Chirps from Center Ice

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One of my vices is a fine cigar. I prefer Ashton Churchills. Takes about an hour to smoke on a summer day.

One of the things I don’t like about the Fall is the fact that it gets too cold to have cigars and it’s way too cold too.

Anyway, the saying, “close but no cigar” applies to tonight’s game in Hartford, one that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins lose 4-3 in regulation.

The Penguins trailed 4-0 in the third period and battled all the way back to 4-3 with just :43 left in regulation and never found the equalizing goal.

Seems like if the game was five minutes longer the Penguins would have indeed found the equalizing goal.

Regardless, after taking 5 of 6 points last week, the Penguins take 0 of 6 and are in a bit of a free fall. Shutout Wednesday in Allentown, outclassed on special teams Friday at home against Providence and time running out on what would have been an epic comeback Saturday in Hartford.

Schedule doesn’t get any easier, Rochester comes in Wednesday and then Charlotte for a pair.

Louis Domingue opposed Tyler Wall.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Matt Alfaro was returned to Wheeling Saturday afternoon. Justin Almeida replaced Jan Drozg up front, Chris Bigras replaced Niclas Almari on defense.

Hartford never posted lines.

First Period: Pens try a D to D handoff in their own zone and Tanner Fritz scores to put the Wolf pack up 1-0.

Later Anthony Bitteto throws a puck at the net that may have been deflected in but it’s a 2-0 Hartford lead nevertheless.

Then Cam Lee runs over Patrick Khodorenko with this hit.

Lee was assessed a check to the head match penalty and was thrown out of the game. The Wolf Pack were awarded a 5:00 power play they did not score on.

Later the Penguins were awarded a power play but failed to score on that.

Second Period: The Penguins outchanced the Wolf Pack for a good stretch in the period. The fourth line in. particular did remarkably well and got a fair amount of shifts. Sadly, chances are just that. Tyler Wall played rather well for someone that played with a 3.58 GAA and a sub .865 SV% last season.

Tim Gettinger threw salt in the wound and scored a shorthanded goal.

Penguins were just :12 into a power play. So they lost power play in Hartford’s zone, sees the Wolf Pack skate in and Gettinger scores. Yikes.

They also continued to out chance the Wolf Pack with a breakaway by Kasper Bjorkqvist and an excellent chance by Sam Poulin.

Third Period: Lauri Pajuniemi scores a power play goal when a puck deflected off of Chris Ortiz and in that gives Hartford a 4-0 lead.

Then the Penguins score goals  :23 apart. Jonathan Gruden finds Felix Robert who scores to put the Penguins on the board:

Then Jordy Bellerive. seconds later on a blast an it’s 4-2:

Penguins would then go on the power play but failed to score. They had a lot of power plays tonight, seven to be exact, and failed to score on all of them.

Sam Poulin scores with an extra attacker with :43 left:

But the Penguins never found the equalizer. Jordy Bellerive had a last second shot.

Almost….

But there are no cigars in close hockey games and usually no cigars for this writer in November.

Three Stars: 3) Anthony Bitetto (goal) 2) Jonny Brodzinski (two assists) 1) Tanner Fritz (goal, assist)

The Good: Nice way to battle back despite the unfortunate result.

The Bad: Can’t go 0-for-7 on the power play. Especially when you are chasing the score. Power play is now 0-for the last 20.

Turning Point: The time out that Wolf Pack Head Coach Kris Knoblauch called after the Penguins second goal reset his club and the Penguins continued to press, but couldn’t find any success whatsoever on the man advantage.

Around the Division: Providence goes into Hershey and shuts out the Bears 3-0….Springfield still hasn’t lost in regulation and beats Bridgeport 4-1….Charlotte obliterates Lehigh Valley 7-3.

Standings: Springfield .889 – Hartford .750 – Hershey .611 – Charlotte .563 – Providence .556 – Penguins .550 – Bridgeport .400 – Lehigh Valley .222

Wheeling Update: Wheeling hosted Fort Wayne in the Nailers home opener and the Komets won big, 5-2 was the final score. Box here.

Video Highlights: If the Penguins get one up and I can get an edit in, it will go here.

Power Rankings Tuesday. Weekend Preview setting up Rochester on Wednesday then Charlotte Friday and Saturday hits the Wednesday morning.

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back.

Let’s Go Pens!

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Woof.

And Hartford, whom the Penguins play Saturday, beat up on Bridgeport 7-3.

Oh, and then Rochester, who probably has the best prospect group in the AHL, comes in Wednesday.

The hits, keep coming, like they did tonight.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were down just 67 seconds into the game tonight and it got worse from there. Providence goes up 2-0 in the first period, outshoots the Penguins 16-4 in the period, then runs it up to 4-0 before the Penguins make a goaltender change, get two back but lose 6-2 Friday.

Like I said, woof.

Little bit of a regression to the mean after starting 5-1. They look lost offensively and defensively they give up way too many changes and shot opportunities. You could have started Ed Belfour in net tonight and the result wouldn’t have mattered.

Filip Lindberg opposed Jon Gillies, making his season debut.

Here’s how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Radim Zohorna was back from that nasty hit Tanner Kaspick laid on him last Saturday. Filip Hallander was back from his illness which kept him out of the game Wednesday. Sam Houde and Matt Alfaro came out of the lineup. On defense, with Taylor Fedun on recall to Pittsburgh, Chris Ortiz, up from Wheeling, made his debut.

