Chirps from Center Ice

A fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

Category Archives: Postgamer

Flat Tire — Pens LOSE 2-1 (OT)

          @          

1                             2

–

Local reference with the blog headline, it was Jack Williams’ overtime goal 1:55 into overtime that gets Cleveland the extra point and the Penguins a 2-1 overtime loss Saturday evening.

Tightly contested game where Sergei Murashov stole one for the Penguins, the point at least, keeping his team in it.

Matt Dumba had all the offense for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, scoring a late. second period power play goal.

Here’s how they lined up:

–

Lineup Notes: Opted for 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, with Finn Harding jumping in the lineup and Zach Gallant coming out.

First Period: Penguins were outshot 18-5 in the period and went down on a Zach Aston-Reese deflection in front of Sergei Murashov for a 1-0 lead.

Quick 15 minutes then the final five turned into a slog as the Monsters were given a power play followed by the Penguins. For the Penguins, they nearly got scored on shorthanded but Ole Julian Bjørgvik-Holm beat Murashov five hole but hit a post.

Second Period: After seeing the Monsters first 18 shots at Murashov in the first period, Wilkes-Barre really clamped down and only allowed the Monsters three shots at the Penguins net minder.

Penguins had 1:31 of two-man advantage and after a time out and seeing the first half of the power play pass Matt Dumba would step up and fire one in for a power play goal that tied the game at one.

–

Third Period: No scoring but the carelessness with the penalties continues to be a problem. They were able to get 3 of 4 points this week because of goaltending, but they took two penalties in the period and failed to score on a power play about midway through.

Sergei Murashov with a save of the year type work.

–

He fooled Cleveland’s goal judge and the in house person in charge of the goal horn.

Also, the Penguins lost Tristan Broz to injury late in the second. Matt Dumba didn’t take kindly to a hit and ended up taking a roughing penalty.

Overtime: 

–

That’s Tony Brown on the call there and he’s criminally underrated in my ears as a play by play guy. Cleveland has a good one here.

Three Stars: 3) Brendan Gaunce (assist) 2) Sergei Murashov (27 saves) 1) Jack Williams (overtime game winning goal)

The Good: They took 3 of 4 points out of a non-division opponent, on the road. You take that all the time.

The Bad: The power play continues to struggle.

Turning Point: I am going to give it to Sergei Murashov’s save highlighted above because without it, it’s a regulation loss because they could have played till next November, I don’t think the Penguins were scoring another goal today.

Around the Division: Providence gets two third period goals to force overtime and win 3-2 in a shootout at home against Bridgeport, these two teams rematch Sunday….Springfield beat Charlotte 5-1 and there was a goalie fight involving Louis Domingue….Hershey is all over Rockford out in Illinois. That box is here. Hartford and Lehigh Valley had a marathon shootout that lasted 12 rounds. Hartford wins 5-4.

Standings: Providence 81 – Penguins 78 – Charlotte 64 – Hershey (56, pending outcome in Rockford) – Lehigh Valley 52 – Bridgeport 52 – Springfield 49 – Hartford 46

Wheeling Update: Nailers and Komets are in a tight one out in Fort Wayne. That box is here.

Video Highlights: 

 

–

Back at it Wednesday when they host Springfield. Weekend Preview will be here Wednesday around lunch time.

Let’s Go Pens!

Blomqvist’s Revenge — Pens WIN 3-2

          @          

3                            2

–

The last time these two teams met a few weeks ago, Joel Blomqvist was pulled and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins lost in overtime.

Fast forward to Friday night and Blomqvist goes the full 60, stops 22 shots and his Penguins team holds on for a 3-2 win.

Goals by Atley Calvert, Villa Koivunen, playing in his 300th professional game and Aidan McDonough.

Here’s how they lined up…

–

Lineup Notes: Joona Koppanen and Zach Gallant for Filip Hållander and Melvin Fernstrom up front and Alex Alexeyev and Chase Pietila for Finn Harding and Emil Pieniniemi on defense. Hållander was recalled after his conditioning stint and Fernstrom is day to day with an upper body injury suffered last Sunday in Bridgeport.

First Period: Zach Gallant with a beautiful setup to Atley Calvert who scores on a backhand to put the Penguins up 1-0 early.

–

Then a setup behind the net by Rutger McGroarty to Ville Koivunen for a slam dunk goal that extended the Penguins lead to 2-0.

–

These goals come :45 apart.

