Game Story: Charlotte - 3 at W-B/Scranton - 5 (1/4/23)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (15-9-5) kicked off the 2023 portion of their regular season schedule with a 5-3 win over the Charlotte Checkers (16-12-3) Wednesday night at Mohegan Arena.

Sam Houde scored a pair of goals, while Valtteri Puustinen, Alex Nylander and Drake Caggiula tallied a goal apiece for the Penguins. Rookie goalie Taylor Gauthier picked up the win in his 2nd career AHL start, stopping 24 of the 27 shots that came his way.

Connor Bunnaman, Henry Bowlby and Santtu Kinnunen scored for the Checkers in the loss. Goaltender Alex Lyon stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced.

Houde made it three games in a row with a goal, and it didn't take long for him to get on the score sheet Wednesday night.

Colin Swoyer started a breakout pass on the second shift of the hockey game, and quickly got it ahead to Nylander along the wall near the team benches. Nylander centered the puck to Houde entering the offensive zone with speed and converting on the ensuing mini-breakaway just 1:13 into the contest to give the Pens an early 1-0 lead.

The Checkers had some Grade-A scoring chances early as well. Most notably, a forced turnover on a forecheck saw Chris Tierney feed Grigori Denisenko for an open shot from the slot that Gauthier was equal to the task on to preserve the Penguins' one-goal lead into the second half of the period.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had a chance to extend their lead late in the opening period on their first power play chance, but Charlotte stole a puck in the neutral zone and scored shorthanded courtesy a great individual effort by Bunnaman, who turned on the jets down the left-wing and fired one far-side past Gauthier to bring the Checkers even with the Penguins with 3:29 left before the first intermission.

Charlotte wasn't done there, capitalizing on a bit of a weird play to take a 2-1 lead in the final minute of the first frame - starting with John Ludvig scooping and clearing a puck out from the corner of the Checkers' defensive zone. The puck blooped up and over a Penguins defenseman at the right point, and Bowlby won a race for the loose puck at the far side blue line before converting on the mini-breakaway for his fourth goal of the season.

The back-and-forth game continued in the middle frame, with the Penguins tying things back up thanks to a power play tally from Puustinen with 7:27 left before the second intermission. Credit to Mitch Reinke at the right point for settling a puck down and keeping the play alive before getting it to the middle for Drake Caggiula for a quick kick out to Puustinen along the right-wing wall. Puustinen skated into the circle and sniped with confidence - beating Lyon to the far-side top corner for his team-leading 13th of the season.

The Pens re-gained the lead on Houde's second of the night after some pretty passing from Puustinen cross-ice to Lukas Svejkovsky, and then cross-ice back to the net for a cutting Houde for a back door tap in for his seventh of the year.

Nylander gave Pens a 4-2 lead early in the third, taking a pass from Filip Hallander in stride as he crossed the blue line before firing a quick shot past Lyon for his 12th of the season.

The Checkers didn't call it a night there. In fact, they got the game to within a goal and were all over the Penguins down the stretch.

With Hallander off for delay of game, a broken stick on a center point shot from Kinnunen resulted in a bouncing puck that eluded Gauthier with 10:24 left in regulation.

Charlotte pulled Lyon for the extra attacker in the final two minutes of play, and threw everything they could toward the net.

With just under 30 seconds left, a loose puck came out to the point for a big shot from Lucas Carlsson. Jonathan Gruden laid out to block it, and appeared to be injured on the play - resulting in Hallander getting the puck ahead to Caggiula for an easy skate into an empty net to seal the deal on the 5-3 win.

Gruden needed help getting to the bench, but boy was he ever swarmed by his Penguins' teammates at the bench. Quite the scene to end the contest.

Charlotte Checkers Lineup Notes

Alex Lyon got the start in net for Charlotte Wednesday night. Mack Guzda served as the Checkers' backup goaltender.

Zach Uens took the warmup skate but was the seventh defenseman and final healthy scratch for Charlotte.

Checkers Scratches: Zach Uens, Logan Hutsko, Riley Nash, Tag Bertuzzi, Justin Sourdif and Serron Noel

Lines/Pairings:

Anton Levtchi - Chris Tierney - Grigori Denisenko Aleksi Heponiemi - Connor Bunnaman - Gerry Mayhew Cameron Morrison - Patrick Giles - Henry Bowlby Ethan Keppen - Dominic Franco - Riley Bezeau

John Ludvig - Lucas Carlsson Anthony Bitetto - Santtu Kinnunen Cakke Sjalin - Dennis Cesana

Alex Lyon - Mack Guzda

W-B/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Taylor Gauthier got the start in net for the Penguins Wednesday night against Charlotte.

Goaltender Dustin Tokarski was called up to Pittsburgh following an injury in net for the NHL club during the Winter Classic.

Defenseman Chris Ortiz was called up from ECHL Wheeling prior to Wednesday's game.

Defenseman Adam Smith and forward Justin Addamo were signed to PTOs Wednesday, with Addamo making his AHL debut.

Penguins Scratches: Taylor Fedun, Adam Smith, Corey Andonovski, Sam Poulin, Jamie Devane, Tyler Sikura, Kyle Olson and Xavier Ouellet

Lines/Pairings:

Filip Hallander - Sam Houde - Alex Nylander Drake Caggiula - Jonathan Gruden - Valtteri Puustinen Lukas Svejkovsky - Raivis Ansons - Nathan Legare Ty Glover - Justin Addamo - Sean Josling

Mitch Reinke - Jack St. Ivany Jon Lizotte - Colin Swoyer Chris Ortiz - Josh Maniscalco

Taylor Gauthier - Filip Lindberg

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:13: WBS - Houde (6) - Nylander, Swoyer 13:54: WBS - (PP) Nylander, minor (hooking) 15:34: CHA - (PP) Levtchi, minor (hooking) 16:31: CHA - SHG Bunnaman (5) - unassisted 19:19: CHA - Bowlby (4) - Ludvig 19:38: CHA - (PP) Mayhew, minor (tripping)

2nd Period

11:47: CHA - (PP) Giles, minor (holding) 12:33: WBS - PPG Puustinen (13) - Caggiula, Reinke 14:20: CHA - Denisenko, major (fighting) 14:20: WBS - (PP) Josling, minor (instigating) 14:20: WBS - Josling, major (fighting) 14:20: WBS - Josling, ten-minute misconduct 17:01: WBS - Houde (7) - Svejkovsky, Puustinen

3rd Period

4:43: WBS - Nylander (12) - Hallander 8:04: WBS - (PP) Hallander, minor (delay of game) 9:36: CHA - PPG Kinnunen (3) - Heponiemi 19:38: WBS - ENG Caggiula (6) - Hallander, Gruden

BOXSCORE

Charlotte     2 - 0 - 1 = 3 W-B/Scranton  1 - 2 - 2 = 5

Shots

Charlotte     11 - 7 - 9 = 27 W-B/Scranton  8 - 11 - 13 = 32

Goalies

CHA: Alex Lyon (27 saves - 31 shots) WBS: Taylor Gauthier (24 saves - 27 shots)

Power Play

CHA: 1-for-3 WBS: 1-for-3

Penalty Kill

CHA: 2-for-3 WBS: 2-for-3