Chirps from Center Ice

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So the scoreline of this one, a 4-2 Penguins win Sunday over the Hartford Wolf Pack, is a bit of a false flag of a score line because but for the final three or so minutes, the game wasn’t too close for comfort. The Pens were in control, goaltender Louis Domingue was dialed in and the Pens, but for a few goals by Hartford with goaltender Adam Huska pulled, never had to worry about the outcome of this one.

A weekend sweep, and more ups and downs with this club as it is. I full expect them to lose in shootouts to Syracuse and Utica at home next weekend.

Here’s how they lined up:

Hartford didn’t post lines.

Lineup Notes: Valtteri Puustinen for Jamie Devane up front, Cam Lee for Chris Ortiz in back. I didn’t like that call, Ortiz has been rock solid for the Pens in my eyes.

First Period: No scoring. The Pens penalty kill went 2/2 and their breakaway attempts were 0/2. Here was one of them by Alex Nylander.

Second Period: Pens connect at the expiration of a power play and Filip Hallander lights the lamp to put the Pens on the board and ahead at 1-0.

Alex Nylander would score :16 into a two man advantage for the Pens and Wilkes-Barre doubles its lead.

Louis Domingue stayed dialed in with a dazzling glove save at the end of the period.

That save was through and in traffic.

Third Period: Drew O’zConnor setup on a bad angle and cashes for a 3-0 Pens lead.

Stop trying to make DOC happen, Coal Street.

Matt Lorito upsets any attempt from this writer to come up with a Louis Domingue related pun about shiutouts when he scores an extra attacker power play goal to put Hartford on the board finally and make it 3-1.

Then Ty Running made it a puff out your cheeks moment when he scored here with 14.4 seconds left.

But Jonathan Gruden scored on an empty net at center ice with .8 seconds left to put any hopes for a long shot Hartford comeback to bed and that was the ballgame.

Three Stars: 3) Louis Domingue (33 saves) 2) Drew O’Connor (goal, assist) 1) Alex Nylander (goal, assist)

The Good: Good way to defend home ice, but the Pens have to learn how to win on the road, since they are likely starting play-offs, should they qualify, there. Alex Nylander’s 10 goals have all come on home ice.

The Bad: Game should have been a runaway and but for a few hiccups in desperation by Hartford at the end, it wasn’t. Great teams, the ones that win championships, find ways to get shutouts for their workhorse goaltender.

Turning Point: The O’Connor gaol is going to stand as the game winner, and a 3-0 lead to start the third is a massive hole to dig out of. They almost got out, but ultimately Hartford succumbed and went down in defeat.

Around the Division: Games are still going on, but of those which went final, Bridgeport shuts out Hartford 3-0. Hershey and Lehigh Valley were a 5 p.m. start, that box is here.

Standings: Pens are now two games over .500, at .518. You want Lehigh Valley to beat Hershey clean because that would drop the Bears percentage points down some.

Wheeling Update: Nailers down again to the Reading Royals but not as bad as the night prior. Box here.

Video Highlights: 

Let’s Go Pens!

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Alexander Nylander came back and only scored one goal.

You remember him, the guy that sick last weekend for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins whom you all missed, myself included?

Nylander’s goal was overshadowed by a big night from Sam Poulin, a hat trick, along with goals from Felix Robert and a returning Chris Bigras as the Penguins pound the Laval Rocket Saturday night 6-2. 

The secondary scoring was there for the Penguins with Valtteri Puustinen on his way back down for the Penguins and Radim Zohorna recalled, Wilkes-Barre got the secondary scoring it needed to ease past the Rocket for a comfortable win.

This blog post should have been titled, “A Night of Returns” because Louis Domingue started the game for the Penguins, after missing the last few months with injury, and opposed L-P Guindon.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Plenty. I mentioned some of them at the top. Jamie Devane also returned from injury. The Pens loaded Jan Drozg to the Grand Rapids Griffins. If you have been following the story close enough, Drozg wanted out and the Penguins gave it to him. He was a restricted free agent and likely will not be signed by Pittsburgh this summer. Alex D’Orio was sent to Wheeling.

