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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins turned to their most prolific scorers to knock off the North Division-leading Cleveland Monsters Friday night.
Alex Nylander scored twice, giving him a team-high seven goals on the season, while leading the Penguins to the 5-3 American Hockey League victory.
Defenseman Ty Smith temporarily took the team points lead on the first goal of the night, but Pitlick matched him with an assist on Nylander’s first goal.
The Penguins weathered a mistake-filled first period and carried a two-goal lead into a wild final 2:30 in which they twice scored empty-netters, only to be answered 14 and 19 seconds later by Cleveland goals.
“We were all just playing too risky,” Nylander said of the first period. “We had a lot of turnovers and a lot of stuff like that.
“We simplified it throughout the game and that’s what helped us a lot because they feed off the turnovers. They’re very good off the rushes.”
Throughout the second period and until the frantic final two minutes, the Penguins limited those rushes.
Leading 2-1 midway through the second, the Penguins killed overlapping penalties that gave Cleveland 47 seconds of a 5-on-3 advantage.
“We cleaned it up a bit in the second,” Penguins coach J.D. Forrest said. “Got a little more direct with our plays and picked our spots better to take a risk.
“That kind of paid off, and we had a big 3-on-5 kill there, too.”
Cleveland scored shorthanded just 2:09 into the game when Penguins goalie Magnus Hellberg got caught trying to scramble back into the net after originally heading out to play a puck. From beyond the goal line near the corner, Roman Ahcan caromed a shot into the net off Hellberg’s back.
“It was a bit of a fluke goal,” Forrest said. “Hellie just misjudged the speed of it and it never made its way to the trap(ezoid), and he didn’t want to take a penalty.
“I know he would want that one back. That was a weird one.”
Hellberg was shaky at times, along with his teammates, for the rest of the first period. But he got stronger as the game progressed and stopped 32 straight shots on goal before the teams traded the late goals.
Smith lifted the Penguins into a 1-1 tie at 6:16 of the first period when a long rebound came out to him at the right point and he one-timed a slap shot for the goal, giving him 16 points in 21 games.
Matt Filipe skated behind the net and passed in front to Raivis Ansons for the go-ahead goal 3:15 later.
Nylander made it 3-1 at 11:39 of the third period.
“It was a great pass by Peter (Abbandonato),” said Nylander, who was returned by the parent Pittsburgh Penguins in a flurry of roster activity earlier Friday. “I saw a chance to shoot it, but he was in the shooting lane, so I thought my best chance was to try to make a move and go around him. Luckily it worked out.”
Nylander successfully opened the space for himself when he maneuvered around one Cleveland player, but he also timed the release of his wrist shot before another could close in.
“He does have that skill,” Forrest said. “He was in a little tight space, then somebody went one way and he went the other. He’s able to see that and open up a little lane for himself. He’s shifty and he got the shot off quick.
“It was a big goal for us. It kind of changed the whole complexion of the game.”
The 3-1 lead held until Corey Andonovski and Nylander added empty-net goals, sandwiched around Ahcan’s second goal of the game.
Ansons dove to poke the puck ahead to Andonovski for a breakaway. Nylander scored his empty-netter from beyond center ice on a power play.
NOTES
• The win moves the Penguins (11-8-3-0) into fourth place in the Atlantic Division going into Saturday’s 6:05 p.m. home game against third-place Providence, which won 2-0 at Lehigh Valley Friday night to improve to 12-8-1-2.
The game includes the annual Teddy Bear Toss where fans throw stuffed animals onto the ice where they are collected to be distributed to needy children.
• The three stars were Nylander followed by Anson and Andonovski, who each had a goal and an assist.
• The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton roster was impacted by a half-dozen moves Friday. Right wings Marc Johnstone and Valtteri Puustinen and center Jonathan Gruden were recalled to Pittsburgh, as Johnstone made his NHL debut with the Penguins Friday night.
Right wings Nylander and Joona Koppanen returned from Pittsburgh. Right wing Tanner Laderoute was signed to a professional tryout contract.
• Nylander and Koppanen were back in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lineup while Laderoute and Pierre-Olivier Joseph each made his first regular-season appearance of the season with the team.
Joseph, a defenseman who played 136 games here the past three seasons, is on a conditioning assignment and had an assist on the first Penguins goal.
• The game drew a paid crowd of 3,101 to Mohegan Sun Arena.