Game Story: Cleveland - 3 at W-B/Scranton - 5 (12/8/23)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (11-8-3) kind of quietly took care of business against a strong Cleveland team (14-6-1) that leads the North Division with a gutsy 5-3 win Friday night.

Amidst all the roster shuffling for the Penguins, the 18 skaters that ended up in the lineup for the home team found a way.

Alex Nylander led the way with two goals, while Ty Smith, Raivis Ansons and Corey Andonovski each added a goal in the win for the Penguins. Goaltender Magnus Hellberg stopped 34 of 37 to earn his third win of the season.

Roman Ahcan tallied a shorthanded goal in the first period and an extra attacker goal in the third to pace the Cleveland attack, while James Malatesta also added a third period goal for the Monsters in the loss. Daniil Tarasov stopped 23 of the 26 shots he faced before the Penguins added two empty net goals.

GAME STORY

The Penguins thought they were getting off to a good start when they drew themselves a power play 1:12 into the contest.

Instead, a play that began as a routine dump-in by a team killing a penalty turned into a whole lot more.

Corson Cuelemans sent a puck into the corner with Ahcan in hot pursuit, and the puck seemingly halted all of its momentum just outside of the Penguins goaltender's reach of the trapezoid behind the net in which a goaltender can play the puck.

It caught Hellberg in no-mans land, and credit to Ahcan for a quick shot from behind the net that he was able to bank in off of Hellberg's back and into the net to give Cleveland an early 1-0 lead on a shorthanded tally.

From there, both Hellberg and Tarasov made the necessary stops to keep the game a 1-0 score heading into the middle frame.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's offense came to life in the middle frame, surging for two goals in a span of 3:15 to turn a one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead.

Smith took a pass from P.O Joseph at the center point and let loose a hard shot that Tarasov stopped with his right pad, but the rebound was swatted right back up top to Smith and he got all of the second slap shot from the point as it whistled past everyone on its way into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1 with 13:44 remaining in the middle frame.

Later, after a great hustle/effort from Matt Filipe, the Pens took the lead.

Filipe burned down the right wing and won a race for a loose puck in the offensive zone after Corey Andonovski chipped one high off the glass from the Penguins' defensive zone, before taking the puck behind the net and wrapping it around the back of the net before sliding a sneaky pass to the net-front. Right in position was Ansons, and he was able to tap one in for his first of the season with 10:29 left in the 2nd period to put WBS up 2-1.

The Penguins got into penalty trouble later in the period, putting themselves shorthanded five-on-three for an extended series, but managed to escape danger and preserve their 2-1 lead into the third.

In the third, the Pens continued to play solid five-on-five hockey - limiting Cleveland's Grade-A chances and grinding their one-goal lead into the final 10 minutes of regulation before Nylander extended the lead to 3-1 with 8:29 left to play.

A broken stick on a shot from the center point from Taylor Fedun could have spelled big time trouble for the Penguins, but instead the puck went to Peter Abbandonato and the Penguins forward nudged the puck to Rem Pitlick before he found Nylander open between the circles. A nifty move through some traffic by Nylander opened up enough space for a quick shot past Tarasov for his sixth goal on the season.

Things got weird in the final three minutes of regulation, as down 3-1 Cleveland pulled their goaltender trying to get back into the game.

Ansons made a nice diving pass through the neutral zone to spring Andonovski for an empty net goal, but Cleveland responded on the following shift to make it a 4-2 Penguins lead.

Again, the Pens hit the empty net to increase their lead to 5-2 on Nylander's second of the game, but again Cleveland was able to score with their goalie pulled to draw back within two at 5-3 before running out of time to mount a serious comeback attempt.

POST-GAME EXTRA!

Penguins head coach JD Forrest

Thoughts on tonight's game, turning point in middle frame

"We didn't really like our first period. A lot of turnovers and kind of playing into their style. They're a team that can really capitalize on broken plays and missed passes and poor execution. And I thought that first period was, yeah, we really, we played into their hands. We cleaned it up a bit in the second, for sure, got a little more direct with our plays, picked our spots better to take a risk. And that kind of paid off."

