Chirps from Center Ice

          vs.          

6                                                     3

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Well, a nightmare scenario late in the third period of a tie hockey game is what dooms the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Saturday night. Three goals in the span of about two minutes and thirty seconds from the Thunderbirds and it’s Springfield who wins 6-3.

The Thunderbirds are on the upswing and the Penguins are trending down. With Providence, Hartford and Hershey essentially the class of the division currently, the four and five ranked teams are what’s the buzz and right now the Thunderbirds are playing maximal effort games and the Penguins not so much. Lax in some areas, it’s costing them.

Casey DeSmith opposed Philippe Desrosiers.

Lineup:

Lineup Notes: Wait, Cassels? Who’s he? Cole Cassels. Wilkes-Barre acquired him in the afternoon from Belleville where he was on a PTO with the Senators. They signed him to an AHL SPC for the rest of the season. Get used to him, his ECHL rights are where he initially came from in Utah, so he can’t go down to Wheeling if he’s ever reassigned.

First Period: Kind of like the third period Friday against Hershey if you stuck around for it. They were flying around, limited chances against and took a 1-0 lead into intermission after Sam Miletic’s offering was kicked in by Desrosiers.

Shots after one were 11-6 Penguins. They seemed to let off in the final five and the Thunderbirds got a few cheap shots in before the bell.

Second Period: They went back and forth, with Springfield having more of the advantage. The Thunderbirds outshot the Penguins 17-10 in the period and led 3-2 after the period.

Thomas Schemitsch followed his own shot and put his rebound past DeSmith which tied the game at one.

Adam Johnson wired a shot past Desrosiers to give the Penguins a lead again and it was 2-1.

Then the Thunderbirds scored within a few minutes of one another when Dryden Hunt connected with a power play goal and Jake Massie followed with a man marking issue and gave the Thunderbirds a 3-2 lead heading into the third.

Really, the same things that bit Wilkes-Barre Friday against Hershey were starting to nip again here.

Third Period: They came out with great pop and Jordy Bellerive finished off a great individual effort with a goal which tied the game at three.

But the Thunderbirds are well coached and kept punching. Leading goal scorer Owen Tippett found himself wide open when Adam Johnson went for a poke check, missed leaving Tippett open to beat DeSmith five hole to give the Thunderbirds a 4-3 lead.

Less than two minutes later, a shot from the point by Brady Keeper broke his stick. The force of the shot wasn’t as great and Rodrigo Abols put in his first of the season that gave Springfield a 5-3 lead.

About two minutes after that, a Dryden Hunt redirect beat DeSmith for Springfields sixth goal.

Three Stars: 3) Sam Miletic (goal, assist) 2) Dryden Hunt (two goals, assist) 1) Owen Tippett (goal, three assists)

The Good: First period was good. Second was lax, third was OK but devolved from there.

The Bad: They are in a funk they have to punch out of themselves, cause it’s a bare bones roster with guys hurt or on recall.

Turning Point: Springfields three unanswered goals had the Penguins spiraling out of control quickly.

Around the Division: Charlotte shuts out Providence  4-0….Hershey goes ahead with 40 seconds to play in the third to beat Bridgeport 2-1….Hartford beats Utica 3-1….Belleville beats Lehigh Valley 5-3.

Standings: Hartford 49 — Hershey 45 — Providence 43 — Springfield 42 — Penguins 39 — Charlotte 37 — Bridgeport 31 — Lehigh Valley 29

Wheeling Update: Nailers were shutout 4-0 in Cincinnati.

Video Highlights: Doubt they will have them, if they do I will run an edit here if I see it.

Charlotte is in Wednesday. I’ll update the charts sometime Sunday. If anything breaks between now and then, I’ll have an update here.

Let’s Go Pens!

          vs.          

6                                                     2

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The Penguins came out flatter than the leftover champagne you had at midnight Wednesday and it cost them, losing 6-2 to the Hershey Bears Friday night. Andrew Agozzino, on his birthday and on a day he was selected to All-Stars, scores both Penguin goals.

Dustin Tokarski started the game but was chased after the fourth goal. Any effort to try and kickstart a run before or after failed. The Pens made a furious push in the third, but never got close.

Tokarski opposed Vitek Vanecek.

Lineup:

Lineup Notes:

Casey DeSmith served as backup. I suppose he decided to stick around and make Thomas DiPauli drive while he flys to Montreal Saturday. Pens signed Sebastien Caron to a PTO per AHL transactions.

First Period: Pens had the better start, Hershey had the better finish.

