Chirps from Center Ice

A fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

2017 Calder Cup Preview

Comments Off on 2017 Calder Cup Preview Posted by on April 19, 2017

In keeping with what I did last year, I am rolling one preview into this blog piece, and that is giving you a snapshot of each team in the playoffs, how they match up, a key player to watch for both teams and offer a prediction. The prediction for Penguins / Providence series will be broken down into it’s own blog piece tomorrow at noon.

So here goes nothing, starting in the Western Conference….

Western Conference

     San Jose Barracuda (P1) vs. Stockton Heat (P4)     

How the Barracuda got here: Really were the class of the Western Conference all season, piloted by Head Coach Roy Sommer. They outpaced defending Conference Champion Ontario and San Diego, who is a very strong side.

How the Heat got here: Someone had to finish fourth in a division which is really three headed. Bakersfield’s 4-6 run at the end of the season was met with the Heat’s 11 game unbeaten in regulation streak. Stockton made it close, but they edged the Condors.

How they match up: Season was pretty split between the two. 12 games, 7-5 if you are a Barracuda fan, 5-5-2 if you are a Heat fan.

Key player for the Barracuda: Troy Grosenick, on a team that plays on 68 games, won 30 of them. That is impressive.

Key player for the Heat: Linden Vey was second on the Heat with 55 points, one off Mark Jankowski. Vey comes with playoff experience needed during these times.

Prediction: San Jose in five. This is the one matchup that the Barracuda didn’t want. Stockton steals one or both in overtime, but are ultimately beaten by the better, more consistent team here in this conversation.

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     San Diego Gulls (P2) vs. Ontario Reign (P3)     

How the Gulls got here: Played out of the two seed from right after New Years and held on solidly to the position.

How the Reign got here: Played out of the three seed from right after New Years and held on solidly to the position.

How they match up: Both teams went 6-4-1-1 against the other. I’m still trying to figure that one out.

Key player for the Gulls: Corey Tropp’s 54 points in 62 games paces the Gulls.

Key player for the Reign: Jack Campbell is an all-star goaltender who has won 31 games in net for the Reign and their iron horse. No other net minder has appeared in more games (52)

Prediction: San Diego in four. Gulls come at you from all sides attack will be too much for Ontario to overcome in a short five game series.

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     Chicago Wolves (C1) vs. Charlotte Checkers (C4)     

How the Wolves got here: Rewarded for being the Central’s most consistent team. Despite the deficit of two or three games in hand on Grand Rapids at the time, the Wolves remained at the top of the Central for pretty much the entire season.

How the Checkers got here: Outlasted the Cleveland Monters and Iowa Wild in the regular season’s final weeks. Checkers won out on regulation or overtime wins and beat out the Monsters, who they were in a tie with in points and points percentage.

How they match up: Wolves went 6-1-0-1 against the Checkers this season.

Key player for the Wolves: It’s two. Kenny Agostino won the scoring race (83 points) and Wade Megan had the most goals (33) this dynamic duo terrorized an overall strong Central Division on a night in and night out basis.

Key player for the Checkers: Charlotte’s Tom McCollum joined the team late and took the reigns and went 12-2-4 with a 2.17 GAA and a .917 SV%.

Prediction: This one ends with a sweep, Chicago in three.

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 Grand Rapids Griffins (C2) vs. Milwke. Admirals (C3) 

How the Griffins got here: 4-5-0-1 in their final ten games, it’s what ultimately cost the Griffins a shot at the Central Division title.

How the Admirals got here: Equally as dire, Milwaukee went 4-5-1-0 in their last ten but were out of the championship picture about a month or so ago.

How they match up: Griffins went 7-5 against the Admirals, with one overtime victory. Call it pretty even.

Key player for the Griffins: Martin Frk finished fourth on the team in scoring overall but led the team in goals with 27.

Key player for the Admirals: Adam Payerl was a castaway with Wilkes-Barre a few seasons ago, but was consistent piece with the Milwaukee Admirals all season, appearing in every game. He doesn’t lead in any category, but he always seemed to find the scoresheet at the right time whenever I caught a glimpse at what was going on out West with the Admirals.

Predication: Probably the most evenly matched series in the Western Conference, Admirals in five.

