Bill Zonnon signed an amateur tryout agreement with the Penguins last Thursday. On Tuesday, he was suiting up for his first AHL game, slotting right into Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s playoff lineup.
It took the 19-year-old just two periods to make an impact.
Skating as the fourth line center, Zonnon scored the opening goal of Tuesday night’s opening game of the Atlantic Division Finals as the Penguins skated to a 2-0 win over Springfield at Mohegan Arena.
Fellow rookie Tanner Howe scored an insurance marker in the third and Sergei Murashov prevailed in a battle of two of the AHL’s hottest goalies, stopping all 24 shots he faced.
The Penguins lead the best-of-five series 1-0 and will host the Thunderbirds again for Game 2 at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday.
Zonnon was the second of Pittsburgh’s three first-round draft picks last June and spent the season with his major junior team, Blainville-Boisbriand, racking up 15 points in the QMJHL playoffs.
When that run ended, it freed up Zonnon to join Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last week. He got his first pro action on Tuesday, playing between Boko Imama and Atley Calvert.
With the game scoreless through one period, Zonnon broke the ice midway through the second. Defenseman Alex Alexeyev stepped up at the Springfield blue line to win a puck battle, allowing Calvert to feed Zonnon.
Zonnon got the puck in the left circle and had room to skate it in himself thanks to the turnover, stickhandling his way to the net and slamming a backhander past T-Birds goalie Georgii Romanov.
Prior to that, Romanov hadn’t allowed a goal in his last eight periods of action. In the previous round, top-seeded Providence scored late in the first period of Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead. The Bruins never beat him again in the series, losing that game 3-2 in overtime and then falling 1-0 in another overtime contest in Game 4.
Romanov certainly wasn’t at fault for either goal he allowed on Tuesday.
With the Penguins clinging to a 1-0 lead in the third and Springfield generating some pressure, the puck slid back to T-Birds defenseman Adam Jiricek, who was quickly pressured by Howe.
Jiricek tried to skate away, but Howe poked the puck ahead to himself to skate in all alone on a breakaway, beating Romanov top shelf for a first career AHL playoff goal of his own.
Murashov shut the door from there to improve to 4-1 in these playoffs. The Russian now has a five-period shutout streak of his own going, not allowing a goal since the final seconds of the first period in the clinching win over Hershey last week.
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