Chirps from Center Ice

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Yikes.

Shutout. Again. Just when you think that the season couldn’t get any worse, they are shutout in back to back games.

They scored eight goals in Bridgeport last Saturday. Nothing in two games since. Shutout in 121:05 of action. Shutout in Laval last Monday. Back to back 4-0 losses when they lose Friday night in Hartford, who have won eight straight games.

Like two trains passing in the night. Here’s a fun fact about me, sometimes I like to watch videos of fright trains at night to help me fall asleep. Shoutout Wide World of Trains.

Anyway, one more game for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Saturday against the Charlotte Checkers before they are put to bed for the 2022-23 season.

Here’s how they lined up…

(Hartford didn’t post lines)

Lineup Notes: So Svejkovsky was injured, which explains his absence. I was in the Virginia backwoods so didn’t see / listen to the last game agains Laval, so I don’t know who replaced who. Taylor Fedun and Jamie Devane were not in the lineup. Mitch Reinke, too.

Other News: Pittsburgh cleaned house this morning, firing GM Ron Hextall, Brian Burke and AGM Chris Pryor. I’m quite surprised that the coaching staff didn’t get the boot but I would assume that they are on short leashes. Nothing yet on what will happen with the staff here in Wilkes-Barre. GM Erik Heasley keeps his job (which is baffling to me) and will actually assist in the search of the new regime in Pittsburgh.

First Period: Both teams didn’t do jack shot wise at five on five, the Penguins didn’t have any shots on their only power play in the period, Hartford scored on their second attempt on the power play when Tim Gettinger fired one off Ty Smith and past Blomqvist and in for a 1-0 Hartford lead at the end of the period.

Second Period: Pens get a bit of puck luck when Joel Blomqvist makes a fantastic save, Anton Blidh takes a whack at the loose puck, it gets behind Blomqvist and in the no mans land between he and the inside of the net. The puck flutters but Justin Lee is there to sweep the puck away and out of the Penguins net.

But later Turner Elson woulds score to double the Wolf Pack lead and make it 2-0.

I don’t know what any of them are doing here. Elson is left alone in a prime area of the ice and just picks a spot and scores. A player of Elson’s quality will score there unmarked like that 9 times out of 10. Just a mind boggling loss of a man in front which costs you a goal.

Jagger Joshua and Louis Domingue got into a scuffle. Joshua was out at the top of the crease near Domingue. Louis didn’t like some of the antics and actually was called for holding (which is hilarious to me) and they scuffled a bit. Joshua was given an extra penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. I dunno, just doing your job out of the blue paint and then to get held and rushed by the goaltender of the other team seems unsportsmanlike to me, but who am I.

Third Period: So a 2-0 lead isn’t insurmountable, but getting the next goal is vitally important.

They did not, in fact, find that next goal. Sadly, the opponent did.

Turner Elson again.

And here’s the kicker, there isn’t anything they could have done different there I don’t think. Just a great setup by a Wolf Pack team that just can’t lose.

Later, salt in the wound when Adam Edström turns Josh Maniscalco into a pylon and scores to make it 4-0 and that essentially salts the game away.

Microcosm of the season for the Penguins here.

Three Stars: 3) Adam Edström (goal) 2) Turner Elson (two goals) 1) Louis Domingue (28 save shutout)

The Good: Joel Blomqvist looked fine. Nothing he could have done differently on the goals he allowed. The team in front of him played like crap.

The Bad: Going 0/6 on the power play. Dare I say they missed Mitch Reinke’s puck moving prowess on the power play?

Turning Point: Elson’s second goal, the only goal you can’t really pin on anything bad (the first goal went off Ty Smith, the second goal there was no one around Elson and the fourth goal was an embarrassment) was the back breaker here. You needed a response coming into the third, down two, and you have that goal by Elson that nips you.

Around the Division: Charlotte beats Lehigh Valley 5-2…Bridgeport beats Hershey 5-1…Springfield blows out Providence 7-2.

