Wilkes-Barre/Scranton players scuffle with Wolf Pack players during the Penguins' home opener Saturday. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)Wilkes-Barre/Scranton players scuffle with Wolf Pack players during the Penguins’ home opener Saturday. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (4-0-0) added two more regulation wins last weekend to push their season-opening win streak to four games after a successful road trip in Connecticut.

It marks the fourth time in franchise history the Penguins opened the season with four wins, and the first time since the 2013-14 season when the team started the season with six straight wins.

Friday — Penguins 5, Hartford 2: The Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead on goals from Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Atley Calvery and extended their lead to 3-0 in the middle frame on a power play tally from Avery Hayes. Hartford tallied back-to-back goals late in the second period and early in the third period to make it a one-goal game in the final 13:10 of the third period. Calvert tallied his second of the contest on a rebound in front with 8:07 left to play to restore the Penguins’ two-goal lead, and Tristan Broz sealed the win with a shorthanded empty net goal to complete the final score.

Saturday — Penguins 6, Bridgeport 3: Bridgeport pounced on the Penguins in the first period to the tune of three goals in the opening 9:46. Ryan Graves tallied his first goal in a Penguins’ uniform late in the second period to draw within two goals before the offense exploded in the third period. Danton Heinen led the way with a goal and two assists, while the Penguins also got tallies from Harvey-Pinard, Sam Poulin, Ville Koivunen and Atley Calvert on their way to blowing the game open in a five-goal final frame.

News & notes

Forward Danton Heinen leads the Penguins with seven points (one goal, six assists) and recorded at least one point in the each of the last three games. Heinen’s six assists are tied for most in the AHL while his seven points are tied for the second-most leaguewide.

“I’ve had some lucky balances. It’s just some good plays by some good players, and just like (I’m) kind of the beneficiary of it,” Heinen said. “I don’t feel like I’ve created a whole lot. So yeah, it’s a few lucky ones but yeah, I think as a team, we’re just trying to kind of work on that, creating that offense.”

Forwards Tristan Broz (three goals, one assist) and Atley Calvert (three goals) have a share of the team’s lead in goals, while 11 skaters have at least one goal through the opening four games.

The Penguins have allowed just seven goals. MacDonald attributes that success defensively to one specific area of the game he thinks the team has improved upon as compared to last season.

“We’ve made it really hard for teams to attack. I think one great improvement we’ve made over last season is our ability to defend the net front,” MacDonald said. “We are way harder around there. We’ve been way harder around both net fronts early in the year, I would say which, at the end of the day, (if) you want to win games, you have to win that area around the blue paint on both sides of the puck. And credit to our guys that we’ve done a really good job with it thus far.”

It’s only two weeks into the season, but the early returns are positive for the Penguins, who according to MacDonald have been largely consistent to start the year.

“I think we’ve done a lot of really good stuff. I would say there’s only really two periods I haven’t liked at all. And that was the first period on Saturday (against Bridgeport), and the first period last week against Hartford (in) the home opener,” MacDonald said Monday. “I think other than that, we’ve done a really good job controlling pace, controlling the game (and)playing on top of people.”

Week ahead

The Penguins have their first three-game week of the season, beginning Wednesday at home against Lehigh Valley at 7:05 p.m. before heading to Charlotte for games Friday (7 p.m.) and Saturday (6) against the Checkers.