HARTFORD, Conn. – Led by their power play and penalty kill, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack, 6-2, on Saturday night at XL Center.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (12-5-1-0) received three goals from its man advantage and an additional two shorthanded goals from Vasily Ponomarev. Those two shorties helped complete the first hat trick and four-point game of Ponomarev’s career.
Valtteri Puustinen established a 2-0 lead for the Penguins in the first period with a pair of power-play goals. The 25-year-old snapped home the game’s opening tally at 12:14, then turned a defender inside out before roofing his second goal at 18:18.
Joona Koppanen ran Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s lead to three on a net-front redirect with 13.2 seconds left in the opening frame.
Hartford broke through for their first goal – a Teddy Bear Toss goal – when Bryce McConnell-Barker snuck in a shot from along the goal line at 4:47 of the second period.
After the Teddy Bear Toss cleanup, the Penguins quickly went back to the man advantage. Ponomarev swatted a puck out of midair to make it 4-1.
The Wolf Pack’s Jake Leschyshyn notched a five-on-three power-play goal midway through the second to cut the Penguins’ lead back down to two.
Hartford was awarded a four-minute power play 35 seconds into the third period, but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton used the penalty kill to reestablish its three-goal edge. Nikolai Knyzhov charged up ice for a shorthanded rush, slid the puck under a defender to Ponomarev, who snapped in his second goal of the night.
Given a seventh man advantage with three minutes to go, the Wolf Pack elected to pull their goalie for an extra attacker to create a six-on-four power play. Once again, Ponomarev scored shorthanded to round out the scoring.
Joel Blomqvist was credited with 28 saves in the win. Hartford netminder Louis Domingue turned away 17 of the 22 shots he faced.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s next game is tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 8, against the Providence Bruins. The first meeting of the season between the Penguins and P-Bruins will start at 3:05 p.m. at Amica Mutual Pavilion.
The Penguins’ next home game is Wednesday, Dec. 11, when the Charlotte Checkers come to town. Puck drop for the Penguins and Checkers is 7:05 p.m. at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.
Season-ticket packages for the Penguins’ 2024-25 season, including Full-Season, 22-game, 12-game, Flexbook and Premium Seating plans, as well as Corporate Partnership opportunities are available by reaching out to the Penguins directly at (570) 208-7367. Individual-game tickets are also available by visiting Ticketmaster.com, the Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza Box Office or calling the Penguins’ front office at (570) 208-7367.
Every minute of Penguins hockey can be watched online with the league’s streaming service, AHLTV on FloHockey. AHLTV on FloHockey provides its subscribers access to not just every regular-season and Calder Cup Playoff game for all 32 AHL teams, but also more than 21,000 hockey contests from other professional and junior leagues on FloHockey, as well as access to all other live event streams and replays across FloSports.
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