First Period: Poulin scored 1:15 in and they were off to the races. But Joël Teasdale scores :25 later and Laval ties it right back up again. Then, A Chris Ortiz shot hits the post and Poulin is there to put the rebound in to make it 2-1.

Laval was bombing the Pens in shots in the period. But then a Chris Bigras shot goes in and that was the end of L-P Guindon. Enter Kevin Poulin, who settled things down considerably for the Rocket.

Here are the goals in the order they were scored.

Chris Ortiz should not come out of the lineup. He has been very good.

Second Period: No scoring. Laval had a power play late where they had their top unit of Dea, Harvey-Pinard and others and shot a lot at Domingue but the Penguins net minder held them out.

Third Period: Alex Nylander on a power play when Poulin was knocked over in front of the net and it was 4-1 Pens.

But then J-S Dea set up the aforementioned Harvey-Pinard and he typed one home for a power play goal that cut it to two for the Rocket.

1:12 later, Felix Robert scores to ice the game away, blasting through the middle of the ice to score and re-establish the Pens three goal lead.

Laval pulled Poulin with seven minutes left and our Poulin put it in the net of Poulin for the empty net goal and his first professional hat trick.

Three Stars: 3) Felix Robert (goal, assist) 2) Louis Domingue (37 saves) 1) Sam Poulin (hat trick)

The Good: Felt good to get one where you were in complete control for most of, if not all of the game.

The Bad: Baptism by fire for Domingue, who faced 39 shots, no flies on him though and he’s ready to go and be your number one goalie going forward.

Turning Point: I want to go with that sequence where Laval doesn’t score at the end of the second period on the power play there., but Felix Robert’s goal that re-establishes the Penguins three goal lead gets it here.

Around the Division: Springfield beats Charlotte 4-3 in overtime….Bridgeport pounds Providence 7-4….Lehigh Valley beats Hartford in a back and forth one 6-5.

Standings: Pens will gain some ground on idle Hershey at the five seed, but put it this way, both team are playing the same number of games and the Bears have 63 points and the Pens have 56. Pens still have a game in hand and I think one or two games left with Hershey. Improbable, not impossible.

Pens have a five point lead on Bridgeport.

Wheeling Update: Nailers down big against Reading, and I mean big. Box here.

Video Highlights: 

Don’t forget to turn your clocks ahead. More Sunday after the Pens host the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I said in my Weekend Preview that there were players that “stir the drink” for the Penguins which were out of last weeks lineup and not put too much stock in getting 1 out of a possible 6 points last weekend. Those players, Forward Alex Nylander and Defenseman and team captain Taylor Fedun weren’t available last weekend and they weren’t available tonight.

The Penguins raced out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and outshot the Cleveland Monsters 20-6.

Then the second period happened.

The Monsters score two power play goals and tie the game at two.

An innocuous third period, but a Kasper Bjorkqvist shot at the buzzer deflects off of two Monsters players and goes in. But video review after showed that time had expired.

Dillon Simpson scored in overtime to give Cleveland the win. Pens lose 3-2.

What changed from the first period to the second? A desperate team came out, took advantage on the power play and got back into the game. The contest evened out after that.

You needed a straw to stir the drink. Well, Alex Nylander is still out with his illness. Nylander skated in the morning and Fedun is still out with his lower body injury.

They got a point and stay at .500. It’s where I had them pegged at the start of the season. Could Nylander have helped? Sure. Are the Penguins Calder Cup contenders with him in the lineup? Let’s not get silly.

Alex D’Orio started. He opposed Jet Greaves. Greaves faced 20 shots in the first and won the game for his team in that period because without him stopping the barrage he faced, the Monsters are down 4 our more goals coming into the second.

