Chirps from Center Ice

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Pardon any formatting errors as I’m drawing this up on the fly. No, I don’t have work on Thanksgiving, but I’m traveling and want the majority of the heavy lifting done now vs. later. Great game by two teams headed in seemingly different directions. Pens win 6-2 as the Phantoms slump woes continue. Big games by all the regulars with Stefan Noesen and Thomas DiPauli with two goal games a piece. Adam Johnson and Joseph Blandisi also scored. Casey DeSmith stopped 29 of 31 to pick up his ninth with of the season.

Lineup:

Lineup Notes: David Warsofsky was not in the lineup. Tyler reported after the game that it’s a nagging injury that isn’t serious. We’ll see. Michael Kim was the player who took warmups but was scratched. Matt Abt was in Warsofsky’s place….Jamie Devane made his debut, bumped Thomas DiPauli to the third line, Andreas Martinsen out as the veteran overage (Devane counts as a vet) – on defense, call it Nicolas Almari, returning from injury, for David Warsofsky.

First Period: Pens off to a very slow start, a turnover in their own end wound up in the back of their net when Tyler Wotherspoon connected for a goal that gave the Phantoms a 1-0 lead in the first two minutes.

But the Penguins responded quickly on the power play when Stefan Noesen finished off this feed from Adam Johnson that evened the game at one.

Pens had another shot at a power play right after but didn’t score, later had a two on none and made too many passes and no shot.

Adam Johnson connected for his first of the season on this spin-o-rama shot that edged the Penguins ahead 2-1

In what looked like it could be a run and gun affair after the hot start settled into just a 7-4 shot advantage for the Pens heading into the…

Second Period: Stefan Noesen bagged his second of the game while getting hooked. The shot trickled up and over Lyon and in and gave the Pens a 3-1 lead.

Just when you thought that the Pens would be able to run away with it, Pascal Laberge floated to the high slot, pump faked a slap shot and instead went wrist shot and beat Casey DeSmith through a screen that brought Lehigh Valley back within one.

Joseph Blandisi added one on a Penguins power play that gave the Pens a two goal lead again. Andrew Agozzino’s shot knocked Alex Lyon’s mask off, but in one fell swoop, Blandisi was there to knock the puck in.

Legitimate gripe by Lyon, play is supposed to stop immediately when a mask is dislodged, but the rulebook has a gray area there.

Rule 9.6, paragraph four, in part…

When a goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask and his team has control of the puck, the play shall be stopped immediately to allow the goalkeeper the opportunity to regain his helmet and/or face mask. When the opposing team has control of the puck, play shall only be stopped if there is no immediate and impending scoring opportunity…..

Because the whole sequence was bang-bang, and the Phantoms never touched the puck after Lyon’s mask was dislodged, play continued.

Shots were an even 20 a side heading into the …

Third Period: Story of the period was the apparent benching of Anthony Angello. Angello was on the bench, but didn’t skate an entire shift for the entire period. Jake Lucchini jumped in his spot.

Pretty uneventful period otherwise, Pens hit an empty net with 3:10 left to play when Thomas DiPauli scored from center ice to seal it.

DiPauli for good measure added another the more conventional way, beating Lyon five hole.

Three Stars: 3) Adam Johnson (goal, two assists) 2) Thomas DiPauli (two goals) 1) Stefan Noesen (two goals)

The Good: Two players with two goals each. Two power play goals. That is enough to carry the day.

The Bad: If the Phantoms didn’t come in on a winless on the road slump (I think is five losses now) is it a different outcome when they score first? Still, glad the Pens responded quickly.

Turning Point: Blandisi’s power play goal that re-establishes Wilkes-Barre’s two goal lead in the second was a no look back moment for the Penguins. They smelled blood and put the game away.

Around the Division: Wild one in Hershey, Bears up 3-0, cough up the lead and lose 7-6 in a shootout to the Providence Bruins….Bridgeport has won three in a row, beating Springfield 3-2….Charlotte beats Cleveland 5-2.

Standings: Hartford 27 — Providence 27 — Penguins 26 — Springfield 24 — Lehigh Valley 21 — Hershey 21 — Charlotte 19 — Bridgeport 18

Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost at home to Fort Wayne 5-4 in overtime. They rematch tomorrow in Indiana on Thanksgiving. Brandon Hawkins, Ryan Scarfo, Blake Siebenaler and Renars Krastenbergs all bagged goals in the defeat.

Video Highlights: 

Power Rankings are essentially done, just waiting on finals from out west and those will go up Thursday at 11 like they always do bi-weekly.

Have a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate. If you’re Canadian, happy Thursday.

Let’s Go Pens!

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1                                        0

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Not much to this one, a 1-0 Checkers win, snapping the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins six game winning streak. Charlotte is used to big games and this one had everything.

– The Checkers were facing off against their former coach.
– They we’re facing their backup goaltender in Dustin Tokarski.
– Their head coach, Ryan Warsofsky, was game planning against his brother, Pens captain David Warsofsky.

Pens could not get anything going offensively in the first two periods, just eight shots, but started to get the engine warm finally in the third. But, playing fast and loose against a hardened and tested championship level Charlotte team, that started to cost them and they found themselves in late penalty kill trouble.