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Eastern Conference

     Syracuse Crunch (N1) vs. St. John’s IceCaps (N4)     

How the Crunch got here: Despite being pillaged on an almost daily basis by call-ups to parent Tampa Bay, the Syracuse Crunch stayed the course throughout the entire 2016-17 season and led the division for huge chunks of it. They rightfully took home the division championship on the last day of the season.

How the St. John’s IceCaps got here: With this being the last season of professional hockey in Newfoundland, the IceCaps played inspired hockey down the stretch and got in as the four seed, beating out the Utica Comets.

How they match up: 4-1-2-1 went the Crunch against the IceCaps this season.

Key player for the Crunch: Cory Conacher and Matt Taormina paced Syracuse with 60 points each.

Key player for the IceCaps: Offense ran through Chris Terry all season, Terry put up 68 points.

Prediction: Scare for Syracuse, but they outlast the IceCaps in five games.

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     Toronto Marlies (N2) vs Albany Devils (N3)     

How the Marlies got here: Played reinvigorated hockey in the final third of the season after most left them for dead and wrote them off.

How the Devils got here: Were never able to overcome Syracuse for the top spot in the division and lost personnel at the end of the season to recall to New Jersey and fell to the three seed.

How they match up: Devils went 5-3 against the Marlies this season with an overtime and shootout win sprinkled in.

Key player for the Marlies: Garret Sparks played 31 games in goal for Toronto and went 21-9 with a 2.16 GAA and a .922 SV%.

Key player for the Devils: Brian Gibbons and Carter Camper each came from successful teams in the past and are consistent Devils players.

Prediction: Like Grand Rapids and Milwaukee out west this is probably the most every matched series in the Eastern Conference. Devils advance in five if the Maple Leafs remain alive in the NHL playoffs.

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  W-B / Scr. Penguins (A1) vs. Providence Bruins (A4)  

How the Penguins got here: But for a few bumps along the way, the Penguins remained the best overall team in the AHL all season long.

How the Bruins got here: Were a two seed as early as a few weeks ago, but a 0-3-1-0 run to close out the season dropped the Bruins to a four seed in an ever competitive Atlantic Division which saw the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, a team which would have ran away with the North Division Championship this season, miss playoffs.

How they match up: Penguins beat the Bruins four times in the regular season, including once in overtime.

Key player for the Penguins: Tom Kostopoulos. At age 38, time isn’t slowing the grizzled captain down. His 54 points leads the team.

Key player for the Bruins: There was a time when Zane McIntyre just didn’t lose when he went in between the pipes for the P-Bruins.

Prediction: Check back tomorrow for a full series preview of this one.

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     Leh. Val. Phantoms (A2) vs. Hershey Bears (A3)     

How the Phantoms got here: Never really a challenger for the Penguins top spot, the Phantoms played consistently as a two seed all season in the AHL’s best division.

How the Bears got here: Left for dead on a number of occasions, the Bears used the final two weeks of the season to propel out of the five seed where they were all the way to a three seed.

How they match up: Phantoms got the better of the Bears, 7-4-1-0 in the 12 game season series, but a lot of those games played when the Bears were a struggling five seed.

Key player for the Phantoms: Alex Lyon is the man in goal now that Anthony Stolarz went down with season ending knee surgery.

Key player for the Bears: Pheonix Copley was a trade deadline acquisition who went 11-5 for Hershey when the Bears biggest deficiency was the man between the pipes.

Predication: This is a tough one to predict on the basis of the hot and cold play that Hershey exhibited all season long. Going out on a limb here and saying Lehigh Valley in five.

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If you see it any other way, let me know in the comments.

The AHL

2016-17 Fourth Quarter Grades

2 Comments Posted by on April 18, 2017

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins ended the 2016-17 campaign on Saturday night with the leagues best record of 51-20-3-2 good for 107 points and the top overall spot in the American Hockey League. They won the Atlantic Division Championship, the Eastern Conference Championship and the Macgregor Kilpatrick trophy for tops overall in the 30 team AHL.

The cadre of players graded here today played a large part in carrying what the recalled batch of players set them up for from grades before to the finish line.

Here’s how it works, everyone who played in the last 20 games for the Penguins gets a mention.

