Chirps from Center Ice

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are in losing funk. Reasons why include slow starts and lack of power play success.

They looked like an entirely different team Sunday afternoon in Hershey.

Scoring twice on the power play and racing to a 3-1 start after the first period, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeated the Hershey Bears 4-1 in Chocolatetown tonight.

Sean Maguire started the game and collected his first AHL win of the season. The problem, as I have said all along this, now forgotten losing streak, has not been in goal.

He opposed Pheonix Copley, which Head Coach Troy Mann put out there against the Penguins because Copley had been undefeated coming into the meeting this evening with a 6-0 record, a 1.54 GAA and a .943 SV%. Styles make fights, but that decision led to a first round TKO for his Hershey side.

Lines were….

Josh Archibald – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea – Patrick McGrath
Garrett Wilson – Greg McKegg – Daniel Sprong
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Thomas DiPauli

Andrey Pedan – Zach Trotman
Chris Summers – Ethan Prow
Kevin Spinnozi – Frank Corrado

Sean Maguire – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Two changes on the back end for the Pens, Kevin Spinozzi for Jarred Tinordi who is still banged up from that shot block in the third period Friday against Charlotte and Ethan Prow, recalled from Wheeling earlier in the day, in for Lukas Bengtsson, who had “fallen ill” per radio. Up front, Patrick McGrath in for Ryan Haggerty. McGrath’s first appearance since November 12.

First Period: Penguins finally got the start they needed Friday against Charlotte.

After a turnover by the Bears, Christian Thomas victimized his old team for a 1-0 Penguin lead….

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…this was right after a power play where the Pens enjoyed a lot of offensive zone possession time and had a power play look good.

Later, Reid Anderson and Jeremy Tufts, the two bozos that worked the game Friday against the Checkers in Wilkes-Barre, called P-C Labrie for a slash and then during the setup for the face-off, didn’t like what Garrett Mitchell was saying and put him in the box for unsportsmanlike conduct gift wrapping the Penguins a 5-on-3 power play opportunity.

:40 in, Daniel Sprong scored his fourth goal in as many games and yet another goal against the Bears in Giant Center, where he has scored in every other game…

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Later, Thomas DiPauli scored on another turnover by the Bears, this time caused by Tom Sestito. The rout was on…

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Or was it? On a late Bears power play, Ty Graovac scored on a perfect tic-tac-toe play to put Hershey on the board with :01 on the man advantage.

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Shots were 15-4 Wilkes-Barre / Scranton heading into the…

Second Period: Quiet period in terms of scoring because there wasn’t any by either team. Radio picked up that Tom Sestito was absent during the second period. Bears had the majority of shots (10 to WBS’ 7) and power plays (3-2) but Wilkes-Barre played bend but not break and maintained their two-goal lead.

Third Period: Penguins would connect on another power play goal with a two-man advantage when Zach Trotman scored his first of the season which made it 4-1 Penguins and iced the game away…

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Period was really marred by starts and stops and penalties, all the Penguins needed to do was chip the time off of the clock and insulate Maguire and that is what they accomplished.

Three Stars: 3) Colin Smith (two assists, +1) 2) Thomas DiPauli (goal, +1) and 1) Daniel Sprong (goal, assist, even)

Around the Division: Hartford beats Springfield 5-3…Rochester pounds Bridgeport 4-1…Providence with their third third period comeback of the weekend, slips by Utica 4-3 in overtime. Lehigh Valley and Charlotte were off.

Standings: Providence (.708 percentage points) — Charlotte (.660) — Penguins (.652) — Lehigh Valley .635) — (.542) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.463) — Springfield (.375)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video Highlights:

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One thing I did want to note before I wrap it up here, Josh Archibald can play Wednesday against the Springfield Thunderbirds then his conditioning stint is over and he must return to Pittsburgh, so we will see what happens with him the early part of this week.

My Week 10 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!

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There were 17 total power plays issued in this game officiated by referees Reid Anderson and Jeremy Tufts. 10 for the Checkers and 7 for the Penguins.

But it’s not a reason why the Penguins lost.