Cleveland settled in from there and the flood of goals stopped.

Second Period: The Penguins took four consecutive penalties, three in this period alone and on the final power play for the Monsters on a heavily disputed too many men on the ice call against the Penguins, Luca Del Bel Belluz scores :04 into a Monsters power play that cut the deficit to one.

–

But then in the final minute of the period, Aidan McDonough with a huge goal that made it 3-1 Wilkes-Barre at the end of a large offensive zone setup by Wilkes-Barre.

–

Third Period: Referees Koletrane Wilson and Stephen Huff flipped the script on the teams and started calling penalties against the Monsters. Despite this, the Penguins were unable to score.

The game tightened up when. Guillaume Richard scored just 1:15 into the period to make it a one goal game again.

–

Unfortunate bounce off of the skate of Owen Pickering.

Joel Blomqvist stopped a James Malatesta. breakaway bid about halfway through.

This was a game where you could almost feel it being a one goal game.

With Zach Sawchenko pulled, the Pens iced the puck a bunch but Cleveland never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Rutger McGroarty (assist) 2) Atley Clavert (goal) 1) Aidan McDonough (goal)

The Good: Two points on the road and Blomqvist had a hell of a game, you can argue he stole one against the Monsters tonight.

The Bad: Special teams continues to be a major concern and they were careless again.

Turning Point: The McDonough goal gets it here.

Around the Division: Hershey is out in Rockford and at about 9:50 p.m. on a Friday that game is 1-1. Box here…..Charlotte clips Springfield in overtime 3-2.

Standings: Providence 79 – Penguins 77 – Charlotte 64 – Hershey (will remain in fourth no matter what happens in Rockford with either 54 (loss) 55 (point) or 56 (win) points – Bridgeport 51 – Lehigh Valley 50 – Springfield 47 – Hartford 44

Wheeling Update: Nailers with a 7-2 win at home against Kalamazoo. The K-Wings were held to just 10 shots on goal the entire game. Taylor Gauthier got the win, Nolan Renwick with a goal, Ryan McAllister a goal and two assists, Danial Laatsch had a goal and Zach Urdahl had two assists. 10 shots. That’s something.

Video Highlights: Why didn’t someone tell me to just go to teams YouTube pages earlier???

–

Back at it again in Cleveland at 4 p.m. Don’t be late!

Let’s Go Pens!

Powering Up? — Pens WIN 4-0

          @          

4                            0

–

A lot to like about this one, a 4-0 Penguins win in Bridgeport.

25 save shutout for Sergei Murashov, his third of the season.

11 of the Penguins 18 skaters recorded a point.

They are getting healthier.

2/4 on the power play and 3/3 on the penalty kill.

But, consider the opponent. It’s Bridgeport, who has played better and is a bit improved, but will only be a 5 or 6 seed in the playoffs, if we are being brutally honest. Call me again when they do this against Syracuse, Rochester or Charlotte.

But that’s the pessimist in me, this was a good solid win, so let’s get into it.

Here’s how they lined up. Bridgeport didn’t post lines.

–

Lineup Notes: They are getting healthy. Ryan McAllister came off the injured list but was a scratch. Alex Alexeyev is still ill, just Zach Gallant (upper body, day to day) and Raivis Ansons (week to week, upper) are injured.

Today, Gabe Klassen was back in the lineup after missing the last two as a healthy scratch, as was Rafaël Harvey-Pinard for Avery Hayes and Joona Koppanen. Read into what you will on the Hayes scratch and Koppanen I think is part of the veteran rule. On defense Emil Pieniniemi and Finn Harding were back in for Chase Pietila and Scooter Brickey.

First Period: The Islanders had a late push where they owned possession time which kin dot forced the Penguins into taking a penalty. A Filip Hållander shorthanded rush up ice was denied by Henrik Tikkanen.

Second Period: The penalty kill from the first bled into the second but it was handled by the Penguins. Then Tanner Howe, who quietly has compiled a hell of a last few weeks, scores to put the Penguins ahead 1-0.

–

This was later followed up by a bomb of a shot from Captain and Connecticut native Phil Kemp.

–

Kemp has three this season, all against Bridgeport.

Third Period: The Penguins ran away with things in the period but it came at the expense of Melvin Fernstrom.

Travis Mitchell hit Fernstrom with a shoulder to shoulder hit which thrust Fernstrom into the boards by the Penguins bench. A 5:00 major and game misconduct was assessed to Mitchell for boarding which put the Pens on a 5:00 power play.

