Chirps from Center Ice

The Penguins were in Hershey Sunday afternoon playing their final game of the preseason before the regular season gets going on Saturday at home against Hartford. They won 4-1 and finish 2-1 in preseason and sweep the Bears on the weekend series.

Here were the lines:

Jake Guentezel – Oskar Sundqvist – Reid Gardiner
Ryan Haggerty – Sahir Gill – Adam Krause
Dominik Simon – Gage Quinney – Cody Wydo
Christian Hilbrich – Miloš Bubela – Patrick McGrath

Reid McNeill – Tim Erixon
Brett Stern – Barry Goers
Ryan Segalla – Ethan Prow

Casey DeSmith – Doug Carr

DeSmith opposed Joe Cannata in a rematch of last night.

First Period: Joey Leach scored on a shot from the blueline that got past DeSmith either via a deflection or a screen and it was 1-0 Bears. Immediately after the face off, Ryan Haggerty dumps a puck in that Sahir Gill chases down and scored on past Cannata for a 1-1 game. Teams traded penalties with no one taking advantage. Cannata was needed when he denied Guentzel and Bubela with Jake on a 2-on-1 and Miloš on a breakaway.

Late, Gage Quinney as a result of a Bears turnover. Tim Erixon picked it off, skated in onside and passed to Dominik Simon who found Quinney who put the Penguins ahead 2-1 at the end of the period.

Second Period: Doug Carr took over the net duties for Casey DeSmith. DeSmith stopped 8 of 9 shots in the first period.

Pens traded power plays with the Bears. Past halfway, I heard Mike O’Brien say on radio that the Penguins didn’t have any shots on goal in the period.

Wilkes-Barre received a late power play and cashed. Dominik Simon made it 3-1 Penguins.

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Wilkes-Barre would only manage five shots on goal in the period and the Bears only had four. Shots were 14-12 Penguins at the end of the second period.

Third Period: The Penguins haven’t had a fight in the preseason, and the most interesting thing that happened this far into the period was Garrett Mitchell and Patrick McGrath trying to get the fists flying, but before punches were thrown, the melee was broken up. So no fight.

Nothing really doing this period. Bears outshot the Penguins 16-9 in the period and the Penguins got a shorthanded goal late when the Bears pulled Cannata for an extra man for a 6-on-4 power play. Oskar Sundqvist would score the goal for the Pens.

Was actually expecting Hershey to obliterate the Penguins today with the Bears dressing a more seasoned lineup and the Penguins bringing half a team really. But it’s preseason and will be forgotten about tomorrow morning, so let’s not speculate any further than that.

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So that will do it for preseason. Monday starts the 2016-17 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Previews. We start at noon Monday in the Pacific Division then noon Tuesday for the Central Division and then the North on Wednesday and closing it out with the Atlantic on Thursday.

Any news with re-assignments from Pittsburgh, Tom Sestito is on waivers Sunday, or additional cuts made to the Penguins, will be sprinkled in this week with the Previews.

Nothing flashy again here recap wise for the second of three preseason Penguins games and the first of a weekend home and home against the Hershey Bears.

One piece of news before the recap. Kevin Porter and David Warsofsky cleared waivers at noon Saturday making them eligible for assignment to Wilkes-Barre.

The Penguins beat the Bears tonight 4-2. Even though it’s preseason, it’s always fun beating Hershey.
These were the lines put out by Coach Clark Donatelli for tonight’s game against the Hershey Bears:

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First Period: Penguins were a lot quicker tonight then they were Wednesday. Hershey loses control of a puck in their zone, take a delayed penalty when Patrick McGrath wired one from the top of the slot in for a 1-0 Penguins lead. The fourth line was on the ice for that one as Nick Sorkin and Miloš Bubela assisted on the goal.

Later, Dustin Gazley went invisible for a second because the Penguins defenders must have forgot he was on the ice, as he skated in unabated and picked his spot on DeSmith and evened the game at one a piece.

Pens looked great on the penalty kill, DeSmith outstanding overall.

Second Period: Joe Cannata made a great pad stop on J-S Dea while the Pens were in two on one. Then Casey DeSmith got in on the pad action with a stop the other way.