Penguins defenseman P.O. Joseph

On the moving parts with all the roster moves, and tonight being a gutsy team win

"Yeah I mean it's just part of [being in] the American [Hockey] League. I feel like there's always ups and downs and you have to be happy for the guys going up, you know, it's a battle to be here - we all want to make our way up there. So whenever guys have the chance to to play up there, it's great and everyone's so happy for them. It definitely was a gutsy win, but a win's a win so we'll take it."

Cleveland Monsters Lineup Notes

Daniil Tarasov got the start in net for Cleveland, with Pavel Cajan serving as the Monsters' backup goaltender.

Monsters Scratches: Samuel Knazko, Josh Dunne, Stefan Matteau and Tyler Angle

Lines/Pairings:

Trey Fix-Wolansky - Brendan Gaunce - Carson Meyer James Malatesta - Hunter McKown - Mikael Pyyhtia Owen Sillinger - Luca Del Bel Belluz - Cameron Butler Justin Pearson - Jake Gaudet - Roman Ahcan

Jake Christensen - Cole Clayton Stanislav Svozil - Marcus Bjork Corson Cuelemans - Billy Sweezey

Daniil Tarasov (Backup: Pavel Cajan)

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Magnus Hellberg got the start in net for the Penguins Friday, with Joel Blomqvist serving as the Pens' backup goalie.

Lots of roster shuffling leading up to Friday's game, with forwards Jonathan Gruden, Marc Johnstone and Valtteri Puustinen called up to Pittsburgh and forwards Joona Koppanen and Alex Nylander reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

With Sam Houde (upper body) out of the lineup, forwards Lukas Svejkovsky and Tanner Laderoute (PTO) joined the AHL Penguins from ECHL-Wheeling.

On defense, Pittsburgh assigned P.O. Joseph to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning loan.

The end result was head coach JD Forrest opting to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

Penguins scratches: Garret Sparks, Sam Poulin, Colin White, Libor Hajek, Sam Houde, Tanner Laderoute and Avery Hayes

Lines/Pairings:

Rem Pitlick - Peter Abbandonato - Alex Nylander Matt Filipe - Joona Koppanen - Lukas Svejkovsky Jagger Joshua - Justin Addamo - Austin Rueschhoff Raivis Ansons - Corey Andonovski

P.O. Joseph - Ty Smith Will Butcher - Jack St. Ivany Jack Rathbone - Xavier Ouellet Taylor Fedun

Magnus Hellberg (Backup: Joel Blomqvist)

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:12: CLE - (PP) Bjork, minor (holding) 2:09: CLE - SHG Ahcan (1) - Cuelemans 12:19: WBS - (PP) Ouellet, minor (interference)

2nd Period

6:16: WBS - Smith (4) - Joseph, Addamo 9:31: WBS - Ansons (1) - Filipe, Andonovski 10:59: WBS - (PP) Joshua, minor (holding) 12:12: WBS - (PP) Filipe, minor (tripping) 19:29: CLE - (PP) Cuelemans, minor (interference)

3rd Period

11:39: WBS - Nylander (6) - Pitlick, Abbandonato 17:30: WBS - ENG Andonovski (1) - Ansons 17:44: CLE - Malatesta (5) - Hunter McKown 18:36: CLE - (PP) Butler, minor (high-sticking) 19:09: WBS - PPG (EN) Nylander (7) - Smith, Abbandonato 19:28: CLE - Ahcan (2) - Del Bel Bulluz, Cuelemans

BOXSCORE

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

Shots

Cleveland  12 - 13 - 12 = 37 W-B/Scranton  10 - 8 - 10 = 28

Goalies

CLE: Daniil Tarasov (23 saves - 26 shots) WBS: Magnus Hellberg (34 saves - 37 shots)

Power Play

CLE: 0-for-3 WBS: 1-for-3

Penalty Kill

CLE: 2-for-3 WBS: 3-for-3