Chirps from Center Ice

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No. You read that right, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins won the game Saturday 4-3 in overtime, just their second victory in overtime this season and Joel Blomqvist’s first OT win as well.

Not with a bit of drama, as they carried a 2-1 lead into the third period only to see it evaporate and trail 3-2. It was here where Avery Hayes scored his first AHL goal at a good time to tie the game then it was Corey Andonovski going coast to coast to win it in the extra frame.

The magic number for a playoff berth should be four, with Springfield losing in regulation to Utica, provided my math is correct, which it rarely is.

Here’s how they lined up…

Lineup Notes: Owen Headrick for the recalled Ryan Shea on defense, Evan Vierling and Matthew Quercia for some combination of Sam Poulin and Scooter Brickey.

First Period: Ethan Samson beats Joel Blomqvist short side to put the Phantoms on the board first.

Not a lot to like this period. They had a power play they couldn’t get out of their own way on and took a penalty just :59 in and at some point lost Jonathan Gruden to injury. Gruden was not seen the remainder of the game.

Second Period: They remained down 1-0, didn’t connect on two power plays in the period but then Austin Rueschhoff won an offensive zone face-off and throws a shot at the net and there was Radim Zohorna to clean up the mess and tie the game at one.

Coupla minutes later, roles were reversed and it was Zohorna throwing a puck at the net and Rueschhoff cleaning up the loose change for a power play goal that gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

A late Phantoms shot hit the post with seconds remaining.

Third Period: Penguins held the Phantoms shotless for the first seven minutes but then the Phantoms got rolling.

Samu Tuomaala with a dart off a face-off and it was a tie game.

And a coupla minutes after that, Emil Andrae put the Phantoms ahead through an Adam Brooks screen that put the Phantoms ahead 3-2.

Another third period collapse? Really?!?!?

Nah nah.

Avery Hayes to the rescue.

Evan Vierling with the assist of all assists there, his first AHL assist.

Time ran out and here we go, off to…

Overtime: Was hold on to your butts because they were 1-8 coming into overtime.

But Corey Andonovski had enough of the losing in overtime.

Ballgame.

Three Stars: 3) Austin Rueschhoff (goal, assist) 2) Avery Hayes (first AHL goal) 1) Corey Andonovski (overtime game winning goal)

The Good: Good comeback, given the terms and the opponent.

The Bad: Seven of them were -1, all of them regulars. That’s not going to be good enough against the Hershey’s and Providence’s of the world.

Turning Point: Pick one between the Hayes goal that got you there or the Andonovski goal that ended overtime.

Around the Division: Hershey beats Hartford 2-1 in a shootout….Utica beats Springfield 4-3….Bridgeport beats Charlotte 1-0 in overtime….Syracuse shuts out Providence 4-0.

Standings: Hershey 99 – Providence 83 – Charlotte 77 – Penguins 75 – Hartford 70 – Lehigh Valley 65 – Springfield 63 – Bridgeport 53

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in Cincinnati and the game is still in action when this blog post goes up. Box here.

Video Highlights:

Have a Happy Easter! Talk to you this Friday or sooner if I have to. Let’s hope I don’t have to.

Let’s Go Pens!

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A pair of goals from guys who either haven’t scored one yet (Taylor Fedun) or haven’t scored since the first game of the season in Charlotte way back in October (Xavier Ouellet) are enough to carry the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins to a 3-1 victory in Sunday afternoon in Allentown.

Here is what it means in the short term. The magic number drops to 9, the Penguins bump back ahead of the Charlotte Checkers by a point for third in the Atlantic, although the Checkers have a game in hand now. Charlotte will be in Hartford Wednesday and in Bridgeport Friday before the Penguins play these Phantoms at home again Saturday.

34 saves for Joel Blomqvist, some of them highlight reel, included below. Vinnie Hinostroza drew the dagger late in the third on a power play with a goal, the Penguins only of the contest.

Here’s how they lined up…

Lineup Notes: They went back to the 11F-7D setup with Connor Brickey from The Ohio State University making his AHL debut. Justin Addamo was the forward from yesterday that was out of the lineup Sunday. Taylor Fedun replaced Owen Headrick.

First Period: Joel Blomqvist bailed out his team early.

But later Raivis Ansons had a turnover and that turnover ended up in the back of his net when Adam Brooks scored.

But the Penguins went undeterred and Taylor Fedun scored his first goal of the season that tied the game at one.