Gabe Klassen and Aidan McDonough scored, set up by Ville Koivunen and Harvey-Pinard, respectively.

–

The only question would be whether Murashov would get a shutout or not and while he was tested late, he did earn the shutout.

Three Stars: 3) Sergei Murashov (25 saves) 2) Phil Kemp (goal) 1) Tanner Howe (goal)

The Good: Seemed like a team win, everyone pulling in the same direction, all for the common good.

The Bad: Can’t nitpick a shutout, so let’s nitpick special teams. I didn’t like them when they were on the 5:00 major, Bridgeport got too many looks in a 2-0 game.

Turning Point: The 5:00 major power play netted them two goals, and helped them run away and get them the win.

Around the Division: Providence had a 13 game winning streak coming into Saturday and at the close of business Sunday they now have a 2 game losing streak after Hartford beats the Bruins 5-2.

Standings: Providence 77 – Penguins 75 – Charlotte 61 – Hershey 52 – Lehigh Valley 50 – Bridgeport 49 – Springfield 46 – Hartford 44

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

–

The P-Bruins will burn off one of their four games in hand on the Penguins when they travel to Allentown to take on the Phantoms on Wednesday. Charlotte will be in Bridgeport Wednesday also.

Wilkes-Barre will be out in Cleveland next weekend. I’ll talk to you Friday with the Weekend Preview.

Let’s Go Pens!

Too Close for Comfort — Pens WIN 4-3

          vs.          

3                              4

–

I didn’t put too much stock when the Bridgeport Islanders scored first Saturday night. It happens all the time for them.

I started to worry, though, when the Islanders scored again to go up 2-0.

But my worried were allayed when the Penguins scored twice to tie the game at two heading into the first intermission.

Then the Penguins scored again, then again, but a Liam Foudy shorthanded goal shifted momentum in a big way, but the Penguins held on in a too close for comfort type of an affair.

Wilkes-Barre wins 4-3 to draw within four points of the Providence Bruins who had their thirteen game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Springfield Thunderbirds Saturday. The Bruins still have four games in hand on the Penguins.

Here’s how they lined up. The Islanders are one of a handful of teams that don’t post a lineup graphic.

–

Lineup Notes: Matt Dumba and Scooter Brickey for Emil Pieniniemi on defense and Aidan McDonough for Rafaël Harvey-Pinard at forward.

First Period: Adam Beckman’s shot while there were Islanders buzzing around Joel Blomqvist’s crease goes in and the Islanders take an early 1-0 lea at 6:06.

–

Then a Julien Gauthier goal comes when an Ethan Bear shot misses the net entirely, caroms hard off the back wall straight to Gauthier who had a step on Blomqvist and into a wide open net at 7:55 that gave Bridgeport a 2-0 lead.

–

This is the same Bridgeport team that bussed four hours down from Springfield the night before while the Penguins were idle.

Things hit a lull for a but and settled, then a Filip Hållander goal comes at 17:26 off of a rebound that gives the Penguins some life.

–

Then Atley Calvert 1:03 later from the far dot and it’s a tie game.

–

Good response. They went down last week to Syracuse and its snowballed out of control after that. Bridgeport isn’t Syracuse, though.

Second Period: Sebastian Aho loves playing against his old team because he always scores.

–

Not a lot of action to write home about here. Tristan Broz fought Daylan Kuefer, that was all.

Third Period: Weird sequence here. Ville Koivunen rips a shot that rings iron, referee Jack Young washes it out, play continues.

Matt Dumba who was on the ie was adamant that the shot resulted in a goal and at the next stoppage, Young and Patrick Hanrahan review on the iPad at the scorers table and, well…

–

Good goal. They had to put about :50 or so seconds back on the clock.

But, a dumb D-to-D pass by Matt Dumba while the Penguins were on the only power play of the game results in Liam Foudy posting up the pass and taking the puck all the way in for a shorthanded goal.

–

Special teams remain an abject, top to bottom, disaster.

A rejected blog headline was “Brickey Wall” – but where I was going here was there was a late sequence where, with Jeremy Smith pulled for the Islanders, a puck gets past Blomqvist but it’s Scooter Brickey’s stick that prevents the puck from crossing the line.

Hanrahan and Young reviewed this on the iPad and this time, their suspicions turned out to be correct, no goal.

