@          

5                                              2

–

I could pick it up in warmups and it was enough for me to tweet this…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/577195407681449986]

Hartford is in a battle with about five teams, the Penguins included, for a playoff berth. Coming into this weekend, the Wolf Pack were on a six game losing streak. They needed this weekend, a three game road trip, to turn things around and get back into the playoff discussion.

Across the hall, the Penguins are coming into just the second game of the weekend after cooling off their biggest rival in two straight games. The thought may have slipped into the Penguins minds of just go through the motions and things will happen.

Well, it didn’t work. As a matter of fact, it blew up in their faces.

A 5-2 whipping today at the hands of the Hartford Wolf Pack who all of a sudden have won three straight. Not only that, the Penguins were outshot by a total of 40-13. No, that’s not a misprint. Forty to thirteen were the shots on goal including 13-3 at the end of one and 31-10 at the end of two. The Penguins were steamrolled from the drop of the puck today and the Wolf Pack never looked back.

Jeff Zatkoff opposed Jeff Malcolm today. The reason the Penguins lost was not because of the play of their goaltender. It could have easily been 7-2 tonight without the play of Zatkoff.

One line up change for the Penguins, J-S Dea was out for Josh Archibald. Derrick Pouliot did not dress, despite being sent down yesterday in the Andrew Ebbett transaction.

First Period: Penguins weathered the early Hartford storm, got a power play out of it, didn’t score. Hartford got a power play and scored immediately. It was executed perfectly. Faceoff win. Pass to point. Cross ice pass to far dot. Pass in front for a tip in goal. Red lights and fist pounds.

The assault continued. Penguins were being freight trained. Mike Kostka flipped a shot on net that Zatkoff never saw. 2-0.

Second Period: The pushback that the Penguins wanted never came. Reason? Had to kill essentially three straight penalties. First was a Scott Wilson double minor for high sticking that they were successful on. The second was a Josh Archibald slash that Conor Allen scored on from the blue line. 3-0. Shots to this point were 24-4.

Scott Harrington had a terrible game. A turnover behind his own net resulted in a shot and then a rebound to the wrong guy. His name was Chris Bourque. 4-0.

Seventeen seconds later, Josh Archibald scored on a rebound that finally gave the Penguins some life. It was 4-1.

Third Period: Exact copy from the start of the second, but it was Hartford taking penalties. Jayson Megna finally cashed from the slot to make it 4-2 cut the lead in half. After that, there was nothing that even resembled an offensive shift for the Penguins even with the benefits of a few power plays. It seems like, when the Penguins are on the power play, they don’t know how to enter the offensive zone from the blue line. If you were at the game today and saw that late third period power play, you know what I am talking about.

With time dwindling down, Jeff Zatkoff was pulled and who else but ex-Bear Chris Bourque would hit the empty net, therefore sealing the win for his team and indirectly helping his old team an hour south of Wilkes-Barre in the Bears by keeping the three point cushion intact for Hershey.

Three Stars: 3) Jayson Megna (goal, -1) 2) Chris Bourque (two goals, +2) and 1) Conor Allen (goal, assist, even)

Around the Division: Norfolk lost in Providence 4-1. Hershey and Lehigh Valley were idle. Binghamton won a crazy one, 8-7 in overtime in Adirondack.

Standings: Hershey 81 — Penguins 78 — Lehigh Valley 65 — Binghamton 60 — Norfolk 52

Conference: 1) MCH (84) 2) HER (81) 3) SYR (80) 4) WBS (78) 5) PRO (77) 6) POR (74) 7) HFD (74) 8) SPR (73)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were idle.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here. Nothing much to see.

Week 23 AHL Power Rankings will go live on the blog Monday at 4. Check them out then. Otherwise, the Penguins next game is this Friday up in Syracuse. Hershey plays Wednesday, in Worcester. That will bear watching.

Let’s Go Pens!

        vs.        

1                                         3

–

Andrew Ebbett was recalled to the Pittsburgh Penguins before the start of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins game and that left Head Coach John Hynes with a decision to make.

