Chirps from Center Ice

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

Penguins / P-Bruins Series Preview

1 Comment Posted by on May 8, 2014

2012_WBSahl142012_PRO

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They say that revenge is a dish best served cold.

For the Providence Bruins, what the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins did to them last May was nothing short of historical. The Bruins, at the time the Eastern Conference Champions and regular season champions, were the first team in AHL history to lose a 3-0 series lead and lose Game 7 at home. The Penguins stormed back from being down 3-0 to the Bruins and outscored them 14-2 in Games 4 through 7 including a 5-0 whitewash in the decisive Game 7.

The Bruins did all they could to close out the Penguins in six games, but backstopped by the heroic 46 save performance by then goaltender Brad Thiessen and done in by Trevor Smith’s wraparound overtime game winning goal at 3:36 in overtime, it was not to be.

The Bruins are out for revenge.

There are only eight players on that doomed Providence squad that will return to the scene where their season ended, the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Bruins didn’t come close to their 105 point season they put up a year ago, Providence finished with a record of 40-25-2-9 good for 91 points and third place in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins needed the last weekend of the AHL season to make it into the Calder Cup Playoffs.

The Bruins dispatched the Northeast Division Champion Springfield Falcons in five games. The Bruins were down 2-1 in the series with the Falcons, and used a pair of 6-3 victories in Games 4 and 5 to complete the comeback and pull of the upset against Springfield.

The Penguins played the Bruins four times this season. They split a weekend series with the Bruins by identical 5-1 scores in January and lost in a 4-3 shootout in February and 2-1 regulation loss in March at home in Wilkes-Barre.

Providence is led by rookies Seth Griffith and Alexander Khokhlachev, who paced the Bruins with a combined 107 points. Griffith has 6 points in the Calder Cup Playoffs and is joined by fellow teammates Matt Fraser and Ryan Spooner in the Top 10 in postseason scoring.

The Penguins, on the other hand, are paced by veterans Chuck Kobasew and Andrew Ebbett in scoring in the postseason.

The Bruins used youth to their advantage to rally and dispatch a 100 point Springfield team in five games. The Penguins, on the other hand, used experience to oust a young Binghamton Senators team that beat the Penguins in all facets during the regular season and won the East Division Championship by four points over the Penguins.

It is your prototypical “old lion vs. new lion” matchup. Will the new lion continue to outpace the old lion or will the old lion use its experience to oust the new kids in town? Read on.

Schedule

Eastern Conference Semifinals – Series “J” (best-of-7)
6-W-B/Scranton Penguins vs. 7-Providence Bruins 
Game 1 – Fri., May 9 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 
Game 2 – Sat., May 10 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 
Game 3 – Wed., May 14 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 
Game 4 – Fri., May 16 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 
*Game 5 – Sat., May 17 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 
*Game 6 – Mon., May 19 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 
*Game 7 – Wed., May 21 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05

* – if necessary

Forwards

Outside of the aforementioned Griffith and Khokhlachev, the Bruins top point getters are LW Craig Cunningham, C Ryan Spooner and RW Nick Johnson. Cunningham (47 points) Spooner (46) and ex-Penguin Johnson (42) are a nice combination to supplement the pace set by rookies Griffith and Khokhlachev. The Penguins are led by their captain, Tom Kostopoulos, with Nick Drazenovic, Andrew Ebbett and Harry Zolnierczyk part of the supporting cast. The Ace in the Hole is Chuck Kobasew, who scored at over a point a game pace since clearing waivers and being assigned to Wilkes-Barre late in the season.

Playoffs has seen the same familiar names at the top of both clubs lists.

Advantage: Push. Two arguments can be made here, the youth of the Bruins and the experience of the Penguins, but in this type of comparison they both cancel each other out. Who takes hold of the advantage in the early stages of the series will define the outcome in all likelihood.

Defense

The Bruins are led by offensive defensemen David Warsofsky and ex-Penguin Joe Morrow. The names Scott Harrington, Simon Despres, Philip Samuelsson and Scott Harrington need no introduction to fans of the Penguins.

The Penguins led the AHL in defense, limiting opponents to 2.43 goals per game. The Bruins were balanced this season and were 11th in defense and 11th in offense.