Three Stars: 3) Tanner Howe (two goals) 2) Sebastian Aho (goal) 1) Ville Koivunen (goal)

The Good: They gritted out a win that this time, I think they deserved.

The Bad: Special teams continues to be an issue.

Turning Point: The Koivunen goal gets it here because it ultimately ended up getting them the win.

Around the Division: Providence sees their 13 game winning streak come to an end up in Springfield as they lose 3-2…..Hartford shuts out Belleville 4-0….Lehigh Valley beats Hershey 6-4…Charlotte beats Syracuse 4-3.

Standings: Providence 77 – Penguins 73 – Charlotte 61 – Hershey 52 – Lehigh Valley 50 – Bridgeport 49 – Springfield 46 – Hartford 42

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off. They play again Wednesday.

Video Highlights: 

–

The Sunday game in Bridgeport was moved up to 3 p.m. because of the weather. I’m actually happy to see that because I don’t like Sunday games in general, and a 5 p.m. start would have been brutal anyway.

Let’s Go Pens!

King Midas – Pens WIN 7-2

           @          

7                           2

–

Here’s Avery Hayes’ past month in a nut shell…

  • Makes NHL debut, scores on first shot, scores another goal.
  • Returns to AHL, records hat trick against Hershey.
  • KO’s Zach Aston-Reese this past Sunday.
  • Yet another hat trick, Wednesday in Springfield.

You can probably call Hayes King Midas, as everything this kid touches is turning to gold.

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton romps the Springfield Thunderbirds 7-2 Wednesday night behind the Avery Hayes hat trick. Tanner Howe and Ville Koivunen also scored a pair of goals and Sergei Murashov stopped 30 shots.

I looked up the stat that Providence is 17-3 against the Thunderbirds, Hartford and Bridgeport this season so far. Well the Penguins are now 30-9-0-1 against Atlantic Division competition this season. That’s not bad, and it has them solidly in second place in the division.

Here’s how they lined up…

–

Lineup Notes: First of all, shout out to the graphics department in Springfield, that lineup graphic is clean.

Filip Hållander made his debut for the Penguins this season on a two week conditioning stint. Atley Calvert was also back in after a scratch Sunday at home against Cleveland. Aidan McDonough and Gabe Klassen came out of the lineup.

Sebastian Aho made his return after missing 19 games (his last game was December 27) for Matt Dumba.

On Dumba, he is out with an upper body injury, likely getting new teeth this week and hopeful it’s not a broken jaw or worse.

Alex Alexeyev is ill, not injured. Thanks to Mike Flynn who let me know that Alexeyev was a full participant in practice Tuesday. Ryan McAllister and Zach Gallant (also out with upper body injuries) skated after everyone left the ice. No sign of Dumba or the other guy Raivis Ansons who is still week to week with an upper body injury.

Not announced yet by the team, but the Wednesday ECHL Transactions have Scooter Brickey and Nolan Renwick on the way back to Wilkes-Barre which is curious, considering Hållander is here for at least two weeks and they are relatively healthy-ish on defense. Unless there is a Pittsburgh recall or recalls coming when the NHL returns from Olympic break soon.

Phew, that’s like a blog post.

First Period: Disaster start for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, who see Springfield score on their first shot of the game with Theo Lindstein scoring just :33 in…

–

But that cold slap in the face woke up the Penguins, as they would rattle off four goals in the period, chasing Will Cranley after the fourth goal.

Immediately after the Lindstein goal, Avery Hayes scores to tie the game at one. Moments later, Ville Koivunen scores at 1:44 to make it 2-1 and then a boffo sequence by Cranley and his defensemen where Cranley goes behind his net to play a puck, he crosses up his pass to the defenseman and there’s Avery Hayes like Johnny on the Spot to score into a wide open net and then Cranley gets the hook finally when Koivunen finds daylight in the slot to score his second of the period.

–

So two of your best players carry the mail in the period. It’s a beautiful thing.

Shots were a head shaking 11-10 in favor of the Thunderbirds, despite the 4-1 lead for the Penguins.

Second Period: If you thought the game was over, you didn’t pay attention to the Weekend Preview I ran earlier in the day where I informed you that the Thunderbirds scored 14 goals across two games in Iowa this past weekend. They are an offensively potent team.

Dillon Dube motors past Finn Harding and steps by Sebastian Aho on a power play to cut the deficit to two on a power play.

