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The Penguins dressed an all ATO lineup tonight and lost 2-0 to the Utica Comets. The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will play the Binghamton Senators in Round 1 of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

I mean, that’s all you need to know, right? Pens conceded the East Division Championship to the Binghamton Senators last night, so it was all about who the Pens would play in the first round of the playoffs, right?

I’d consider that a cop out though, so read on for your recap.

The Penguins dressed an all ATO lineup. Goaltender Matt Murray started in goal for the Penguins and Eric Hartzell backed up. Scott Wilson and Jean-Sebastian Dea made their pro debuts up front. Scratches for Wilkes-Barre were Brendan Mikkelson, Harry Zolnierczyk, Nick Drazenovic, Chuck Kobasew, Mike Carman, Bobby Farnham, Andrew Ebbett, Tom Kostopoulos, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Matia Marcantuoni and Clark Seymour. Scott Harrington appeared in his 76th regular season game for the Penguins, the only player to claim that title this year.

The Penguins, to a man, did not look out of place playing against the eliminated Utica Comets. Joacim Eriksson started for the Comets and the Penguins played them straight up. A first period shot by Peter Andersson beat Matt Murray but Murray had no chance as he was heavily screened. Nice pace between the two teams. Dea really has a nose for the net and Murray plays bigger in net than any goaltender I have seen this season.

Penguins had several chances at the power play in this game but were unsuccessful. The power play was 0-for-7 for the night. If you are looking for a reason why the Penguins didn’t win the game tonight, look no further than that.

Pascal Pelletier scored a power play goal, amidst all the penalty killing that Utica had to do, to extend the lead for the Comets to 2-0. It was a blind pass by Alex Grenier that set up that goal by Pelletier. Murray had no chance.

Penguins fail to convert on two power plays late, and there is your ball game.

Three Stars: 3) Peter Andersson (goal, +1) 2) Pascal Pelletier (goal, even) 1) Joacim Eriksson (27 save shutout)

I have done the following for 75 post game write-ups so for completeness sake…

Around the Division: Binghamton beats Norfolk 4-2….Syracuse wins in Hamilton 3-1….Hershey bests Adirondack 2-1.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins close out the 2012-13 campaign with a 42-26-35 record, good for 92 points, second in the East Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.

Conference: 1) MCH (105) 2) SPR (100) 3) BNG (96) 4) STJ (99) 5) ALB (93) 6) WBS (92) 7) PRO (91) 8) NOR (90)

Your Round 1 Calder Cup Eastern Conference Quarterfinal schedule is as follows:

Game 1: @ Binghamton 4/25
Game 2: @ Binghamton 4/26
Game 3: vs. Binghamton 4/30
Game 4: vs. Binghamton 5/2*
Game 5: @ Binghamton 5/5*

* – if necessary

Here’s the entire Round 1 schedule for the other 14 teams.

Wheeling Update: Ton Kuhnhackl with the overtime game winning goal as the Nailers win 3-2, take 2-0 series lead against the South Carolina Stingrays as the series shifts back to Wheeling.

SendToNews Highlights: Not up yet. I’ll look again and link if available.

Blog schedule here at Chirps from Center Ice look like this:

Sunday: Final AHL Power Rankings
Monday: Fourth Quarter Grades
Tuesday: Western Conference Playoff Preview
Wednesday: Eastern Conference Playoff Preview
Thursday: Penguins / B-Sens Series Preview
Friday: Gameday Setup, tweeting and blogging of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Stay tuned. It’s about to get real.

#digdeep

Let’s Go Pens!!

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The Binghamton Senators are the East Division Champions.

But it didn’t look like it in the third period of this game, a 5-4 Wilkes-Barre setback. The Penguins outshot the Penguins 26-7 and outscored them 2-0 and nearly tied the game late. Brian Dumoulin shot a puck right at Chris Conner camped out on the right of starting goaltender Andrew Hammond’s crease but Conner didn’t get all on the tip which would have forced overtime.

