Game Story: Laval - 1 at W-B/Scranton - 2 (10/21/22)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (1-0-1) used a strong start to propel them to a 2-1 win over the Laval Rocket (1-2-1) Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

The Penguins used a strong start to jump out to a 1-0 lead 7:11 into the contest after securing the game's first power play opportunity.

Drake Caggiula possessed the puck behind Laval's net before sending it up to the right point for Ty Smith. Smith carried the puck to center point, opening things up for a pass back against the grain to Alex Nylander at the top of the circle. Nylander made no mistake, stepping into one and sniping Rocket goalie Cayden Primeau with a laser of a shot to the far side top corner for Nylander's second goal of the season.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton extended their lead to 2-0 with 6:24 left before the first intermission, with Sam Houde absorbing a hit while receiving a pass coming out of the defensive zone and re-gaining control of the puck - chipping it ahead to send Nathan Legare off to the races. On his breakaway attempt, Legare shot for the far side post and got it to go for his first of the season.

Scoring dried up as the game progressed, and the Penguins were able to preserve their 2-0 lead to the third period, but Laval upped the ante in the third period - eventually breaking through to make it a one-goal game with 3:03 left to play with a 6-on-4 power play tally from Gabriel Bourque.

Led by 26 saves by Dustin Tokarski, the Penguins held on for the 2-1 win to improve to 1-0-1 on the season.

Penguins Post-Game EXTRA!

Head coach JD Forrest

On tonight's game

"I thought we started off pretty strong. And then I don't think we really stuck with it the whole sixty there. We gutted it out. Tokarski made some really good saves for us. We had some good defensive plays out of desperation. Overall, we're happy to get the win but we certainly have much better than what we put forth there, especially in the third."

Forward Nathan Legare

On the play leading up to his breakaway goal

"Yeah I think [in our defensive zone] we try to work a lot on wall play. And [Houde] made a pretty good play there, and a good pass. We tried to push the pace on their D-men and we got a little bit lucky to have a bounce but I just used my speed, go hard, and then try to shoot the puck and it went in so it was a good feeling. First one off the back, so felt pretty good about it."

On getting the win to kick off a three-in-three weekend

"We know that we got a big three-in-three coming up, and it's just fun to start like that. I mean, Tokarski had some pretty big saves there. The PK was huge for us. The power play got a big goal with Nylander. So everything kind of went pretty well. So we try to just build on it and tomorrow's going to be even better."

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Dustin Tokarski got the start in net for the Penguins Saturday night. Filip Lindberg served as the team's backup.

Penguins Scratches: Jack St. Ivany, Jordan Frasca, Colin Swoyer, Raivis Ansons, Lukas Svejkovsky, Jamie Devane, and Ty Glover

Lines/Pairings:

Drake Caggiula - Drew O'Connor - Alex Nylander Filip Hallander - Sam Poulin - Valtteri Puustinen Kyle Olson - Jonathan Gruden - Corey Andonovski Raivis Ansons - Sam Houde - Nathan Legare

Ty Smith - Mark Friedman Xavier Ouellet - Mitch Reinke Jon Lizotte - Taylor Fedun

Dustin Tokarski - Filip Lindberg

Laval Rocket Lineup Notes

Cayden Primeau got the start in net for Laval Friday night in Wilkes-Barre. Kevin Poulin served as Primeau's backup.

Rocket Scratches: Gianni Fairbrother, Brennan Saulnier, Joel Teasdale, Alex Green, Pierrick Dube and Peter Abbandonato

Lines/Pairings:

Rafael Harvey-Pinard - Mitchell Stephens - Jesse Ylönen Anthony Richard - Brandon Gignac - Alex Belzile Lucas Condotta - Nate Schnarr - Gabriel Bourque Xavier Simoneau - Jan Mysak - Danick Martel

Otto Leskinen - Justin Barron Mattias Norlinder - Tory Dello William Trudeau - Madison Bowey

Cayden Primeau - Kevin Poulin

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

5:56: LAV - (PP) Ylonen, minor (hooking) 7:11: WBS - PPG Nylander (2) - Smith, Caggiula 8:59: LAV - (PP) Condotta, minor (slashing) 13:36: WBS - Legare (1) - Houde 15:21: LAV - (PP) Bowey, minor (cross-checking)

2nd Period

0:16: WBS - (PP) Poulin, minor (slashing) 19:50: WBS - (PP) Olson, minor (hooking)

3rd Period

15:06: WBS - (PP) Smith, minor (delay of game) 16:57: LAV - PPG Bourque (4) - Simoneau, Norlinder

BOXSCORE

Laval Rocket 0 - 0 - 1 = 1 W-B/Scranton  2 - 0 - 0 = 2

Shots

Laval Rocket 6 - 11 - 10 = 27 W-B/Scranton  11 - 9 - 3 = 23

Goalies

LAV: Cayden Primeau (21 saves - 23 shots) WBS: Dustin Tokarski (26 saves - 27 shots)

Power Play

LAV: 1-for-3 WBS: 1-for-3

Penalty Kill

LAV: 2-for-3 WBS: 2-for-3