When it comes to blueline depth, the Penguins are the ones that tip the advantage in this category their way. The collective team effort of being the stingiest team in the AHL throughout a 76 game grind coupled with dependable names such as Reid McNeill and Barry Goers and you have a defense corps that you can feel good about going into a seven game series.

Advantage: Penguins

Goaltending

The P-Bruins used both Nik Svedberg and Malcom Subban this season pretty regularly and that spilled over into playoffs with both appearing in multiple games in their first round matchup against Springfield. Both carry the pedigree that would tell you that someday, both will be manning an NHL crease in the future. The Penguins have Peter Mannino, whose NHL ship may have sailed, but still remains a solid AHL netminder winning Goaltender of the Month in March. Wilkes-Barre cannot turn to Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, who was ruled out for the remainder of the season and won’t turn to Eric Hartzell, whose confidence was shaken after winning the Goaltender of the Month Award in January and 19 year old Matt Murray would be a last resort for Hynes & Company.

You don’t even have to look at past numbers or anything like that. The advantage in this category is Providence’s based on depth at backup alone.

Advantage: Providence

Intangibles

Starting with coaching, there is no way that John Hynes gets outcoached by Bruce Cassidy. Hynes’ group conducted the masterful comeback last year by at one point breaking down every single shift in one of the games. The Penguins have the advantage in coaching….Neither team has been spectacular on special teams this postseason, although the Penguins penalty killing unit did a masterful job in Games 3 and 4 of the Binghamton series in shutting down the dangerous Senators power play. Providence was slightly better on the power play in the regular season but average on the penalty kill. Depending on scenarios, whoever takes hold of this category could be ahead early as the series wears on. Push.

Social Media Coverage

For the Penguins…

Twitter: @WBSPenguins / @WBSGameDay
Radio: @MikeOBrienWBS
Beat: @CVBombulie
Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins
Instagram: wbspenguins

For the P-Bruins…

Twitter: @AHLBruins
Radio: @nickgagalis
Beat: @MarkDivver
Facebook: /providencebruins
Instagram: ahlbruins

Prediction

Penguins in six. Experience wins out. This isn’t a five game series, this is seven. Coaching, defense and veteran savvy from the likes of Kobasew, Kostopoulos and Ebbett win this series for the Penguins and they advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

But again, they don’t play these games in cyberspace or on paper. The Gameday Setup for Game 1 vs. Providence will hit the blog Friday at 3 p.m.

The AHL

Tuesday Notebook

Comments Off on Tuesday Notebook Posted by on May 6, 2014

With a whole week between games, there’s not much to blog about. One post down is an in depth look at some numbers between Providence and Wilkes-Barre that’s been up since Sunday. I probably won’t blog again until the Series Preview between the Pens and P-Bruins. But I managed to scrape together the following….

— Wilkes-Barre got help today in the form of Jayson Megna. He wasn’t seeing any playoff ice time with Pittsburgh, so they sent him to Wilkes-Barre where he will undoubtedly be inserted into the lineup for the Penguins.

Megna is an interesting case this year. I’ve sort of carried the schtick that he’s not my favorite player in spite of the fact that he has seen more NHL games (36) than AHL (25) this year. So with only 61 games played this season, you can bet that he’s going to be chomping at the bit to get into a game and knock some bodies around and hopefully score some goals in the process.

— Glens Falls will have a team again next season, in the form of Calgary prospects. The AHL’s Board of Governors approved the move Monday. Good that the League maintains a 30 team marriage with the 30 clubs in the NHL.

I thought about this and it’s been debated on Twitter, Facebook and beyond, where do you put the new Glens Falls team? The Eastern Conference? The Western Conference? Do you go 16 East teams and 14 West teams? Realignment is usually announced in July. I think that the AHL goes back to the four division format and adapts the same concept in the NHL presently.

— The Norfolk Admirals are becoming the unscratchable itch. They steal home ice away from the St. John’s IceCaps with a 3-1 win Tuesday. Goaltender John Gibson was stellar again for the Admirals, stopping 42 shots. Seemed like to me, if I was following the game the right way on Twitter, that Norfolk used, “bend but not break” and ground out a huge road victory. Gibson was beat on a deflection on the tail end of a power play and the Admirals answered right back minutes later. Game 2 is Wednesday.

