Chirps from Center Ice

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton dressed a young lineup. The Hershey Bears dressed a more experienced lineup. The results were predictable, a 6-1 Bears rout.

Again, with this being preseason, not much analysis is going to go into this offering.

Andy Chiodo vs. Philipp Grubauer

Mike O’Brien offered lines:

Sylvester – Megna – Thompson
Thompson – Carman – Payerl
Severyn – Manderson – Johnson
Minella – Rowney – Zurevinski

McNeill – D’Agostino
Seymour – Merth
Ratchuk – Goers

Jeff Deslauriers backed up Chiodo. Wilkes-Barre native Patrick McGrath took warmups but was scratched. Three players wore the “A” for the Pens tonight. They were Jayson Megna, Paul Thompson and Peter Merth.

Bears came out and jumped on the Penguins in the first five minutes. Tyler Ruegsegger set up Patrick Wellar and screened Chiodo to get the Bears on the board first.

Off the next faceoff, Mike Carman picks off a Hershey D-man and sets up Adam Payerl who gets a breakaway on Grubauer and scores on a deke to answer :23 later.

Jayson Megna had a quick start for his first preseason game for Wilkes-Barre. He stepped around a Bear and put a tough shot on netminder Grubauer.

Bears scored late when Casey Wellman pounced on a puck during a miscommunication by the Penguins. The puck dribbled through Chiodo and just over the line. Then, nearly right after that, Jeff Taffe scored on a blast from the top of the left circle to extend the Bears lead to 3-1.

Shots were 10-10 after the first. At one point, with six minutes and change to go in a 1-1 game, the shots were 9-4 Penguins. Same story from last night. Final five minutes of the period, Bears get two quick goals, and it’s a 3-1 game and the Pens stop playing and get outshot 6-1.

I mean it’s preseason and all and I am overanalyzing, but you just cannot let off against a team, any team, especially a dynamite offense that lies in Hershey.

Second period had the games first penalty and the first power play for Wilkes-Barre. Jayson Megna had a breakaway attempt denied by Tomas Kundratek. The Bears would kill off the remainder of the Penguins power play, then shortly score again to make it 4-1. This time David Marshall would be the recipient of a Tyler Ruegsegger steal and centering pass from behind the Penguin net to extend the lead to three for the Bears.

Jeff Deslauriers replaced Andy Chiodo at the halfway point of the game. Right before the Bears went on the power play but the Penguins killed it somewhat easily.

Christiaan Minella and David Marshall fought. Marshall already had an assist and a goal, so he completed his Gordie Howe hat trick.

Bears with a late power play, Nathan Walker for the Bears appears to score, referee TJ Luxmore signals goal, then takes a look at it on replay and overturns his call.

Shots were 23-16 Bears through two.

Couple of almost goals for both teams to start the third. Chay Genoway sweeps a puck away from the crease of Philipp Grubauer from a shot by Jayson Megna. Back the other way, Jeff Deslauriers stops Jeff Taffe on a 2-on-1 for the Bears.

Garrett Mitchell and Cody Sylvester had a memorable fight. Lots of punches. Hoping the Bears put together a SendToNews highlight package so I could link over.

David Marshall had quite a game. Scored a back hand goal and made it 5-1 Bears. That was four points for Marshall.

If the Bears can get scoring from secondary and tertiary players, while still getting points from regular scorers, there may be something brewing in Chocolatetwon and it may not be good for the rest of the League.

Rowdy third period really. Patrick Wellar and Scott Zurevinski fought.

Derek Whitmore scored a late power play goal for the Bears for good measure on the power play and made it 6-1. The first power play goal given up by the Penguins in the preseason.

That was that. The two teams rematch in Wilkes-Barre Sunday at 5:05.

Rosters are due for the NHL tomorrow. That means that there will players put on waivers. They need to hit waivers by noon tomorrow. We will see who Pittsburgh puts on there. Stick with me @nafsnep on Twitter tomorrow and we’ll find out together.

Let’s Go Pens!

Exciting parts of this second exhibition game between the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins and the Rochester Americans, a 2-1 Pens win in OT. Just some observations:

— Penguins manhandled the Amerks in the games opening fifteen minutes. Not allowing the Amerks a single shot on goal.

— Power play looked sharp. Passes were on point. Pucks kept in. Everyone was in position.

— Penalty kill looked even sharper. A perfect 7-for-7.

— When the Penguins let off, even the slightest, Rochester was right there to take advantage. The final five minutes of the first were a great example. Pens were outshooting the Amerks 7-0 and at the end of the period the shots were something like 8-7.

— Jeff Deslauriers started for the Pens and looked sharp. Then again, Rochester didn’t exactly dress a lineup that will debut opening night. A lot of youth in the lineup for the Amerks this evening.

— Matt Hackett started for Rochester and had laser like focus all night. Deflections? Saw em. Shots? No rebounds. Out of position? He gets over. Really nice showing from him.

— Eric Hartzell played the final 30 minutes for the Pens, replacing Deslauriers at the 10:00 mark of the second. He left a rebound on a shot that Colton Gillies pounced on and stuffed home but otherwise was solid in goal for the Penguins.

— Hackett looked destined for the shutout but the Penguins, on the power play and with the goaltender pulled, score a goal with 2.7 left when Brian Gibbons finds Mike Ratchuk cross ice for a backdoor goal.

