Chirps from Center Ice

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Fourth win in a row for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins tonight, a 4-2 win over a pesky Springfield Thunderbirds team that were with the Penguins step or step for 59:58 tonight. It was Adam Johnson’s empty net goal with 1.7 seconds left in regulation that ultimately put the Thunderbirds away.

Casey DeSmith picked up the win tonight for the Pens, who again have won four in a row. It sure has hell doesn’t feel like a four game winning streak with the tumultuous times that Wilkes-Barre has been in and battling out of.

I said in my Rapid Recap of this one earlier that this is a game a few weeks ago that the Penguins probably lose. They didn’t, of course, because of heady defense and pack mentality offensively. No scoring in the first period, Pens outshoot Springfield by a wide margin for a time then Greg McKegg breaks the deadlock and gets the Penguins on the board. A wild third period that saw both teams score four times, is probably one that the Penguins of three weeks ago manage to overthink and let get away from them. Not tonight.

Are the Penguins back? I think yes, but I am not sure yet. Bridgeport was the biggest test of the week and the Penguins passed with flying colors. Springfield is last in the division and Belleville, Saturday’s opponent, is playing awful hockey right now and got smoked by Binghamton on the Southern Tier 6-1 last night. I don’t make the schedule and a win is a win, but come see me when the Penguins meet up with the Providence Bruins and Lehigh Valley Phantoms later down the schedule before you start asking me if they Pens are back.

Casey DeSmith opposed Samuel Montembeault.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – Greg McKegg – Christian Thomas
Adam Johnson – Teddy Blueger – Colin Smith
Thomas Di Pauli – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Jarred Tinordi – Zach Trotman
Andrey Pedan – Kevin Czuczman
Chris Summers – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Anthony Peters

Lineup Notes: Adam Johnson was back in, replacing Cody Wydo and Zach Trotman was in for Jeff Taylor.

First Period: No scoring here but the Penguins largely dominated offensive zone time and outshot the Thunderbirds 8-5.

Second Period: Greg McKegg would sweep in a doubled deflected shot from the point on the near side to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

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Jarred Tinordi swept away a Curtis Valk shot that slipped in between DeSmith that was reviewed on replay (nice to see it’s operable again) and then later murdered Ed Wittchow in this fight…

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I have not seen a Penguins player manhandle an opponent in a fight like that in some timer. Tinordi stung Wittchow with many stiff shots, I counted nine straight at one point, full credit to the Thunderbirds defenseman for staying on his feet and not going down.

Third Period: 1:03 in, Mark Fayne scored to get the Thunderbirds on the board. He was there to poke home a rebound off of DeSmith’s pads to tie the game and make it a tie and new game again.

Christian Thomas scored on this snipe to re-establish the Penguins lead.

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Man down!

Later, Ryan Haggerty swept in a puck that the Thunderbirds did not clean up in front of Montembeault to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.

I thought at that point it was the kill shot the Penguins finally were able to find.

:21 later, Dryden Hunt and other plans. Springfield established time in the offensive zone and Hunt scored to make it a one goal game again for the Thunderbirds.

But Springfield, with time becoming their enemy, were not able to find the equalizer and with Montembeault pulled saw Adam Johnson score on the empty net with 1.7 seconds left to ice it away for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Greg McKegg (goal, +1) 2) Christian Thomas (goal, even) and 1) Ryan Haggerty (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Toronto takes down Lehigh Valley in a shootout 3-2….Hartford jumped out to a 3-0 lead and preserved it to hold on for a 3-2 win over Providence….Bridgeport scrapped with Rochester in Western New York and lost 3-2 in overtime. Charlotte was off.

Standings: Providence (.652 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.653) — Penguins (.652) — Charlotte (.632) — Bridgeport (.561) — Hershey (.486) — Hartford (.486) — Springfield (.417)

Pens are .001 percentage point behind the Lehigh Valley Phantoms with three games in hand.

Wheeling Update: Nailers score a touchdown and extra point on division leader Manchester, winning 7-4 at home. Riley Bourbonnais had a hat trick.

Video Highlights…

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Belleville is in tomorrow night for their only stop down of the year. Pens Head Coach Clark Donatelli didn’t tip his hand as to who is starting in goal against the Senators Saturday. I’ll answer for him. Casey DeSmith hasn’t seen a ton of game action, he’s the guy on the NHL contract vs. the backup on PTO, DeSmith heads out of the tunnel first Saturday night for warmups.

Gameday setup hits the blog Saturday afternoon at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

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In case you don’t get the headline, Teddy Blueger is from Latvia. As I was walking into the game tonight a Pens promo person asked me if I wanted to participate in a Pens trivia game, the subject being Teddy Blueger. I politely turned the guy down. The question ended up being what country Teddy Blueger is from.

Blueger’s overtime game winning goal caps off a tumultuous game for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. More on that in a minute.

The big news before the game was the announcement by the team that they signed Sebastian Caron to a PTO. Tristan Jarry left the game Tuesday night against Philly with an apparent injury. Casey DeSmith was not recalled today, but held out of the game likely at the request of the NHL team.

