Chirps from Center Ice

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Headline tonight would probably be reserved for something good happening for the Springfield Thunderbirds, but I’m using it for the purposes of this four game win streak that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins find themselves on after a 2-1 shootout win in a knockdown, drag out defensive and goaltending battle from Springfield on Wednesday night.

Springfield is a tough team. They are well coached and have legit prospects that are good. The Penguins and Thunderbirds always bring out the best of one another when these two teams hook up.

But what a difference a week makes. The Penguins played the entire month of November and couldn’t get out of their own way. Now, with adjustments from Head Coach Clark Donatelli, it’s a quiet four game win streak.

Thunder is coming. It may just be in the form of a bird that cannot fly.

Tristan Jarry opposed Samuel Montembeault.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: No changes on defense. Ben Sexton made his WBS debut so the lines up front got shook up. No change to the top line; Linus Ölund centered Haggerty and Cramarossa. Sexton debuted with Johnson and Lafferty on the third line. Burton centered Josephs and Hayes on the fourth.

Tristan Jarry was re-assigned by Pittsburgh earlier in the day and that meant that Anthony Peters backed up and John Muse either watched from the stands or from home.

First Period: Defenseman Chris Summers was injured on the very first shift of the hockey game ere when he went down to block a pass or a shot, popped up and collided with Jake Horton and then slammed awkwardly into the boards.

It was an exhibition in goaltending, as there were 25 shots total in the period and none finer stopped than this save Tristan Jarry made on sniper Jayace Hawryluk:

Even Hawryluk knew he was robbed.

The saves continued until Blaine Byron went to center a pass to Bobby Farnham that deflected off of Sam Lafferty’s skate and in past Jarry to give the Thunderbirds a 1-0 lead.

Teddy Blueger saw his attempt at a redirect of an Ethan Prow pass hit iron.

Second Period: The Penguins would dominate the period. They easily killed a Springfield power play and scored on one of their own when Adam Johnson scored on a rebound left by Montembeault that leveled things for Wilkes-Barre….

That was a Lafferty shot that Montembeault stopped initially.

Springfield was held to a scant three shots on goal in the period. The Penguins accomplished this without the services of Chris Summers who did not come out for the second, so with only five healthy defensemen.

Third Period: Springfield outshoots the Pens 16-10 in the period and Tristan Jarry, who has been up in Pittsburgh for the past month and used sparingly during his stay was spectacular.

Penguins had to kill a late Jeff Taylor penalty and were able to successfully. Springfield’s home power play was second in the AHL coming in and was downright tepid against Wilkes-Barre / Scranton’s 30th out of 31 AHL teams penalty kill.

Overtime: Pens had a power play but couldn’t solve Montembeault. It was off to a…

Shootout: Adam Johnson, Thomas DiPauli and Ben Sexton all scored in that order. Springfield got one and the Penguins would win.

It’s all here, from overtime forward, here in another Periscope:

Here is Sexton’s game winner.

Three Stars: 3) Samuel Montembeault (41 saves on 42 shots) 2) Adam Johnson (goal) 1) Thomas DiPauli (shootout goal)

Around the Division: Providence lost in Utica 5-2. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Charlotte 39 — Bridgeport 32 — Springfield 31 — Lehigh Valley 30 — Penguins 30 — Providence 26 — Hartford 25 — Hershey 24

Wheeling Update: 

Allen are the Americans. They are from Texas. The ECHL do have fun matchups from time to time. Florida played Idaho in Boise a week or so ago. Box here.

Video Highlights: Haven’t seen them yet. If I can get to an edit I’ll work them in here.

Pens are of Friday before hosting Lehigh Valley at home Saturday. AHL Power Rankings will be out Thursday. Come back then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins came into Sunday afternoon winless so far on the season on the day the Lord rested.

Going down 4-1 at one point to their blood rival in Hershey, thoughts of last weekend’s debacle in Toronto started to creep into the minds of Penguins fans.

But a mix of the same tenacity that saw Wilkes-Barre shutout Cleveland on Friday and blitzkrieg Bridgeport on Saturday get the Penguins back into contention and they storm back to make it 4-3 at the end of the second period.

A quick moving third period where time melted off the clock like a snowman in June.

Until the Penguins best player stepped up and ensured that overtime would become a necessity.

Ethan Prow, a stone cold lock for Springfield in January at All-Stars, stepped into a shot with under a minute left and the game was tied.