A Matt Abt soft hook, possibly a reputation one, saw Chase Priskie absolutely rip one past Dustin Tokarski for a 1-0 lead.

I mean an absolute dart.

It was all that Charlotte needed to win tonight as the goal came with under four minutes to play in regulation.

Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 22 shots to pick up his second shutout of the season. He was named second star.

Chase Priskie, with his power play goal in the third, was named first star and Dustin Tokarski, who stoped 26 of 27, was named third star.

They lined up this way…

Joseph Blandisi was re-assigned Saturday morning and replaced Jordy Bellerive.

That’s pretty much it. Can’t feel too down on a game like this. You lose 1-0. If you score first, in a tight checking game which this was, you probably win. I had a sense that after a few minutes into the third period it was going to be a race to one.

Around the Division: Hartford lose their third straight, 6-3 in Syracuse….Springfield beats Providence 5-4 in overtime….Bridgeport beats Hershey 3-2….Lehigh Valley loses to Belleville 2-1.

Standings: Hartford 27 — Penguins 24 — Springfield 24 — Providence 23 — Lehigh Valley 21 — Hershey 20 — Charlotte 17 — Bridgeport 14

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose out in Fort Wayne 5-4 in overtime. Jordan Ruby stopped 40 in the loss. Alec Butcher had a goal and an assist for the Nailers.

I don’t know if Coal Street will have highlights. It was the Priskie goal and that’s it. If they do and I can get to an edit I will put it here.

Pens are home on Thanksgiving Eve against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. But for anything breaking between now and then, talk to you then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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From the sound of what I was following along with on Twitter tonight since I was at a dinner and didn’t watch nor tweet the action tonight, it looked like the Penguins fought hard to give away a 3-2 lead that they had in the third period.

Casey DeSmith would have none of it.

DeSmith would go on to stop 40 shots, Andrew Agozzino, Thomas DiPauli and Stefan Noesen scored, Noesen twice and the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins defeat the Springfield Thunderbirds by a score of 4-2 Friday to win their sixth straight.

Oh, and with Hartford’s 4-0 loss in Rochester, the Penguins are just three off the top spot in the Atlantic with a game in hand.

They lined up this way.

Lineup Notes: Zach Trotman was recalled Thursday morning because Justin Schultz has a bad groin, so that opened up a veteran spot for the Penguins which meant that Ryan Haggerty and Andreas Martinsen both saw game action. Pierre-Olivier Joseph returned from his mono illness and took Trotman’s spot.

I’m just going to on the fly this because like I said at the top I didn’t watch the game or follow along other than Twitter.

In the first, the Pens jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Andrew Agozzino and Thomas DiPauli.

Nice setup here on the Agozzino goal by Sam Miletic.

And I like how DiPauli floats in through a mass of bodies to casually place the puck in the net here in this sequence that gave the Pens a 2-0 lead.

DiPauli’s first goal of the season.

The second started like this…

Which was a bit of foreshadowing, but not before Andrew Agozzino scored his second of the night that made it 3-0.

Puck deflected of off a Thunderbird and Noesen, who was nearby, pointed to his teammate and told him to go through the tap line first. Scoresheet, for now, has it as Noesen’s goal, but that may change.

Paul Thompson scored on this play here that was reviewed twice but was allowed to stand.

Shinsuke Nakamura is the WWE Intercontinental Champion currently and his finisher is the knee to face kinshasa, similar to what Thompson did to DeSmith there. They do tell you don’t try wrestling moves at home.

Wilkes-Barre carried a 3-1 lead into the third.

Springfield make it 3-2 on a two man advantage with this snipe from Henrik Borgstrom.

https://twitter.com/ThunderbirdsAHL/status/1198063696792244224

I mean, that is a sweet goal. Look at that release. DeSmith had 95% of the net covered on the angle and Borgstom in one fell swipe snaps off a shot that not only DeSmith doesn’t react to, but has no chance on because it’s 5% of the net that he left exposed. Just filthy.

Pens were nursing the lead, Springfield outshot them 16-7 in the period. DeSmith continued to be solid in net.

Finally, with Driedger pulled for the extra attacker, Stefan Noesen scored from way downtown to seal it for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Blaine Byron (goal) 2) Henrik Borgstrom (goal) 1) Stefan Noesen (two goals)

No good, bad and turning point here. Unless you want to go with the resiliency to jump ahead as good, the letting them back in as bad, and maybe a save to two by DeSmith in the third to keep it a one goal lead as a turning point.

Around the Division: Hartford loses in Rochester 4-0….Providence shuts out Bridgeport 5-0….Lehigh Valley edges Charlotte 5-4 in overtime. Hershey was off.

Standings: Hartford 27 — Penguins 24 — Springfield and Providence 22 — Lehigh Valley 21 — Hershey 20 — Charlotte 15 — Bridgeport 12

Wheeling Update: Nailers beat Indy 3-2 out in Indianapolis. Blake Siebenhaler had a late goal with under two minutes to play to push the Nailers ahead and Alex D’Orio made 41 saves two pick up the win.

Pend are back at it Saturday at home against Charlotte. Gameday setup is here Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!