The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins rode an electric night from their power play to come from behind and defeat the Laval Rocket 5-3 on Friday night at Mohegan Arena.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (10-4-1-0) climbed out of a two-goal hole with three man-advantage markers. Five different Penguins found the back of the net and five different players recorded multi-point nights in the rally over the North Division’s top team.
Joel Blomqvist was forced to make a handful of acrobatic saves during a first-period blitz by the Rocket. Eventually, Laval broke through on their 14th shot of the game. Joshua Jacobs beat Blomqvist over his glove exactly 16 minutes into the first period.
Sam Poulin tied the game with the first of three power-play goals late in the opening frame, but the 1-1 score didn’t last long. Laval regained the lead with 2.9 seconds left in the period when Alex Barré-Boulet took advantage of a turnover behind the Penguins’ net and banked the puck off of Blomqvist’s right leg and in.
The Rocket made it 3-1 with a man-advantage marker from Jared Davidson six minutes into the second period.
Jonathan Gruden dropped the gloves with Rocket rookie Owen Beck, providing the Penguins with a much-needed jolt of energy halfway through the middle frame. Boris Katchouk cut Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s deficit back to one by sliding a nifty backhand past Laval goalie Connor Hughes on a power play at 15:34 of the second period.
The Penguins started the third period on the man advantage again and found paydirt 34 seconds into the frame. Ville Koivunen tied the game on a beautiful one-timer set up by Mac Hollowell. Just a few minutes later, the Penguins snatched the lead, 4-3, with Nikolai Knyzhov’s first goal as a Penguin.
After a back-to-back successful penalty kills, Joona Koppanen roared out of the penalty box for a breakaway and put the nail in the coffin.
Blomqvist made 29 saves in the victory. Hughes turned aside 15 in the loss for Laval.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s next game is tomorrow night as the team travels to Chocolatetown for its first bout of the season against the Hershey Bears. Puck drop at Giant Center is slated for 7 p.m.
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