Who was he going to insert on the top line with Conor Sheary and Tom Kostopoulos?

The answer was Jayson Megna. It was at the right one.

Fueled by a two point performance by Megna and a 26 save performance by Matt Murray, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins draw to within three points of the rival Hershey Bears with a 3-1 win Saturday night at home. The Penguins burn off their game in hand on the Bears tomorrow afternoon vs. the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Ebbett was recalled because Sidney Crosby got sick before the start of the Pittsburgh game this afternoon and Evgeni Malkin took a bump and left the game due to injury. The lines looked like this…

Conor Sheary – Jayson Megna – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Dom Uher
Scott Wilson – J-S Dea – Adam Payerl
Pierre Leblond – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Brian Dumoulin – Taylor Chorney
Scott Harrington – Barry Goers
Nick D’Agostino – Danny Syvret

Matt Murray – Jeff Zatkoff

First Period: Megna made his presence felt early with a goal at 1:48 to put the Penguins on the board early finishing a nice pass from Tom Kostopoulos on the backhand. Penguins continue with pressure with Carter Rowney nearly scoring off a Bears turnover. Teams would trade power plays. Late, Conor Sheary scored on a shot that beat Bears starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer short side to put the Penguins ahead 2-0.

Second Period: You knew that Hershey was going to make a push, it was just a matter of when. The answer came in the second period. The Bears badly outshot the Penguins and were finally rewarded with a goal from Mike Moore from the high slot that beat a screened Murray and in for a 2-1 Penguin lead. Wilkes-Barre didn’t have to wait long to establish a two goal lead again though. Matt Murray made a big save, then right back down the other end the third line of Tom Kuhnhackl made a pass to Carter Rowney who shot the puck, Grubauer never controlled the rebound and a trailing Dominik Uher deposited the rebound for a 3-1 lead.

Third Period: Grubauer kept his team in it early and often, making a save on a Rowney breakaway, but the Penguins played shutdown defense the whole period and didn’t give the Bears much. What they did get to Murray he stopped. Bears couldn’t get anything past Murray even with Grubauer vacated with about two minutes to play.

Three Stars: 3) Matt Murray (26 saves on 27 shots) 2) Conor Sheary (goal, +1) and 1) Jayson Megna (goal, assist, +1)

Quite the opportunity for Megna and a blessing in disguise for both he and Hynes. That top line of Kostopoulos, Ebbett and Sheary was one of the best but with Megna it looks equal if not better.

Around the Division: Binghamton hosted tomorrow’s competition, Hartford, and lost 4-3. Lehigh Valley was in Connecticut and won 4-2. Norfolk lost 2-0 to Portland up in Maine.

Standings: Hershey 81 — Penguins 78 — Lehigh Valley 65 — Binghamton 58 — Norfolk 52

Conference: 1) MCH (84) 2) HER (81) 3) SYR (78) 4) WBS (78) 5) PRO (75) 6) POR (74) 7) HFD (72) 8) SPR (71)

Wheeling Update: Wheeling lost 4-1 to the Elmira Jackals at home. Eric Hartzell started and took the loss, stopping 32 of 35 shots.

SendToNews HIghlights: Not up yet. I will look again and probably run in the morning edits.

Penguins burn off their game in hand on the Bears tomorrow with a 4:05 start against Hartford. A win would put the Penguins just a point back of the Bears, with the same amount of games to play. Gameday setup hits the blog at high noon Sunday.

Let’s Go Pens!

        vs.        

3                                         5

–

I tweeted a stat last night that I’ll bring back here on the blog because reflecting on it, given the rivalry between these two teams, it really is something:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/575458504099520512]

Edit: It’s actually December 7-12.

Well, start the clock again, because the Penguins beat the Bears by a score of 5-3 tonight. Wilkes-Barre scored three goals in the third period to seal up the two points and draw to three points of the Bears for the division lead. The rematch is Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre, not before the Bears travel to Binghamton Friday.

