WILKES-BARRE — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins opened the 2025-26 season in style, winning both of their games on the weekend — including a victory on openingnight at the Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza on Saturday night — to push things in the right direction to start the year.
They’ll look to continue their strong play with a pair of road games coming up this weekend.
Last week
Penguins 2, Hartford 1: The Penguins opened the season with a win on home ice Saturday night, overcoming a bit of a slow start in the first period before getting to their game in the second and taking control in the third.
Hartford outshot the Penguins by an 8-2 margin in the opening 10½ minutes before taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission on a goal by Trey Fix-Wolansky during a delayed penalty call.
The Penguins responded with better execution in the middle period, tying the game on a goal from Valtteri Puustinen before taking the lead early in the third period on a score by OwenPickering.
Sergei Murashov (23 saves) kept Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in a one-goal game, stopping 11 of 12 in the first period and allowing his teammates in front of them to get to their game. He only faced 12 shots in the final 40 minutes.
“Yeah, game one. Obviously it’s, you know, it’s (like) a holiday because you’re just waiting for this moment the whole summer just training, thinking (about) when are you going to play. So overall, yeah, it’s a really good feeling,” Murashov said. “Opening night. It’s a good crowd, and (it was) a goodjob by (the) guys. A really good effort (by) them.”
Penguins 4, Lehigh Valley 1: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton made it back-to-back wins on opening weekend, taking care of rival Lehigh Valley in their opening road contest of the season Sunday afternoon.
The Penguins’ new-look top line of Tristan Broz (two goals, assist) centering Aidan McDonough (goal) and Ville Koivunen (two assists) was dominant both at even strength and on the power play, which converted on two of its first three opportunities to get their offense rolling.
Avery Hayes (power play goal, assist) also was a difference-maker for the Penguins, who got a strong game from goaltender Filip Larsson (26 saves) as well.
“The first period (Saturday) night wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. And I thought we kind of kept building the five subsequent periods as a group,” Penguins head coach Kirk MacDonald said. “I thought (Sunday) was a really good effort. A couple things again that we can clean up, but for game two of the year, I thought we were pretty crisp.”
News and notes
When Aidan McDonough opened the scoring Sunday in Allentown, it marked his first goal in nearly 11 months, He opened last season with 10 goals in his first 15 games before hisseason was ended due to a broken leg that later required surgery to repair.
“It’s been a long time. It’s been 10 months since I played real games. It feels really good not, I’m not going to lie to you,” McDonough said. “It’s nice to get off to that start, and kind of get one under your belt and have to worry about it anymore.”
Koivunen was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Saturday evening and joined the team for Sunday’s game after starting the first two games of the year in the NHL with Pittsburgh. He picked up right where he left off last season, recording two assists and creating scoring chances with regularity.
“Ville was great. We knew he would be,” MacDonald said. “I think it’s just a situation where he’s not a guy that’s going to play fourth-line minutes. So it’s better to be here and do what he does, and when the opportunity comes he goes back (up to the NHL) and plays in those top six (situations).”
With Koivunen’s arrival, the Penguins now have 16 forwards on roster. All 16 forwards appeared in at least one of the two games on opening weekend.
The Penguins have to sit out two of their eight veteran players every game due to the AHL’s ‘development rule,’ so it’s possible a rotation of players coming in and out of the lineup — similar to the team’s opening two-game weekend — will occur in the early portion of the season as things play out and lineup combinations can be seen and tested on the ice in games.
So far, the trio of Samuel Poulin, Joona Koppanen and Valtteri Puustinen stuck together in the two games. They played a strong, consistent game Saturday and Puustinen’s goal swung momentum into the Penguins’ favor for good.
The top line Sunday – McDonough, Tristan Broz and Koivunen – was the team’s best line in that contest and will likely remain a unit while Koivunen is on the roster.
Atley Calvert, Avery Hayes and Danton Heinen were the other three forwards who played in both games, leaving seven forwards — Raivis Ansons, Mathieu De St. Phalle, Aaron Huglen, veteran Rafael Harvey-Pinard, veteran Boko Imama, Gabe Klassen and Nolan Renwick — rotating in the two games over the weekend.
The three defense pairings stayed the same in both games, with veteran Sebastian Aho sitting out both games as one of the team’s two nightly veteran scratches.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton made it through the opening two games relatively unscathed. Broz, who had a three-point night against the Phantoms on Sunday afternoon, apparentlytook an errant stick/puck up high in the third period but other than that there weren’t any injuries to report.
Goaltender Taylor Gauthier and defenseman Scooter Brickey are on the team’s injured list to begin the season. Both players are considered week-to-week with lower body injuries.
Week ahead
The Penguins have their first real ‘road trip’ of the season this weekend, heading up to Connecticut for a rematch with Hartford in the Wolf Pack’s home opener Friday night at 7 before facing the Bridgeport Islanders on Saturday night at 7.