When Tanner Howe tore his ACL last spring during the Western Hockey League’s playoffs, the subsequent surgery meant making his professional debut this season would be put on hold.

The entire process — from surgery to first game back — took just over nine months with Howe returning last Sunday with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins against rival Lehigh Valley.

“It’s awesome to get the first one out of the way,” Howe said after his first pro game. “It was a long recovery, but it’s good to be back out there with the boys.”

It’s been a long road back for Howe, who had unofficially been with the team for the better part of the last two months — seen sitting with the other injured and scratched players and watching games from the Mohegan Arena press box area.

“Obviously when you’re on the sidelines, you’re not with the guys on the road trip,” Howe said. “So it’s nice to be with the guys here, to be on their schedule and go to work every night.”

Howe resumed skating and was seen skating with other injured and rehabbing players in the morning during the opening days of Pittsburgh’s NHL training camp in mid-September, but it wasn’t until last month that he skated in practice with his new Penguins teammates with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

“I think it was a mental test (too),” Howe said. “I think going into the offseason, I wanted to focus on getting bigger and stronger, and obviously the rehab put a little delay on it, but at the end of the day I got eight months to work out and get into shape to play pro hockey.”

The Penguins’ 2024 second-round pick made the most of his opportunities in his first two pro games, recording an assist in his pro debut Sunday and following it up with a third-period goal in Wednesday’s win over Hershey.

According to Penguins coach Kirk MacDonald, Howe was initially slated to make his return Wednesday night, but after realizing the difference between playing Sunday and Wednesdaywas one more team practice, the determination was made to move up Howe’s pro debut by one game.

“You’re happy to see how much work guys like that put in, and happy to see he got rewarded with an assist (Sunday),” MacDonald said. “Again, you know how hard he’s worked to get back. He’s going to do a lot of great things for the remainder of the year for us.”

Howe has plenty of catching up to do after returning from a long layoff mid-season when his opponents have been playing games for the past four months, but if the flashes he showed in his first two games are any indication, there should be plenty of good things to come.

“I think it’s going to take a few games to get my legs under me and find my game, but I just want to go out there and do my best every night and, you know, lay it all on the line,” Howesaid. “And if I do that, I think I’ll get rewarded.”

Friday’s game

A fast start and strong finish helped propel the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to another victory over Lehigh Valley on Friday night at the PPL Center in Allentown.

Matt Dumba recorded a hat trick, scoring one goal in each period in a 6-5 victory over the Phantoms. The Penguins are 6-0-0-1 against Lehigh Valley this season and 31-12-2-2 overall.

Dumba and Ville Koivunen each scored in the first period to help the Penguins take a 2-1 lead. Lehigh Valley tied it, 2-2, in the second on Maxence Guenette’s goal. Dumba scored his fourth of the season, but with 58 seconds left in the second period, Lehigh Valley tied it on Phil Tomasino’s seventh goal of the season.

The Penguins came out in the third period and scored three consecutive goals to take a 6-3 lead. Aidan McDonough scored his 11th, Rafael Harvey-Pinard netted his 13th and Dumba knocked home his fifth to complete his hat trick.

Goalie Joel Blomqvist earned the win, stopping 36 shots on 41 attempts.

The Penguins faced Hershey Saturday night at the Giant Center.