Chirps from Center Ice

The Springfield Falcons put two past Matt Murray tonight but were still unable to beat the Penguins tonight as Dominik Simon capped off a thrilling comeback win for the Pens as they l won 3-2 in overtime. Murray stopped 33 of 35 tonight. 

Pens couldn’t muster any momentum because they had to constantly kill penalties, but a mix of the perfect penalty killing coupled with Murray’s stellar play again in net for Wilkes-Barre and Simon’s overtime heroics ensured victory.

Full recap to follow shortly.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were late to this game that started early. 

Down 3-0 before the game is six minutes old, they storm back to overcome an undermanned Lehigh Valley team and win 6-4. 

The Penguins had FOUR power play goals that no doubt helped them in the affair. 

Matt Murray started in net and stopped 22 of 26 shots. Will O’Neill had a pair of power play goals and Tom Kostopoulos chipped in two of his own. 

Full recap to follow in a bit.

The Manchester Monarchs closed out the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in five games with two first period goals and held on the rest of the way and won 2-1. Conor Sheary scored in the second period but that was it.

Lots more to get to in the coming days. Full recap to come in a bit and the full postmortem in a few days. 

Jordan Weal scored at :42 in the first period and that was all he needed to get going in the right direction towards a hat trick and all the Monarchs needed en route to a 5-2 win and a commanding 3-1 series lead with Game 5 tomorrow in Wilkes-Barre. 

Penguins got two goals in :37 in the third period with less than ten minutes to play from Tom Kostopoulos and Bryan Rust but the comeback ended there.

Full recap to come in a bit.

A masterful goaltending effort by Matt Murray, a goal by Bryan Rust, a power play goal by Tom Kostopoulos and a perfect penalty kill were enough for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight as they win Game 3 by a 2-1 score and trail in the best of seven series two games to one still with Game 4 Monday and now a necessary Game 5 on Tuesday.

Tighter, more evenly contested game with the defense of the Penguins, the goaltending by Murray and the penalty kill winning the day.

Full recap will come in a bit.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins win a convincing Game 2 tonight by a score of 4-0. The Pens connected for three power play goals in the first period and rode a 27 save shutout by Matt Murray to a 2-0 series lead in the best of five with a chance to sweep Wednesday in Syracuse. 

That’s the thumbnail summary. Full recap of things in a bit.

A three goal outburst in the second period for about 90 seconds was all the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins needed tonight as they take Game 1 of the best of five series by a score of 5-1. Kasperi Kapanen had two of the three goals in the outburst. 

While this one was never really in doubt, we have all been here before and I have blogged my share of collapses through the years. But not this time. Crunch scored one late in the second to make it 4-2 and maybe a game but Wilkes-Barre got one in the third from Danny Syvret to make it 5-1 and iced it away. 

Game 2 goes tomorrow night in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05

Full recap in a bit.