Six or less games gets an incomplete which will be mentioned at the bottom of this post. We start with the forwards as soon as you hop through the jump…

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Quarterly Grades

AHL Power Rankings: Week 27

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 27 Posted by on April 17, 2017

It’s the final version of the 2016-17 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings. Another year of doing this thing. It seems to be really popular and something that you guys seem to like so let’s keep it going for next year, shall we?

How I do the final Power Rankings edition is that the team that won the regular season is number one, followed by runner up in the opposite conference, then all the division champions in the top four then the other 12 playoff teams. All 16 teams that qualified are in the top 16 then the rank and file all the way to 30.

I won’t keep you here. Click through the jump if you didn’t link in direct…

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Power Rankings

Sauer Krause — Pens WIN 5-4

Comments Off on Sauer Krause — Pens WIN 5-4 Posted by on April 15, 2017

BRI         vs.         WBS

4                                              5

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I’d like to thank Brandon Povilitus for the pun headline idea, it was exactly what I was thinking when Adam Krause scored his second goal of the game and of the period, that game the Penguins a 5-4 lead and a lead they would not relinquish as the defeat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers tonight in the regular sermon finale.

The Penguins were trailing 3-2 to start the third and went down 4-2 when Carter Verhaeghe scored his second. Wilkes-Barre, with seemingly nothing left to play for could have packed it in and went home with the Eastern Conference Championship and begun preparations for the Providence Bruins, who the Penguins will face in the first round.

But Adam Krause, not a regular player in the lineup and a fringe guy, stepped up big with two goals after Jarrett Burton scored to bring the Penguins back within two.

Krause smoked Devon Towes on the first goal and scored a shorthanded goal that gave the Penguins the lead for good.

Sean Maguire made his AHL debut and won with 22 saves including a stop on Josh Ho-Sang on a penalty shot.

51-20-3-2 and 107 points will close the books on the 2016-17 AHL Regular Season for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. They enter the Calder Cup Playoffs the top overall team in the Eastern Conference and open against the Providence Bruins in round one. A team that has answered every challenge presented to them in the regular season face the biggest challenge yet, a championship run.

Blog story is late tonight because I wanted to figure out who was going to be the regular season champion. It’s the Penguins, after the Bakersfield Condors defeated the San Jose Barracuda in overtime tonight.

Sean Maguire opposed Eamonn McAdam

Lines were…

Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Ryan Haggerty
Nick Sorkin – Jarrett Burton – Adam Krause
Cody Wydo – Troy Josephs – Patrick McGrath

Jeff Taylor – Frank Corrado
Brett Stern – Kevin Schulze
Dylan Zink – Ethan Prow

Sean Maguire – Casey DeSmith

Lineup Notes: Regulars Tom Kostopoulos, Kevin Porter, David Warsofsky, Tim Erixon and Derrick Pouliot were given the night off. I saw Zach Aston-Reese with a cast on high right hand on his pinky and ring fingers. Donatelli told WBS media postgame that he is considered day to day and will have further tests done Monday. Barry Goers is undergoing concussion protocol.

First Period: Better start for the Penguins in comparison to last night agains Hershey and Wednesday against Lehigh Valley. Bridgeport got the first power play of the night and cashed when Ryan Pulock scored a bullet from the point that made it 1-0 Sound Tigers. Penguins got a power play and Teddy Blueger scored that tied the game:

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Sound Tigers went back on the power play and Carter Verhaeghe skated to a spot and found a spot and ripped a shot that found its way past Maguire that made it 2-1 Bridgeport.

Heading into the second, every goal was scored on the power play.

Second Period: A miscommunication between Penguins defensemen saw Travis St. Denis score a tap-in on the doorstep of Maguire that made it 3-1 Sound Tigers.

Josh Ho-Sang was hooked down on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. Sean Maguire denied him.

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J-S Dea connected on a power play goal late that made it 3-2 Sound Tigers…

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Third Period: Sean Maguire wasn’t able to control a rebound and Verhaeghe was there to put it in again that made it 4-2 Bridgeport.

That’s it. Pack it in and go home right?

Wrong.

Eamonn McAdam this time isn’t able to control a rebound and Jarrett Burton whacked home the puck that made it a 4-3 game.

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1:16 later, Adam Krause races past Devon Toews and ties the game at 4….

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Patrick McGrath earned the sole assist on that goal.

He then took a penalty with 4:19 left and the Sound Tigers were on a power play. Ut-oh, Buckwheat…

Krause. Again. Shorthanded….