Sean Maguire started his first game for the Penguins this season and stopped 28 of 30 shots.

But it’s not a reason why the Penguins lost.

OK, so you want to know why the Penguins lost tonight? I will let you. A team coming into a Friday night game against a division rival that they only play four times this season needs to get off to a hotter start then the Penguins did tonight. The Penguins only managed four total first period shots on Checkers starting goaltender Jeremy Smith tonight and didn’t register their first until 8:49 of the period. The Checkers fired 14 shots on Maguire and took control of the game from there.

Maguire was fine tonight. I hate to be the bearer of news you don’t want to hear, but the Penguins are in this funk that they are on right now with out without Casey DeSmith.

You can’t come out and just put up an anemic four shots on goal in the first period, give up two goals in the second then chase the game the rest of the way and look like you are involved in the game in the third period when you are fighting the opponent and two referees slowly losing control of the game.

Pens lose 2-1. With other finals in the division tonight Wilkes-Barre goes from first to fourth in the ultra competitive Atlantic Division.

Lines were…

Josh Archibald – J-S Dea – Ryan Haggerty
Zach Aston-Reese — Colin Smith – Gage Qunney
Garrett Wilson – Greg McKegg – Daniel Sprong
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Thomas DiPauli

Andrey Pedan – Zach Trotman
Chris Summers – Kevin Czuczman
Jarred Tinordi – Lukas Bengtsson

Sean Maguire – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Greg McKegg and Dominik Simon swapped positions with the Pittsburgh Penguins. In an unrelated move Wilkes-Barre sent Jarrett Burton sent to the Wheeling Nailers.

First Period: Penguins got the first power play of the game but were unable to get anything going because they couldn’t establish any offensive zone production. Forward tries to bring the puck in the zone, is knocked away by a defenseman. Regroup. Dump and chase. Puck skips and goes back out. Rinse and repeat.

Checkers had three power plays in the first and Maguire was up to the task. Shots after one were 14-4 Charlotte heading into the…

Second Period: Andrew Miller opened the scoring when the Penguins collapsed on the near side and him. Play was set up by Daniel Sprong listening to the fans yell SHOOT! all night…

https://twitter.com/CheckersHockey/status/939303186078359553

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Checkers connected on a power play goal when Andrew Poturalski sniped this one in to put the Penguins in a big hole….

https://twitter.com/CheckersHockey/status/939304890488279041

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Third Period: Penguins got a power play :34 into the period.

:03 in, J-S Dea wins a face-off back to Daniel Sprong….

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Penguins lose Jarred Tinordi to a blocked shot. He didn’t return. Donatelli told Tyler postgame that he didn’t think it was anything major.

After this, every penalty was met with a scrum or pushing and shoving. Garrett Wilson and Jarred Tinordi were thrown out of the game after a feeble attempt by Tufts / Anderson to get the game under control.

Then, on a Penguins power play, Checkers clear the puck out to Jeremy Smith. He comes out of his crease to play the puck and his run into by Ryan Haggerty. I don’t know who made contact with who but Haggerty was assessed a charging penalty.

The whole goaltender leaving the crease to play the puck is a gray area that should be addressed. They open themselves up to “fair game” but are protected by the referees. Either don’t allow a goaltender to play a puck or eliminate the “fair game” part of the rulebook.

Through the mess of what was supposed to be a hockey game at the end, the Penguins would lose 2-1.

Three Stars: 3) Daniel Sprong (goal, -1) 2) Andrew Miller (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Andrew Poturalski (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley fights off a late third period charge from the Hershey Bears and win 5-4….Providence takes a shootout win over Hartford 4-3….Rochester takes down Springfield 2-1. Bridgeport was off.

Standings: Providence (.682 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.660) — Charlotte (.646) — Penguins (.636) — Bridgeport (.591) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.420) — Springfield (.365)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost 3-2 in Indiana tonight against the Indy Fuel. Troy Josephs assisted on both goals scored by Riley Bourbonnais.

Doubt there will be any video highlights but if there are I’ll run an edit.