Second Period: If you watched the first you’d agree with me in saying that the Penguins were the better team. While there was no scoring in the second period, the Penguins continued to prove that they were the better team. First, Joel Blomqvist goes post to post to deny Penguins pest Rhett Gardiner, then Tanner Laczynski hit both posts but the puck stayed out. Then the Penguins cycled a puck for a good two minutes in the Phantoms zone but didn’t score. Then finally, Ty Smith was called for a 4:00 double minor and the Penguins killed it, quite easily in my opinion.

Third Period: Just :44 in, Xavier Ouellet scored his second goal of the season with this shot that put the Penguins ahead 2-1.

Joel Blomqvist had a ten bell save, probably his best save in a while, if not the entire season, with this right pad stop on Helge Grans.

Tuo on hyvää*

The Penguins then found a power play after a routine Blomqvist save later on led to pushing and shoving which persisted. In the power play that followed, Radim Zohorna connected with Vinnie Hinostroza who scored to make it 3-1 for Wilkes-Barre.

Ian Lapierriere pulled Parker Gahagen for the extra skater, but the Phantoms were unable to find the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Adam Brooks (goal) 2) Joel Blomqvist (34 saves) 1) Radim Zohorna (two assists)

The Good: They got scoring from unlikely places from Ouellet and Fedun. Anytime you get that and win you run to the pay winda, daddeh.

The Bad: Honestly can’t think of anything with the way they played as a whole. Nitpicking that Ty Smith had an uncharacteristically quiet weekend. The rest of the expected offense really wasn’t there all weekend, but it’s a net positive.

Turning Point: Take your pick between the Ouellet goal that made it 2-1 or the Hinostroza that made it 3-1. I wouldn’t fault you if you went to the Fedun goal that came 1:16 after the Adam Brooks goal that the Penguins weren’t going to have what happened to them at home against Utica Saturday night replicate on them Sunday afternoon in Allentown.

Around the Division: Hartford finally breaks their seven game losing streak with a 3-1 win in Belleville…Syracuse beats Providence in a shootout 3-2.

Standings: Hershey 97 – Providence 79 – Penguins 73 – Charlotte 72 – Hartford 69 – Lehigh Valley 62 – Springfield 61 – Bridgeport 51

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in action against the Cincinnati Cyclones. Box here.

Video Highlights: If I see them and can work in the edit, it will run here.

Back at it Saturday against Lehigh Valley at home in the only action they will see this week.

Let’s Go Pens!

* – in case you were wondering where the idea of the title of the blog post came from

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Long time readers of the blog know how I am constantly chasing pun headlines. Well, Vicki from the booster club saw me on the way out of the game, a 3-0 Penguins shutout loss to the Utica Comets, and simply told me that she had the headline for the blog tonight.

If you talked with Vicki, they sucked tonight. The Penguins gave up two unassisted rushes to the Comets which resulted in goals and got scored on in a five on three.

I can’t disagree there. But I thought it was a bit milder.

Sure, they lost in front of a sold out crowd on a Saturday. They put 39 shots on first star Akira Schmid, carried play in large parts in the first and second period and but for a few dumb spots where their defense turned the puck over to the other team, were in the game.

What drove the nail in the coffin was a five on three goal against that made it 3-0. Jonathan Gruden hitting a post on a power play is the closest they got to scoring Saturday.

Still haven’t scored a goal at even strength this weekend, but I think that’s being overexposed a bit because they scored two power play goals and lost Friday in Syracuse.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Lukas Svejkovsky for Vasiliy Ponomarev up front, Owen Headrick for Taylor Fedun on defense. Ponomarev’s absence is probably call up related. Won’t know that till Sunday.

First Period: Graeme Clarke makes it 1-0 Comets just 1-0 in.

Can’t really blame Ludovic Waeber here 100%. More like 50/50. Are you expecting the team ahead of you to no show the first two minutes of a game? No. But you should still make the save.

I called it a good period despite the score, they outshot Utica 14-6 and, but for the Clarke goal, controlled the pace of play.

Second Period: More of the same, a defender falls down and Samuel Laberge finds daylight and scores to make it 2-0 Comets.

Just queue the Benny Hill music with this one. Again, 50/50 on the defense and the goaltender.

They failed to score on a power play and gave Utica two chances on the man advantage. What’s troubling about that is they came back to back, giving the Comets :59 of two man advantage.

Utica cashed on it, when Brian Halonen was the last to get a piece of a puck that deflected off Waeber and in.

Third Period: Uneventful for offense for either side. The Penguins outshot the Comets 15-5 in the period, so the effort was there, the finishing was not.

