Chirps from Center Ice

There are too many preseason games.

That out of the way, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins played their final preseason contest Sunday afternoon in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and lost a special teams duel 3-1.

Lines were:

And for the Phantoms,

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So no preseason for Penguins goaltender Dustin Tokarski. It could be something, or it could be nothing. You don’t really need to run the risk of a guy who you know will be on your opening night roster vs. evaluating two goalies in Emil Larmi and Alex D’Orio who are competing for the backup job, barring any roster jockeying with Jim Rutherford and Company up top in Pittsburgh.

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In the first, it seemed like there were way too many penalties; three aside for each team. The Phantoms cashed on a late one when Andy Andreoff tip din a Greg Carey shot for a goal at 19:26 for a 1-0 Phantoms lead.

In the second, there were just three penalties, with two for the Penguins but no goals. There were chances both ways.

Nick Aube-Kubel scored 56 seconds into the third period that gave the Phantoms a 2-0 lead.

With just under seven minutes to play, David Warsofsky takes a shot which is deflected off the end wall, corralled by Ryan Haggerty and put in to put the Penguins on the board.

But the Phantoms would strike back in the same minute on the power play when Mikhail Vorobyev would score on a power play which reestablished the Phantoms two goal lead.

Penguins went with an empty net in the final 90 or so seconds of the game, but didn’t get any closer.

Impressions: Seemed like a game which was largely decided on special teams and with an offensively explosive team built like Lehigh Valley, not a game you want to start playing if you are the opponent of the Phantoms. With the two teams playing twelve times this season, it is something that they may need to key in on if they want to have any success against the Phantoms.

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In other news, the Pittsburgh Penguins re-assigned Adam Johnson back to Wilkes-Barre Sunday afternoon. Wilkes-Barre also made a round of cuts Sunday which were sent to Wheeling who one their training camp this week. They are Forwards Christopher Brown, Jan Drozg, Brandon Hawkins, Yushiroh Hirano, Renārs Krastenbergs and Myles Powell and defensemen Macoy Erkamps, Blake Siebenaler, Craig Skudalski and Aaron Titcomb. Sum total of 10. No real surprises.

So that concludes the preseason. It counts for real this Saturday in Hershey. The Penguins play just one game on opening weekend, then are back in Lehigh Valley next Friday, home for the opener against Utica on October 12 then in Hershey Sunday afternoon.

This week, I’ll have a new feature here Monday that requires participation from you, a mailbag! Look for that around 9:15 Monday morning. Then, news and notes as it comes during the week, a look at the Penguins opponents this Friday. I opted against a full 31 team division by division preview because I found the exercise pointless because the Penguins don’t play every team. One shot of all the teams and outlooks the Pens play. Look for that Friday.

Back here Monday morning with the stamps for you to send me stuff for the mailbag.

The Pens were in Hershey Saturday night for their third preseason game. They had a lead going into the third period, but ultimately fell 2-1 in overtime Saturday night in Hershey.

I flew blind listening to the game and Nick Hart on the radio as there is no AHL Live for preseason. That will be the same story for Sunday afternoon in Lehigh Valley.

Lines were:

Essentially Wednesday’s lineup but for Steve Oleksy in the game for Craig Skudalski.

Lines for the Bears were:

Provided that the Penguins’ opponents tweet something like this similar for all games, consider its a regular season. More importantly, provided I remember, too.

Steve Oleksy wore the “C” for the Penguins and Jake Lucchini and Matt Abt were in the “A’s.”

In the first, not much action in the way of scoring. The Penguins had two power plays in the period but didn’t score on them. Jordy Bellerive had three of Wilkes-Barre’s nine shots in the period.

There was a fight at the end of the period when Renars Krastenbergs hit Kris Bindulis. Kale Kessy took offense and fought Krastenbergs. First fight of the preseason three games in. You’d normally have three fights in the first minute of a preseason game, but it’s a different game now.

In the second, the Penguins killed two Bears power plays and got a late goal by Kasper Bjorkqvist to give them a 1-0 lead after the end of two periods.

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In the third, Hershey finally gets on the board and tied the game when Matt Moulson tipped in a shot for a goal on a power play with Brandon Hawkins in the box for a cross checking penalty right around halfway.

Wilkes-Barre would continue to find themselves in penalty trouble but were able to negotiate out of it. Yushi Hirano hit a post with about :20 left, but it was off to overtime.

There, Matt Abt off the hop nearly ended it early, but the puck squirted wide past Parker Milner. A few minutes later, with it being as wide open as it is in 3-on-3 overtime, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored to win it for the Bears.

