Chirps from Center Ice

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Michael Leighton has appeared in three games for the Wilkes-Barre  Scranton Penguins.

All have been against the Binghamton Devils.

All have been wins.

A 5-4 shootout win for Wilkes-Barre tonight is enough to lower the Penguins magic number to nine, but with a shootout win, which is not considered when breaking ties, the Penguins and Providence Bruins have 34 regulation or shootout wins (ROWs) as the two teams jockey for home ice over the other.

Yes, I am calling it now. Well, I have been for a while now, but officially here, the Providence Bruins will be the first round playoff opponent.

Really should not have been this close tonight on the Southern Tier. Wilkes-Barre was up 4-1 at one point, only to see Binghamton rattle off three straight goals to force overtime. Garrett Wilson’s gaol in the top of the eighth inning holds up as the winner for the Penguins.

The aforementioned Michael Leighton opposed Mackenzie Blackwood.

Lines were…

Garrett Wilson – J-S Dea – Daniel Sprong
Joseph Cramarossa – Jarrett Burton – Adam Johnson
Gage Quinney – Josh Jooris – Ryan Haggerty
Christian Thomas – Teddy Blueger – Sam Lafferty

Chris Summers – Kevin Czuczman
Andrey Pedan – Lukas Bengtsson
Jarred Tinordi – Zach Trotman

Michael Leighton – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Thomas DiPauli was out, probably an upper body injury, week to week, blah blah blah. Remember playoffs are coming and they want your money…Tom Kostopoulos and Tom Sestito were given the night off alone with Tristan Jarry. Josh Jooris, Christian Thomas and Sam Lafferty were all in after given last night off.

First Period: In what seemed like a marathon period, the Penguins got the scoring started first with this blast by Andrey Pedan 91 seconds into the period…

That was through a screen. First time the Penguins scored first in a game since the last time they were in Binghamton.

Devils tie it right back up when John Quenneville cycled from one side of the ice to the other and pushed a pass to Jacob MacDonald. Mac Donald did the rest, and the game was tied.

Penguins had a couple of chances on the power play but couldn’t score. Stop me if you have heard that before.

Wilkes-Barre then found themselves on a quick developing three on one and Dea centered to Cramarossa who looked off the trailer and did this…

Play really dragged after that, with a ton of whistles, pushing and shoving and penalties. Shots after one were 14-11 favoring the Penguins.

Second Period: Penguins score on the power play, the first time since March 13 or Game 1 in Charlotte or the last 23 tries on the man advantage.

Garrett Wilson set the screen in front and Pedan scored on the power play.

Those two were at it again when Pedan threw a long shot at the net that Wilson deflected in that made it 4-1.

Teddy Blueger takes an unnecessary penalty in the periods final minute and the lethal Binghamton power play took the ice.

Bracken Kearns skated to Leighton’s far post, passed to Nick Lappin who put one home past Leighton to cut the deficit to two.

Leighton had to fight off a flurry of shots right after the goal. Time ran out on the period though so it was off to the…

Third Period: Blake Speers scores unassisted from the slot to cut the Devils deficit to one.

Blackwood stops Adam Johnson bearing down on a three on one and then later Mario Lucia mines a two on one out of nothing in the neutral zone and ties the game.

Binghamton came into the game with the AHL’s worst -30 goal differential in the third period. The get two to make it -28.

Tim Kennedy was high sticked by his own man and bled. Referee Brandon Schrader sees this but leaves out the “own man” part and puts Andrey Pedan in the box and the Devils get a 4:00 power play. Penguins kill it all off. It was then off to…

Overtime: No scoring, but the Penguins had a power play they couldn’t score on to start the extra frame.

Shootout: Daniel Sprong scored in Round 3…

But it was answered by John Quenneville so the shootout continued….

…and continued…

..to Round 8 where Garrett Wilson scored.

Mario Lucia missed on his attempt and the Penguins reduced their magic number to 9.

Three Stars: 3) Andrey Pedan (goal, assist, even) 2) Blake Speers (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Garrett Wilson (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey beats Hartford 2-1…Charlotte beats Laval 5-3…Providence thumps Lehigh Valley 6-1 and Rochester beats Springfield 4-2. The Sound Tigers were off.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.684 percentage points) — Penguins (.646) — Providence (.644) — Charlotte (.596) — Bridgeport (.538) — Hartford (.493) — Hershey (.485) — Springfield (.470)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose 3-2 in overtime to Cincinnati at home in overtime as they continue to push for a playoff spot.