Jonathan Gruden ran over Robbie Russo, cross checking him up high but with no infraction identified by either Mathieu Menniti or Casey Terreri. He also rang iron on a Penguins power play.

Three Stars: 3) Samuel Laberge (goal) 2) Graeme Clarke (goal) 1) Akira Schmid (39 save shutout)

The Good: I’m not going to pile on, but I thought they played decent. They got exposed at the absolute worst times giving up two essentially breakaway goals that you’d like to see your goalie make a stop on, and could not generate anything quality wise offensively.

The Bad: Defense plays too fast and loose, lacks direction most nights. They can get bailed out because they have an AHL All-Star playing goal most nights and can connect for a goal or two, but when it isn’t there, man, it sucks.

Turning Point: The Halonen goal that made it 3-0 made an already steep hill to climb even steeper.

Around the Division: Hershey shuts out Cleveland 5-0 for their 11th shutout of the season, which is a franchise record….Bridgeport beats Lehigh Valley 2-1….Charlotte beats Providence 3-2 in overtime, just what you didn’t want if you are a Penguins fan, both teams getting points…..Springfield beats Syracuse 6-4, so the magic number for the Penguins stays at 11 and Hartford continues its nosedive with a 5-1 loss in Toronto, that’s seven losses in a row for the Wolf Pack.

Standings: Hershey 97 – Providence 78 – Charlotte 72 – Penguins 71 – Hartford 67 – Lehigh Valley 62 – Springfield 61 – Bridgeport 51

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 3-1 at home against Fort Wayne. Jordan Martel had a pair of goals for the Wheeling in the win.

Video Highlights: 

Back at it Sunday at 3:05ish in Allentown. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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So there’s a lot of things I didn’t like about this one.

Penguins race out to a 1-0 lead after the first period, but the Syracuse Crunch adjust and counter punch in the second period and absolutely run circles around the Penguins in the third to turn a 2-2 game coming into the final period into a 5-2 laugher and win for Syracuse on Friday night.

The Crunch scored two empty net goals, but the damage was done earlier.

Syracuse regains the top spot in the North Division and the Penguins fail to make up ground on idle, second place Providence. The Bruins will now have two games in hand on the Penguins for the remainder of the weekend while Wilkes-Barre plays two more games.

Here’s how they lined up…

Lineup Notes: Jonathan Gruden was in for Jagger Joshua. I didn’t hear what the explanation was from Nick Hart in pregame sadly. Justin Addamo for Lukas Svejkovsky was the other forward lineup change. Taylor Fedun for Owen Headrick and Ryan Shea for Jack St. Ivan was the other change.

On St. Ivany:

First Period: Wilkes-Barre jumped out to a hot start but failed to score on their first two power plays but the third time was indeed the charm when Austin Rueschhoff tipped in a shot from Xavier Ouellet from the point.

I liked the pace and the hot start.

Second Period: You were kind of expecting a push from the Crunch, and it happened quickly, as ex-Penguin Felix Robert scored with a deflection off of his head that tied the game at one for the Crunch.

The Penguins would respond in kind with their second power play goal of the game when Joona Koppanen, playing in his 300th AHL game, scored to push the Penguins ahead 2-1.

But then Philippe Myers, who had the shot the deflected off of Robert’s face, scored a more conventional, safer goal, that tied the game up again for the Crunch.

Better push for the Crunch in the period but it was the Penguins power play carrying the day, to this point.

Third Period: Wilkes-Barre limited to just three shots in the period, Syracuse was really taking it to them and scored on a rush where a prone Ty Smith does more harm than good as the Crunch score a fluky goal that puts them ahead by one.

But then the Penguins fell in a deeper hole having to kill back to back penalties late, then got desperate and pulled Blomqvist. When that didn’t work, the Crunch scored two empty net goals.

(I’m not going to show them here)

Three Stars: 3) Cole Koepke (three assists) 2) Felix Robert (goal, two assists) 1) Philippe Myers (goal, two assists)

The Good: Two power play goals.

The Bad: Didn’t like the response in the second period onward. They got steamrolled in the third. Other teams as good or better than the Crunch are going to do this to this team the deeper they hope to get in the playoffs.

Turning Point: That third goal was scored by Waltteri Merelä. It’s that goal that gets it here. It was trending badly for the Pens to that point in the period and went downhill quickly from there.

