating us from them right now. Norfolk is up there too and can have sole possession of first by the time Friday rolls around as they have a game this week at Hartford on Wednesday.

Boys will probably have Monday off and will be back at practice Tuesday. Bombulie will more than likely have an update on Brett Sterling’s leg injury then. I am hopeful that it was just a tweak whatever it was, and not a tear, pop or otherwise.

Before I go, nice to have the Checkers acknowledge the Penguins fans making the trip down from Pennsylvania and wishing safe travels back home. I’m headed back tomorrow.

Greetings from the Carolinas!

A 4-2 win tonight in front of 12,000+.

Dustin Jeffrey must read my blog. I ripped him last game because of his lackluster showing v. Adirondack. He had 2 goals, a power play goal and a short handed one. He took 9 SOG and was your first star.

Veilleux, CPZ and Ryan Craig all were not dressed and did not take warmups. In Bombulie’s post gamer, he said that CPZ has been shipped to The Nail and was in the lineup there.

Brad Thiessen v. Justin Pogge. For WBS, Steve Wagner, Tim Wallace and Brett Sterling wore the “A”‘s.

After a pregame that lasted nearly an hour (ticket said 7, game started circa 7:40) Dustin Jeffrey dispossessed Pogge and scored the first goal at 8:45. I don’t know what Pogge was doing or thinking when he came out to play the puck, but we took it.

Right around the end of the first, some kid called Eric Tangradi scored a goal in Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Jerome Samson struck to tie the game, but just like that Dustin Jeffrey is sprung on a breakaway and absolutely makes Justin Pogge look stupid with fakes and buries it backhanded. 2-1.

Joe Vitale scored a goal. He always plays hard. Hard work pays off.

I have no idea what Zach Sill was thinking when he gave it away and let Charlotte back into it when Oskar Osala scored.

Steve Wagner snuck in and made it 4-2 and that was pretty much it. A few things:

Joe Mormina played tonight. This pretty much spells the end of the Drew Fata experiment.

Another pedestrian game by Brett Sterling. Maybe teams focus too much on him, and he just passes off  his teammates score. I don’t know. He’ll have a break out game soon.

Brad Thiessen saw everything tonight. I mean everything. He couldn’t do anything with the 5 on 3 or the busted play on the Sill giveaway.

This game reminded me a lot of the Albany / WBS playoff series last year. For everything we did in that series, the River Rats were a step ahead of us. Same story tonight, only WBS was the team with the answers.

We are still in first place. Hershey destroyed Binghamton 7-1 tonight. Brian Willsie had a 4 point night (1-3) Sheldon Souray was a +3. Aucoin had 2 assists, Andrew Gordon had a goal and an assist, it goes on and on.

Norfolk shut out the Worcester Sharks 4-0, and don’t look now but the Adirondack Phantoms defeated the Syracuse Crunch 3-2 and are in 4th place very early in the East.

Off day tomorrow for WBS, as every team in the league skates tomorrow except WBS and Charlotte. I’ll be watching some games on AHL Live. Later!

I know I said I wasn’t going to do postgamers for every game, but I don’t know if I am totally committed to doing this yet or not. I am for this game so here goes:

A 2-1 Wilkes-Barre victory tonight. I thought it was a terrible game. It is the Adirondack Phantoms, not the Hershey Bears or Norfolk Admirals. Nothing went right tonight. Not a thing. Yes, we killed all six Phantoms penalties but were not able to cash in but for once on TEN penalties, including nearly five minutes in the second where we had two five on threes.

I would go back and link my tweets, but looks like Twitter is having issues again with it’s timeline. It happens.

Brett Sterling, Steve Wagner and Tim Wallace wore the “A” tonight.

John Curry got the nod in net and absolutely saved (no pun intended) the win for us. Zac Rinaldo scored :42 seconds into the game and Curry went into shutdown mode after that. Not that Adirondack really tested John much tonight, they only managed 26 shots on goal.