Standings: Hershey 95 – Providence 94 – Charlotte 84 – Springfield 82 – Hartford 81 – Lehigh Valley 80 – Bridgeport 76 – Penguins 65

Wheeling Update: Nailers are out in Iowa taking on the Heartlanders. Box here.

Back at it for the home and season finale against Charlotte. More then. Let’s Go Pens!

So in Virginia, where I am vacationing with the first camping trip of the year, they don’t have good cell coverage, the price of gas everywhere is the same and they have weird you can’t burn anything before 4 pm if you’re 300 feet from a wooded area, I wasn’t able to watch Friday nights 3-1 Penguins loss to the Providence Bruins.

Jami Krannila scored his first goal for the Penguins, but the first place Bruins were too much for the last place Penguins.

Onto Bridgeport tomorrow.

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I’m more fascinated at the little tidbit that play by play man Nick Hart tossed out at the end of the 5-0 Penguins loss to the Charlotte Checkers Wednesday night.

It was the first time all season that the Penguins have been shutout by an opponent all season. That’s fascinating to me, with how this season has gone.

On the season, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were officially eliminated from Calder Cup contention with their loss to the Checkers, but it was cemented about seven minutes before the action in Wilkes-barre wrapped up as Hartford defeats Toronto in overtime 2-1. The win gives Hartford 75 points and the Penguins, with the loss Wednesday, can only now max out at 73 points.

So just play out the string now and get an early jump on your garden, like me.

Here’s how they lined up…

Lineup: Pittsburgh signed Joel Blomqvist to a three year entry level deal which will kick in 2023-24. Good chance he will be in Wilkes-Barre in the fall, or maybe he just stays overseas. Depends. He’s already with them on an ATO….Sam Poulin warmed up, but didn’t dress. Coal Street signed Jami Krannila to an ATO the same time they signed Blomqvist and Krannila went right in on the second line.

First Period: 90 seconds in a Zac Dalpe scores for the Checkers.

Later, bad to worse, a shot is saved by Dustin Tokarski with the pad but the puck redirects right to the stick of Cameron Morrison who shoots it at the net. Tokarski isn’t able to get over in time and it’s 2-0 Checkers.

Wilkes-Barre had back to back power plays and got really close on the first one, but weren’t able to cash. Felt at the time with the pressure they were building that if they scored there it may have been a different result. Alas, they did not.

Second Period: Takes Charlotte just 1:12 to score in this period, as Connor Bunnaman scores to make it 3-0 on a dart.

May have been offside, but that isn’t reviewable in the AHL like it is in the NHL. Linesmen rarely miss.

Teams traded a power play a side in the period but come up empty. Don’t want to say that Charlotte was protecting the lead, but it was a pretty inert period otherwise.

Third Period: Checkers kept coming, scoring on a dart of a shot that made it 4-0 off the stick of Lucas Carlsson at 2:48 of the third and then late with a shot by Calle Sjalin to rub more dirt in the faces of the Penguins.

I’m not going to post the Sjalin shot. I would hope you get the point.

Bummer of a season. I don’t know what they could have done differently tonight save for personnel which could have saved them.

Three Stars: 3) Zac Dalpe (goal) 2) Santtu Kinnunen (two assists) 1) J-F Berube (21 save shutout)

The Good: How do you get anything good on a night when you are shutout and eliminated from playoffs?

The Bad: They were shutout and eliminated from playoffs, officially.

Turning Point: Have to go when the Penguins didn’t score on that power play late in the first when it looked like they just might.

Around the Division: Providence retakes the top spot in the Atlantic with a 3-1 win at home against Hershey…Hartford beats Toronto in overtime 2-1, as advised at the top of this piece.

Standings: Providence 92 – Hershey 91 – Springfield 80 – Charlotte 80 – Lehigh Valley 76 – Hartford 75 – Bridgeport 72 – Penguins 63

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were idle.