So why not recall the recently released Adam Morrison? Not that easy. Wheeling is down in Norfolk, who is in the direct path of that winter storm you may have heard of and most likely wasn’t available to be returned safely to Wilkes-Barre. Pens went the nostalgia route and signed a blast from the past to backup Anthony Peters in Sebastian Caron.

Extremely cheap move, in my opinion. There are 27 ECHL teams and all day to sign a guy who actively plays, get him in on a PTO and sit him down to watch an AHL game. Thankfully, Peters didn’t get injured tonight, because that would have been a disaster against a fifth place team hot on the Penguins tails. You may think it’s fun to see a guy you cheered for 12 years ago skate for your present day Penguins, but people pay money to watch this product. If the team isn’t putting forth the best possible product on the ice regardless of backup, that’s troubling.

Anyway. Pens win 3-2 in overtime against Bridgeport. Third win in a row for the Penguins, second in overtime.

Sound Tigers weren’t slouches tonight and weren’t slouches coming in. They hadn’t given up a power play goal in some time and have not allowed their opponents to have 10 or more shots in a period in some time either.

That all changed in the third period, however.

Anthony Peters opposed Christopher Gibson.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese — J-S Dea — Ryan Haggerty
Garrett Wilson – Greg McKegg – Christian Thomas
Thomas Di Pauli – Teddy Blueger – Colin Smith
Cody Wydo – Jarrett Burton – Patrick McGrath

Andrey Pedan – Kevin Czuczman
Jeff Taylor – Jarred Tinordi
Chris Summers – Ethan Prow

Anthony Peters – Sebastian Caron

First Period: Bridgeport scored on their first power play of the night. Travis St. Denis from the near dot on a one timer that gave the Sound Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Later, Sound Tigers doubled their lead when a Kyle Burroughs shot rebounded to Michael Dal Colle.

Wilkes-Barre settled a bit, got a power play that they got close on a few times but didn’t score. They killed a late Garrett Wilson penalty.

Second Period: Penguins only muster four shots at Gibson in the period that featured no scoring. Couple power plays for each side but nothing to write home about.

Third Period: Thomas DiPauli appears to have scored a goal on the backhand to break the Gibson shutout, but referee Furman South washed the goal out immediately because Colin Smith was standing in the blue paint. South applied rule 69.3 from the AHL Rulebook.

In part, from the rule book,

69.3 Contact Inside the Goal Crease – If an attacking player initiates contact with a goalkeeper, incidental or otherwise, while the goalkeeper is in his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.

If a goalkeeper, in the act of establishing his position within his goal crease, initiates contact with an attacking player who is in the goal crease, and this results in an impairment of the goalkeeper’s ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.

If, after any contact by a goalkeeper who is attempting to establish position in his goal crease, the attacking player does not immediately vacate his current position in the goal crease (i.e. give ground to the goalkeeper), and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed. In all such cases, whether or not a goal is scored, the attacking player will receive a minor penalty for goalkeeper interference.

If an attacking player establishes a significant position within the goal crease, so as to obstruct the goalkeeper’s vision and impair his ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.

For this purpose, a player “establishes a significant position within the crease” when, in the Referee’s judgment, his body, or a substantial portion thereof, is within the goal crease for more than an instantaneous period of time.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t see any of those parameters applied there. Donatelli told media post game that it wasn’t a play that could be reviewed and he’s right, it can’t be because that is in the rule book.

That controversial call seemed to light a fire under the Penguins.

The Penguins finally do score a clean goal when Ryan Haggerty scored off of an initial shot from Zach Aston-Reese that knuckled and handcuffed Gibson to put the Penguins on the board legally, and it was a 2-1 game.

Penguins on a last minute power play with Peters pulled score to tie the game when Garrett Wilson fed Greg McKegg in the slot to tie the game. That was the first power play Wilkes-Barre has scored in eight games, breaking Bridgeport’s streak of 33 straight kills in the process.

Overtime: In overtime and the momentum flowing, Pens capitalize on a turnover and Teddy Blueger scores through the five hole of Gibson to end it.

Hell of a way to battle back. Credit the Penguins for sticking around with Bridgeport and quickly erasing a two goal deficit.

Three Stars: 3) Zach Aston-Reese (credited with the initial goal which was later switched to Haggerty, Aston-Reese had an assist and was +1) 2) Greg McKegg (power lay goal, even) and 1) Teddy Blueger (overtime game winning goal, +1)

In the division, they all watched us.

Standings: Providence (.703 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.657) — Penguins (.641) — Charlotte (.632) — Bridgeport (.563) — Hershey (.486) — Hartford (.471) — Springfield (.429)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are in Norfolk tonight and lost in overtime 3-2. Christian Horn had a hat trick for the Admirals, Riley Bourbonnais and Kevin Schulze scored for the Nailers in the loss. Colin Stevens took the overtime loss for Wheeling.

Video Highlights: 

Wilkes-Barre hosts Springfield Friday. I may come here to mention the recalls (if any) made by Pittsburgh Thursday. If not, check out the Gameday setup with the Thunderbirds Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!