Binghamton is normally good with video highlights. If I see them while I am able to work an edit in, they will go here.

Pens close out the three in three weekend with a 3 pm home start with Bridgeport. Gameday setup hits the blog Sunday at 11.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I’m sensing a trend here, and not a good one.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins battled back from an 0-2 hole Tuesday in Toronto to force overtime only to lose.

Same thing happened tonight in Utica, but it was an 0-3 hole tonight that the Penguins battle back from to tie it way late in the third period only to lose tonight 5-4 in overtime.

Wilkes-Barre was essentially asleep tonight against a stumbling Comets team who were 2-8 in their last ten games in the first period and through Tristan Jarry’s calm play in net for his team, the Penguins steal a point.

Jarry opposed Thatcher Demko.

Lines were…

Garrett Wilson – J-S Dea – Daniel Sprong
Joseph Cramarossa – Jarrett Burton – Adam Johnson
Tom Sestito – Gage Quinney – Ryan Haggerty
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Tom Kostopoulos

Chris Summers – Kevin Czuczman
Andrey Pedan – Lukas Bengtsson
Jarrred Tinordi – Zach Trotman

Tristan Jarry – Michael Leighton

Lineup Notes: Andrey Pedan returned from injury and as a result, Kevin Schulze was released from his professional tryout agreement….Josh Jooris was returned from Pittsburgh but was not in the lineup for the Penguins.

First Period: The game started at 7:05. Someone forgot to tell the Penguins.

Initial shot blocked by Tristan Jarry 1:31 into the game is kicked over to Mike Carcone who scores to put the Comets on the board.

Utica nearly makes it 2-0 but the puck somehow stays out, but in the chaos, Chris Summers takes a hooking penalty.

Michael Chaput makes it 2-0 Utica on the ensuing power play.

Later, Chaput scored his second of the period when Jarred Tinordi bowled over two men in the neutral zone and Chaput used the trailing defenseman as a screen to make it 3-0 Utica.

:19 later, J-S Dea scored to make it a 3-1 game.

Not quite the response as was Tuesday in Toronto when the Penguins went down 2-0 early then scored to make it 2-1.

Penguins looked goon on their only power play of the period but Thatcher Demko closed the door on several Wilkes-Barre opportunities.

Shots were 18-14 Penguins after the first. 32 shots in one period seemed like a lot.

Second Period: Penguins started the period out with great aplomb and scored a goal when Daniel Sprong stripped Ashton Sautner of the puck and raced up ice with Gage Quinney which became a 2-on-none. Sprong scored here on a nice give and go.

Busted line change by the Penguins, Chris Summers dives to break up a play then Sprong swooped in from out of the box to cut it to one.

Game turned on this play.

As you can imagine, that angered the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Not so much like a few weeks ago in Rochester but the game was past its boiling point with the referees losing control. Tristan Jarry did what he could coming up with big save after big save, but was finally beaten again this time by Zac Lynch that made it 4-2 Utica.

Penguins couldn’t score three times on the play before the Lynch goal. If you thought Tristan Jarry was having a bad game, think again.

Grand Theft Auto is probably frowned upon in the State of New York and Tristan probably doesn’t have a CDL license to drive such a lengthy vehicle anyway.

Pens were on tilt, Jarry was doing what he could to bail his team out and keep them in it. Wilkes-Barre needed to shake off the happenings in the second and come out with vim and vigor in the third.

Third Period: Penguins and Comets trade power plays to open, as Utica’s expired Tom Kostopoulos scored to draw Wilkes-Barre within one.

Penguins had a power play they didn’t score on, but the roles were reversed with Gage Quinney and Daniel Sprong with Quinney leading a two-on-one and scoring to tie the game at four a side.

It was then off to…

Overtime: Ashton Sautner scores for Utica.

Three Stars: 3) Gage Quinney (goal, assist, +1) 2) Micheal Chaput (two goals, assist, +1) 1) Ashton Sautner (overtime game winning goal, -2)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley is the first Atlantic Division team to punch a ticket to the Calder Cup Playoffs and third team overall. They did it via a Bridgeport regulation loss (4-1 to Syracuse) while losing to Lehigh Valley 5-4 in overtime. Charlotte beats Laval 3-2 in overtime. Everyone else (Springfield, Hershey, Charlotte) were off.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.694 percentage points) — Penguins (.641) — Providence (.638) — Charlotte (.583) — Bridgeport (.545) — Hartford (.500) — Hershey (.477) — Springfield (.477)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers picked up a big two points with a 4-3 win over Brampton. Kevin Spinozzi scored what ended up being the game winning goal.