Andrew Agozzino opened the scoring after getting named to the All-Star team earlier in the day on his birthday.

I’ve missed Taylor.

Anyway, Hershey has a power play come and go then killed a penalty. As it was expiring, Brian Pinho streamed up ice and scored unassisted to get the Bears on board.

Hershey really took it to the Penguins, outshooting them 14-6.

Second Period: Garrett Pilon and Eddie Wittchow scored within minutes of one another to give the Bears a 3-1 lead. Setup went like this, draw attention to far side, get players to overcommit and draw off a man, opponent passes to streaking team mate and the goal is scored.

Off of the faceoff following the Wittchow goal, Kale Kessy and Jamie Devane fought.

But there’s a problem. They fought off of the faceoff which is a direct violation of Rule 46.10 of the AHL Rulebook which outlaws fighting off of a faceoff. In part…

46.10 Fighting Prior to or at the Drop of the Puck – Unless this occurs prior to the start of the game or any period (see 46.9), a player or players who enter into a fight, prior to, at the drop of the puck, or immediately following any face-off during the game, shall be assessed an automatic game misconduct in addition to any penalties assessed.

They have had this rule in the book for a few years now but you may as well outlaw fighting altogether if you are going to write rules like this. They already suspend you for 10 fights, guys like Steve MacIntyre are out of the league and fights are becoming less and less.

There’s a time and place for it. Getting scored on again in the period was the perfect time to try and spark the bench to get a rally going. Kale Kessy and Jamie Devane are both willing, trained professionals who probably know more about what you read about CTE than the people writing it. That doesn’t stop them from trying to knock each other out, so why stop them and come up with 5,000 rules trying to disavow it.

Just ban it. I’ve wasted three full paragraphs veering off base on it. Just make a rule that if you fight, you’re thrown out of the game and suspended for one. If you do it again, you’re suspended for two games and your team is fined $500. Double the fines and suspensions from there. Simple.

Hershey continued to pile on with another Pinho goal for a tap in which chased Tokarski for DeSmith and then on a tail end of a two man advantage when Philippe Maillet hacked and whacked at a puck that got by DeSmith that made it 5-1.

Third Period: Andrew Agozzino with his second of the game in the first minute of the period.

Pens put on a clinic in the offensive zone but couldn’t get a few power play chances to fire and were running out of time. Liam O’Brien iced it away with an empty net goal.

Wilkes-Barre had 14 shots through two periods, ended up with 18 in the third. Vellucci’s challenge going forward is going to be getting a full effort out of his team with all three periods.

Three Stars: 3) Philippe Maillet 2) Andrew Agozzino 1) Brian Pinho

The Good: That third period was promising. They dominated Hershey but it may have been a wolf in sheep’s clothing given the scoreline.

The Bad: Absent the rules on fighting, they got their asses kicked tonight by a blood rival and are now out of a playoff spot.

Turning Point: Hershey’s two quick goals to open the second put the Penguins on tilt, and it spiraled from there.

Around the Division: Hartford doubles up Providence 3-1….Lehigh Valley is shutout 4-0 in Laval….Springfield beats a game Utica club 3-2….Binghamton beats Bridgeport 3-1. Charlotte was off.

Standings: Hartford 47 — Hershey 43 — Providence 43 — Springfield 40 — Penguins 39 — Charlotte 35 — Bridgeport 31 — Lehigh Valley 29

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 2-1 in overtime in Cincinnati. Cam Brown with both goals including the overtime winner. Alex D’Orio faced a firing squad in goal, stopping 34 shots.

Video Highlights: 

Springfield in Saturday with a chance to get back above the cut line. More Saturday at 3.

          vs.          

5                                                     4

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Two evenly matched teams squared off Tuesday afternoon in Springfield.

Your new rival is the Springfield Thunderbirds. Not Hershey or Lehigh Valley. It’s the Thunderbirds. They play the Penguins tough, strong and hard. They don’t lead the division by 15 points or beat teams by seven goals a night, they play a hard nosed, physical style just like the Penguins.

Springfield wins 5-4 in a shootout in a game that had everything. The game ending in a shootout was the least exciting thing about the entire contest.

Casey DeSmith opposed Philippe Desrosiers.

Lineup:

Lineup Notes: They released Sebastian Caron from his PTO about five minutes before they came out for the warmup, DeSmith started and Dustin Tokarski backed up. That was it. No imminent recall in the wake of Jake Guentzel’s season ending shoulder surgery off of the injury he sustained in Monday’s game against Ottawa.

