When I blogged about a week ago about the release of Brad Thiessen from his Finnish obligations, I had a funny feeling the ex-Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguin net minder would be headed back over here to North America.
Specifically, the American Hockey League.
More specifically, somewhere in the East Division.
I was right.
One of the greatest goaltenders to ever come through Wilkes-Barre has signed with the Norfolk Admirals, a division rival. I said at the start of the year that the Admirals boasted the East Division’s best goaltending. This further cements my point as Norfolk gets a Grade A net minder to go with John Gibson, who has been very good for the Admirals this season.
Ironically enough, if Thiessen plays this weekend, he’ll face the Providence Bruins, who he did this to last postseason.
Wilkes-Barre hosts Norfolk December 27.
I’ll have the First Quarter Grades up on the blog here at 3 p.m. I had to take them down to make room for the Thiessen news.
Comments Off on BOO! – Pens LOSE 3-1
Posted by nafsnep on November 27, 2013
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This headline is an all purpose one.
Since Phantoms are ghosts, and ghosts scare people, and you say “Boo!” to scare people, you have that angle.
When you don’t like something, you boo. I never like when the Penguins lose.
Wilkes-Barre lays an egg in Glens Falls, NY and lose 3-1 to the Adirondack Phantoms. The Phantoms bottled up the Penguins all night, especially in the second period onward, only allowing the Pens 12 shots on goal after the first period, where the Pens outshot the Phantoms 16-3.
Jeff Deslauriers vs. Yann Danis
Carter Rowney was the lone scratch for the Penguins. Peter Merth is day-to-day. Reid McNeill and Nick Drazenovic are week-to-week.
First Period: Penguins steamroll the Phantoms in the period, outshooting them 16-3. Phantoms won the game in this period by not going down multiple goals, as Danis was spectacular for Adirondack, only rearing one goal, on the power play to Tom Kostopoulos. Prior to, Brandon Manning had scored on the power play.
Second Period: The Pens played a great first five minutes then could not even muster a shot on goal, as it was noted in Adirondack that the Pens hadn’t registered a single shot on goal for the last three fourths of the period.
Some controversy with the second Adirondack goal scored by Petr Straka. Here, take a look:
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Sorry about the letter boxing. I never remember to put my iPhone on landscape mode when shooting video.
Didn’t look like, to me, that that goal should have counted. Referee Geno Binda was the ref you saw there waving it off at the last second but T.J. Luxmore was the high ref and overruled the call WITHOUT replay. You decide.
Chris VandeVelde later pounces on a puck in the slot while the teams were 4-on-4 to put the Phantoms up 3-1. It would turn out to be all the insurance Adirondack would need.
Third Period: Dominik Uher took a puck up high in the second period, left with a towel on his mouth with the trainer and didn’t return. Pens get two power plays in the period but do not cash on either and that’s your ballgame.
Three Stars: 3) ben Holmstrom (assist, +1) 2) Brandon Manning (goal, assist, +1) and 1) Yann Danis (27 saves on 28 shots)
Wheeling Update: Nailers shutout Cincinnati 3-0. Reigning ECHL player of the week Zack Torquato had a goal and an assist and was named first star of the game.
SendToNews Highlights: Aren’t up yet. Nothing much to see other than what I gave you above, but for the sake of completeness I will check later and link if one comes out.
Penguins back at it Friday vs. Binghamton. Looking ahead to that one, starting goaltender Nathan Lawson left the game with an apparent injury and Andrew Hammond came on in relief to start the second period.
Blog wise, I’ll have my First Quarter Grades here sometime tomorrow. I’m shooting for noon but only have the forwards done, so who knows. But they will be up, so check back at some point tomorrow.
Last Game: Saturday at home vs. St. John’s, the Pens rallied for five goals in the third period and won 5-2. Coming off of suspension, Bobby Farnham was 1-1-2 and a +3. For Adirondack, last Saturday they hosted Albany and lost 5-3. Bruno Gervais was 1-2-3 in the losing effort.
Last Meeting: October 18 in Wilkes-Barre, the Pens won 6-3. Jayson Megna had two goals and was named first star of the game.
Record: For WBS: 12-4-0-2 (06 pts., 1st place East Division) — For ADK: 7-8-0-2 (16 pts., 3rd place Northeast Division)
Why you should care: The Phantoms have lost six in a row and the Pens look to make it seven. Who starts in goal tonight? Will it be Eric Hartzell, who had a solid debut Saturday or Jeff Deslauriers, who leads the AHL in wins for goaltenders?