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Sound Tigers, with McAdam vacated, were never able to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Jarrett Burton (goal, +1) 2) Teddy Blueger (goal, assist, -2) 1) Adam Krause (two goals, one assist, +3)

Around the Division: The Hershey Bears shutout the Providence Bruins 3-0. The Bears are hitting the postseason in stride and are the three seed in the Atlantic. They will face the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Round One….Lehigh Valley beats Binghamton 4-1 in the Senators finale under the Ottawa affiliation. Springfield beats Hartford 5-1 and out of conference, a Josh Currie hat trick sealed the fate of the San Jose Barracuda, the Bakersfield Condors win 3-2 which gave the Penguins the Macgregor Kilpatrick trophy for best overall record in the AHL regular season.

Standings: Penguins (.704 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.664) — Hershey (.638) — Providence (.632) — Bridgeport (.605) — Springfield (.493) — Hartford (.355)

Video highlights…

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Playoff schedule is set. Here it is…

Atlantic Division Semifinals – Series “A” (best-of-5)
A1-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins vs. A4-Providence Bruins
Game 1 – Fri., Apr. 21 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 23 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 3:05
Game 3 – Thu., Apr. 27 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 4 – Fri., Apr. 28 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
*Game 5 – Sun., Apr. 30 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 3:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern

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Your blog schedule for this week is as follows… Final Power Rankings will be up Monday at 4. I’ll have the Fourth Quarter Grades Tuesday at noon, a Calder Cup Playoff Preview Wednesday at noon for both conference and a Penguins / P-Bruins Playoff Preview Thursday at noon then the full pregame setup Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

Postgamer

RAPID RECAP – Pens WIN 5-4

Comments Off on RAPID RECAP – Pens WIN 5-4 Posted by on April 15, 2017

Much better effort here tonight in Wilkes-Barre, a 5-4 Wilkes-Barre win. 

After going down 4-2 in the third, the Penguins could have packed it in and went home losers heading into the playoffs. 

Adam Krause said no. He scored a breakaway goal, then a shorthanded goal to win it for the  Penguins. A great comeback win for the Penguins here in the final game of the regular season. 

The Providence Bruins lost 3-0 to the Hershey Bears meaning that the Penguins and Bruins meet again in the playoffs. The series starts in Providence probably due to the circus. Pens first home game will be Thursday, April 27. 

More later. Schedule will probably be finalized by the League later tonight. Pens need a San Jose loss of any kind to win the Kilpatrick Trophy for regular season champions. 

Rapid Recap

GAMEDAY: vs. Bridgeport 4/15

Comments Off on GAMEDAY: vs. Bridgeport 4/15 Posted by on April 15, 2017

vs.     bri14

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Home Game: 38

AHL Game: 1116

Who: Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 7:05 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game: Last night at home against the Hershey Bears, the Penguins lost 2-1. Tim Erixon scored a third period power play goal for Wilkes-Barre’s only offense. For Bridgeport, the Sound Tigers were eliminated from playoff contention last night losing 7-0 to the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Last Meeting: Way back on December 11 in Bridgeport, the Penguins won 4-1. David Warsofsky had a goal and two assists, Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist and Tristan Jarry stopped 26 of 27 to pick up the win.

Record: For WBS: 50-20-3-2 (105 pts., 1st place Atlantic Division)  — For BRI: 44-27-3-1 (92 pts., 5th place Atlantic Division)

Why you should care: Wilkes-Barre still has something to play for in the form of a regular season championship. A win and help later on by the Bakersfield Condors who play the San Jose Barracuda, the team that the Penguins are neck and neck with in pursuit of the Kilpatrick Trophy, and the best overall record in the league is the Penguins.

Referee(s): Jake Brenk / Tom Chmielewski

Linesmen: Ryan Daisy / J.P. Waleski

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @WBSGameDay / @TheSoundTigers

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /soundtigers

Instagram: wbspenguins / thesoundtigers

Beat Writers: @CVSethLakso and @TomVenesky / @fornabaioctp

Broadcasters: For WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS and @_NickHart / For BRI: Alan Fuehring @AlanFuehring

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep

Radio: For WBS: WILK NewsRadio / For BRI: I don’t think Sound Tigers games are on radio. Here’s the link to Mixlr where you could here the Sound Tigers call if you want to.