Pens have the night off Saturday. Phantoms and Hershey rematch Saturday in Hershey, Providence hosts Utica, Charlotte visits Binghamton and Bridgeport is in Springfield. I may run late Saturday final score updates here, but if not, look for the next post to be the 1 p.m. Gameday setup against Hershey Sunday afternoon.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Penguins have now dropped 5 of 6 games since the Thanksgiving break.

They haven’t scored a power play goal in for as long as I can remember.

They continue to give up shorthanded goals.

Results are expected, a 5-0 whitewash at the hands of the undermanned at defense Lehigh Valley Phantoms tonight in Allentown. First time that the Penguins have been shutout this season.

Anthony Peters opposed Dustin Tokarski

Lines were…

Adam Johnson – Colin Smith – Dominik Simon
Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Josh Archibald
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Thomas Di Pauli

Lineup Notes: On Wednesday morning, the Penguins shipped Forwards Freddie Tiffels and Troy Josephs along with defenseman Ethan Prow and goaltender Colin Stevens to the Wheeling Nailers. The Nailers visited the Reading Royals so it was a short trip for the quartet. Also, at noon Wednesday, it was learned that Gregg McKegg was placed on waivers by Pittsburgh. If no one claims him, he’ll report to Wilkes-Barre. It’s roster jockeying by Jim Rutherford in the wake of the injury to Justin Schultz last night against the New York Rangers. As a precaution, defenseman Frank Corrado was a healthy scratch for Wilkes-Barre tonight.

Adam Johnson slotted in at left wing with Colin Smith and Dominik Simon on the top line, Tom Sestito went back to the fourth line with Blueger and DiPauli. Chris Summers jumped in on defense with Corrado likely to be recalled.

First Period: Strong opening start by the Penguin, outshooting the Phantoms 4-0 through the first five minutes. Phantoms would find themselves on a power play, didn’t score on it, but rode tat momentum into a 3-0 lead after the first period.

Pass to Mikhail Vorobyev from behind the net to him in front and all he did was directed the puck past Peters and in. 1-0.

Turnover in front of the net by Dominik Simon found Corban Knight’s stick and past Peters for a 2-0 lead. Peters got most of it, but it squirted through the pads and rolled harmlessly across the line.

Daniel Sprong tried to force a pass at the blueline which sprung Corban Knight and Oskar Lindblom on a two on one. 3-0.

So it was a positive start by the Penguins that snowballed into a 3-0 deficit in a span of 3:44 after the first period.

Second Period: Tyrell Goulbourne scored shorthanded on teh Penguins first power play of the game and that ended Anthony Peters night. Peters stopped 15 of 19 shots and the Penguins allowed their 7th shorthanded goal of the season. They only had 4 last year.

Wilkes-Barre wasn’t doing themselves any favors, only having one shot on goal for a good portion of the opening half of the period.

On another power play, Head Coach Clark Donatelli decided to put his fourth line out on a power play unit.

Maguire stopped all seven shots faced in the period.

Penguins to this point were playing well enough to win but were not helping themselves with turnovers and shorthanded goals and were just unable to solve Tokarski to this point.

Third Period: Penguins put up 14 shots on Dustin Tokarski, but he stopped them all. A shot was blocked by Andrey Pedan but the puck caromed to Matt Read who scored on Maguire to extend the lead to 5-0.

Wilkes-Barre’s inability to score on the power play and inability to score on Tokarski were all that the Phantoms needed to coast to the easy victory.

Three Stars: 3) Tyrell Goulbourne (goal, +1) 2) Corban Knight (goal, assist, +3) and 1) Dustin Tokarski (39 save shutout)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Penguins (.667 percentage points) — Providence (.667) — Lehigh Valley (.646) — Charlotte (.630) — Bridgeport (.591) — Hershey (.521) — Hartford (.417) — Springfield (.380)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers fell in Reading tonight 2-1. Hunter Fejes had the only goal for the Nailers.

Depending on schedules, I may have a blog on more moves in Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling. If not, check back for the Gameday setup Friday at 3 against the Charlotte Checkers.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Milwaukee tried this analogy Friday and it nearly paid off.