Overtime would come and go and the Penguins even had to kill a penalty, then after nine cool saves in the shootout round from Johnny Muse, Joseph Cramarossa would score to give the Penguins the stunning 5-4 shootout win over the Hershey Bears.

Ethan Prow had a chance in the bottom of the sixth to win it, that would have been magical.

A perfect six point weekend for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. A shutout Friday, a come from behind win Saturday against Bridgeport and a come from behind from multiple goals down Sunday at the end of a three in three on the road against the Bears.

Are the Penguins back? Certainly seems like it, but one weekend does not a season make. We all know that the Penguins are good and have not played up to their potential in the weeks coming into this past weekend. Now, going forward the Penguins have shown the ability that they can indeed win in all different forms.

John Muse opposed Vitek Vanecek.

Lines were…

…once again unchanged from Saturday and Friday.

First Period: The Penguins weren’t able to capitalize on turnovers by the Bears, and Hershey struck twice to carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Jayson Megna, who always seems to score against the Penguins this season, opened the scoring.

Then Hershey cashed on a power play when Riley Barber found himself fin the slot, Chris Summers backed off and while doing so, sent an unintentional screen on his goaltender. Barber then snapped a shot in between Summers’ legs and beat Muse five hole.

Bounces. The Bears had them, the Penguins didn’t.

Second Period: The Penguins would finally solve Vanecek after a power play expired as Kevin Czuczman’s shot deflects off in front of Liam O’Brien and goes in and it’s a 2-1 game.

But Liam O’Brien would exact an ounce of revenge finishing this play off of a nice pass by Steven Whitney on a Bears odd man. The only time Muse would get beat clean this weekend.

:52 later, Tyler Lewington wheels around the net and banks a shot off of Muse and in for a 4-1 Bears lead.

But instead of pack it in, Wilkes-Barre played lock it down.

Teddy Blueger got the deficit back to two with this nice play in front of Vanecek that made it a two goal game again.

Okay, good. Get to the intermission down two and see what happens from there, right?

Wrong. Thomas DiPauli scores with five seconds left and the entire complexion of the game changes.

Third Period: It really would have been a shame if the Penguins didn’t win the game, because the way they played the third, it seemed like it wasn’t if the Pens would score, it was when.

Wilkes-Barre outshoots Hershey 11-4 in the period. They locked things down and didn’t allow Hershey any more good looks.

Jarrett Burton took a hard hit into the boards, went to the room and returned. The Pens also had to kill a Prow tripping penalty.

Then, with Muse vacated for the extra attacker and after a Wilkes-Barre time out, Adam Johnson collected the puck in his own zone, flew the neutral zone and entered the zone ands dished to Teddy Blueger who dropped to Prow for the tying goal.

Overtime: Solved nothing. The Bears would get a power play, called time out, but weren’t able to score.

Shootout: No one scored till the bottom of the ninth when Joe Cramarossa stepped up to the plate

Here is the entire overtime and shootout round Periscoped for you by yours truly if you have 16:29 to kill.

Three Stars: 3) Joe Cramarossa (shootout game winner) 2) Teddy Blueger (goal, two assists) 1) Jayson Megna (goal)

The Good: I liked the tenacity from the team. Not just tonight, but the entire weekend. You could tell about half way through Friday that they were not going to let Cleveland beat them. Same for Bridgeport on Saturday after letting off at the end of the first period. I think they had enough losing and were starting to hear it at home, at the rink and in the media. It’s hard to win games in the American Hockey League. It’s even harder to win three in a row in three days. The Penguins accomplished that and have to feel good about themselves heading into Wednesday in Springfield.

The Bad: The lapses are still there. It’s nitpicking here on a Sunday evening after the team won three straight, but the lapses are evident. There was no way that the Penguins should have gone down 4-1 like they did. It was good that it happened in the second period and not any later, because it could have been a totally different result.

One More Thing: John Muse was as cool as a cucumber in the shootout. I think Head Coach Clark Donatelli was looking for either Muse or Anthony Peters to take the reins as the starter this weekend. I don’t think he has his answer to be honest with you. Also, if you tuned into the game today you heard Scott Stuccio on color. He adds so much more to the broadcast in that position just by his observances in the game flow and an extra set of eyes for Nick Hart on play by play. He’s prepared, knows what he is talking about and Wilkes-Barre should try to get him on more broadcasts as his schedule allows. It’s already a good broadcast with Nick Hart, it’s better with both Nick and Scott calling the action.

