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It was the sixth game in 10 nights for the Penguins. And Alex D’Orio was in net for all of them.
But on Friday night in Cleveland, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goaltender still stood tall, and his defense did its best to cut down his workload.
D’Orio posted his first career AHL shutout and the Penguins held the Monsters to just 18 shots in a 4-0 victory on the road in the first half of a back-to-back series against Cleveland.
It was a major bounce back for both D’Orio and the Penguins, who went up 2-0 in their last game against Hershey before allowing six straight to lose the Bears.
For the second straight game, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one on goals by rookie Sam Poulin and captain Taylor Fedun.
Unlike in Tuesday’s loss, the Penguins kept the opposition off the board in the second period and proceeded to hold Cleveland to a mere three shots in the third period to earn the win.
Anthony Angello and Jonathan Gruden scored in the third for some insurance, with Gruden picking up his first goal of the season.
Valtteri Puustinen, Filip Hallander, Jan Drozg, Alex Nylander, Michael Chaput and Juuso Riikola all picked assists in the win.
Looking to fire up his team with a fight down 4-0, Cleveland’s Brett Gallant was with 27 minutes in penalties plus a game misconduct for instigating a fight.
That allowed the Penguins to close out the win on the power play to calm things down. It remains to be seen if there will be any carryover when the teams tangle again at 7 p.m. Saturday night in Cleveland.