Here we’ll keep tabs on the out-of-town scoreboard tonight. (While trying to watch the Rangers and the Mets, too, probably, but never mind about that.)
We’ll be following Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Norfolk most closely. Just because we haven’t listened much to Scott Stuccio this year, we’ll probably go with his broadcast, which will be available here. Norfolk’s, with Pete Michaud and Pat Shetler, will be here.
The other games of note are Worcester at Hartford and Binghamton at Adirondack. If you need it, a standings refresher.
To recap the easy parts: (1) If Wilkes-Barre wins, it clinches third place (though not necessarily the third seed) in the East Division and a playoff spot. (2) A Norfolk win and a Binghamton regulation loss would eliminate the Senators. That’s about all we might be able to say for sure in a few hours. A Norfolk win probably makes a Lowell/Bridgeport run at the East’s third seed a little easier. A Hartford loss leaves the Wolf Pack mathematically teetering.
–Binghamton and Hartford games underway. “Phantoms looking at some kids,” Tim McManus reports. Dan DaSilva scores early for Worcester against Hartford.
–More bad news for those chasing: T.J. Trevelyan makes it 2-0 Worcester, and Danny Syvret scores for Adirondack.
–Think we may have lost Stuccio. Hopping over to Michaud.
–Ben Holmstrom has Adirondack up 2-0 on Binghamton.
–Sounds like Stuccio’s back. Just in time to refresh another window and find Binghamton on the board on Ryan Keller’s 33rd.
–Appears Adirondack is through one period with a 2-1 lead over Binghamton. And Brandon Mashinter scores his 20th inside two seconds left in the first; the Sharks are up 3-0 on Hartford through one. Checking the Twitter: WOR says Mashinter’s goal came with 1.2 seconds. And Tim McManus notes the shots: Binghamton 13, Adirondack 3.
–Norfolk takes a 1-0 lead at 13:47 on a Mark Parrish power-play goal. Sounds like a shot that caromed off the end boards to Parrish.
–Norfolk maintains that lead into the first intermission. Penguins had the shots edge but went 0-for-2 on the power play.
–Tossing on a little Bob Crawford intermission theater. They’ve traded scoring chances early in the second, have the Pack and the Sharks. Still 3-0, though. 1961 in Hartford. I mean, 1,961.
–Kris Newbury cuts into Worcester’s lead with a short-handed redirection. It’s 3-1.
–Worcester has gone (minus-1)-for-2 on a five-on-three, and with that, back over to the Penguins and the Admirals.
–Binghamton ties it, Keller again, on the back end of a Jonathan Matsumoto double minor. Stefan Legein goes in the box at the same time, so the Senators go back to the power play. (That power play is now over, but if the box score online is up to date, Binghamton has a 23-4 shots edge.) (Perhaps not: It’s now 22-4.)
–Trevelyan’s second, late in the second, gives Worcester a 4-1 lead on Hartford. The Pens and Ads are halfway, still 1-0 Norfolk. Oh, and belatedly noted: That came 10 seconds into a power play, on which Kris Newbury got an unsportsmanlike minor, a misconduct and a game misconduct. You get one guess at the referee.
–Looks like violence has ensued in Hartford: a fight, coincidental roughing minors and a bench minor for interference. Playoff implications aside, I’m listening to the wrong game.
–They’re through two in Glens Falls, 2-2. And there in Hartford, too, 4-1 Worcester.
–Norfolk maintains that 1-0 lead after two periods. Elsewhere, the Mets appear to be in midseason form.
–Reported widely tonight: Keith Tkachuk has announced his retirement.
–DaSilva to McCarthy: Worcester 5-1. Then Long Islander James Marcou makes it 6-1. It’s Marcou’s first pro goal.
–Third period’s underway in Norfolk, and the Admirals get an early power play.
–It’s 7-1 in Hartford. Think I’m gonna chalk that one up. Assuming nothing incredible happens, Worcester cuts its magic number to clinch the division to three points over Portland. Hartford, meanwhile, if I’m figuring correctly, would be eliminated with another loss of any sort, or if Norfolk got to 83 points, or if Bridgeport got to 84. (Or if Binghamton got to 83, come to think of it.) While I do all that numbers work, make it 8-1 on Mashinter’s second. The Penguins have meanwhile killed a Wyatt Smith penalty.
–Scott notes that the Penguins don’t have a shot, beyond the halfway mark of the third. Dane Byers has meanwhile slashed Worcester’s lead by 14 percent.
–The Penguins get a power play with 8:20 to go, delay of game.
–WBS hit the post and couldn’t find the rebound. Still no shots on goal, 30 seconds left on the power play.
–Finally a shot. Still no goal, still 1-0.
–Danny Groulx finishes it off with a power-play goal in the closing seconds: Worcester 9, Hartford 2.
–Binghamton and Adirondack are on to overtime.
–Down to 2:09 in Norfolk.
–With 1:21 to go, the Penguins are going to get a power play for a goaltender interference call. Thiessen bumped behind the net, if I heard right. Time out, Wilkes-Barre. Thiessen stays in for now.
–Thiessen’s off with 1:04.
–Tokarski glove save with 15.3 left.
–Norfolk clears to center, the Pens go in offside with 1.7 seconds left — or a little bit more, if they add some time. Anyway. Off the drop: Norfolk 1, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 0.
–It’s reportedly over in Glens Falls, through the sheet doesn’t show it yet: Adirondack 3, Binghamton 2 (OT).
–So that muddles things. Easy part: Binghamton lives, but barely: It needs to win out and have Norfolk lose out in regulation, with Bridgeport getting no more than a point. Harder part: Norfolk, WBS, BPT, LOW: Still a jumble. Norfolk technically is in playoff position, but sing along: Bridgeport controls its own destiny, blah blah blah. Five Bridgeport points would be enough. This is probably, on the other hand, the easiest way to Seed E3 for Bridgeport or Lowell, so there’s that. The Penguins have three games left; Norfolk has two.