Chirps from Center Ice

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

Winning Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre – Pens WIN 4-2

Comments Off on Winning Wednesday in Wilkes-Barre – Pens WIN 4-2 Posted by on March 27, 2013

   button_bng200       vs.       WBS

  2                                              4

–

Finally, a result that renders a positive.

Pens get three goals in the first from goal scorers and go on and roll the Binghamton Senators 4-2. 

Well, not exactly roll. The score was 3-0 at one point. Binghamton chipped to make it 3-2 before the Pens got a power play goal late to extend it to 4-2.

Wait, what? A power play goal?!?! What planet am I on.

That kind of night.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Nathan Lawson. Robert Bortuzzo, sent down for conditioning, was in the lineup. Christiaan Minella took warmups but was scratched.

First Period: Lots of hits to open the game, as would be expected when these two teams play. Pens would get a power play and not score on it. Then, Pens first line of Kolarik, Smith and Holzapfel take the ice, cycle a puck. Holzapfel passes to Kolarik who one times it, rebound kicks to Smith who bangs it home. Off the ensuing faceoff, the Pens nearly get another one. Finally, Two bang-bang goals from Kolarik in the slot then Thompson off a wrister that Lawson could have had.

3-0 after one period. There was talk before the game and in the papers in the morning of a strong start. Message sent, message received.

Second Period: Bit of a down period. Pens would get extended five on three but not score one. Late, Pens lose a faceoff, Corey Cowick stick lifts Joey Mormina, gets Zatkoff out of position and backhands it home to put the B-Sens on the board at 3-1. You could see from the body language of the B-Sens that they were not out of it.

Third Period: The B-Sens weren’t out of it. They hustled and set up shop in the offensive zone. Hugh Jessiman scores from the blue line. Uh oh. 3-2 Pens. You could feel it slipping. But, the Penguins played disciplined hockey, were beneficiaries of two straight power plays, one they scored on when an Alex Grant point shot deflected off of Brian Gibbons and had a “bend but not break” mentality that won them the hockey game.

Three Stars: 3) Trevor Smith (goal, +2) 2) Paul Thomspon (goal, +1) 1) Chad Kolarik (goal, assist, +2)

Kolarik had seven of the teams 34 shots. Thompson five. Robert Bortuzzo was a +2.

Around the Division: Norfolk and Hershey were off, Syracuse lost in Rochester in new head coach Rob Zettler’s debut 1-0 to the Americans. The shots on goal that game was 38-14 Crunch.

Standings: Syracuse 86 — Binghamton 84 — Penguins 73 — Hershey 71 — Norfolk 67

Conference: 1) SYR (86) 2) PRO (85) 3) SPR (83) 4) BNG (84) 5) POR (73) 6) WBS (73) 7) CT (72) 8) HER (71)

Wheeling Update: The Nailers have been eliminated from the playoffs and are playing out the string. They hosted the Elmira Jackals and won 6-2. Keven Veilleux scored a goal and had an assist. Newly signed 2009 Pittsburgh draft pick Alex Velischek had two assists. Nailers wrap up their season on Saturday.

SendToNews Highlights: Here they are.

Penguins most likely practice tomorrow. I may have a photoblog for you here from Monday with other newsier items. Providence is in Friday. That will be a Grade A test for the Pens.

Let’s Go Pens!

Postgamer

GAMEDAY: vs. Binghamton 3/27

Comments Off on GAMEDAY: vs. Binghamton 3/27 Posted by on March 27, 2013

vs. 

–

–

Home Game: 32

AHL Game: 977

Who: Binghamton Senators

Where: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza

When: 7:05 p.m.

Media Kit

Last Game: Saturday at home vs. Norfolk, the Pens lost 4-1. Alex Grant had the only goal. For the B-Sens, Sunday they were in Connecticut and lost to the Whale 6-1. Mark Stone had the only goal for the visitors in the loss.

Last Meeting: February 16 in Binghamton, the Penguins won 5-2. Chad Kolarik had a goal and three assists for the Pens in the win.

Record: For WBS: 34-28-2-1 (71 pts., 3rd place East Division) For BNG: 39-20-1-5 (84 pts., 2nd place East Division)

Why you should care: The Penguins next four games are crucial as to whether or not they will be in the playoffs at the end of the season. First up is the “pesky” B-Sens, who have been given the Penguins fits all season long.