Impressions: Hershey wasn’t at full strength but were stronger than they were last night, while the Pens dressed a “B” team if you want to call it that and but for a few late penalties in the third,. we’re dangerously close to shutting out the Bears and sweeping them in preseason. We will have to see what the team looks like in the preseason finale Sunday at 3 in Allentown against the Phantoms.

Talk to you Sunday evening after the Penguins final preseason game against Lehigh Valley at 3 p.m.

Second preseason game for the Penguins where they win 2-0 on an impressive 28 save performance from Emil Larmi.

Bears didn’t bring a full AHL crew with them to Wilkes-Barre, but it’s still live fire out there.

Apologies for formatting, typing this up on the fly in the phone.

Lines were:

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Glad that this graphic is back for another season.

Larmi opposed Logan Thompson who was scheduled for the entire game, just like Larmi.

In the first, much like Wednesday, it took over ten minutes for the Penguins to register a shot on goal. This was against a lesser experienced team on paper in the Bears. Wilkes-Barre failed to convert on two power play chances.

Play of the period came when Hershey was on a power play and Emil Larmi flicked his pad out to deny a slam dunk sure goal for the Bears Brett Leason.

In the second, ten seconds into a Kale Kessy charging penalty, Sam Lafferty picked a spot and scored a power play goal to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

Larmi continued to steal the show to this point, stopping the Bears on a 5×3 which led into a long power play chance on an Andrew Agozzino double minor for high sticking.

The Penguins netminder continued to weather the storm in the third. The Pens killed yet another penalty late when Hershey pulled Thompson for the extra man.

Joseph Blandisi finished off a two in one into an empty net that essentially sealed it.

Larmi finished the night with 28 saves.

Impressions: Whoever gets sent to Wheeling between Emil Larmi and Alex D’Orio is going to be an extremely difficult decision to be made for Mike Vellucci and company. Absent Jake Lucchini from Wednesday and maybe a guy like Lafferty with the goal in the second, the two best players thus far have been in goal. Nice to see the competitive fire between the two as well. Dustin Tokarski is likely the number one goalie, and may actually be number two if Casey DeSmith is somehow waived and makes it though to get the NHL Penguins cap compliant. But regardless, good competition brewing between D’Orio and Larmi.

In other news, the Penguins signed D Steve Oleksy to a PTO Friday. Nick summarized the transaction nicely:

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So that concludes the home portion of the preseason games for the Penguins. The Pens are back at it Saturday at 7 in Hershey and Sunday afternoon in Allentown against Lehigh Valley. More then.

Preseason for bloggers too so in seasons past, nothing too dressed up for you tonight. Apologies on the formatting issues if there are any.

Alex D’Orio opposed Alex Lyon.

Lines were as follows:

Ryan Scarfo – Jordy Bellerive – Jan Drozg
Kasper Björkqvist – Chase Berger – Yushi Hirano
Jake Lucchini – Miles Powell – Brandon Hawkins
Jamie Devane – Chris Brown – Renars Krastenbergs

Matt Abt – Macoy Erkamps
Michael Kim – Aaron Titcomb
Craig Skudalski – Blake Siebenaler

Alex D’Orio – Emil Larmi

Matt Abt wore the C with Chase Berger and Jake Lucchini in the A’s.

Pens got run over in the first, taking two penalties and getting scored on once when Steven Swavely popped in a rebound of an Isaac Radcliffe shot a little past half way at even strength.

Pens had just three shots on goal, and one of them came on the penalty kill, an innocuous clearing bid from their own end that they counted.

In the second, penalty trouble bit the Penguins as the Phantoms scored twice on the man advantage. Pascal Laberge put in a pass / shot from Greg Carey and then Carey again with another setup to Matt Strome for a 3-0 lead.

Things settled from there for the Pens who started to get a few power plays which looked sharp. Finally Jordy Bellerive scored on the back door on a power play to make it 3-1. A really nice setup for Jake Lucchini, who I thought was the Pens best player tonight.

Things evened out a bit in the third but when you’re down two goals and chasing the bad start you had you start to run out of time. Alex D’Orio did his part in keeping it a two goal deficit but the Pens wouldn’t draw closer. Then with under five to play and D’Orio vacated, Greg Carey hit an empty net for a three point night and it was 4-1.

It ended that way.

Impressions: I thought Jake Lucchini was far and away the Penguins best player tonight….Alex D’Orio is probably going to start the season in Wheeling but if he played like he played tonight it shouldn’t be for long. He did all he could to keep the Penguins in the game but all Wilkes-Barre did was take penalty after penalty. Take those two power play goals out of the equation and it’s a completely different game.

Penguins head coach Mike Vellucci told Tyler postgame that Emil Larmi will start and play the full 60 against Hershey Friday. Let’s hope the Penguins play a little better in front of Larmi as they did in front of D’Orio.

More then unless there’s breaking stuff Thursday.