Chirps from Center Ice

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

¡Cuatro es Importante! — Pens WIN 5-0

1 Comment Posted by on January 30, 2015

WBS          @          button_spr200

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have won four straight games. G Matt Murray has collected four shutouts this season, surpassing his counterpart Jeff Zatkoff in doing so.

The Penguins won tonight 5-0 in Springfield. Matt Murray had a 28 save shutout. The Penguins have not allowed the Falcons to score a goal on them yet this season. The Penguins won 5-0 back in October and it was, ironically enough, Matt Murray’s first shutout of the season.

Oh, if you haven’t yet figured out the headline yet, it’s “Four is Important” translated over to English from Spanish. I might be the only AHL blogger to use the Spanish language as a headline this weekend, or season, for that matter.

Anyway, this post game recap includes some new things that I am experimenting with. Twitter recently implemented native video. In lieu of you clicking off and looking at a Vine of a goal or a highlight, I am able to embed the highlight straight into the blog recap without you, the reader, having to click off someplace else. Great timing, eh? The Pens scored five goals total tonight and you have five different highlights to look at, embedded right here in the blog.

The aforementioned Matt Murray vs. Oskar Dansk.

Lines were…

Conor Sheary – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Scott Wilson – Carter Rowney – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – Jayson Megna – Adam Payerl
Dominik Uher – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Derrick Pouliot
Barry Goers – Nick D’Agostino

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

Alex Boak took warmups but was scratched. Other scratches were J-S Dea, Josh Archibald and Pierre Leblond. Jeff Zatkoff took morning skate but is still week-to-week, technically.

Adam Payerl’s first game since December 26 at Binghamton.

First Period: Penguins started out slow, but after a penalty to Springfield, Jayson Megna scored this goal on a rebound left by Dansk…

The Penguins weren’t done. Tom Kostopoulos scored this goal from a nice pass from Nick Drazenovic on a quick developing two on one…

Penguins add on another power play goal from Taylor Chorney…

Obie summed up the period succinctly. The Penguins didn’t dominate the period, but they were opportunistic.

Second Period: Penguins would kill off a double minor to Reid McNeill thanks to a few great saves in close by Murray. A Penguins power play would come and go, but then Derrick Pouliot would find Conor Sheary on this nice goal that made it 4-0 Penguins…

1:14 later, Bryan Rust would toast Nathan Oystrick and score this goal that chased Dansk…

Enter ex-Penguin Scott Munroe, who settled things down a bit for the Falcons. Murray had a great save on a defensive breakdown by the Penguins.

Third Period: Penguins put it on cruise control and played prevent. Penguins didn’t really push anything offensively but neither did Springfield. Shots in the period were 10-4 Penguins, ironically. Don’t be surprised to see Scott Munroe come out first Tuesday night in Wilkes-Barre in the rematch.

Three Stars: 3) Conor Sheary (goal, assist, +2) 2) Bryan Rust (goal, assist, +1) 1) Matt Murray (28 save shutout)

Around the Division: Hershey beats Lehigh Valley in Allentown 6-1 to stay a point up on the Pens with  three games in hand. Binghamton loses to Norfolk 5-3 at home.

Standings: Hershey 53 — Penguins 52 — Lehigh Valley 45 — Binghamton 39 — Norfolk 39

Conference: 1) MCH (60) 2) SYR (59) 3) HER (53) 4) SPR (56) 5) HFD (55) 6) WBS (52) 7) POR (51) 8) ALB (51)

Wheeling Update: Nailers win 4-1 in Kalamazoo. Zack Torquato had two assists and was a +3.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here. You’ll need to click off to see ’em.

Penguins come home to a sold out crowd tomorrow night against the Phantoms, playing their third game in three nights. Gameday for that will be up her eon the blog at 3 p.m.

Let’s Go Pens!!

Postgamer

GAMEDAY: @ Springfield 1/30

Comments Off on GAMEDAY: @ Springfield 1/30 Posted by on January 30, 2015

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Away Game: 22

AHL Game: 652

Who: Springfield Falcons

Where: MassMutual Center

When: 7:00 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game: Saturday in Norfolk, the Penguins won in overtime 3-2. Tom Kostopoulos scored the overtime game winning goal. For Springfield, the Falcons hosted the Providence Bruins last Saturday and lost 2-1. Micheal Chaput scored the only goal for Springfield in the loss.

Last Meeting: October 24 in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins won 5-0. Matt Murray had a 21 save shutout and Bryan Rust had two goals and an assist.

