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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — After holding teams to one goal for most of the season, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins got a taste of end-to-end hockey against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Friday.
And just like they’ve done in the low-scoring affairs, the Penguins won this one as well.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (11-3-1-0) emerged from a five-goal second period with a 3-2 lead and held on to beat the Sound Tigers, 4-3.
Tom Kostopoulos scored the game winner in the third period and Casey DeSmith stopped 25 of 28 shots to improve to 5-0-0 on the season. It was the second time the Penguins beat Bridgeport this year, and they’ll go on to face the Sound Tigers two more times in the next four games.
“It’s big. They have a really good team and their lineup is a lot like ours,” Kostopoulos said. “We got some breaks the first time we played them and tonight it could’ve gone the other way. They really took it to us at times.”
After a quiet first period, things busted loose in the second as both teams combined for five goals.
The Penguins began the scoring spree when the line of Thomas Di Pauli-Oskar Sundqvist-Josh Archibald forecheck relentlessly in the Bridgeport end. The work paid off when Ethan Prow stole and passed to Sundqvist, who sent a shot into the net while Di Pauli provided traffic in front.
The goal came minutes after a Penguins power-play tally was waved off due to a deflection with a high stick, but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton would build its lead less than two minutes later when Carter Rowney put home his own rebound to make it 2-0.
After Bridgeport cleaned up a loose puck to make it 2-1, Jean-Sebastien Dea put the Penguins up by two again when he posted in front and deflected a Jake Guentzel shot.
Bridgeport continued to press as the period evolved into a series of end-to-end rushes, and the Sound Tigers put home another loose puck in front at the end of the period to make it 3-2.
The Penguins gained some breathing room early in the third period when Garrett Wilson knocked a Bridgeport player in goaltender Stephon Williams, who was attempting to play the puck at the corner of the crease. With Williams knocked down, Kostopoulos collected a pass from Rowney in front and tapped the puck into the empty net to make it 4-2.
“It was an easy goal on my part, but it was from hard work by Carter Rowney and Garrett Wilson to create it,” Kostopoulos said.
The Penguins couldn’t rest easy, however, as the Sound Tigers drew to within one, 4-3, with five minutes remaining. It marked the second time on the night that Bridgeport scored late in a period to draw within one, and it didn’t sit well with head coach Clark Donatelli.
“I didn’t like our turnovers or the last couple minutes of the periods. We should’ve been going into the third up 3-1. We have to put a full 60 together,” he said. “But our team is resilient and we found a way to win it. We worked hard enough to win.”
NOTES
– D Tim Erixon, D Stuart Percy, RW Patrick McGrath, C Jarrett Burton, D Barry Goers and RW Dominik Simon (injury) were scratched for the Penguins.
– Simon is day-to-day with a lower body injury, according to Donatelli.
– The Penguins travel to Hershey to face the Bears on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. to wrap up a stint of six games in nine days.