Rochester didn’t need to Saturday.

Hershey played the parable to perfection Sunday and won 4-3 in overtime against the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

If you don’t get the analogy, the proper way to boil a frog is just let it slowly warm itself in a pot of cold water until the water reaches a boil and it’s too late for the frog to do anything.

Metaphorically speaking, it’s an inability or unwillingness of someone or something to react to or be aware of threats that arise gradually.

How does this apply to today’s game? The Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead, then got lulled into a trance that the Hershey Bears put them in with a ton of time left on the clock. After a Liam O’Brien goal set off Hershey’s annual teddy bear toss, it was only a matter of time before the Bears tied the game. At that point it was just a matter of whether the game would end in regulation or overtime.

It looked for a minute that the Bears would win in regulation after a failed Penguin clear, but :55 later Tom Sestito scored to send it to overtime. Chris Bourque ended it in overtime on a power play goal.

Simply put, Penguins had the early jump but were never able to put away the Bears, despite the two goal lead early. Hershey started punching back and the Penguins never countered.

3 out of 6 points for the weekend with no actual Penguin goaltender under contract to NHL Pittsburgh is something we would have all signed up for the minute Tyler tweeted on Thursday that Sean Maguire was sick and could miss the weekend.

Anthony Peters opposed Pheonix Copley.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Josh Archibald
Tom Sestito – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Garrett Wilson – Gage Quinney – Daniel Sprong
Jarrett Burton – Teddy Blueger – Thomas Di Pauli

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Alright, so before you say it, I will say it for you. The Penguins didn’t have an issue in goal tonight.

Anthony Peters started the game for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight and looked solid in goal. After a scoreless first period and the Penguins jumping out to a 1-0 lead after a Teddy Blueger tip in of an Andrey Pedan shot that set off the abalone of stuffed teddy bears, the Penguins would normally settle in and take control of a game in which they had the lead.

Only it didn’t happen that way.

Here’s how the goals were scored by the Americans tonight and I will do my best to deflect away from it being the goalies fault because the goalie isn’t named Casey DeSmith.

Goal #1: Eric Cornel scored on a rebound when Frank Corrado lost his man in the corner and Nick Baptiste got alone in front of Peters. Baptiste put a shot on that Pters stopped, but the rebound bled to Rodrigues for a tie game at one.

Goal #2: Seth Griffith breaks in behind the defense, doesn’t have the puck under control enough to shoot a good shot, stops, waits for his trailer to come down the line, makes a pass that is slammed home for a 2-1 Rochester lead. It’s a high skill play that you rarely see in the AHL because guys in that situation will just shoot it to see what happens or make a bad pass to the trailing teammate. Evan Rodrigues had the goal.

Goal #3: Garret Ross scored when Peters was down and out after making a skate save. Ross found the puck and put it over Peters for a 3-1 lead.

Goal #4: On a 5-on-3 power play, Rodrigues is planted in front of the net and a pass from C.J. Smith deflects off of Rodrigues’ skate and right under Peters and in.

All of the goals for the Americans came in the second period. They would add an empty net goal with Peters pulled when Smith beat Andrey Pedan to an icing call and flipped the puck into the vacated space to make it a 5-2 final score.

If you want to be mad that the Penguins lost tonight, by all means be my guest. Blame the officials, who I thought were particularly awful tonight, completely unaware how to handle a face-off and letting the game get out of hand. Blame the Penguins lack of urgency at times but be sure to credit Rochester’s defense, who did an excellent job of containing the Penguins dangerous offense tonight. Just please don’t blame the goaltending.

Penguins got their second goal when Teddy Blueguer chased down Rochester goaltender Linus Ullmark forcing him into a turnover that Blueger put into an empty net for at the time a 4-2 lead for the Amerks.

I mean, that’s it. Rochester had seven power plays to the Pens one, but the Amerks only scored on one power play after the Penguins were deep in the hole. Dominik Simon left the game after the first period when he blocked a shot in the first. He looked OK after, but most likely for precautionary reasons, they kept him out the rest of teh way. Clark Donatelli told Tyler postgame that he didn’t have an update.