Referee(s): Jean Hebert / Terry Koharski

Linesmen: Ryan Daisy / Jud Ritter

Twitter: @wbspenguins / @BSens_Hockey

Facebook: /WilkesBarreScrantonPenguins // /binghamtonsenators

Beat Writers: @CVBombulie / @PSBSens

Broadcasters: For WBS: Tom Grace @TGracePens and Mike O’Brien @MikeOBrienWBS / For BNG: Grady Whittenburg @BSensRadio

Fan Bloggers: @nafsnep / @BSensExaminer

Radio: For WBS: 102.3 The Mountain / For  Binghamton: Big 107.5

Television: AHL Live

Promotion(s): None

Other Game to Watch: Manchester is in Worcester tonight. The Monarchs presently sit four points away from the Penguins and the Sharks are six points away.

Next Five Games: PRO 3/29, @ BNG 3/30, @ NOR 4/2, @ ADK 4/5, ALB 4/6

Gameday

East Division Bloggers Summit – Part Two of Two

Comments Off on East Division Bloggers Summit – Part Two of Two Posted by on March 26, 2013

Welcome back to Part Two of the East Division Bloggers summit with bloggers from around the AHL’s East Division. To get you caught up, Part One is here. After the jump, you will find the final block of questions from the summit.

Read more of this post

The AHL

Famine to Feast

3 Comments Posted by on March 25, 2013

Man.

I go from having nothing to blog about for two weeks, to having content I have to hold off on because I have too much too soon (see today’s East Division Blogger Summit Part One)

Anyway, there’s a couple of things that happened today that need the blog’s attention. Off we go:

— Pittsburgh made another trade today. Douglas Murray comes over from the San Jose Sharks for draft picks.

— Now, there’s a plethora of bodies on the PIT blueline and an overage once bodies heal of roster spots. What will likely happen is best summarized by the Great Jonathan Bombulie here. The cliff notes version is that Beau Bennett and Simon Despres, both waiver exempt, return to Wilkes-Barre.

If I am Wilkes-Barre head coach John Hynes, I am beating down Pittsburgh’s door to return Bennett and Despres, if only until before the trade deadline. (April 3) after that, they go back up and stay up cause there are no roster limits at that point. These next four games are crucial for the Penguins playoff chances. Binghamton twice, Providence and a Norfolk team on the rise. In my opinion, they can only afford to lose one of these next four. They need all the help they can get.

— Some help is on the way in the form of  Trevor Smith, who was sent back today.

— I was at the Penguins Season Ticket Holder Meet and Greet tonight. I took pictures of the locker room and other random things I don’t ever remember taking pictures of. I will have those probably up on Facebook at some point this week.

— Syracuse Crunch head coach Jon Cooper was named the eighth head coach in Tampa Bay Lightning history. Rob Zettler, Cooper’s assistant in Syracuse, takes over for the Crunch as head coach.

Underestimate the Syracuse Crunch at your own risk. In my opinion, the departure of Cooper only makes them collectively stronger.

— Finally, any speculation that John Hynes was leaving the Pens to take the Boston University job have apparently died. Colorado Avalanche assistant coach David Quinn is taking the job and apparently this will be announced Tuesday.

—

Make sure you check out Part Two of the East Division Bloggers Summit Tuesday at noon.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

East Division Bloggers Summit – Part One of Two

Comments Off on East Division Bloggers Summit – Part One of Two Posted by on March 25, 2013

With the finish line of the season within sight, another season of AHL hockey is nearly behind us. With the competitiveness of the teams comprised of the AHL East Division, I decided to bring on bloggers from each of the teams in the division for a little bit of a summit, if you will, on the teams strengths and weaknesses, and what to expect going forward. Going north to south in the division, let me introduce the panel.

The Syracuse Crunch are represented by Alex, who runs the blog Chairman How’s Glorious Army. You can follow her on Twitter @Allovimo.

The Binghamton Senators are represented by Don Rieber, Jr., who writes for examiner.com and is credentialed by the B-Sens. You can check his work out here, and follow him on Twitter, @BSensExaminer

You know who represents the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins, so let’s just move on.