Anaheim is in a battle with Los Angeles, currently down 2-0 in that series. If the Ducks do get bounced, they could get Emerson Etem, Devante Smith-Pelly and Rickard Rackell back from recall. That’s quite a calvary.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves in Wilkes-Barre, shall we?

The Pens / P-Bruins Series Preview will be up Thursday at noon.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Penguins – Bruins Stats Pack

Comments Off on Penguins – Bruins Stats Pack Posted by on May 4, 2014

With a whole week to go before Game 1 between the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and the Providence Bruins on Friday night in Wilkes-Barre, there is a lot of time to sit back and breakdown the series. I really liked Joy’s charts from a week ago when she looked at the Penguins and B-Sens so I figured I would bring them back for the Pens and Bruins.

First the Penguins. Built by Joy, copied by me so that I can maintain them for the second round.

Click on the chart to enlarge for texture…

[tweet https://twitter.com/PuckJoy/status/462635409969655808]

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Point production…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/463091807883378688]

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Now for Providence. I built this one myself using Joy’s template.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/463060696809238529]

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P-Bruins point production…

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So what’s it all mean?

— Get used to a lot of Ryan Spooner, Craig Cunningham, Matt Fraser, Seth Griffith, Zach Trotman, Nick Johnson and Joe Morrow. They are on the ice a lot when goals are scored. Trotman and Spooner are power play forces.

— John Hynes & Company are going to need to concoct a plan to shut down Seth Griffith, Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser.

— Bruce Cassidy and his crew are going to need to do the same for Tom Kostopoulos and Adam Payerl, who still haven’t been on the ice when the Penguins have had a goal scored against them. Same goes for Chuck Kobasew and Andrew Ebbett.

— The Penguins are going to benefit from home ice in this series. Just watch. Get a Providence defensemen out there like Moore or Casto stuck on an icing, Ebbett and Kobasew are jumping over the boards.

— I’d still like for Simon Despres to get going. No one seemed to mention Brendan Mikkelson at all during the Binghamton series. He was held without a point in the series. If he breaks out and Wilkes-Barre maintains production, watch out.

I still haven’t made a prediction for the series and won’t officially until Thursday here on the blog. I like what I see from both sides. Providence’s youth outlasted Springfield’s experience. After Game 2, Wilkes-Barre turned the tide on Binghamton in a big way in Games 3 and 4. Providence has a two headed monster in goal with Niklas Svedberg and Malcolm Subban. The Penguins are Peter Mannino and that’s it. I haven’t looked yet at power play and penalty kill numbers and other intangibles and have all week to do so.

I might be burning all of the candle before the night comes with this blog post, but I am sure I will come up with something this week to write about between now and Thursday.

But for now, I am going to ice my brain down. All these numbers crunching gave me a headache.

WBS

So You Wanna Win Your Division?

Comments Off on So You Wanna Win Your Division? Posted by on May 3, 2014

The rematch is set.

The Providence Bruins knocked off the Springfield Falcons tonight in Springfield, MA by a score of 6-3 and advance to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs to face the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. The Penguins will have home ice as the high seed.

You must be thinking, “Higher seed? Wait, the Penguins were a 6 seed I thought I saw you write a few weeks ago?” Right. All three division winners (Manchester, Springfield and Binghamton) were bounced in the first round by their opponents.

Here’s the schedule:

Eastern Conference Semifinals – Series “J”
6-W-B/Scranton Penguins vs. 7-Providence Bruins
Game 1 – Fri., May 9 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 
Game 2 – Sat., May 10 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 
Game 3 – Wed., May 14 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 
Game 4 – Fri., May 16 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 
*Game 5 – Sat., May 17 – W-B/Scranton at Providence, 7:05 
*Game 6 – Mon., May 19 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 
*Game 7 – Wed., May 21 – Providence at W-B/Scranton, 7:05 
*if necessary… All times Eastern

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St. John’s and Norfolk play in the other Conference Semifinal. That should be fun. Norfolk didn’t play St. John’s this year. Second time this postseason that the IceCaps fly blind into a series where they haven’t faced an opponent. The IceCaps played the Albany Devils in the first round.