Record: For WBS: 23-17-1-3 (50 pts., 2nd place East Division) — For SPR: 26-13-4-0 (56 pts., 2nd place Northeast Division)

Why you should care: We have two second place teams here that have been on top of their respective divisions for the majority of the season. Both teams are eager to get back to the top and want to take the right first step.

Referee(s): T. J. Luxmore

Linesmen: Paul Simeon / Chris Low

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @WBSGameDay // @TheFalconsAHL

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /falconsahl

Instagram: wbspenguins / falconsahl

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie and @TLTomVenesky

Broadcasters: For WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / For SPR: Andy Zilch @andy_zilch

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep

Radio: For WBS: WILK Newsradio / For Springfield: WHYN News Talk 560

Television: AHL Live

Other Game to Watch: It is going to be a theme here as we head to the final stretch of the season. Hershey is in Allentown tonight taking on the Phantoms tonight. Both teams have games in hand on the Penguins.

Next Five Games: LV 1/31, SPR 2/3, @ HER 2/7, @ BRI 2/8, BNG 2/11

Gameday

Go West, Young Man

4 Comments Posted by on January 29, 2015

Today, the AHL announced and confirmed the worst kept secret in minor league hockey for years now. There will be a new Pacific Division that will represent the AHL clubs of the Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. In layman terms, here is what is going to happen in 2015-16.

— The Norfolk Admirals, affiliates of the Anaheim Ducks, are leaving town for San Diego, California.
— The Adirondack Flames, affiliates of the Calgary Flames, are leaving town for Stockton, California.
— The Oklahoma City Barons, affiliates of the Edmonton Oilers, are leaving town for Bakersfield, California.
— The Manchester Monarchs, affiliates of the Los Angeles Kings, are leaving town for Ontario, California.
— The Worcester Sharks, affiliates of the San Jose Sharks, are leaving town for San Jose, California.

It is expected that Norfolk, Adirondack and Manchester will have ECHL teams next season. There is no word on ECHL plans for Oklahoma City or Worcester yet. That league is scheduling a press conference Friday at 3 p.m.

From what I read, these NHL teams wanted a west coast pod for years now. They didn’t want a jet lagged player who just flew five hours across the continental United States the morning that their star players gets sick.

From what I believe, I don’t think that they necessarily care about attendance or if the teams are successful or not. When I think San Diego, I don’t think hockey. But AHL President Dave Andrews said at the AHL’s State of the League on Monday the following…

We’re going through a process we’ve never gone through before, which, if successful, will be difficult for a number of our markets, but at the same time, is probably critical to the health of our league from a stability point of view and maintaining a 30-team league.

The lynch-pin to that statement in my opinion was, “if successful.” It is still too soon to say that it will be. I think that what the AHL cares more about is pleasing their NHL partners and maintaining a healthy, 30 team league. The shine of having a brand new AHL team in San Diego, Stockton, Ontario and other places will be great for the first couple of years. But what happens say, five years in, if these teams start to struggle at the gate and struggle financially? What would it mean to the overall health of the AHL if close to 20% of the teams are struggling?

Wilkes-Barre wise, this westward movement will have little to no impact. You will probably see some realignment to the divisions again. I think that the five team divisions go away. You could see Wilkes-Barre in a division next year with usual suspects Hershey, Lehigh Valley and Binghamton and mix in any combination of Syracuse, Albany, Utica, Bridgeport, Rochester or even Toronto. You’re also going to see more of teams like Providence, Portland, Hartford and maybe Lake Erie, Hamilton or Charlotte on the schedule for next year.

Do the Penguins go the way of the Admirals, Sharks, Monarchs, Barons and Flames? I don’t think so. You are talking a four hour trip to Pittsburgh as opposed to a flight. Players from all over the AHL rave about Wilkes-Barre as a premier AHL destination. The Coal Street facility is a pristine asset to have in anchoring an AHL team like the Penguins to a city such as Wilkes-Barre. The Penguins lease with the Arena and affiliation with Pittsburgh expire in 2019, but I think it is safe to say that you can rest easy in knowing that something like this dark day in five AHL markets across the East will never happen in the Wyoming Valley.

While I have you, Pittsburgh sent Bryan Rust and Scott Wilson back to Wilkes-Barre Wednesday. Alex Boak was recalled from Wheeling Thursday.

Penguins play tomorrow in Springfield. Gameday for this hits the blog Friday at 3.

The AHL

AHL All-Star Classic Recap — West WINS 14-12

1 Comment Posted by on January 26, 2015

I filled in for Tom Venesky from the Times-Leader tonight. You can read the game story in Tuesday’s paper.

Fighting internet issues in a cold arena stage sitting right behind the goal judge is the price that you sometimes have to pay. But who is complaining. The game story was filed without issue and I can finally decompress and write this blog post. More of my element.