No decision on who starts Sunday afternoon in Hershey.

Here are the goals the Penguins scored in GIF format.

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Here were the lines…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Dominik Simon – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Garrett Wilson – Adam Johnson – Josh Archibald
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Daniel Sprong

Andrey Pedan – Kevin Czuczman
Chris Summers – Zach Trotman
Jarred Tinordi – Frank Corrado

Anthony Peters – Colin Stevens

Sprong and Tom Sestito swapped spots on the fourth line, Summers and Lukas Bengtsson did the same on the back end.

Around the Division: Toronto beats Hartford in overtime 4-3…Utica edges Bridgeport in a shootout 2-1…Hershey shuts out Milwaukee 3-0…Lehigh Valley loses in overtime to Laval 4-3 and Providence beats Binghamton 4-2. Springfield and Charlotte had the night off, they meet Sunday afternoon in Charlotte.

Standings: Penguins (.711 percentage points) — Providence (.650) — Lehigh Valley (.630) — Bridgeport (.619) — Charlotte (.614) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.417) — Springfield (.396)

Wheeling Update: win in overtime against Reading 5-4.Nailers Garrett Meurs potted the game winner 2:10 into the extra session. Will King picked up the win. Nailers host Fort Wayne Sunday at 3:05.

Pens travel to Hershey for a 5 p.m. start against the Bears. Gameday setup will hit the blog Sunday afternoon at 1.

Let’s Go Pens!

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This game had everything.

From a hat trick in the first period to two shorthanded goals and two goaltenders duking it out trying to keep their team in it, this was an exciting matchup between two teams that haven’t met in the regular season in the better part of a decade. Best yet, as the game wore on, they quickly grew an appetite of distaste for one another.

Penguins win 5-4 in overtime off of another game winning goal from the stick of J-S Dea. Stats and color man Nick Hart tweeted after the game that Dea now pulls into a tie with Tomáš Surový and Scott Wilson for the second-most game-winning goals in Penguins franchise history with 14.

Colin Stevens opposed Jusse Saros. This game really was a goaltending duel more than people realize. For Stevens, it was his first AHL start.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Dominik Simon – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Garrett Wilson – Adam Johnson – Josh Archibald
Tom Sestito – Teddy Blueger – Thomas Di Pauli

Andrey Pedan – Lukas Bengtsson
Kevin Czuczman – Zach Trotman
Jarred Tinordi – Frankie Corrado

Colin Stevens – Anthony Peters.

Lineup Notes: Daniel Sprong was a healthy scratch tonight. No, he’s not getting called up. He was a straight up scratch tonight. If body language was any indicator, he didn’t take it too well. His chin strap was not tied, he looked totally disengaged in warmups when his teammates were rushing, talking to the trainers on the bench during and left the ice with 3:30 to go in the warmup session. There was a report this week that GM Jim Rutherford told the Pittsburgh media that Daniel Sprong will not be called up any time soon because the coaching staff in Wilkes-Barre has given the brass in Pittsburgh no reason for him to be called up. If this is how Sprong reacts to the adversity of being scratched by the coaching staff, that is not a good sign.

I had someone on Twitter tell me that Sprong has had attitude problems going all the way back to his midget days and those problems were why he slipped in the QMJHL draft and followed him to his Junior team.

Tyler asked after the game and was told this…

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Chris Summers was given the night off. Josh Archibald was sent down on conditioning for the weekend to get him reps. Garrett Wilson was back also with Tom Sestito. Gage Quinney and Jarrett Burton were the odd men out of the forward corps.

First Period: In order for the Penguins to have success in the game tonight, the blueprint was to scored the first goal.

Check.

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Ridiculous pass from Josh Archibald there to set up the Wilson goal.

Penguins gave up a shorthanded goal to ex-Penguin Harry Zolnierczyk that made it 1-1.

But then Garrett Wilson completed his hat trick with this seeing eye goal through bodies that made it 2-1…

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And then :05 into a power play, the hats flew…

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Credit to Colin Stevens, he had some big stops early on to keep Milwaukee to just one goal early on. Wilkes-Barre did a good job of insulating him in the first, and he did the rest in making the saves he needed to.