— Cody Sylvester scored in overtime on a goal which was initially washed out by referee TJ Luxmore who ruled interference on Hackett after Sylvester bowled into him. Luxmore conferred with his linesmen and after review, overturned his call. The goal was before the interference, so the right call was made.

— Local product Patrick McGrath was in the starting lineup and had himself a memorable game. First, it’s with pride that I look at the lineup and see a player from Wilkes-Barre, PA listed as his hometown. Second, the kid is fearless. Take a look:

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The guy he fought is no slouch either. It was Frederick Roy, or Patrick’s son. McGrath eats three uppercuts then pops Roy’s helmet off. McGrath would go on to fight Johnny McGuire, who also fought Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. Nothing was as memorable as that fight above though.

Not really much else to analyze here. Systems wise, Pens looked in midseason form. Penalty kill was spotless. Power play looked vastly improved. We’ll see as the season gets going.

Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures of the inside of the arena that I will run later tonight / Saturday morning in a photoblog of sorts. Keep a lookout for that, if you are a night owl.

Penguins travel down I-81 for a meeting with the Hershey Bears tomorrow at 7 then close out the preseason slate with a rematch with the Bears Sunday at 5.

No funny headlines for preseason games. No graphics either. It’s preseason for bloggers, too.

Also, no radio or AHL Live, since tonight’s Penguins / Amerks preseason game was played at an IcePlex and not the Blue Cross Arena, the home of the Amerks. So I relied solely off of the tweets of one Mike O’Brien.

So instead of hitting each other in practice for the past few days, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins traveled to Western New York and hit the Rochester Americans in the first preseason game for both clubs.

Eric Hartzell vs. Nathan Lieuwen

Brian Gibbons wore the C for the Pens tonight and Paul Thompson wore the lone A.

Pens dressed the following players:

Forwards: Mike Carman, Kyle Fletcher, Chaz Johnson, Jack MacLellan, Denver Manderson, Christiaan Minella, Carter Rowney, C.J. Severyn, Cody Sylvester, Paul Thompson and Dominik Uher.

Defensemen: Nick D’Agostino, Barry Goers, Reid McNeill, Mike Ratchuk, Clark Seymour and Alex Velischek.

Andy Chiodo backed up Hartzell. Local product Patrick McGrath took warmups and was scratched. He and a guy like Chaz Johnson are cut from the same cloth, so if they are up for the same job, let the local kid in McGrath get game action at home in Wilkes-Barre this weekend. Makes sense.

Clark Donatelli, head coach of the Wheeling Nailers, was behind the bench with John Hynes & Co.

Starters for the Pens were Sylvester–Gibbons–Thompson // D’Agostino–Seymour.

Didn’t take long for the first fight. Christiaan Minella fought Johnny McGuire. Mike O’Brien said that both landed some right hooks before tumbling to the ice.

Phil Varone banged home a power play goal to put the Amerks on the board first.

Denver Manderson with a quick answer goal :25 later on a two on one rush set up by Chaz Johnson chipping the puck out of the zone to set up the odd man.

Rochester would quickly score on another power play. This time Chad Ruhwedel on a point shot. Quickly, the highly touted WBS penalty kill was 0-for-2. The Pens would go on the penalty kill again but would kill that one.

Cody Sylvester wasn’t doing himself any favors by getting called for another penalty, his third, the Penguins fourth of the period. Wilkes-Barre was able to kill that one off though.

After one, it was 2-1 Rochester with shots 15-2 for the Amerks. It’s hard to generate shots on goal when you are constantly killing penalties in a period. But hey, it’s the first period of the first preseason game of the year. I shouldn’t overanalyze.

From what I could tell from O’Brien’s tweets, the Pens were much more aggressive and disciplined to start the second. Dominik Uher had a good chance by a better same by netminder Lieuwen. Pens would get a power play out of it.

At the halfway point of the period, Andy Chiodo took over for Hartzell and Connor Knapp took over for Nathan Lieuwen in goal.

Back to the Pens power play, Paul Thompson would score to even the game at two a piece. Thompson wrists a roof job from the bottom of the faceoff circle.

Much more disciplined second period by the Pens. They must have shook off the first period jitters because the Pens outshot the Amerks 10-6 in the period and went 1-for-1 on their only power play of the game to this point.

Chaz Johnson and Drew Bagnall fought but didn’t throw any punches, so instead, both got roughing minors.

Pens got a power play with about seven minutes left in the third but weren’t able to capitalize.

Goalies Chiodo and Knapp traded glove saves….please keep reading.

Nothing was decided in the third so it was on to overtime.

Obie said that Chiodo had a flashy glove save on a redirect in overtime.

Eric Locke finished the Pens in overtime with a backhander in close on Chiodo and won it for the Amerks. Fellow blogger Amerks Sin Bin had the setup on the GWG:

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Three stars were: 3) Manderson (goal) 2) Ruhwedal (goal, assist) and 1) Locke (game winning goal.

Final shots on goal were 32-21 Amerks Pens were 1-for-2 on the power play and 4-for-6 on the PK.

I’d expect a few more cuts from Pittsburgh tomorrow or Friday, so we will see what shakes out of a lineup this weekend for the Pens starting Friday at home vs. these same Amerks.

If there is newsy news to share tomorrow, I’ll have a blog on it. If not, next entry will be the post game recap Friday night.

Let’s Go Pens!