It will be interesting what Bombulie has to say about this game. I was fully expecting a 7-1 thrashing. Adirondack is not a good team. They really aren’t. They have Greg Moore, Dan Jancevski, and Jon Kalinski, who I did not even notice tonight and that is it. Binghamton destroyed them 5-1 on their opening night.

Joe Vitale scored a goal and Tim Wallace potted a power play goal. These two always leave it all on the ice. I never have to worry about these guys giving it their all night in and night out.

Carl Sneep played like a rookie tonight. I know I said that he could easily anchor the D corps, but perhaps that was a bit premature.

Drew Fata and Nick Petersen played tonight for the first time. Fata didn’t do anything memorable. Petersen played okay for his first game.

Dustin Jeffrey and Nick Johnson had a very pedestrian game in my opinion. They could have both easily dominated the Phantoms, but Dustin was a -1 with 2 SOG and Juice had an assist and had 3 SOG.If either wonder why they are riding buses to Binghamton instead of charters to Chicago, they need not look further than this game.

Brett Sterling was a disappointment tonight. Again, we are playing a team (at least on paper) we should steamroll. Sterling was a -1 with 2 SOG. Sterling should have had 2 goals and 5 assists. Okay, maybe not that many but you get my drift.

The powerplay was an absolute aberration tonight. We could not set anything up. And when we did, it was Pass. Pass. Pass. Another pass. Missed pass. Whoops, gotta tag up. Turnover, dump and chase.

It really is frustrating for me because yes, it is two points. Yeah it puts in first place and all. Sure it is a win. But, I am not happy with this. If we played like this against Hershey, we lose 6-2.

Bombulie should have more, intelligent analysis on his blog later. Check him out.

I’m not going to do write-ups of every postgame, but last nights warrants a brief one.

–> Playoff atmosphere for Game 1. That intense.

–> Going back to intros, Brett Sterling didn’t get that much of an ovation. It is obvious that the attending had no idea how dangerous the man can be. I heard people saying, “Oh he’s the new guy.” I corrected those within earshot. He isn’t “the new guy” he is “The Ticket”. (Ticket to what?) The Ticket to a Calder Cup.

–> Andrew Hutchinson, Ryan Craig and Tim Wallace wore the A’s.

–> Steve Wagner had a forgettable game. Somehow managed 4 shots and a +1, but he let Steve Pinizzotto sneak in behind him for a breakaway goal which tied the score at 2 midway through the second, then his next shift he lets Jay Beagle blow past him, Beagle hits the post, skates around then drills Wagner after Steve had his head down.

–> Reactions from around Bombulie’s post-gamer on his blog and people I spoke with post game said Corey Potter was awful. For what it’s worth, I didn’t notice him.

–> Chris Conner is as fast as lightning. His never-say-quit attitude led to a gritty goal by Andrew Hutchinson to give us the lead at 3-2.

–>We were 1 for 5 on the powerplay. That 1 cash-in was the anomaly because the other 4 tries were god awful. There was a time we had :33 of a 5 on 3 and couldn’t even establish anything!

–> The more things change, the more things stay the same for the Bears. They murder you on the back door plays. Aucoin and Greentree both had powerplay goals which is mainly based on the spread-type play that Hershey institutes with their talented wingers. I plan on asking Bombulie about this tomorrow at the booster club meeting whether this can be stopped.

–> Braden Holtby looked good for the Bears but very pedestrian in the shootout. Bombulie described what I tweeted last night in his post-game wrap here. Alrighty then. Find a weakness, exploit it, win the game.

–> In the end, we won in a shootout. Two points. That’s all that matters. Now, replicate that 9 more times against this team this year and playoff success will take care of itself.

–> On the aforementioned Ticket, a picture of him and your blog author can be found here.

Tomorrow, it’s a booster club meeting for me where we’ll have a sit down with Pens’ beat writer Jonathan Bombulie. If there is something worthwhile look for me back here late Monday.