Halfway through, Vitek Vanacek took over the Bears net. Casey DeSmith stayed in. I’m thinking some combination of Leland Irving and / or Doug Carr start Sunday in Hershey.

Hershey edged ahead when Dustin Gazley centered Hubert Labrie while the Bears were 3-on-1.

Pens had a power play after that. They spent the entire two minutes in cycling the puck and taking shots but were not able to put one past Vanacek.

DeSmith was up to his old tricks making spectacular saves.

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DeSmith may push Jarry for starter once Tristan gets back from Pittsburgh. The brain trust up too may not rush Matt Murray back if DeSmith continues to play like this at the AHL level and Jarry so far at the NHL preseason level.

Third Period: Pens turned the game in their favor thanks to two penalties drawn by Oskar Sundqvist. Sundqvist got the first power play goal off a nice behind setup by Tom Kostopoulos, drew a holding penalty later when Reid Gardiner crashed the net to make it 3-2 Penguins.

Bears pulled Vanacek and Tim Erixon scored into the empty net from about 190′ away that iced the game away.

Pens rode out the Hershey storm the first five minutes of the period then took off and never looked back. I think DeSmith faced just one shot on goal the final ten minutes or so.

Some collateral damage. Josh Archibald was held crashing the net and went hard into Vanacek and did not return. He was helped off not putting any pressure onto his left leg. If there is a report by Tom or Seth later, I’ll run an edit or mention it in a future piece.

Wilkes-Barre closes out the preseason Sunday in Hershey at 5.

Nothing too flashy with preseason recaps. AHL doesn’t have box scores to link to and the process is insignificant cause it doesn’t count in the end.

If you were to take one thing out of this game, a 4-1 Devils win tonight, it was that the Penguins struggled with the Devils speed all night. Albany cashed on four power plays tonight. That, and if you struggle to keep up with a team at even strength, your weaknesses are exposed exponentially when one of them are in the penalty box.

Maybe I am overthinking things. Anyway, here’s a look at the lines…

Nick Sorkin – Jarrett Burton – Reid Gardiner
Cody Wydo – Miloš Bubela – Derek Army
Gage Quinney – Sahir Gill – Ryan Haggerty
Christian Hilbrich – Adam Krause – Garrett Meurs

Tim Erixon – Ethan Prow
Ryan Segalla – Barry Goers
Reid McNeill – Michael Webster

Casey DeSmith – Leland Irving

DeSmith opposed Mackenzie Blackwood. I didn’t see where Albany put lines out. Lots of names I didn’t recognize. Ty Loney warmed up and played.

Pens scratches were a mile long. Erixon, Haggerty and Goers wore A’s.

First Period: Pens found themselves on the penalty kill three times in the period taking lazy stick penalties. Albany cashed in on the third attempt when either a puck bounced in off of Reid McNeill’s skate or went in off the stick of Jan Mandat.

DeSmith looked great in goal otherwise, stopping 6 of 7 shots including three highlight stops on a penalty kill.
Wilkes-Barre had quick transitioning attempts at Blackwood but were denied every time. Sahir Gill had a chance alone but shot right into the pad of Blackwood, later Ryan Haggerty danced around a guy but was shut down by the Albany netminder.

No fights in the period, which I thought was weird, being it’s the first press on game and guys are fighting for jobs.

Second Period: Penguins would get on the board when Reid McNeill hammered a shot from the blue line that was tipped in by Jarrett Burton.

Casey DeSmith was in midseason form, making more dazzling stops. Coal Street could cut up his highlights on just this game alone and they would last a month.

Leland Irving took over goal halfway through. Within the first minute he was required to stop three Albany attempts off of Penguins turnovers on the power play. DeSmith would stop 12 of 13 shots.

Devils would score when John Quenneville whipped in a shot past Irving for a power play goal and a 2-1 lead.
No fights in the second period. Weird for a preseason game with jobs on the line.

Third Period: It was becoming apparent that the Pens were not able to deal with Albany’s speed. More penalties by the Penguins resulted in more power play goals for the Devils, who tacked on two more in the period.

No fights in this game. Really strange.

Three stars were Ben Sexton, Jarrett Burton and Yan Mandat in that order.

Pens are back in action Saturday when they host the Hershey Bears Saturday at 7:05. If there is anything newsworthy to note Friday, check back then.