–

Penguins had a late power play that they squandered and I did not like the way the period broke at all, but it was two goal lead heading into the…

Third Period: I think the message got across properly as the Penguins turned a close, two goal lead into a three goal explosion in the third to run away from Springfield and turned the game into a laugher.

Hayes gets his hat trick and then Tanner Howe nets a pair.

–

You will be seeing McGroarty set up Hayes and Hayes set up McGroarty in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future.

–

That’s a nice setup by Boko Imama there.

–

Was that the same spot? It looked like it. Nice pass by Aho there also.

Sergei Murashov stopped a Hugh McGing penalty shot, the first time that Murashov has had to stop a penalty shot in the AHL.

Three Stars: 3) Tanner Howe (two goals) 2) Ville Koivunen (two goals) 1) Avery Hayes (hat trick)

The Good: This week is a good week to wash the stink away from last weekend. I would say that tonight was a good start.

The Bad: Powerplay and penalty kill continue to be an issue. 0/3 on the power play and 3/4 on the penalty kill. They made up for that with offense and the play of Sergei Murashov.

Turning Point: Hayes’ third goal gets it here. If Springfield scores a third to make it 4-3, the dynamic of this game changes considerably.

Around the Division: Hershey beats Toronto 3-2 in a noon game north of the border….Charlotte wins in a shootout over Rochester 3-2.

Standings: Providence 75 – Penguins 71 – Charlotte 59 – Hershey 52 – Bridgeport 48 – Lehigh Valley 46 – Springfield 42 – Hartford 40

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: If they are going to be posted it will be on the Thunderbirds YouTube page. That’s a nice way of saying that at 10 o’clock on Wednesday, they aren’t up yet.

Friday off, see you Saturday at home against the Islanders.

Let’s Go Pens!

Punch, Counterpunch, KO – Pens LOSE 4-3 (OT)

         vs.        

4                               3

–

In what seemed like a 12 round prize fight where you had two really good teams exchanging blows all fight, it was Cleveland Monsters Captain Brendan Gaunce’s overtime game winning goal that puts the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins down for the 10 count as they lose 4-3 in overtime Sunday afternoon.

There was a lot to like in comparison to Saturday’s fiasco, but that is clearing a low bar. The Providence Bruins keep winning, and they did again today in overtime against Bridgeport and extend their lead on the Penguins even more now.

I heard someone say that the Penguins are happy with being in second and I think that’s a lie. Why would you be content with second? They want to win the division, but with the games in hand Providence has and the points lead, coupled with the fact they can’t seem to lose, it’s an uphill battle. Maybe in mid-April with a handful of games left, sure I may agree with you but not when you have a whole half of the season to go yet.

Here’s how they lined up…

–

Lineup Notes: Aaron Huglen for Atley Calvert was the only lineup change.

First Period: Shades of the night before, the visitors get an early goal, this time with Max McCue scoring his first of the season that gave the Monsters an early 1-0 lead…

–

But in comes Rutger McGroarty who scored at the expiration of a Penguins power play to even things at one a side.

–

In contrast to the night before, I thought McGroarty had a fine game. Again, low bar in comparison.

:22 into a Monsters power play Owen Sillinger scored to edge Cleveland ahead 2-1…

–

However a cross up defensively by Cleveland sees Ville Koivunen score into an empty net that tied things at two…

–

Punch, counterpunch type of period.

Second Period: Low shot at 9:56 from Mikael Pyyhtiä beats Joel Blomqvist and that was all for him, enter Sergei Murashov.

–

I think that something needed to be done as a culmination of how the weekend and this game in particular had gone. Not so much an indictment on the play of Blomqvist as much as an indictment of the team in whole.

It seemed to work because the Monsters didn’t get another shot in the period but the Penguins didn’t score either.

The punching and counterpunching continued but the Pens were down on all the cards heading into the…

Third Period: The Penguins lost Matt Dumba in the second period after Dumba took a puck straight in the mouth that cast some of his teeth onto the ice. That means that they had to go five defensemen.

Emil Pieniniemi stepped up and scored his first goal of the season that tied the game at three.

–

Full disclosure with this next one, I didn’t know that Avery Hayes had this in his repertoire….

–

Wow.

Anyway, about as even as you can get type of a game that went into…

Overtime: Monsters win a defensive zone draw, skate it up the ice and well…

–

Ballgame.