Notable, Andrew Agozzino played in his 500th game. Also, Springfield didn’t post lines or any goal GIFs.

First Period: Period had pretty much everything.

First, two goals by the Penguins scored :18 apart. Anthony Angello drove the net and ripped a shot which was tipped but the rebound put in by Sam Miletic for a goal at 7:38.

Then, :18 later, a puck off of the chest of Andrew Agozzino and in for a 2-0 Penguin lead.

Oh and this too, depending on your view of what’s even strength or not.

To clarify, I’m talking about the goal Miletic scored in Rochester on December 11, not the one he scored Tuesday.

Springfield was never on the ropes, because they responded in kind to not only tie, but take the lead.

Paul Thompson’s initial shot is stopped, but the Thunderbirds captain follows his shot and puts it in to cut the deficit to one.

Later, Dryden Hunt tied the game on a tic tac power play goal.

Then Ryan Haggerty scored a goal in controversial fashion.

He put a puck in past DeSmith after the Penguins netminder made the initial stop, then never covered the puck which was loose in or around the crease. As Haggerty is knocked around, he makes contact with DeSmith as DeSmith is going down into a snow angel to hopefully cover up the puck before it crosses the line.

It did. Referee Dan Kelly was right on top of the play and signaled goal. This made Casey DeSmith very mad. He flung his blocker in the general direction of Kelly. Kelly then went to replay to review something. No idea what, as goalie interference calls when goals are scored and not called as such are not reviewable in the AHL. The goal stood and the place was hot.

I guess what I don’t understand is why that goal by Haggerty was allowed to stand with all that contact and the goal Bobby Nardella scored against Dustin Tokarski Saturday in Hershey wasn’t. Nardella sneezed on Tokarski and his goal was disallowed and yet DeSmith is knocked over, unable to play his position, and the goal stands. There is no black and white. There just isn’t. You can argue contact, but there is contact all the time.

Mike Vellucci then initially refused to send five players over the boards in a protest despite Dan Kelly’s petitioning to start play again at center ice.

Full marks to Kelly for not throwing Casey DeSmith out of the game. You can’t throw things at officials. Also, you are supposed to start play when the official signals. Kelly could have thrown gas on the fire by ejecting DeSmith and Vellucci but didn’t.

Oh, Jan Drozg scored a power play goal to tie the game at three.

(no goal GIF here or of the Haggerty one)

That was just the first period.

Second Period: A lot less controversy. The Penguins knuckle down and put 15 shots on Desrosiers, but the Thunderbirds netminder turned them all aside. Springfield took just six, one of them going in when Joel Lowry had a goal go in the opening minutes of the period.

Third Period: Penguins finally get one to go, this time off of the back of Desrosiers, when Thomas DiPauli was the last to touch the puck which tied the game at four.

Overtime: Pens had to kill a too many men penalty and did. No one really got close to scoring on either end.

Shootout: Henrik Borgstrom’s goal in the first round of the shootout stood up as the winner. Kevin Roy, Jake Lucchini and Anthony Angello all missed in that order for Wilkes-Barre.

The Good: Competitive game between to evenly matched teams gave the fans a good show. It’s always a battle and the Penguins and Thunderbirds sometimes bring out the best and worst of each other. Oh, and they rematch Saturday in Wilkes-Barre.

The Bad: Obviously the goalie interference no call, but the standard has no footing. No one knows what is or isn’t goalie interference.

Turning Point: Haggerty’s controversial goal gave Springfield the jam they were seeking. They kept out the Penguins in the second, and rode Desrosiers and a shootout to a win.

Around the Division: Hartford and Bridgeport were the only other game in town division wise, and the Wolf Pack handled the Sound Tigers beating them 3-2.

Standings: Hartford 45 — Providence 43 — Hershey 41 — Penguins 39 — Springfield 38 — Charlotte 35 — Bridgeport 31 — Lehigh Valley 29

Wheeling Update: Nailers hosted the Norfolk Admirals and beat them 6-1. Emil Larmi had 45 saves. Ryan Scarfo had a goal and an assist.

Video Highlights: Are here. The Haggerty goal is around the 1:50 mark.

Happy New Year. Don’t drink and drive, all that. Pens are back in action Friday when they host Hershey. Expect the All-Star rosters to be published sometime Thursday. I will be back then to let you know who made it from the Penguins plus looks at all the other players named. I think Casey DeSmith and Andrew Agozzino are locks, but I guess we will find out for sure then.

Let’s Go Pens!