If the Comets put up video highlights, I will post them here.

Penguins will stay in Utica tonight and bus to Binghamton Saturday for their 7:05 start against the Devils. Look for the Gameday setup here Saturday at 3.

Let’s Gp Pens!

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Callback to 3 o’clock this afternoon when I wrote this in the Gameday setup for this game…

Call this a measuring stick game for Wilkes-Barre. Many times, it’s the opposition that is looking to measure up to these Penguins but tonight, it will be the Penguins chasing the bar set by Toronto who have just pillaged the North Division this season. If the Penguins in their current form want to advance far in Calder Cup Playoffs once they qualify, they will soon run into a team like Toronto if they want to advance to a Calder Cup. This should be a good one.

It was. After falling in a 2-0 hole, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins battle back to tie it at 2-2 then again at 3-3 only to lose in overtime to the Toronto Marlies 4-3.

Greatness brings the best out sometimes. The Marlies are a fast, well built team. But, they can be beat as evidenced by the coming back from an 0-2 hole and then battling back to 3-3. But in all that quickness and greatness, if you make a mistake, the Marlies are there to capitalize.

Adam Johnson loses a foot race with Adam Brooks and Brooks scores in overtime to give the Marlies the extra point.

This game was extremely exciting, thrilling, edge of your seat type of hockey contest. Referees let them play, stayed for the most part out of the way and it was system vs. system and the better team won, barely.

This is a game that any lesser team goes down 2-0 in the first and loses something 5-1 or 6-2. Not the Penguins, who looked as good or better than the best team in the AHL all season in the Toronto Marlies.

Tristan Jarry opposed Garrett Sparks.

Lines were…

Garrett Wilson – J-S Dea – Daniel Sprong
Joseph Cramarossa – Jarrett Burton – Adam Johnson
Tom Sestito – Gage Quinney – Christian Thomas
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Tom Kostopoulos

Chris Summers – Ethan Prow
Kevin Czuczman – Lukas Bengtsson
Jarred Tinordi – Zach Trotman

Tristan Jarry – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: As you can see from the starters, Tristan Jarry returned to the Penguins after Matt Murray was cleared from his concussion. As a result, Etienne Marcoux was released from his PTO….Daniel Sprong was back in the lineup for Ryan Haggerty who was given the night off.

First Period: Brief feeling out period as there was no scoring after the first media break, then the Penguins got through a Toronto power play when Kyle Baun knocked in a puck to give the Marlies a 1-0 lead….

Good teams like Toronto come fast, and that speed was on display early on.

Marlies scored on a power play when Andrew Nielsen’s short through a screen found its way past a heavily screened Tristan Jar to give Toronto a 2-0 lead.

Would have been ideal if the Penguins were able to get one back before the end of the period and exactly that happened when Garrett Wilson stripped Martin Marincin in front and Daniel Sprong followed up and put it home to cut the deficit to one.

Penguins looked fantastic in the final two minutes of the period, so the only question was whether or not any of that momentum would carry over to the…

Second Period: Penguins continued to buzz out of the locker room, Garrett Sparks was never able to corral a puck, Martin Marincin broke his stick, Garrett Wilson parked in front an Jarred Tinordi fired a shot that Wilson tipped in.

Tie game.

Pens found themselves on some power play time but weren’t able to convert.

Calle Rosen scored to edge Toronto out by a goal and the Penguins were protesting that Lukas Bengtsson was being held.

Third Period: Ethan Prow scored through bodies in front of Sparks to tie the game back at 3-3.

Thomas DiPauli was setting the screen in front. DiPauli had one hell of a game.

Teams traded power plays and then it was end to end, edge of your seat play. But it was off to…

Overtime: Adam Brooks got a step on Adam Johnson and scored on a quick developing two on one play that secured the extra point for the home team.

Three Stars: 3) Calle Rosen (goal, +1) 2) Garrett Wilson (goal, assist, +2) 1) Adam Brooks (overtime game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: They all watched us.

Standings: Lehigh Valley (.697 percentage points) — Penguins (.643) — Providence (.633) — Charlotte (.583) — Bridgeport (.547) — Hartford (.500) — Hershey (.477) — Springfield (.477)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: 

Penguins will remain in Toronto for the next few days before bussing to Utica to take on the Comets Friday. But for anything breaking between now and then, look for the next blog update to come for the Friday Gameday setup at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!