Second Period: Admirals leading scorer Emil Pettersson skated to the slot and let it rip and beat Stevens to make it a one goal game again.

Here is where Saros settled in and kept his team in the game by not allowing the Penguins to score on some decent chances. Colin Smith and Adam Johnson had better chances, Saros stopped them all. Milwaukee bided their time, waiting for a good opportunity on Stevens to make it 3-3.

But it never happened. The Penguins caused a delay of game for a face-off violation, giving the Admirals a power play. To be fair, both teams had issues with the way that linesman Tom DellaFranco and J.P. Waleski handled face-offs, but the Penguins had to pay a penalty out of it.

Josh Archibald wants you to remember that speed kills…

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Big goal at the time. A one goal game is a one shot game. Momentum can turn instantly. Penguins skated into the second intermission up a pair.

Third Period: Milwaukee finally broke through on a power play when Mark Zengerle collected a puck far side and just dialed in and picked his spot on Stevens all in close that made it a one goal Penguin lead.

Milwaukee continued the sustained pressure. They hit a post. Finally, Zengerle put a shot on Stevens that he flicked away with the right pad but Anthony Richard was right place, right time and put the rebound home to make it 4-4 and a tie game.

That goal came with under five minutes to play. But for a total breakdown which didn’t come, it was off to…

Overtime: Stevens made a skate save in the overtime session, then J-S Dea skated on off the bench and ended it…

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Ballgame.

Use your offensive pieces to jump ahead on your opponent and your defense to insulate your young goaltender, get some OK saves out of him and a great team wins a good game. Easy. Just replicate it two more times this weekend and we all sincerely regret any doubts coming into the weekend in the goaltending department.

Three Stars: 3) Josh Archibald (goal, assist, even) 2) J-S Dea (overtime game winning goal, even) and 1) Garrett Wilson (hat trick, +1)

Around the Division: Bridgeport wins a run and gun, 13 goal affair with the Utica Comets 7-6 in overtime. Best part about this is that these two teams rematch tomorrow in Bridgeport….Lehigh Valley pounds Hershey 7-2….Providence edges Binghamton 3-2….Hartford beats Rochester 5-4 in a shootout and Charlotte beats Springfield 4-1.

Standings: Penguins (.750 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.636) — Providence (.632) — Bridgeport (.625) — Charlotte (.614) — Hershey (.477) — Hartford (.413) — Springfield (.396)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose at home to the Reading Royals 4-3. Cody Wydo had a goal and an assist. Reading stays the night and the two teams rematch tomorrow in Wheeling.

Video Highlights: 

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Rochester comes to town tomorrow with a boatload of ex-Penguins. Gameday for that matchup hist the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

       vs.       

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I have recycled this headline tonight, I think for the third time if the slug is any indicator, but it bears repeating again that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins had a chance to win tonight;’s hockey game against the Syracuse Crunch, but due to the inability to score on five power play opportunities, at key times in the contest, mind you, they were unsuccessful in winning tonight’s game, losing 4-3.

There is also something about the Syracuse Crunch that gave the Penguins fits this weekend. Maybe it was the speed, maybe it was a rag tag group fo Crunch players all playing out of position (defenders were playing forward and vice versa) that had teh Crunch wanting it more than the Penguins. I wouldn’t have faulted you at all if you thought that the Penguins were going to easily win this series with the Crunch. Count me in with those that believed that the Penguins were going to steamroll Syracuse in these two games.

Casey DeSmith opposed Connor Ingram.