Television: AHL Live

Promotion(s): McDonald’s Fan Appreciation Night

Other Game to Watch: Eyes will be in Hershey tonight. The Bears host the Providence Bruins. The winner of that game heads to Allentown to take on the Phantoms in round one of the Calder Cup Playoffs while the loser heads to Wilkes-Barre.

Gameday

Turn It On! Turn It Off! Turn It On! — Pens LOSE 2-1

Comments Off on Turn It On! Turn It Off! Turn It On! — Pens LOSE 2-1 Posted by on April 14, 2017

HER        vs.        WBS

1                                         2

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Look at this game, a 2-1 Pens loss to the Hershey Bears, this way. When you don’t have anything left to play for (Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference Championships are already the Penguins) it’s hard to get motivated.

Think of it this way. You work at a widget factory. You are only given 110 widgets to make in an eight hour day. You can’t make any more, you can’t make any less. You have to make 110.

Well, the Penguins just made their 110th widget and the clock still reads 3:30 in the afternoon when they knock off at 5.

The Penguins, with little to play for in their final three games, lost Wednesday in a shootout to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and tonight to the Hershey Bears 2-1. Each winning team clinched a playoff spot. Four teams in the Atlantic have to make it, the Penguins just happened to play two that hadn’t yet.

Penguins turned it on in the third period on a power play goal by Tim Erixon, but :27 later the Bears scored again.

Providence clinched tonight as well, locking Bridgeport out after the Sound Tigers got smoked 7-0 at home against the Springfield Thunderbirds. The Bruins travel to Hershey Saturday with the winner heading to Allentown to open against the Phantoms and the loser heading to Wilkes-Barre to take on the Penguins next weekend in in the Atlantic Division Semifinals.

Casey DeSmith opposed Pheonix Copley.

Lines were…

Zach Aston-Reese – Kevin Porter – Tom Kostopoulos
Garrett Wilson – Oskar Sundqvist – Ryan Haggerty
Dominik Simon – Teddy Blueger – J-S Dea
Troy Josephs – Jarrett Burton – Adam Krause

Derrick Pouliot – Frank Corrado
Brett Stern – David Warsofsky
Tim Erixon – Jeff Taylor

Casey DeSmith – Sean Maguire

Lineup Notes: Two changes from Wednesday, Adam Krause for Patrick McGrath and Brett Stern for Ethan Prow.

First Period: Pens with a season low one shot on goal. Bears had seven with one power play. That was it.

Second Period: Chris Bourque centered a pass from behind the goal line to Jakub Vrana who scored to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. There were more goal posts hit in this game then there were goals, Bears had four by my count and the Pens had three.

Third Period: Penguins were guilty of making way too many extra passes tonight. They started to turn up the heat on the Bears and forced them into taking a puck over glass delay of game. On the ensuing power play, the Penguins only of the game, Tim Erixon scored to make it a tie game at one…

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Off the face-off and :27 later, Christian Djoos scored to make it 2-1 Bears. Penguins thought hey had the light switch fully on, but just as quick the Bears came in and quickly shut the light off.

With DeSmith pulled for the extra attacker, the Penguins were never able to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Tim Erixon (goal, -1) 2) Pheonix Copley (22 saves on 23 shots) and 1) Christian Djoos (game winning goal, +1)

Around the Division: Already gave you the 7-0 Springfield pasting that they laid on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers…Providence was up 4-1 to start the third against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Allentown, but the Phantoms scored three unanswered to tie it and Corban Knight scored :48 into overtime to win it. Phantoms win 5-4 in overtime….Utica keeps its playoff hopes alive with a 5-4 win at home against the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Standings: Penguins (.700 percentage points) — Lehigh Valley (.660) — Providence (.640) — Hershey (.633) — Bridgeport (.613) — Springfield (.487) — Hartford (.360)

Here is the Penguins Kilpatrick Trophy clinching scenarios, which is basically the regular season championship and ensures home ice in the Calder Cup Playoffs…

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Pens win against Bridgeport, they still need help in the form of the Barracuda not getting two points tomorrow. I’ll probably have something on this either late Saturday or Sunday morning, depending on how thing shake out tomorrow.

Gameday for the final game of the regular season hist the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

Postgamer

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