I’m heading to Virginia for a week starting tomorrow. I should have your coverage of the road games in Providence, Bridgeport and Laval here on the blog, provided the campsite wi-fi holds up.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Penguins come into the third period of Saturday’s game and I know what you are thinking because I thought it too. Here we go again, time for them to blow the lead and lose.

Sam Houde takes a shot and scores a goal and Wilkes-Barre goes up 3-1.

But then, that was kinda it for the shots for the Penguins, who muster only two more for an aggregate of three in the period, Syracuse scores two to tie and then in overtime to win 4-3 in overtime.

It’s a tired trope, a seen scene. It’s getting old and frankly, it’s irrelavant because two weeks from now they will be done and headed for an early summer.

Here’s how they lined up…

Yeah, they were the Old Forge Pizzas Saturday. Part of a five year plan to rebrand for one night as a local cuisine. Plymouth Pierogis anyone?

No lineup changes, save for goal.

First Period: Drake Caggiula was their best player for them Saturday and had a lot of chances shorthanded because referees Jordan Deckard and Jake Kamrass made an absolute mess of the game, but Caggiula gets a shorthanded goal to open the scoring for the home team.

Second Period: Ex-Penguin Felix Robert scores with a second left on a power play for the Crunch and Syracase ties the game at one.

But the Penguins would respond in kind on a power play of their own, just :06 in, when Ty Smith goes bar down and in for a 2-1 Penguins lead.

Third Period: Said it again…

Then Sam Houde scores on a dart to make it a two goal lead for the Penguins.

But then Syracuse clamped down hard and allowed the Penguins just two more paltry shots, I think after they tied the game at three. Here’s how they did that…

Overtime: Ty Smith gets worked for a puck and Phil Myers scores to give the Crunch the win.

Three Stars: 3) Drake Caggiula (goal) 2) Alex Barre-Boulet (two goals, two assists) 1) Phil Myers (OT goal)

The Good: Season will be over in two weeks.

The Bad: The twelve power plays doled out by the referees was unnecessary. Failing to mark and allowing Barre-Boulet to factor into every goal is terrible.

Turning Point: The Myers goal that ended it. Let’s not overthink things.

Around the Division: Hartford continues to win, beating Lehigh Valley 5-1….Springfield beats Charlotte 6-5 in overtime….Hershey gets 40 wins in a season (remember those days?) with a 4-1 win in Cleveland….Bridgeport beats a suddenly slumping Providence team 5-2.

Standings: Are meaningless. Pens are in last and cooked. That’s all you need to know.

Wheeling Update: So the team the Nailers are playing, the Cincinnati Cyclones, lost 11-0 to the South Carolina Stingrays. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the Nailers are currently losing (the game is still going on when the blog post went up, box here) to the Cyclones.

More Wednesday. I’m traveling to Virginia Thursday morning and may sit the game out and just watch on AHLTV, if I don’t see you at the game Happy Easter.

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Another lead going into the third period and another victory for the opponent. It’s like clockwork for this team and the result again on Friday night as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins lose 4-2 to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Oh, and the Penguins didn’t have a shot on goal till about 4 minutes left to play when they were trailing 3-2.

Let’s just get into the recap.

Here’s how they lined up…

Lineup Notes: Buncha AHL debuts for Jagger Joshua and Justin Lee who the Pens signed to contracts so you will see them next year and Owen Pickering, who you won’t’ because he’s still too young for full time AHL work, so it’s either NHL or back to juniors for the guy next season but because his junior season is over, Pens brass wants to get the kid pro reps so here he is. Why they paired him with Taylor Fedun is beyond my comprehension, but it is what it is.

Filip Hållander, Colin Swoyer and Josh Maniscalco came out for the guys listed above.

The above is meaningless, because they will be done in two weeks anyway.

First Period: About half way through Valtteri Puustinen finds Drake Caggiula for a wide open net that gives the Penguins an early 1-0 lead.

Nice play.

But then Tyson Foerster scores a power play goal for the Phantoms with about three minutes left to play to tie the game at one.