The Hershey Bears are represented by Matt Trust, who writes for the blog Sweetest Hockey on Earth. You can follow the blog on Twitter @SweetestHockey and Matt at @Matt_Trust

The Norfolk Admirals are represented by Shawn Dulin, who writes about the Admirals for Anaheim Calling, part of the SB Nation network of blogs. You can follow Shawn @ShawnDulin

Now that you know who’s on the panel, here’s the discussion points. I asked five variations of questions. For Syracuse / Binghamton, the number one reason why they will win / won’t win the East Division this year. For Wilkes-Barre / Hershey / Norfolk, why they will or won’t make playoffs this year.

I then asked who they would least like to see in playoffs, trade deadline questions and had each complete a sentence.

There was so much information that each person gave I had to break it up into a two-day read for the blog because I didn’t want a long epistle. Plus, I haven’t had a ton of stuff to blog about in weeks, so it’s a nice way to have fresh content in the beginning of the week. Part Two will run tomorrow at the same time.

Here we go, as soon as you jump through. The “a” categories are for Syracuse and Binghamton, and the “b” questions are for Wilkes-Barre, Hershey and Norfolk.

Read more of this post

The AHL

Morrow for Morrow

1 Comment Posted by on March 24, 2013

This tweet from TSN’s Bob McKenzie sums up the days news nicely:

–

The Penguins traded Joe Morrow for Brenden Morrow today. Joe will go to Dallas, practice with the team and get acclimated. He may end up in the AHL, playing with ex-WBS D-man Carl Sneep in Austin, Texas for the Texas Stars.

From a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins fan perspective, a move like this for a rental player in Brenden Morrow seems questionable at best especially when you have a team in Pittsburgh which has won eleven in a row. Why fix what isn’t broken?

I would surmise that the immediate impact for Wilkes-Barre will be Cody Wild sliding into the lineup more frequently on the defensive side and Trevor Smith getting sent down very soon, if not immediately. There’s also talk that if all bodies heal in Pittsburgh they are one over the roster limit. Could that mean a return of Beau Bennett or Simon Despres? We will see.

While I am thoroughly disappointed to see Morrow go, you have to remember that this is a business and Pittsburgh is in the running for a Stanley Cup. The pipeline of D-men for Pittsburgh is plentiful, so the Pens are fine in the department. But the immediate impact of a loss like this may be felt for a while.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Sunday Scoreboard Watching

Comments Off on Sunday Scoreboard Watching Posted by on March 24, 2013

We have reached the point of the season where the Penguins low conference seeding bears keeping an eye on the AHL scoreboard. Here’s a look at the five games played today which impact the Penguins playoff seeding / chances.

HER     4

WOR     1

Recap: Patrick McNeill a goal and an assist, newcomer Chay Genoway two assists and a +3 as the Hershey Bears roll the Worcester Sharks 4-1 in Massachusetts.

CT     1

BNG     6

Recap: The Binghamton Senators laid an egg this afternoon in the Connecticut capital getting destroyed 6-1 by the Whale. Marc Chevrie gave up all six goals.

ALB     2

BRI     4

Recap: The Bridgeport Sound Tigers keep thier faint playoff hopes alive, by defeating the Albany Devils 4-2. Jordan Hill scored two goals for the Sound Tigers and Rick DiPietro (yes, that Rick DiPietro) stopped 19 of 21, including a penalty shot.

POR     2

ADK     4

Recap: The Portland Pirates lost to the Adirondack Phantoms today 4-2. The Pirates have lost two straight.

STJ     4

MCH     3

Recap: St. John’s beats Manchester 4-3 today, keeping the Monarchs out of the playoff discussion come Monday morning.

–

Here is a snapshot of your conference standings. If the playoffs started today, the teams listed in italics would not qualify.

Team GP Record Pts. Gms. Left
5-Portland 64 35-24-3-2 75 12
6-Connecticut 66 32-26-5-3 72 10
7-Wilkes-Barre 65  34-28-2-1  71  11
8-Hershey 65 31-25-3-6 71 11
9-Norfolk 64  31-28-4-1  67  12 
10-Manchester 65  30-28-3-4  67  11
11-Worcester 62  29-26-1-6  65  14 
12-Albany 63  27-25-1-10  65  13 
13-Bridgeport 64 27-26-6-5  65  12 

–

The Penguins enter a crucial next ten days with contests against Binghamton Wednesday, Providence on Friday, at Binghamton Saturday and at Norfolk next Tuesday. There is little margin for error.

I’ll have a two-day East Division bloggers summit kicking off Monday at noon. Lots of great content from bloggers from around the division. You will want to check that out.

The AHL

← Older posts

Newer posts →