The Penguins have points in 17 of their last 19 games and are 15-2-1-1. Hershey has all of a sudden lost two straight, and three of four. Are they cooling off? No. I don’t think so. It’s a regression to the mean that you see in mathematical speak from time to time.* Does it benefit the Penguins? Heck yeah, dude, because we now have a realistic chance to take the division and possibly more.

Anyway, Matt Murray opposed Phillipp Grubauer.

Lines and stuff were the same. New guy Danny Syvret was in for Harrison Ruopp on the third pairing with Nick D’Agostino. D’Agostino’s usual D partner Barry Goers moved up to the second pairing with Scott Harrington.

First Period: Penguins penalty kill was put on early and easily killed a Brian Dumoulin high stick. Then Jayson Megna makes a move on Philipp Grubauer and appears to hit the crossbar and bounce out. Referee Terry Kowarski was right on top of the play and washed it out immediately. Play continued to the point where Dumoulin found Andrew Ebbett with a thread pass that sprung Ebbett on a breakaway. Erik Burgdoerfer hooked him and a penalty was called. Replay showed that the Megna shot actually hit the inside of the crossbar and bounced out and the goal was awarded. The time was put back on the clock but the Burgdoerfer penalty stuck. Reason was it’s in the rules. Rule 79.1 of the AHL Rule Book:

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/575801317760729089]

So I was confused, but VP of Communications Jason Chaimovitch was kind enough to tweet in and clarify:

[tweet https://twitter.com/JChaimo/status/575813335930826754]

[tweet https://twitter.com/JChaimo/status/575814597069905920]

We here at Chirps from Center Ice aim to educate as well as inform.

Oh, Connor Carrick tipped a Dustin Gazley shot past Matt Murray and in for a tie game heading into the….

Second Period: Penguins started to clamp down on the Bears, forcing them into many icings and Hershey Head Coach Troy Mann into using his time out. But Gazley scored on a two on one to make it 2-1 for the Bears anyway shortly after. The first time that Murray has allowed more than one goal since January 31 against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Barry Goers got his first goal of the year off a nice deflection shot from a pass from Jayson Megna to make it 2-2. Tight checking hockey in the first half of the game followed by wide open end to end theatrics with two goals scored.

Third Period: Mike Moore got space, made a couple of moves that shook Murray down and scored to push the Bears ahead 3-2.

Thirteen seconds later, Pierre Leblond puts a shot in on Grubauer. A trailing Matia Marcantuoni scores on the rebound to make it a tie game yet again.

Time dwindled down to under five minutes. Finally Tom Kostopoulos scored on a tip shot from a Conor Sheary pass to make it 4-3 Pens.

Oh, now would be a good time to explain my silly headline. The Bears were caught with too many men on the ice on three separate occasions. The third time really cost them because they were trailing 4-3 late and were looking to pull Grubauer for the extra man when they got caught with one too many for the third time. Conor Sheary scored on his own rebound with under a minute to ice it away and guarantee the two points for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Dustin Gazley (goal, assist, +1) 2) Jayson Megna (goal, assist, +2) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, assist, -1)

Around the Division: Lehigh Valley was the only other game in the division and they were in Toronto taking on the Marlies and won 4-3.

Standings: Hershey 79 — Penguins 76 — Lehigh Valley 61 — Binghamton 58 — Norfolk 51

Conference: 1) MCH (81) 2) HER (79) 3) SYR (74) 4) WBS (76) 5) PRO (72) 6) WOR (70) 7) POR (70) 8) SPR (70)

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off. The Penguins recalled Alex Boak before the game for some reason though.

SendToNews Highlights: YouTube instead….

[youtube https://youtu.be/W04GbXon6Q0]

Pens off until Saturday and will actually have a game in hand on Hershey come Saturday but will quickly burn it off Sunday against Hartford. Unless there is anything breaking, look for the next blog update either Friday night after the action in the East Division concludes or Saturday afternoon for the Gameday setup for the rematch.

Let’s Go Pens!!!

* – I am no expert. Trust me.