Three Stars: 3) Mikael Pyyhtiä (goal) 2) Ville Koivunen (goal, assist) 1) Brendan Gaunce (goal, two assists)

The Good: In spite of the weekend, they got a point that they probably didn’t deserve.

The Bad: How much time to I have? The power play is a disaster despite scoring on one today and now the penalty kill is slipping into a bad area as well. Despite having a goal and and assist, I thought Ville Koivunen had a frustrating weekend and was selfish in overtime when he could have passed to Hayes for a good opportunity.

Turning Point: Gaunce’s goal gets it here, as they normally do.

Around the Division: Gave you the Providence result at the top. It was 2-0 Providence, Bridgeport made a goalie change, scored the next two, but the Bruins win 3-2 in overtime….Hartford and Charlotte got postponed to tomorrow on account of a leaky roof in Charlotte and Lehigh Valley loses 3-1 to Syracuse.

Standings: Providence 75 – Penguins 69 – Charlotte 55 – Hershey 50 – Bridgeport and Lehigh Valley 46 – Springfield 42 – Hartford 40

Wheeling Update: Nailers and Reading Royals are tied late as this goes up at 7 p.m. Sunday. Box here.

Video Highlights: 

–

Back at it Wednesday in Springfield. Weekend Preview here around lunchtime Wednesday. Talk to you then.

Let’s Go Pens!

Cooper Flinton Stole Your Girl — Pens LOSE 5-0

          vs.          

–

Not much to this one, a 5-0 Syracuse Crunch throttling of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins on Saturday night where the Penguins put up a tepid 16 shots on goal the entire game. Light and easy work for Syracuse goaltender Brandon Halverson, who wasn’t tested at all and wasn’t named one of the three stars.

No, that honor went to Cooper Flinton, who had a pair of goals and was named first star of the game.

Just an absolute, lifeless, tepid effort out of the Penguins who do not match up well against Syracuse and Charlotte, two teams I do not give them any shot at getting past if they meet in a Calder Cup Playoffs matchup.

Nothing went right, every line sucked, and Sergei Murashov is the only reason the game wasn’t 15-0.

Here’s how they lined up, I’ll give the Syracuse goals and then let’s toss this one in the bin where it belongs and get ready for Cleveland on Sunday.

https://twittter.com/SyracuseCrunch/status/2022805552238145687

–

Lineup Notes: Tanner Howe and Joona Koppanen (back from injury) for Aaron Huglen and Nolan Renwick up front, Emil Pieniniemi for Alex Alexeyev on defense. Renwick and Scooter Brickey were sent back to Wheeling earlier in the day. Alex Alexeyev was listed again as injured.

Okay Blog Boy, show me the Syracuse Goals: Flinton got the scoring started for the Crunch at 8:10

–

And then Matteo Pietroniro scores with 8.3 seconds left in the first off of a puck that ricochets off of Murashov which made it 2-0.

–

In the second, :15 into a Pieniniemi offensive zone penalty, Dylan Duke nets his league leading 14th power play goal (he’s tied with other players) that made it 3-0.

–

They put up more of a defensive pushback in the period, but received no offense.

They score two goals four minutes apart in the third period on a back end of a two man advantage as Mitchell Chaffee scored and then Cooper Flinton scored his brace that made it 5-0.

–

Ay, Carumba!

Three stars were Conor Geekie with three assists, Jakob Pelletier with three assists and Cooper Flinton with his two goals in that order.

The Good: Sergei Murashov kept it semi-manageable late.

The Bad: They seemed disjointed top to bottom. Missing passes, overskating, just not into it. A crowd of almost 6,000 tonight? Way to make fans, guys.

Turning Point: The Pietroniro goal that made it 2-0 killed any momentum they were building or tried to build.

Around the Division: Providence erases an 0-2 deficit in Bridgeport to win their 11th straight game 4-2 to put more daylight between first place which they occupy and the Penguins….Charlotte loses at home 3-2 to Hartford. Cleveland (here Sunday) beats Lehigh Valley 5-2 and Hershey beats Belleville in Ontario 6-3. Springfield beats the Iowa Wild 8-6.

Standings: Providence 73 – Penguins 68 – Charlotte 55 – Hershey 50 – Lehigh Valley 46 – Bridgeport 45 – Springfield 42 and Hartford 40

Wheeling Update: Box for the Nailers / Royals game is here as this is still in action as this blog goes up around 9:45 p.m. on Saturday night.

Video Highlights:

–

Back at it for a hopeful better result against Cleveland Sunday. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!