The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins — playing as the Steamtown Gandy Dancers — drove the hammer down on the Cleveland Monsters for a 4-1 win on Saturday night at Mohegan Arena.
In the fourth installment of the Penguins’ Community Night, the team adopted the one-night-only branding of the “Steamtown Gandy Dancers” as a nod to the Steamtown National Historic Site and Northeast Pennsylvania’s rich and storied railroading history.
The Gandy Dancers turned in an appropriately proletarian effort to outlast the Monsters and establish a season-high eight-game point streak, improving to 44-16-7-2.
Daniel Russell picked up an assist for the second-straight game to start his pro career, thrusting a shot off the pads of Zach Sawchenko that careened right to Atley Calvert. Calvert stoked in the rebound at 12:29 of the opening frame for a 1-0 Gandy Dancers lead.
The two clubs exchanged power plays back and forth throughout the second period, but neither side could solve the opposing netminder. Joel Blomqvist delivered a massive save at 16:49 when Tate Singleton was sprung out of the penalty box for a breakaway, only for Blomqvist to rob him with an outstretched right pad.
The 1-0 score persisted past the midway mark of the third period, until Aidan McDonough provided insurance with a smoking wrist shot off the far post and in. However, Cleveland’s James Malatesta responded less than a minute later, slashing Steamtown’s lead back down to one.
It was McDonough stepping up again with a power-play goal five seconds into a man advantage to put the Gandy Dancers up 3-1 with six minutes left in regulation.
Tanner Howe tidied things up with an empty netter with 11 seconds to go.
Blomqvist finished the night with 25 saves, while Monsters goalie Sawchenko had 24 stops.
Steamtown will return to playing as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for its next game on Wednesday when Hershey comes to town for the conclusion of the season series. Game time between the Penguins and Bears is set for 7:05 p.m. at Mohegan Arena.
The Penguins have three games left in their regular season before starting their run in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
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