Around the Division: All not totally lost for the Penguins as Charlotte beats Springfield 2-0. That should drop the Penguins magic number to 11 I believe. We will find out in Saturday’s AHL Playoff Primer. Hershey beat Cleveland 6-3 and Bridgeport beat Utica 2-1 on a shootout.

Standings: Hershey 95 – Providence 77 – Penguins 71 – Charlotte 70 – Hartford 67 – Lehigh Valley 62 – Springfield 59 – Bridgeport 47

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose a close one at home against Kalamazoo 4-3.

Video Highlights: 

Back at it Saturday at home against Utica. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I hope Mr. Leonard doesn’t read my blog because I have no idea if ‘Quattour Zeta’ translates from Latin to English to “Four Z” or not.

Where am I going with this? Simple. Radim Zohorna had a hat trick and an assist as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins comeback after Sunday afternoon’s disappointing overtime loss with a big 5-2 win Monday night.

The Penguins magic number will drop to 15. They will now be six points off second place Providence with one more game in hand and three points clear of fourth place Charlotte with the same amount of games played (60)

Good win, they get 3 out of 4 points out of a good, yet depleted Cleveland team.

Lines were…

Lineup Notes: Nick Hart mentioned pregame that Cleveland was actually going with 10 forwards and 8 defensemen with ex-Penguin Billy Sweezey jumping in and playing forward.

For the Penguins, Jack St. Ivany was back down from Pittsburgh. The Penguins didn’t recall anyone but you’ll notice that Jonathan Gruden was out of the lineup, so expect him to be recalled Tuesday. Lukas Svejkovsky was in for Jonathan Gruden and Matt Filipe for Justin Addamo at forward and the aforementioned St. Ivany was in for Ryan Shea and Owen Headrick was in for Taylor Fedun.

First Period: Penguins get a goal on what was thought to be a double deflection of a St. Ivany shot that was last touched by Jagger Joshua that gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

The Monsters would respond in kind with a power play goal that tied it at one off the stick of Jake Gaudet.

But the Penguins would respond about a minute and a half later when Radim Zohorna unleashed a hell of a shot that beat Malcolm Subban.

Second Period: They outshoot the Monsters 18-6 in the period, yet they only still led by one goal despite going up two in the period off of this shot from Jack Rathbone which was tipped by Vasiliy Ponomarev for his first as a Penguin.

Again, the boxscore has the goal credited to Ponomarev.

The Monsters only had four shots on goal fifteen minutes into the period but it was one breakdown defensively that saw James Malatesta find himself alone on the left side and he picked a corner to bring the Monsters back within one.

Too close to call for the Penguins, up one, after being in control for large stretches of this game against team dressing 10 forwards.

Third Period: This was one of those grit your teeth hide your eyes periods for Penguins fans after being in control for much of the game to this point. We have all been here before, right?

A Jack St. Ivany shot was deleted in by Radio Zohorna but initially washed out on account of a possible high stick, but after a conference between the officials, it was awarded as a clean goal and a goal that re-established the Penguins two goal lead.

Good goal and the correct call. But they still should make it reviewable via video replay. Justin Kea was one of the referees tonight and he does NHL games, You don’t think he could use development in reviewing a possible goal on a cozy Monday AHL game in Cleveland?

Make these reviewable, is what I am saying.

Penguins continued to remain in control, Cleveland pulled their goaltender with around 3:45 left to play and then took a penalty. Instead of running the clock out they got a power play goal when Zohorna tipped in his third of the game off a shot from Xavier Ouellet.

That’s one way to make a statement.

Three Stars: 3) Jagger Joshua (goal, assist) 2) Jack St. Ivany (three assists) 1) Radim Zohorna (three goals, assist)

The Good: Complete game for the Penguins, despite the blemishes and lapses. Despite what it appeared, the Penguins were in control and the issue was never really in doubt.

The Bad: A stretch, but Cleveland dressed ten forwards and still had a chance to pull upset and were, by rights, in it till the end. A better Penguins team has this team down three goals.

Turning Point: Zohorna’s second goal which was initially waved off which gave the Penguins a two goal lead gets it here. If the goal was ruled illegal and the Monsters come back and win, this sequence still likely gets it so let’s just go with it.

Around the Division: Penguins at Cleveland was the only game in the AHL on Monday.

Standings: Hershey 93 – Providence 77 – Penguins 71 – Charlotte 68 – Hartford 67 – Lehigh Valley 60 – Springfield 59 – Bridgeport 47

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: I didn’t see any last night, so the AHL VideoCenter may be your best bet if you are so inclined.