WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, 3-2, on Friday night at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.
Tristan Broz buried two goals, while Rutger McGroarty and Dan Renouf each tallied two assists as Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton (17-8-1-0) secured its third-straight win.
Phantoms captain Garrett Wilson opened the scoring just 77 seconds into the contest on the team’s first shot of the night.
Cal Petersen held the Penguins at bay for most of the first period, but Broz broke through with 2:40 left in the frame. Broz dangled his way to the front of Petersen’s crease and had a pass deflect off of a defender before floating across the goal line.
Two minutes into the second stanza, Broz put Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the lead. After a pristine set-up from fellow rookie McGroarty, Broz launched a bullet of a one-timer that flew to the back of the net. Justin Lee collected his first AHL point with the secondary assist on Broz’s tally.
Lehigh Valley had an opportunity to tie the game on the power play towards the end of the second, but Filip Larsson stood tall in between the pipes. The Penguins killed off the penalty and carried the one-goal lead into the third period.
Forty-eight seconds into the final frame, Vasily Ponomarev beat Petersen through his five-hole to increase the Penguins’ lead to two. However, Ethan Samson launched a knuckle ball from the point that snuck through traffic and fooled Larsson, making it a one-goal game yet again.
Lehigh Valley sustained pressure in the offensive zone through the later stages of the third, including two more power plays. A blocked shot from McGroarty and a plethora of stellar saves from Larsson kept the Penguins in front until the sound of the final buzzer.
Larsson stopped 29 of 31 shots faced, while Petersen turned aside 27 of 30.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s next game is tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 28 as the team travels to take on the Hershey Bears. Puck drop between the Penguins and Bears is set for 7:00 p.m. at Giant Center.
The Penguins next home game is on Friday, Jan. 3, as they try to ring in the New Year with a win over the Charlotte Checkers. The team’s first game of 2025 marks another WBRE 28 / WYOU 22 Fan Friday. Select draft beers will be on sale for $2 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. courtesy of Coors Light, and two Penguins players will be signing postgame autographs presented by Northeast Music Center.
Season-ticket packages for the Penguins’ 2024-25 season are on sale now. Full-Season, 22-game, 12-game, Flexbook and Premium Seating plans are available by reaching out to the Penguins directly 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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