Chirps from Center Ice

Closer than we wanted it to be, but the Penguins wrap up home ice in the first round of the playoffs and are the 4 seed. They will face the Syracuse Crunch. This is the schedule: 

Friday 4/24 home

Saturday 4/25 home

Wednesday 4/29 road

Thursday 4/30 road

Saturday 5/2 home

As for this game, Jayson Megna broke out and had a hat trick. The Penguins scored two power play goals. 

Late push by Norfolk, playing in their last ever AHL game, made it interesting. Norfolk was down 5-1 and scored four three straight goals. 

Regular season concludes Sunday in Allentown with the Penguins having absolutely nothing to play for. I wonder what team will dress for that game. 

Full recap to follow shortly.

The Penguins went up against a hungry Albany Devils team battling for its playoff life against a Penguins team decimated by defensive call ups and injuries and the results were predictable. 

A 4-0 loss. Coupled with a 3-2 Hershey win against Binghamton at home and it’s the Bears who are your East Division Champions.

So the best that the Penguins can do is a 4 seed. I’ll check those other finals and will see what that picture looks like when the full recap goes up in a little while.

Blech. Go Pens.

Coming into the third period of a hotly contested game against a team two points behind the Penguins tonight, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins got a goal :10 into the period by Dominik Uher that made it 3-1. Uher would add on his second about eleven minutes later that made it 4-1. At that point the rout was on.

But hold on. The Hartford Wolf Pack scored two goals to make it 4-3 but ran out of time. 

Jeff Zatkoff was in net and picked up his win. Pens should see the magic number to clinch dip to 7 or lower.

Full recap to follow soon.

Pretty dominating display here in Binghamton as the Penguins defeat the Binghamton Senators by a 3-1 score here in New York. 

Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals by Scott Wilson and a shorthanded effort by Jayson Megna. 

They bottled up Binghamton in the second period and shut them down, not allowing any chances. 

In the third it was more of the same. Carter Rowney added an insurance goal as a Penguin power play had just expired. Matt Murray’s bid for his 11th shutout of the season was spoiled by a Max McCormick redirect of a Freddy Claesson shot with 4:22 left. 

Penguins inch closer to clinching a playoff spot. They also inch closer to the Hershey Bears, who were losing 6-3 last I looked. 

Full recap will be up in a few hours. I have to make the trek back home. 

Let’s Go Pens!!

Another quick rapid recap for you on thisSaturday night. 

A stinker. 4-3 Pens loss. Pens did a lot of things right, out shooting the B-Sens 36-23. What they got wrong, they fished out of their nets. 

Pens had a 3-2 lead going into the third period when Binghamton got two goals off crazy plays. A quick one timer by Max McCormick through a screen and later Shane Prince backhander on a fluttering puck that he fluttered past Zatkoff and in for a 4-3 lead. 

Pens had the majority of the power plays but only scored on one of them and were scored on shorthanded.

Lineup change late saw Conor Sheary a late scratch. Obie speculated as to an injury. Sheary took warmups. Other personnel news saw Barry Goers leave the game with an injury, possibly arm related. 

Full recaps of things to come in a bit. 

Best way to describe this 5-2 Penguins loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack today?

Yuck.

Penguins were badly outplayed, outclassed and outshot (40-13) and the results showed. Pens could have drawn to a point behind rival Hershey but instead fell into a trap with a desperate Hartford team gunning for a playoff berth.

Penguins got a power play goal from Jayson Megna and a goal from Josh Archibald. 

Full recap to follow in a bit.

A quick blurb here of the Penguins 3-1 win tonight over rival Hershey. Two first period goals by Jayson Megna and Conor Sheary, 26 saves out of Matt Murray was enough to get the win tonight. You can check out the box here. 

It seemed that the Penguins had an answer for everything that the Bears threw at them tonight. A dominating first period to open, bend but not break second that saw the Bears close to within one on a Mike Moore shot but minutes later Dominik Uher cleaned up a Carter Rowney shot to make it 3-1 then a dominating third period of defensive shutdown hockey. 

Penguins pull within three of the Bears with the win. They burn off that game in hand tomorrow with Sunday’s afternoon game with Hartford.

Providence, the 5 seed, won 5-0 in Springfield tonight.

Tomorrow’s opponent Hartford was in Binghamton and won 4-3. 

Full recap will follow later on.