But they don’t play hockey on what ifs. The now is that the Penguins will need to start the 2014 Calder Cup Campaign on the road, without home ice advantage.

The aforementioned Andrew Hammond vs. Peter Mannino.

Chris Conner was in the lineup, down on conditioning. Zach Sill and Carter Rowney are the names you know that were scratched. Josh Archibald and the rest of the ATOs were scratched. Scott Wilson took warmups. The veteran scratch was Spencer Machacek.

First Period: Shane Prince took a pass from below the goal line and was parked right in front for a 1-0 Binghamton lead. A turnover in front of the Wilkes-Barre net and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored his first of three to make it 2-0. Jonathan Bombulie says that the Binghamton Senators make you pay for your mistakes. He wasn’t lying.

Second Period: On a carry over power play from the first, Pageau scored his second on a power play. Then, nifty passing by Alex Grant to David Dziurzuynski and it was 4-0 Penguins. With Dominik Uher in the box for a hook, Pageau finished off his hat trick to make it 5-0 Penguins.

Looking back at the recap so far, it was an all out assault by the Binghamton Senators. Or was it? Did Binghamton just capitalize on turnovers and nifty passes or were the Penguins that bad?

Adam Payerl got one back. Then the Penguins started their comeback.

Bobby Farnham shorthanded. Farnham tore up ice quick, put a wild shot on net that wasn’t close, tracked down the carom and had a wide open net to shoot into. The momentum that Wilkes-Barre had was broken by intermission and the start of the….

Third Period: All Wilkes-Barre from start to finish. Hammond made big saves though. A setup by Chris Conner to Barry Goers was stopped. Anton Zlobin draws the Binghamton net minder out of the net and attempts a wrap around but is stopped. Andrew Ebbett got one past Hammond to cut the deficit to two. While on a power play, Hammond made a sprawling save to keep it a two goal lead. Chuck Kobasew gets one by Hammond to make it a one goal lead for the Senators. With Mannino pulled, the Penguins got close, but never found the equalizer. Dumoulin had Conner at the far post but Conner missed it or else who knows what….

Notes: Mannino hadn’t given up more than two goals in a game since November….the Penguins goaltenders as a whole have a 5.33 GAA and a .809 SV% in Binghamton this season.

Three Stars: 3) Chuck Kobasew (goal, assist, +2) 2) Mark Stone (three assists, +1) and 1) J-G Pageau (three goals, +1)

Around the Division: Syracuse loses to Rochester 5-1….the Norfolk Admirals are headed to the playoffs with a 3-1 win against the Hershey Bears. With a 2-1 Providence overtime win, the Hershey Bears are eliminated form Calder Cup Playoff contention for the first time since 2005-2006.

Other Games that Matter: I gave you the Providence box above. St. John’s is locked in at the 4 seed and Albany was off. It’s still up in the air as to who the Penguins can face in the first round.

Basically how it runs is this. If Wilkes-Barre loses tomorrow in Utica in regulation and Albany (vs. SPR) AND Providence (@ WOR) win, the Pens are a 7 seed. That’s as low as they can go. Win, and the Pens are a 5 no matter what. OTL and SOL get tricky depending on competition. It’s something that I hope that Jason Chaimovitch and the brain trust in Springfield are working on at this ungodly hour (11:44 p.m. on a Friday)

Standings: Binghamton 94 — Penguins 92 — Norfolk 90 — Hershey 86 — Syracuse 73

Conference: 1) MCH (105) 2) SPR (100) 3) BNG (94) 4) STJ (97) 5) WBS (92) 6) ALB (91) 7) PRO (91) 8) NOR (90)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers won Game 1 in South Carolina 3-0.

SendToNews Highlights: Are here.

Gameday for the final regular season game vs. Utica will be up at 3. If the Springfield brain trust manages to put together scenarios, I may run a mini blog post with the who’s and how’s.

Let’s Go Pens!!