Anyway, I’ll run a stats pack at you Sunday similar to what ran last Sunday. I already built the Wilkes-Barre one courtesy of Joy’s tweets earlier today and will build the Providence one tomorrow.

Since we are talking next Friday before we start, a lot of time to break down the series. The Series Preview will run Thursday here on the blog.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

Elimination Chamber — Pens WIN 5-1 (Win Series 3-1)

Comments Off on Elimination Chamber — Pens WIN 5-1 (Win Series 3-1) Posted by on May 2, 2014

   button_bng200       vs.       WBS

  1                                       5

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinal for a fourth year in a row and end the Binghamton Senators season by a score of 5-1 on the very same day that they did last year, May 2.

Tonight’s game had two things which stood out.

1) The stellar play of goaltender Peter Mannino. Mannino kept the Penguins in the game early and the B-Sens out of serious consideration for a comeback late.
2) The Binghamton Senators season imploded on discipline. The B-Sens took nine penalties which the Penguins scored on two of. There were two occasions where the Penguins were called for a penalty but the after the whistle stuff caused the B-Sens to lose their cool and the referees saw it, and the Penguins came away with the power play instead.

The B-Sens came out flying to start, outshooting Wilkes-Barre 8-2 to open. Mannino stood tall. One of the many saves that he made which stood out was a stop on Jean-Gabriel Pageau cutting to the net that kept the B-Sens off the board. Thrill a minute hockey.

Then a sequence that turned the tide in favor of the Penguins so much so that the Binghamton Senators were not able to recover. Chris Wideman takes a delay of game penalty. On the ensuing face-off, Chuck Kobasew appears to score, but the puck hits the crossbar and bounces out. Or does it? Play continues. Later, replay clearly shows the puck go inside the net and hit off the top of the back support and bounce out. Goal.

Penguins all of a sudden find themselves on a 5×3. But, Binghamton kills off the first penalty and then Mannino with a belly save on Patrick Mullen when the B-Sens were in on a shorthanded three-on-one.

There is where I think the game was won for the Penguins and lost for the B-Sens. It could have easily been 4-0 Senators after one but Mannino’s spectacular play in net kept it 1-0 Pens.

Penguins open the second period with 1:23 of carryover power play. All of a sudden, another 5×3 for the Pens when David Dziurzynski gets whistled for a high stick. Brian Dumoulin steps into one from the blue line late and makes it 2-0 Pens. Later, Dominik Uher scores even strength to put the Pens ahead 3-0.

Binghamton used its timeout and started a pushback. But tempers flared. Corey Cowick is whistled for slashing, Barry Goers is called for hooking and Darren Kramer for roughing. The initial call I think was the Goes hook. Then, after the whistle, Kramer and Cowick get called for their penalties and the Penguins are the ones on the power play.

Pens do not score. On four on four, the B-Sens nearly do. They were so dangerous on four on four tonight.

Chuck Kobasew dives at a puck and knocks it to Andrew Ebbett who skates in unabated to make it 4-0 Penguins. At this point, the rout was on.

Binghamton again doesn’t do themselves any favors. Zach Sill is called for charging. Stephane Da Costa, after the whistle, gets called for slashing then unsportsmanlike to put the Penguins on the power play.

The B-Sens score early in the third period when Certified Penguin Killer™ Shane Prince cashed on a power play to make things interesting and 4-1 Penguins. After a bad shift, John Hynes uses his time out to settle things down.

Try as they might, the Senators did not score and the Penguins withstood wave after wave of Binghamton pressure and maintained the three goal advantage.

Peter Mannino. Not to be forgotten. Three monstrous saves. Alex Grant through a screen. Try again. Scramble in front. It does not go in. Jean-Gabriel Pageau attempts to slip it five hole. You get nothing and like it.

Head Coach Luke Richardson pulls starting goaltender Andrew Hammond with 4:30 left. Harry Zolnierczyk, playing alpha and omega, scores the last goal of the series into an empty net. Zolnierczyk scored the first goal of the series (for the Penguins) last week up in Binghamton.

Bryan Rust was slashed on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot with 17.9 seconds left. He made too many moves and was stopped by Hammond.

