The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ offense was firing on all cylinders as the team cruised to a 9-0 victory against the Hershey Bears on Wednesday night at Mohegan Arena.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (23-10-4-0) shattered franchise records behind a four-goal performance from Ville Koivunen, a hat trick from Vasily Ponomarev, four assists from Emil Bemström and a five-point outing from Filip Král (1G-4A).
By winning 9-0, the Penguins set a new franchise mark for greatest margin of victory in team history. It also marked the third time Wilkes-Barre/Scranton reached nine goals in a game.
The team not only established a new franchise record for hat tricks in a single season (7), but Wednesday was the first time the Penguins scored two hat tricks in the same game.
Koivunen opened the scoring for the Penguins four and half minutes into the game. Almost immediately after Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s first goal, the Penguins were given their first power play opportunity of the evening. Ponomarev found twine with a snap shot late in the man advantage.
Two and a half minutes later, Ponomarev scored again. Rutger McGroarty entered the offensive zone and released a shot that deflected off the side of the net, where it sat for Ponomarev to tuck it around the pads of Clay Stevenson.
After allowing three goals on thirteen shots, Stevenson was replaced in net by Hunter Shepard. However, the goalie switch did little to slow the Penguin’s offense. At 14:15, Koivunen tallied his second goal of the evening with a gorgeous dangle on a breakaway.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton began the second frame on the man advantage. One second after the man advantage expired, Koivunen lit the lamp with a one-timer on a saucer pass from Bemström.
Sam Poulin got in on the fun just over seven minutes into the second period as he slid a backhand shot through Shepard’s five-hole, thus extending the Penguins’ lead to six.
Koivunen set another Penguins team record when he tallied his fourth goal of the game 13:09. The tally marked the first time in club history that the Penguins earned two four-goal games in the same season. Boris Katchouk previously notched four goals on Dec. 11 against Charlotte.
Before the Penguins returned to the locker room for the second intermission, Král buried a lofted pass from Jonathan Gruden for a commanding, 8-0 lead.
Stevenson, who started the game, returned to the crease for Hershey at the start of the third period. He was victimized by Ponomarev for a third time as the 22-year-old completed his hat trick 3:17 into the final frame.
Sergei Murashov stopped all 27 shots he faced for the Penguins, collecting the first AHL shutout of his career. Stevenson stopped 16 of 20 shots, while Hunter Shepard denied eight of 13.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s next game is Friday, Jan. 31, when the Penguins travel to the Queen City for the first of a two-game set with the Charlotte Checkers. Puck drop from Bojangles’ Coliseum is slated for 7:00 p.m.
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