Foerster is the Phantoms power play ace and it shows why here. Point shot through two guys.

Second Period: Wilkes-Barre scores on a two man advantage against the dead last penalty kill in the AHL when Ty Smith finds pay dirt with a blast from the point that puts the Penguins up 2-1.

Dustin Tokarski was dialed in during the period and had some of his finest work on display with the save right here.

Terrible foreshadowing…

Third Period: Clockwork.

Ex-Penguin Jordy Bellerive with a shot, Tokarski the initial save but Tokarski follows up and finds the puck and scores to tie the game at two.

Later, Bobby Brink scores when Ronnie Attard’s shot is blocked. This pulls Tokarski out of his crease and he either rover commits or something and that leaves the puck loses for it to be swept over to Attard who has a wide open net to shoot into.

First shot of the period comes with around four minutes to play already down one. They didn’t get a power play to work on to try and tie the game and with ti me dwindling and desperation setting in, they aren’t able to find the equalizer and instead Bobby Brink scores his second on an empty net.

Three Stars: 3) Jordy Bellerive (goal) 2) Valtteri Puustinen (two assists) 1) Bobby Brink (two goals)

The Good: Decent 40 minutes.

The Bad: Terrible last 20. No shot on goal for about 16 minutes? Come on guys.

Turning Point: The Bellerive goal was inevitable. The first Brink goal was inevitable.

Around the Division: Does it matter anymore? Springfield beats Charlotte 3-2 in overtime…Hartford shuts out Providence 5-0.

Standings: Providence 90 – Hershey 87 – Springfield and Charlotte 77 – Lehigh Valley 74 – Hartford 71 || Bridgeport 68 – Penguins 62

Wheeling Update: Nailers are out in Indiana and lost 3-1 to the Indy Fuel.

Back at it on Pizza Night against the Crunch. More then.

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Not because the score line was close, but because it’s about as close as this team will get to a playoff like atmosphere on the ice as the Atlantic’s top team, the Providence Bruins, skate away with a 4-3 shootout win Wednesday over the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

Putting myself in Providence’s shoes for a second here as I have been there with the Penguins, the Bruins can’t like how they won this game and how difficult it was for them at times to breakthrough against a last place team in their division. If you can’t beat a last place team, what makes you think you’ll have any success on the road in Game 6 of a Conference or Calder Cup Final?

But again, as I mentioned earlier in the day, maybe they sleepwalked through the game and won when they needed to. Sure looked like it.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Jordan Frasca for Lukas Svejkovsky up front and the returning Ty Smith and Taylor Fedun for Andrew Nielsen and Peter DiLiberatore on defense.

First Period: Was going to tweet, “yawn” at some point but just as I was, a flurry of three goals in the span of 1:14.

Valtteri Puustinen off the bar and in for a 1-0 Penguins lead followed :49 later by a Tyler Sikura tip of a Taylor Fedun shot and it’s 2-0. Immediately after, Sam Asselin answers (that on again, off again thing I mentioned in the open) and Providence was on the board :25 later. Here they are…

Second Period: They held it at 2-1, but were badly outshot 13-4 in the period but the Bruins had a number of power plays. Jamie Devane fed J.D. Greenway his lunch with a few uppercuts and was give an instigator and a misconduct. A call I don’t agree with but an argument I will make another non-worknight day.

Third Period: Always had the sense that the bottom was going to fall out as it has in recent memory.

4:51 in and Luke Toporowski scores chasing his first shot and scoring via backhander on his second.

But the Penguins showed life and Valtteri Puustinen scores his second of the night giving the Penguins a lead again and made the score 3-2.

But Fabian Lysell dances through Ty Smith and flips a backbend shot at Tokarski to tie the game at three.

Just walking the dog there.

