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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins got scoring contributions from a dozen players Friday night while running their season-best winning streak to half-dozen games.
Joel Blomqvist made 35 saves while Avery Hayes scored two goals as the Penguins posted their sixth straight victory 5-2 over the last-place Bridgeport Tigers in a meeting of Atlantic Division teams.
The Penguins (37-22-8-1) will carry that streak into Saturday night’s 6:05 regular-season home finale, facing defending Calder Cup champion Hershey on Fan Appreciation Night at Mohegan Sun Arena. The Bears (51-12-0-5) have already easily clinched the Atlantic Division title and are enjoying one of the best series in AHL history.
“You’re going to have to go through them to continue on in the playoffs,” Penguins coach J.D. Forrest said of the potential second or third-round playoff opponents, who beat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 4-1 Friday night. “They’re the benchmark right now in the American League. They have a chance to clinch the whole league this weekend. The next team is pretty far away from them.”
After playing here Saturday night, the teams meet again Sunday in Hershey. The Bears come into the home-and-home series with a five-game winning streak and nine wins in their last 10 games.
“Any time you play those guys, it’s going to be a battle,” Forrest said. “We’re had our fair share. We haven’t seen them in a long time.”
The Penguins take their winning streak into that matchup, but certainly not their best performance of that streak.
After an outstanding first period produced the game’s first two goals and a 3-1 lead, the Penguins were hanging on the rest of the way.
“We can’t play the way we played in the second and third, that’s for sure,” Forrest said. “We put ourselves in some tough situations.”
Blomqvist, the team’s lone representative in the midseason all-star game, continued to shine.
“He’s our backstop,” said Hayes, who scored his second goal into an empty net with 8.4 seconds left. “We appreciate having him back there every night.
“Some nights, we don’t help him out too much and he bails us out. It’s awesome having him back there.”
The Penguins had their 12 players with one point each until the empty-netter, which Hayes hit from the blue line off a pass from Jagger Joshua that was his second assist of the night.
Joshua also assisted and Hayes also scored the game’s first goal on the power play at 8:51.
Hayes took a cross-ice pass from Jack Rathbone, pulled the puck back at the top of the right circle to get past defenseman Robin Salo and clear room for his wrist shot.
The Penguins scored on consecutive shots.
Beau Jelsma, playing in his first professional game on an Amateur Tryout Contract after spending the season playing Canadian Juniors in the Ontario Hockey League, scored on assists from defenseman Xavier Ouellet and Taylor Fedun.
Jelsma redirected Ouellet’s shot from the left point.
“I showed up here on Wednesday and I just wanted to go out and play a good team game,” Jelsma said. “I was just trying to do my thing and win battles.
“I was lucky enough to score a goal tonight, so it was a true honor.”
Brian Pinho scored for Bridgeport with 3:03 left, but the Penguins restored the two-goal lead before the period ended.
Following a lengthy scramble in front, officials needed even longer for a video review to determine the Penguins had scored.
Sam Poulin got the goal with assists to Dmitri Samorukov and Jansen Harkins.
Bridgeport outshot the Penguins 8-1 in the first six minutes of the second period. It was a sign of things to come. The Islanders finished the period with a 19-5 shot advantage and then took three of the first four in the third period.
Ruslan Iskhakov pulled Bridgeport within 3-2 going into the third by passing to Alex Jefferies and circling the net to get to the right post when he punched in a rebound after the original shot went up and over the shoulder of Blomqvist. It was his team-high 18th goal.
Evan Vierling, who has scored in all five games with the Penguins, won the puck in the right corner and fed Austin Rueschhoff racing down the slot for a one-timer and a goal at 9:58 of the third. Corey Andonovski also got an assist on the play.
NOTES
• Dennis Bonvie was honored during pregame ceremonies and a banner, commemorating his induction into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame earlier this year, was raised into the rafters at the arena.
• Jelsma was the first star, followed by Blomqvist and Hayes.
• Poulin and Rueschhoff each scored their 14th goals, tied for most on the team’s active roster.
• Bridgeport finished with a 37-20 shot advantage.
• Each team had just one power-play chance with the Penguins scoring on their try.
• The game drew a crowd of 5,506.
• Defenseman Jack St. Ivany, currently with the parent Pittsburgh Penguins, was named Thursday as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year, making him one of 32 finalists for the 2023-24 Yanick Dupre Memorial Award for community service.
St. Ivany was recognized for his enthusiasm in engaging with fans and his participation in handing out Thanksgiving medals with the CEO Weinberg Food Bank, wrapping Christmas gifts for children in need through the Valley Santa initiative and visiting patients at the Geisinger-Wyoming Valley Children’s Hospital.
• The flurry of late-season roster transactions continued Friday morning with the reassignment of defenseman Isaac Belliveau by Pittsburgh from the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton roster and with the signing of forward Matt Quercia to a Professional Tryout Contract.
Belliveau leads Wheeling defensemen in scoring with 14 goals and 24 assists. Quercia leads the Nailers with 152 penalty minutes and has 11 goals and 22 assists in 64 games. Quercia has played with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in three games, all wins, but is scoreless. Neither were in the lineup Friday.