Anyway, the Western Conference won 14-12 tonight over the Eastern Conference. There were four hat tricks. There were two penalty shots. There were co-MVP’s. Charles Hudon from Hamilton had a hat trick and an assist and Utica’s Jacob Markstrom stopped 14 of 16 shots in the first period to take home the awards.

Something that I noticed in this game was a lackadaisical start in the beginning, an offensive display in the second period and then a frenetic pace in the final period. There were twelve goals scored in the second period alone. Five scored by the Western Conference in record time, 4:35. They scored six and the East scored six.

Really you could have, if you wanted to, made a case for Oklahoma City goaltender Richard Bachman to get the co-MVP if you wanted to. The East trailed all game, and really stepped on the gas in the final period. Bachman stopped 18 of 22 shots to preserve the West’s win.

But this is an all-star event, one that doesn’t count and this is Utica after all, so give the starting goaltender for the Western Conference the honor and call it a night.

Pouliot and Kostopoulos both had assists on the night. Kostopoulous actually had two but the second was taken away.

Anyway, there was other things to attend to today. Like half of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins team being called up to Pittsburgh. Scott Harrington, Bryan Rust, Scott Wilson and Andrew Ebbett were recalled this afternoon. Wilkes-Barre doesn’t play again until Friday and there was talk about Pittsburgh getting healthy. so we will see who if anyone trickles down in time for puck drop at 7 p.m. Friday in Springfield.

I always like to come to these events to meet people and mingle with those I know. Another thing I like to do is get audio of the AHL’s State of the League Address with Dave Andrews, the AHL’s president. Bob Howard from the Power Play Post Show there this morning and posted audio.

Here is the link in raw format…

Nothing really to take out of it from a Wilkes-Barre perspective. Nothing has been finalized with the AHL’s movement out West yet. There could be some other teams shook up but not necessarily moving West. The deadline for all of this is in May, but they would like to have everything in place by April for scheduling and ticketing purposes.

He also mentioned scheduling. The AHL isn’t moving off 76 games any time soon. Some teams want 72 games but there are others that love 76. It’s about 50/50 and you need 75%.

There could be unbalanced conferences with teams like here in Utica and Rochester coming East to play. All of that is talk though with bigger challenges in the way.

It’s really interesting audio, so give it a listen if you have 54 minutes of time to kill.

I am back on the road Tuesday, heading home. We will pick up the real stuff again at the end of the week.

The AHL

AHL Power Rankings: Week 16

Comments Off on AHL Power Rankings: Week 16 Posted by on January 25, 2015

It’s the All-Star break in the AHL, so how is your team doing?

There are a couple of teams that have been good all season long. Teams like Manchester, Utica, Rockford and Oklahoma City have been constantly at the head of their division class.

But there is a team, just west of where the festivities are taking place this weekend, that has been knocking and knocking and finally kicked the door down on the division lead on Saturday night.

It’s the Syracuse Crunch. One of the Eastern Conference’s most dangerous teams knocks off last week’s number one Hartford in a thrilling Saturday night battle at home and take over the Northeast Division and the number one spot in the Week 16 Chirps from Center Ice AHL Power Rankings. The Crunch are just a point off of the Manchester Monarchs for first overall in the Conference, too.

I don’t know how many times I use the word “break” in the rankings this week. It was a lot, though. Count them up and let me know in the comments. But first, you have to jump through if you didn’t link in direct….

Read more of this post

Power Rankings

Happy Birthday! — Pens WIN 3-2 (OT)

Comments Off on Happy Birthday! — Pens WIN 3-2 (OT) Posted by on January 24, 2015

WBS          @          NOR

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Tom Kostopoulos celebrated his 36th birthday today. He’s heading to Utica Sunday to captain the AHL’s Eastern Conference in the league’s All-Star Classic.

But before he could sit back and celebrate a birthday and reflect on accomplishments that led him to be named captain of the AHL’s Eastern Conference and named starter, he had business to attend to tonight in Virginia.

His overtime game winning goal assured a sweep of the Norfolk Admirals by the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins by a 3-2 score.

Lines looked like this tonight…..

Conor Sheary – Nick Drazenovic – Tom Kostopoulos
Scott Wilson – Andrew Ebbett – Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl – Carter Rowney – Jayson Megna
Dominik Uher – Matia Marcantuoni – Bobby Farnham

Taylor Chorney – Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill – Barry Goers
Scott Harrington – Derrick Pouliot

Matt Murray – Eric Hartzell

J-S Dea took warmups but was scratched. Pierre Leblond served the third game of his three game suspension. So the lineup was unchanged from last night.