A lot of chatter on my social media outlets that was wondering when Colin Steven was going to get a start in goal for the Pens. I think that DeSmith wanted tonight’s game as a revenge for what the Crunch did to the Penguins last night. Wilkes-Barre has three games coming up in a row Friday, (vs. Milwaukee) Saturday (vs. Rochester) and Sunday (at Hershey) next weekend, so Stevens is going to have to get a game. My money is on next Sunday at Hershey, but I could probably go with Saturday at home against Rochester too.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Daniel Sprong
Dominik Simon – Colin Smith – Christian Thomas
Adam Johnson – Gage Quinney – Freddie Tiffels

Andrey Pedan – Lukas Bengtsson
Chris Summers – Kevin Czuczman
Jarred Tinordi – Frank Corrado

Casey DeSmith – Colin Stevens

Lineup Notes: 400th AHL game for Chris Summers…Andrey Pedan was back in the lineup after seeing his three game suspension for Zack Trotman, who was given the night off. But for some shuffling up front, no changes to the forward core.

First Period: Daniel Walcott scored his first of the season with this tap in goal at 1:39 that put the Crunch out in front…

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Penguins answer right back though with Freddie Tiffels first AHL goal after a nice pass from Gage Quinney in front…

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Game developed into a fast paced affair. Then Teddy Blueger stuffed one under Ingram’s pads to put the Penguins out front 2-1…

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Great offensive zone shift by the Penguins set all of that up. I personally thought that the entire play was offsides, myself, but that was never raised.

Here’s the turning point in the game in my opinion…

Reid McNeill interfered with Thomas DiPauli, so much so that I caught the infraction myself without even having to look at a referee’s arm go up. After the play stopped, referee Tyler Puddifant signaled the interference call but also indicated to DiPauli that he was guilty of something also. That something was embellishment, or formerly diving. I don’t see where that could apply here. McNeill stepped in front of DiPauli while DiPauli was hustling for a puck and knocked him down. Clear interference. How Puddifant saw a dive from DiPauli from the sequence is beyond me. Penguins had all the momentum at this point and had it all go poof because of a questionable at best embellishment call.

What’s better, is that after all of that nonsense, the other referee working the game, Pierre Lambert, got Teddy Blueger for a holding penalty. That player that Blueger held went down like a house of cards, but no embellishment call was called there.

Pens would kill that penalty, but Frank Corrado was called for interference and then Carter Verhaeghe scored on the power play to even it at two…

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Just skated to the slot unabated and let it rip.

Second Period: Penguins get three straight power plays given to them. The first one was bad, the second one was worse, and the third one Michael Bournival scored a goal shorthanded…

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To add insult to injury, two Penguins collided at center ice and Matthew Peca scored this goal late to make it 4-2 Crunch…

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Third Period: Penguins played with vim and vigor this period but couldn’t dig out of a two goal deficit with a Crunch team playing confident in front of their young goaltender. Frank Corrado scored this goal to bring the Penguins back within one…

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… but with a late power play that came and went and later with DeSmith pulled, the Penguins never found the equalizer.

While I am ragging on officials, linesman Jud Ritter had an overall embarrassing game for himself. There was a sequence late with the Penguins pushing for the final goal that Syracuse would go for a clear and Rutter (who called the delayed too many men on the ice penalty on the Penguins in Game 5 against Providence last year) tried to get out of the way of the clear but couldn’t, thus keeping the puck in the Penguins offensive zone. Play was halted for some reason by likely one of the referees killing all momentum. Oh, and it was the other linesman, J.P. Waleski that missed the offsides call on the Penguins second goal, just to show that I am being fair.

Three Stars: 3) Freddie Tiffels (goal, even) 2) Matthew Peca (goal, +1) and 1) Carter Verhaeghe (goal, assist, +1)

Around the Division: Bridgeport scores a goal late to tie it at 4-4 in Allentown, but Will O’Neill scores 1:22 into overtime to give the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 5-4 win at home against the Sound Tigers….Hershey beats Hartford 4-1 in Connecticut and Charlotte crushes Providence 8-2 in a game between two teams that are up and down like the stock market. Springfield was off.

Standings: Penguins (.735 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.650) — Charlotte (.600) — Providence (.588) — Bridgeport (.583) — Hershey (.500) — Hartford (.425) — Springfield (.357)

Wheeling Update: fell at home to the Worcester Railers 4-3The Nailers despite two goals from Nick Saracino.

Video Highlights: 

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Week 8 AHL Power Rankings are here Monday at 4.

Let’s Go Pens!