It was an offensive onslaught by the Providence Bruins, but Tokarski and the Penguins held the Bruins at bay and forced…

Overtime: Chances a plenty for both sides, but it was off then to a…

Shootout: Summarized here:

Three Stars: 3) Ty Smith (two assists) 2) Valtteri Puustinen (two goals) 1) Fabian Lysell (regulation and shootout goal)

The Good: I’d say it’s something to build on, holding the best team in the division close like that and something to build off of, but it’s the end of March and they aren’t making playoffs instead of it being early January.

The Bad: Potential is in there, somewhere, but it’s too little, too late.

Turning Point: I’ll give it to Puustinen and his second goal of the game which re-established the Penguins lead and showed they weren’t going to go down without a fight.

Around the Division: Hershey beats Toronto 3-1…Springfield crushes Charlotte 7-4…Hartford beats and overtakes Bridgeport for the 6th seed with a 4-1 win.

Standings: Providence 90 – Hershey 87 – Charlotte 76 – Springfield 75 – Lehigh Valley 72 – Hartford 69 || Bridgeport 68 – Penguins 62

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

If I see video highlights and can get back around to an edit I’ll work them in.

Phantoms Friday in Allentown. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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On this massively important afternoon for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, the answer was learned quick.

Just :16 in, to be exact.

A 5-1 Hartford win Sunday should, at this point, close the books for the Penguins playoff chances. They are seven points off of Bridgeport for the sixth and final playoff spot and their schedule doesn’t get any easier. They host the first place Providence Bruins on Wednesday.

Hartford, the team that is ahead of the Penguins in seventh and chasing down the Islanders, are now just a point behind Bridgeport for that final playoff spot and six points clear of the last place Penguins.

Say goodnight, Gracie. It won’t be long now.

Here’s how they lined up…

Hartford didn’t post lines.

Lineup Notes: Justin Addamo is apparently injured, having been listed on the injury report before the game. Lukas Svejkovsky slotted in for him. No other changes. As expected, Tommy Nappier was reassigned to Wheeling. Coal Street also signed Louie Roehl to a PTO from Wheeling and received Jordan Frasca as well.

First Period: Hope you weren’t late, cause :16 in, the Penguins were down 1-0 on the first shot of the game from the Wolf Pack.

A terrible D to D pass by Peter DiLiberatore is intercepted by Ryan Carpenter who finds Will Lockwood in transition who makes a move on Dustin Tokarski and scores to make it 2-0.

Wilkes-Barre takes three penalties on the period including two back to back. They killed the first one but on the second it was captain Jonny Brodzinski scoring on a far dot one timer that made it 3-0.

I followed that analysis up with that simply, one team wants to push for a playoff spot and the other does not. Pure and simple.

Second Period: Bit of a brighter start, they outshoot Hartford 12-8 in the period, opened up like an 8-0 run on the shot board to begin but it was Anton Blidh winning a puck battle or rather the Penguins losing two puck battles where Blidh does a backhand roofer to make it 4-0.

Third Period: Jonathan Gruden, far and away the Penguins best player on the ice Sunday, nabs himself a power play goal to break up Louis Domingue’s shutout attempt and get the Penguins on the board 4-1.

But the Wolf pack would add an empty netter via Turner Elson to make it 5-1.

Three Stars: 3) Jonathan Gruden (goal) 2) Will Lockwood (goal, assist) 1) Zac Jones (goal, assist)

The Good: Baseball starts Thursday, Mets should contend. That ownership there seemingly knows how to build a winner.

The Bad: Massively important day and they lay this egg in what could be the worst loss of the season in a year full of some bad ones. Get your final looks at some of these guys, including the coaches because you shouldn’t be seeing them when they come back around this Fall.

Turning Point: Heh. :16 in, and you knew who the better team was going to be.

None of what happened around the division matters. Standings don’t matter either.

I’m not going to post video highlights. Wha was important was shown above.

Providence Wednesday. Weekend Preview of what is likely going to be a brief overview of the week ahead for the Penguins (home vs. Providence Wednesday, at Lehigh Valley Friday, home vs. Syracuse Saturday) will be up Wednesday morning.

Go Pens.