Louis Domingue backed up. Tommy Nappier skated in the morning but is also now listed as a non-COVID ill person.

It’s a work night, so here’s how the goals went…

Kasper Bjorkqvist tapped in a net front pass from Michael Chaput and the Pens were up 1-0.

Drew O’Connor struck on a power play and that made it 2-0.

Here’s the goals:

In the second, the Monsters struck for two power play goals. Carson Meyer and Jake Christiansen in that order. Here they are…

Here’s the goal that Kasper Bjorkqvist scored at 60:01, which of course didn’t count….

Close.

Dillon Simpson scored the overtime winner here.

Ballgame.

Here’s how they lined up.

Bjorkqvist in for Jan Drozg was the only lineup change.

Three Stars: 3) Drew O’Connor 2) Jake Christiansesn (goal, assist) 1) Dillon Simpson (overtime game winner)

The Good: More of the first period, please?

The Bad: Less of whatever the second and third period was.

Turning Point: 

I want to disagree, but I can’t.

Around the Division: Texas drops Charlotte 7-1. Belleville thumped Providence 4-1. The Pens were the only team in the division to get a point on Wednesday.

Standings: They are still .500 and in sixth.

Wheeling Update: Justin Almeida has 21 goals. He scored one of them in the Nailers 2-1 win at home against Toledo.

Video Highlights: 

Laval Saturday. They smoked Rochester 7-2 Wednesday. Yikes.

Let’s Go Pens!

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I think the Penguins gritted this point out in Providence Sunday afternoon.

They scored to tie the game with 3.3 seconds left to force overtime, but it was Oskar Steen’s goal just 24 seconds into overtime that wins the game and Providence skates away with a 5-4 overtime win.

A point against the Atlantic Division leading Bruins, but a point out of the entire weekend isn’t going to make anyone feel any better about a playoff chance as we progress to mid-March.

Five straight at home starting this week against the Cleveland Monsters, a team that the Penguins have had a lot of success against.

Alex D’Orio opposed Kyle Keyser.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Nathan Legare was out, Jan Drozg was in. Everyone else was status quo injury wise.

First Period: Kyle Keyser with a big save on a Pens 2 on 1 early on with Radim Zohorna and Drew O’Connor. It stayed pretty even, until Cameron Hughes takes a spin o rama pass from Steven Fogarty and beats D’Orio for a goal that made it 1-0 P-Bruins.

(no GIF here, Providence does the bare minimum. Anyone else tune into Nick Hart’s call this afternoon? Sounded like he was broadcasting through a coffee can.)

Hughes’ has a seven game point streak.

Second Period: If you like a period with a lot of goals, then this period was for you.

Michael Chaput socred on a power play to get the Pens on the board and tied the game at one.

Then Sam Poulin would score at the net front to put the Pens ahead 2-1 with this play.

But the Providence Bruins would immediately charge back and score two goals about 90 seconds apart from one another. Cameron Hughes’ second goal from a blast from the point to tie it, then Victor Berglund would score on a rebound to make it 3-2.

Later, Jack Studnicka scores to make it 4-2.

But the Pens respond right back to keep the game from turning into a runaway and get a goal back when Jonathan Gruden scores in a scrum after Keyser fumbled a shot fly Matt Bartkowski that pulled the Pens back within one heading into the…

Third Period: Keyser stones Drew O’Connor for the second time in the game as O’Connor was coming out of the penalty box.

Pens got in some late penalty trouble and then pulled D’Orio for an extra attacker. They could not win a face-off and Providence kept icing the puck. Then, with 3.3 seconds left after a Penguins face-off win, Valtteri Puustinen scores to force overtime.

Ninth extra attacker goal scored by the Pens this season.

Overtime: Didn’t last long. Nick Hart had just mentioned that D’Orio was 6-1 in overtimes this season and then Steen scored :24 in. 6-2 now.

