They\u2019re cookin\u2019 with gas up towards the northeastern corner of the state. The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins secured another two victories this past week to move their overall season record to a perfect 4-0-0.<\/p>\n
WBS started the week off with a 5-2 victory over Hartford on Friday night. Atley Calvert scored twice and prospects Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes each chipped in a goal \u2014 the other team leaders were the erstwhile former NHL players attached to the club. Danton Heinen recorded three assists and Ryan Graves added a pair of helpers.<\/p>\n
Wilkes had perhaps their most enthralling win a night later, scoring six straight goals after falling behind 3-0 to come back against Bridgeport. Much like the first game of the week, this one was veteran-fueled: Heinen ended up with a goal and two assists, Graves had a goal, Rafael-Harvey Pinard added a goal and an assist, Valtteri Puustinen added a pair of assists. There were some younger players on the scoresheet as well – Ville Koivunen scored a goal and added and assist and Owen Pickering registered two assists of his own; but the common theme of the weekend was the older players in WBS coming through and tipping the balance.<\/p>\n
Overall, the organization must be thrilled with the start. The vets like Heinen and Graves have paid dividends on the ice. Youngsters like Koivunen, Broz and Murashov have gotten off to great starts of their own. All systems are go right now down at the AHL level, the Penguins have a blend of talent from players young and old that have seemingly melded together in a way to create a very formidable AHL club.<\/p>\n
Here were the lines from the two games last week. Due to the veteran rules of which players can dress it was Puustinen and Sebastian Aho who got held out for Friday\u2019s game as healthy scratches. Both of those players rotated back in for Saturday\u2019s game when it was Joona Koppanen and Boko Imama turn to be scratched.<\/p>\n
Broz+Koivunen have been working together as an early season staple for one line, and Heinen+Hayes have been the basis for another line with pieces rotating around those building blocks, though Calvert has become a regular third member of that line through his strong start (three goals in four games). Poulin+Harvey-Pinard is emerging as another frequent combination, though the latter is subject to the occasional rotation out of the lineup as the team dances the dance of scratching veteran players.<\/p>\n
The defense has been fairly stable with Pickering\/Kemp as the usual top pairing and Graves\/Pietila forming the second pair at the start of the season.<\/p>\n
Murashov played both games on the back-to-back, though his stats have noted a modest decrease<\/a> in performance in each of the games (allowing one, two and three goals in the course of his small sample).<\/p>\n