The Penguins opposed recent stone in the shoe known as Jason Labarbera.

First Period: Norfolk jumped all over the Penguins to start. Emerson Etem rang a post then later on a busted Wilkes-Barre clear, scored to put the Admirals ahead 1-0. Then, the Penguins started to push back and Jayson Megna scored when Brendan Bell snapped his stick attempting to maneuver the puck out of his own end.

Wilkes-Barre seemed ignited prior to the Megna goal after a fight by Bobby Farnham with Joseph Cramarossa after Etem scored.

Second Period: No scoring in this period. Penguins had a few cracks at the power play but Norfolk was great in blocking shots.

Third Period: Scott Wilson put the Penguins ahead with this shot from the high slot off of a nice feed by Bryan Rust to give the Pens a 2-1 lead. It was Wilson’s fourth game in a row where he has scored a goal. Norfolk was able to edge back even with a power play goal from Nic Kerdiles on a deflection. A frenetic pace by both teams to finish.

Quick observations, John Hynes told Mike O’Brien in the pre show that one of the focuses the Penguins were going to work on after the All-Star break was special teams. The Penguins had multiple chances this weekend to take a lead with power plays but never could connect….Jayson Megna is usually the butt of my sophomoric jokes on the blog and elsewhere, but he had a hell of a game tonight. Nearly every chance he had was a Grade A opportunity.

Overtime: Tom Kostopoulos scored this goal on a deflection. This came after a John Hynes timeout. Before this, the Penguins had an opportunity to score on a power play but let it pass.

Three Stars: 3) Nic Kerdiles (goal, -1) 2) Scott Wilson (goal, +1) 1) Tom Kostopoulos (goal, +1)

Around the Division: Hershey beat Binghamton 3-2 in overtime to stay ahead of the Penguins by a point in the standings and lead the East Division at the break….Lehigh Valley beat St. John’s 4-3.

Standings: Hershey 51 — Penguins 50 — Lehigh Valley 45 — Binghamton 39 — Norfolk 37

Conference: 1) MCH (58) 2) SYR (57) 3) HER (51) 4) SPR (56) 5) HFD (53) 6) WBS (50) 7) WOR (49) 8) POR (49)

Wheeling Update: Nailers lost 4-1 to the Fort Wayne Komets.

SendToNews Highlights: Here is YouTube…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB3KqXgqidM&feature=youtu.be]

So that’s the break. Pens are in action again next Friday in Springfield. Here’s what you have coming at you this weekend and this week…

— Week 16 AHL Power Rankings at a special time, 2 p.m. Sunday.
— My big board chart page is already updated for your perusal.
— I may throw in a quick blurb of who won what at the Skills Competition Sunday night.
— I am pinch hitting for Tom Venesky from The Times-Leader Monday night. So buy a paper Tuesday to see my name and a bunch of words put together about the All-Star Classic. I will have a blog of the goings on Monday night after my duties for the paper conclude.
— I am planning on getting audio of the AHL’s Yearly State of the League. Stay tuned. I will probably make a blog out of that.

Let’s Go Pens!

Postgamer

GAMEDAY: @ Norfolk 1/24

Comments Off on GAMEDAY: @ Norfolk 1/24 Posted by on January 24, 2015

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Away Game: 21

AHL Game: 632

Who: Norfolk Admirals

Where: Norfolk Scope

When: 7:15 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game / Last Meeting: Last night, the Penguins beat the Admirals 4-2. Andrew Ebbett scored two goals for Wilkes-Barre in his return to the lineup since November.

Record: For WBS: 22-17-1-3 (48 pts., 2nd place East Division) — For NOR: 16-22-2-2 (36 pts., 5th place East Division)

Why you should care: Penguins look to close out the weekend with a sweep of the Admirals. Last night was far from a cakewalk for the Pens and you know that the Admirals will be out for revenge and wanting to split the weekend.

Referee(s): Mark Lemelin

Linesmen: Shandor Alphonso / Jud Ritter

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @WBSGameDay / @NorfolkAdmirals /
@AdsGameUpdates

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /NorfolkAdmirals

Instagram: wbspenguins / NorfolkAdmirals

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie and @TLTomVenesky

Broadcasters: For WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / For NOR: Pete Michaud @AdmiralsVoice

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep / @BeneathScope / @ShawnDulin

Radio: For WBS: WILK NewsRadio / For Norfolk: AM 1650 WHKT

Television: AHL Live

Other Game to Watch: Hershey, a point ahead of the Penguins for first in the division, host the Binghamton Senators.

Next Five Games: @ SPR 1/30, LV 1/31, SPR 2/3, @ HER 2/7, @ BRI 2/8

Gameday

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