BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
WILKES-BARRE, PA – Drew O’Connor’s heady performance and Samuel Poulin’s two points helped the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins sink the stumbling Hartford Wolf Pack, dropped an important divisional road game 5-1 on Wednesday night.
In their last ten games, the Pack are 2-8 (30-24-5-4) and hold fourth place. However, they remain barely ahead of the Hershey Bears. They play the Belleville Senators at the XL Center on Friday night.
Wilkes-Barre remains tied with the Bridgeport Islanders. They upped their record to 28-20-4 and a .516 percentage point record.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period was again the Achilles heel for the Wolf Pack.
The Penguins had four goals and skated away from this game.
The first score came as defenseman Hudson Skinner gave the puck away in the neutral zone to Kyle Olson and then lost his stick.
At 4:27, Olson went in on a two-on-one. Jarred Tinordi was left to defend on his own. Kaspar Bjorkqvist put his shot past Pack goaltender Keith Kinkaid for his seventh goal of the season.
The Penguins tallied their second goal as Will Reilly came in the back door on the right-wing side and fired his first goal of the season at 3:07 off a perfect pass from O’ConO’Connorkes-Barre made it 3-0. O’Conno made another beautiful pass, finding Samuel Poulin, the son of ex-Hartford Whaler, Patrick Poulin. He received the feed on the left-wing side and zipped in his 13th goal upstairs.
The goal encapsulated the Wolf Pack play as of late, with two Wolf Pack players without sticks on the play. Anthony Greco’s check on O’Connor shattered his stick. Then Zac Jones lost his stick off a block of an O’Connor shot. The puck went right back to Poulin, who made it 3-0.
Before the third goal could even be announced, just 42 seconds later, at 16:50, Felix Robert got the puck into the Pack’s zone. Nathan Legare was chased down by Skinner, but got a shot off. The puck went off Kinkaid’s left pad, but despite Zac Jones’ attempt to block the shot, Robert put it past Kincaid for his 14th goal of the season.
WOLF PACK SCORE
The Wolf Pack scored their lone goal four-on-four as Patrick Khodorenko coming off the right-wing. Greco was in front of the net and got his 16th of the season at 18:58 on a tip-in. It was his third goal in three games and is the teams’ points leader.
In the third period, what would have been Maxim Letunov’s first goal was waived off for incidental contact with Louie Domingue at 2:54. The Penguins lost a goal as well as Legare knocked a puck into the net with a high stick, as Michael Chaput interfered with Kinkaid at 9:54.
The Penguins closed out the scoring Poulin’s. John Gruden sprung Poulin free on a two-on-Kinkaid’sChaput, who was just coming out of the penalty box. Chaput made a sharp redirect of Poulin’s shot for his eighth goal of the campaign just past Kinkaid’s left pad at 13:42.
FIRST PERIOD
The first period was scoreless, with the Pack having a 12-6 shot advantage.
The Wolf Pack had the first two quality chances. Lauri Pajuniemi had the first and Letunov with a solid backhander on his first shot as part of the Wolf Pack from the right-wing circle was stopped at 2:23.
Kinkaid made three good stops. The first was on Michael Nylander, Jr., the son of the Khordorenko’srd Whaler and New York Ranger, MichaelWhalen’sr, Sr., that was fired from long-range.
Domingue, the Penguins highly-competitive starter, made a great save on Alex Whalen. He got himself into position toWhelan-O’Leary-DiGiacintotrick Khordorenko’s shot that went off the post right to Whalen’s stick, and kept the barn door shut with 5:17 left in the period.
LINES
Merkley-Pajuniemi-Letunov
Ronning-Greco-Khordorenko
Rueschoff-Lorito-Fritz
Whelan-O’Leary-DiGiacinto
Tinordi-Skinner
Jones-Scanlin
Robertson-Guittari
Kinkaid
Huska
SCRATCHES
Gettinger (out until Saturday)
Taylor
Girduckis
Richards