Really, if you follow the action closely, not surprising. Pittsburgh’s not going to carry 11 forwards plus a cleared waivers Matt D’Agostini, that’s if he clears at noon Wednesday. So the recalls of Megna and Conner are insurance for Pittsburgh. Despres is left handed and, as Jonathan pointed out yesterday, Despres is the only healthy puck moving southpaw worth a call up in the organization.
So, if D’Agostini clears and is assigned to Wilkes-Barre you have him, Brian Gibbons, Tom Kostopoulos, Brendan Mikkelson and Harry Zolnierczyk as your top scorers, with a pretty solid defense corps and rock steady goaltending. I’ll take this into battle against an Adirondack team that’s lost six straight and feel damn good about my chances.
I probably won’t have anymore updates here today but for the Gameday setup with the aforementioned Phantoms at 3, then the post game recap after the game tonight. So if Pittsburgh does assign D’Agostini here, pending the waivers, I’ll probably blurb about it on Twitter.
Jonathan really has things covered in his offering today. He mentions that a forward could still go back up tomorrow as well as Simon Despres because of Paul Martin’s injury and that Despres uses his right frame of mind.*
Oh, and Matt D’Agostini is on waivers. If no one claims him, he could end up on the ice with the Penguins tomorrow in Glens Falls, NY.
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Three other things before I wrap it up. Remember the big hit in Saturday’s game Tom Kuhnhackl took by J.C. Lipon of St. John’s? Lipon was suspended two games as a result by the AHL today….Zack Torquato was named ECHL Player of the Week for the Wheeling Nailers. Torquato is on an ECHL only deal, meaning he can sign with any AHL team. He was in Wilkes-Barre camp last season if I remember correctly…..There is a new ECHL team which will take the ice for the 2014-2015 season. They are the Indy Fuel. They’ll probably face Wheeling a few times next season.
Depending if there is a call up to Pittsburgh tomorrow and the time it happens, I might have a few words on it. If not, Gameday for tomorrow’s game in Glens Falls vs. the Phantoms will be up at 3 p.m.
* – alright, it’s a terrible joke. Left handed people use the right side of their brain. Righties use their left side. So you’ll hear the joke from left handed people that they are always “in the right frame of mind”… I’ll be here all week. Try the veal….
No, not the American version. The one in Hamilton, Ontario. I criminally underrated their Bulldogs in last weeks rankings and erroneously stated that they lost two in a row. The Bulldogs sit atop the North Division at the quarter pole in the AHL season. I have atoned for my ineptness, the Bulldogs are your biggest gainer this week, up 18 spots this week.
Five teams didn’t move at all this week.
The Abbotsford Heat, winners of 13 of their last 14, overtake the Binghamton Senators in Week 8. The B-Sens step down one spot to second.
To see where your favorite team ranks, check out the rest of the rankings below. Click through the jump if you didn’t link in from somewhere else.
Comments Off on Zach’s Weekend in Wilkes-Barre
Posted by nafsnep on November 24, 2013
Kinda knew when I saw the reports from Pittsburgh about Beau Bennett’s injury that at least one Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguin would get the call.
Turns out it was two.
Pittsburgh recalled Zach Sill and Andrew Ebbett Sunday evening. For Sill, the thinking is that the Pittsburgh brass didn’t get enough of a look at him last time he was up appearing in just one game. For Ebbett, Pittsburgh clearly sending a message that they want to evaluate what they have depth-wise as Jayson Megna could be argued as a more worthy call-up.
Depth wise here in Wilkes-Barre, it all depends on the health and wellness of Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Nick Drazenovic. If either one of those two can play Wednesday night on Glens Falls, then the Penguins won’t need to make another recall from Wheeling. Denver Manderson and Cody Sylvester were the healthy forward scratches Saturday night vs. St. John’s.
I suppose we find out early, as usually it’s custom to let the call-up get a practice in with the team before throwing them into a game situation.
Think that’s bad? The Syracuse Crunch have been demolished lately with recalls and injuries of their own. My blog pals at Chairman How’s Glorious Army have it all covered if you want to peek across the fence to see the state of affairs of a divisional rival.
If there’s a recall from the Wheel, I’ll have something to write about Monday. If not, check out my Week 8 AHL Power Rankings Monday afternoon at 4.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 