First Period: $2 beer night at the Arena. Before the patrons could sip their first, the Pens trailed 1-0. Oskar Steen was the last to touch a puck I think was accidentally knocked in by Cam Lee.

Steve Fogarty tipped in a shot from the point on the back end of a double minor Mitch Reinke was serving that made it 2-0.

A 2-0 deficit is certainly manageable, but if you looked at the shot totals, 16-4 after the first, you would wonder if the Penguins knew the game started at 7:05.

Second Period: Bruins connect for another power play goal to go up 3-0. Zach Senyshyn tipped in a blast from the point that made it 3-0.

(the Bruins stopped tweeting GIFs of goals. Just be thankful you have the two they provided)

Chris Wagner made it 4-0 and the rout was on, if you didn’t realize.

That was all for reigning AHL goaltender of the month Filip Lindberg, you would swear that the award is cursed.

Louis Domingue settled things down slightly, Nathan Legare scores to make it 4-1.

Third Period: After a flurry of saves by Domingue, Kyle Olson takes a Jonathan Gruden pass and shoots for a goal that makes it 4-2. Life? Maybe.

Not if Eduards Tralmaks had anything to say about it. I’m glad I don’t have to type that name in often. Anyway he skated in the slot and took a pass from Joona Koppanen (no easier to spell) and ripped a shot past Domingue to make it 5-2.

Oskar Steen made it 6-2 on an empty net.

Three Stars: 3) Sam Asselin (two assists) 2) John Moore (three assists) 1) Zach Senyshyn (goal)

The Good: The response was there late, but they trailed by multiple goals and fought the clock.

The Bad: Too many penalties coupled with the fact that they weren’t ready to play spelled disaster.

Turning Point: Second period, Bruins take two penalties three seconds between each other. Pens down 4-0. Score one, get it to 4-1, see what happens with the leftover time, get lucky score agains and it’s 4-2 and a totally different game. They didn’t and the Bruins made it look easier than it really should have been.

Around the Division: Gave you the Hartford / Bridgeport final in my lede…Hershey loses in Springfield in overtime 3-2. The Thunderbirds still haven’t lost in regulation. Everyone else was off.

Standings: Springfield .875, Hartford .722, Hershey .698, Penguins .611, Charlotte and Providence .500, Bridgeport .444, Lehigh Valley .250.

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off.

Video Highlights: Look away, kids! Look away!

Hartford Saturday and a hope for better fortunes lies ahead.

Let’s Go Pens!

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They couldn’t get out of second gear tonight and, more importantly failed to score on eight power play tries. Facing off against an opponent they have seen three times prior who has yet to win yet, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins lose 4-0 in Allentown to snap their five game point streak. Felix Sandstrom stops all 25 shots faced.

He opposed Louis Domingue.

Here is how they lined up:

Lineup Notes: Sidney Crosby and Brian Dumoulin are in COVID protocol in Pittsburgh because it’s another week and another round of Pittsburgh and the sloppy shop that they have up there having COVID run rampant there and in the locker room. Sure, there are other teams that have COVID absences, but not to this level. Sloppy shops are sloppy.

Anyway, Matt Alfaro and Michael Chaput (back from his one game absence) were win for Radim Zohorna and Filip Hallander up front. On defense, Mitch Reinke made his WBS debut for P.O. Joseph.

Injury details are as follows:

Devane’s injury is lower body. Angello is listed as day to day, but I wholly reject that assertion. The season is 3 1/2 weeks old and he hasn’t played a game yet. Don’t play me like a fool.

First Period: The Penguins were bad at even strength but didn’t spend lots of time there because they gave the Phantoms four penalties in the period. After Maxim Sushko fired home a one timer to put Lehigh Valley on the board early on, Tyson Foerster connected on a 5-on-3 goal to give the desperate Phantoms a 2-0 lead.

Pens had a shot to get a goal back late on a power play but they — you guessed it, took a penalty and lost whatever momentum they were building to that point.

Second Period: Penguins have four opportunities on a power play as they evened up from the first period and weren’t able to score. I can’t remember anything of substance in the man advantages.

Louis Domingue stopped German Rubtsov on a penalty shot with under two minutes to play in the period. If a comeback was to be had in the third period, that save loomed large.

Third Period: They opened with a power play on fresh ice and didn’t score. Later they had a 4:00 power play and didn’t score either. Whatever they did put up shot wise Sandstrom was stopping anyway.

Hayden Hodgson scored at the 4:27 mark and you got the sense that the game was a little too far out of reach at that point. Proved to be right.

Gerry Mayhew scored on an empty net when the Penguins got a little too aggressive and didn’t do anything with an extra attacker on.

Three Stars: 3) Tyson Foerster (goal) 2) Max Sushko (goal) 1) Felix Sandstrom (25 saves)

The Good: You can’t get anything good out of a performance where you get shutout on the road and your power play goes 0/8.

The Bad: You were shutout on the road and your power play went 0/8.

Turning Point: Boy, there seemed like there were a lot of them. Every time they Penguins didn’t score on a penalty which could have or would have cut it to one when it was 2-0 seemed large, with the way that the Phantoms had previously coughed up big leads prior to Wednesday. Let’s give it to Hayden Hodgson. His goal basically ended any hope of the Pens hope of a winning comeback.

Around the Division: They all watched us. Odd for a Wednesday.

Standings: Pens will lose a few percentage points. I’m not doing math on a work night.

Wheeling Update: Nailers were off as well.

Back at it Friday at home against Providence. What’s this, a new opponent?!?

Let’s Go Pens!