Three Stars: 3) Brian Dumoulin (goal, assist, +1) 2) Peter Mannino (26 saves on 27 shots) and 1) Andrew Ebbett (goal, two assists, +1)

Lineup Changes: Essentially the aforementioned Bryan Rust for Anton Zlobin, who was injured in Game 3. Spencer Machacek was the veteran scratch.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: St. John’s closed out Albany tonight 4-1….Norfolk does the same to the top seeded Manchester Monarchs 3-2.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers start their second round series with the Greenville Road Warriors tomorrow at home. How about this tweet from them though…

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SendToNews Highlights: How about YouTube, instead?

[youtube http://youtu.be/h5CGZ3BnhNY]

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The Penguins opponent is still to be determined. The Springfield Falcons host the Providence Bruins Saturday night in a decisive Game 5. If Springfield wins, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will play the St. John’s IceCaps. If the Providence Bruins win, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will play the Providence Bruins and will have home ice advantage.

I will have an update Saturday night on the blog with the opponent and the schedule once Springfield makes that matrix available.

Let’s Go Pens!

Postgamer

Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 4: Binghamton Senators (WBS leads 2-1)

Comments Off on Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 4: Binghamton Senators (WBS leads 2-1) Posted by on May 2, 2014

vs. 2012_BNG

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Eastern Conference Quarterfinal – Game 4

AHL Game: C4

Who: Binghamton Senators

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 7:05 p.m.

Series: WBS leads 2-1 (best of five)

Media Kit

Last Game: Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins won 3-2 in overtime. Chuck Kobasew scored the game winner in overtime. Kobasew also chipped in an assist as well.

What to Watch For: Killer Instinct. There is no one in that Penguins locker room that wants any part of a Monday bus ride to Binghamton. In order to do that, the Penguins need their most perfect game of the series.

Referees: Mark Lemelin / Jamie Koharski

Linesmen: Bob Goodman / Jud Ritter

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @BSens_Hockey / @WBSGameday

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /binghamtonsenators

Instagram: wbspenguins / bsens_hockey

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie / @PSBSens

Broadcasters: WBS: Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / BNG: Grady Whittenburg @BSensRadio

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep / @PPPShow

Radio: For WBS: 103.1 WILK-FM / For Binghamton: Oldies 96.9

Television: AHL Live

When is Game 5?: If the Penguins win tonight, there isn’t one. If the B-Sens win, it’s Monday at 7:05.

Gameday

Thursday Transitions

Comments Off on Thursday Transitions Posted by on May 1, 2014

Just a few newsy things going on that I wanted to touch on at near or surrounding the Penguins as a whole now or at some point in the future….

— The Phantoms are moving to Allentown, PA this Fall and the Abbotsford Heat who are vacating British Colombia at the end of the season may be headed to the Phantoms old stomping grounds in the Adirondacks, according to this report.

— The Wheeling Nailers have their next opponent lined up. It’s the Greenville Road Warriors, coming off of a six game series with the Kalamazoo Wings. The series between the Nailers and Warriors begins Saturday in Wheeling.

— The brain trust on Coal Street has a new playoff blog that you can check out in the Quest for Calder. They have a bunch of multimedia things there including SendToNews clips of after practice and game interviews with coaches and players. Definitely worth taking a look at.

In case you were wondering, there hasn’t been an announcement from the League on any supplemental discipline to Binghamton defenseman Mark Borowiecki on his boarding penalty to Anton Zlobin. Zlobin left the game after the hit and did not return. Borowiecki was assessed just a 2:00 minor and that was it. Do the Penguins send tape to the league? If they do, is there a suspension coming? It’s rare that you see suspensions with this type of circumstance in the regular season. I’d be shocked if Borowiecki was suspended, honestly.

Game 4 setup hits the blog Friday at 3 p.m. You have to think that the Penguins want to come out with the killer instinct put the B-Sens away tomorrow. My initial guess is that the longer the game remains close, the more it benefits the Senators. Who knows though, because the series has remained close since the first puck drop last Friday. The Penguins have seen leads evaporate in the third period against Binghamton twice now. Who knows? All I know is that while I do enjoy the drive and my time in and around BInghamton, I am not planning on nor would I look forward to, a trip up there Monday for a deciding Game 5.

The AHL, WBS

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