Three Stars: 3) Valtteri Puustinen (goal) 2) Cameron Hughes (two goals) 1) Oskar Steen (goal, assist)

The Good: Held the best team in the Atlantic Division off the scoreboard on the power play. Pens went a perfect 5/5 on the kill.

The Bad: 37-25 were the shots for the Pens over the Bruins Sunday, a 2/1 advantage Friday in Bridgeport. Seems like they lack a true finisher. If this weekend wasn’t a true indicator, then I don’t know what was.

Turning Point: The Puustinen goal seemed like it, but they Steen overtime win gets it.

Around the Division: Hartford beats Bridgeport 4-1 in the division’s only other action on this Sunday.

Standings: Pens will stay at .500 in sixth. Bridgeport drops to .472 percentage points and stay seventh. Idle Hershey is fifth with .546

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

I’ll post video highlights if I see them and can work an edit in.

More likely Tuesday or Wednesday with the Weekend Setup of the Wednesday Cleveland, Saturday Laval and Sunday Hartford game.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Arnaud Durandeau loves playing against the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

His third goal in as many games against the Penguins stands up as the game winner in a 4-2 win for the Islanders and a sweep of the sixth place Penguins by the seventh place Islanders.

I had a commenter on Twitter tell me that they don’t have any answers for this consistently inconsistent team. I can’t disagree.

I don’t know, Pens picked up 7 of 8 points last week. This weekend? Running around like chickens with their head cut off. Sure, they ran into a gamed up Islanders team last night and tonight was the same way. Bridgeport drew first blood last night and just finished the job Saturday. It happens.

Alex D’Orio opposed Jakub Skarek.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: No changes.

First Period: Pens get on the board first with a wrap around shot by Drew O’Connor. He tracked a shot off the wall, wheeled around the net and stuffed it home for a 1-0 Pens lead.

But the the Islanders tie and then quickly take the lead.

Andy Andreoff, quickly becoming a stone in the shoe of the Penguins, scores to tie the game for Bridgeport.

Chris Terry led the 2×1 and Andreoff, playing in his 500th game, scored. Eight game point streak for Andreoff also.

Next, Thomas Hickey finds space at the point, fires and the puck caroms off bodies and goes in to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead.

They don’t ask how. As long as the light goes on.

Second Period: No scoring in this period but it was a better period for the Penguins who had the only power play in the frame.

Two fights broke out, Chris Terry vs. Matt Bartkowski and Kyle Olson vs. Blade Jenkins fought to draws.

Third Period: Jonathan Gruden scored to tie the game for the Penguins and you thought that the push was on.

Nice shot.

But then enter Durandeau. His shot was a rebound of a wraparound chance by Michael Dal Colle.

Oh, and in case you thought where the pun idea came from:

Indeed.

Pens had no favors special teams wise, didn’t go on the power play in the third.

Cole Bardreau with insurance, putting home the rebound of a Jeff Kubiak shot that made it 4-2.

Pens pull D’Orio and Jakub Skarek tried twice to score on the empty net. His first attempt went wide left then the second was stopped at center ice.

Three Stars: 3) Thomas Hickey (goal) 2) Andy Andreoff (goal) 1) Arnaud Durandeau (goal)

The Good: Woof.

The Bad: Can’t have essentially the same result happen to you two nights in a row.

Turning Point: As the headline indicates, Arnaud Durandeau’s goal in the third period gets the distinction.

Around the Division: They aren’t final when this goes up but Charlotte leads Lehigh Valley big, Providence the same with Springfield and Hartford also with Hershey.

Standings: The only thing that matters is that the Pens are back to .500 again. .500 may not make playoffs in this division this year.

Wheeling Update: Reading beats the Nailers 4-2. Josh Maniscalco and Tim Doherty the goal scorers there.

Providence Sunday afternoon. More then.

Let’s Go Pens!