Around the Division: Only other team in action was Springfield, at home hosting the Binghamton Devils. Thunderbirds win 5-1.

Standings: Charlotte 39 — Bridgeport 32 — Springfield 30 — Lehigh Valley 30 — Penguins 28 — Providence 26 — Hartford 25 — Hershey 24

Wheeling Update: Nailers beat the Indy Fuel 5-1. Nick Saracino had two goals and three assists and factored into every goal. Trucksville native Craig Skudalski had a goal, his first as a Nailer:

Video Highlights: 

Pens are in action Wednesday night in Springfield. If there is anything newsworthy between now and then look for it here on the blog. Otherwise, have a good week and we will see you here again at 3 p.m. for the Gameday setup against the Thunderbirds.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I think the biggest difference between this weekend so far and last weekend is adjustments. Head Coach Clark Donatelli shook up his defense pairings, traded away dead weight and the Penguins have now won two straight games after beating Bridgeport 3-1 Saturday afternoon at home.

Couple that with the fact that the Penguins are getting good goaltending out of Anthony Peters and John Muse and scoring from guys like Jeff Taylor and Ethan Prow today and the sky is the limit with this team.

Four points so far out of the weekend with a chance to sweep it and get all six Sunday in Hershey. Good position to be in.

Anthony Peters opposed Jeremy Smith.

Smith has owned the Penguins.

Lines were…

…completely unchanged from last night. What wasn’t broke against a tough Cleveland opponent needed no fixing against an equally as stout Bridgeport Sound Tigers team.

First Period: Penguins played a great first half, then fell asleep in the second half and got scored on shorthanded and Bridgeport took a 1-0 lead to the room.

Sebastian Aho put a shot on that Otto Koivula tipped in to give the Sound Tigers the 1-0 lead.

Second Period: Penguins came out and dominated, but had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. They were outshot in the first 10-5, then came out in the second and outshot the Sound Tigers 17-8. Wilkes-Barre played disciplined, didn’t take a penalty at all in the frame and were awarded three power plays. But they still had nothing to show for it.

Smith stood on his head in the period.

Third Period: Jeff Taylor of all people finally solves Jeremy Smith and the Penguins were finally on the board and off to the races.

That’s another assist for Will O’Neill, he had one Friday night against Cleveland. The pairing with him and Kevin Czuczman is working. But for a few hiccups here and there this weekend, O’Neiol has been fine.

A little over a minute later, Ethan Prow sweeps home a rebound off the pads of Smith from a Lafferty shot that gave them Penguins a 2-1 lead.

Pens had to kill a Ryan Haggerty holding penalty. Bridgeport kept the puck in the zone the entire time, but never got one past Peters for the tie.

Penguins could have iced the game away on a power play of their own but failed but Teddy Blueger hit the empty net to make it 3-1 anyway.

The Good: The changes on defense and the power play are working. The Penguins never let off the throttle the entire time while trailing and even in the third period. The killer instinct which lacked in the past few weeks is stirring. Watch out.

The Bad: Hard really to find something bad when it is after all a developmental league, but the lapse in the first period where Wilkes-Barre got scored on could have cost them yet another 1-0 contest if it wasn’t for the relentless offensive attack the Penguins unleashed from the second period onward.

Three Stars: 

Around the Division: If the Penguins win Sunday in Hershey, then this weekend is going to set up as a perfect weekend for them both in what they can control and what they can’t control out of town. Friday was positive, Saturday setup the same way too. Lehigh Valley loses to Cleveland 4-2. Providence loses to Belleville 3-2. Hershey beats Hartford 6-3. Charlotte, down 4-2 after an empty net goal in Springfield, tie the game and win in overtime to stun the Thunderbirds and win 5-4.

Standings: Charlotte 39 — Bridgeport 32 — Lehigh Valley 30 — Springfield 28 — Providence 26 — Penguins 26 — Hartford 25 — Hershey 23

Pens can tie for fourth with a win and a Binghamton regulation win in Springfield tomorrow. It’s December and I am talking about seeding and regulation wins. Ha.

Wheeling Update: Nailers with a big 5-2 win in Toledo. Michael Phillips with two goals and an assist.

Video Highlights: 

Pens are back in action Sunday afternoon at 5 in Hershey. Gameday setup hits the blog at 1.

Let’s Go Pens!