The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins came out and put together their most dominant performance of the season to date tonight, jumping ahead on the Adirondack Phantoms early and not letting up. With the 6-3 victory tonight, the Penguins improve to 4-0 on the season and look to continue the play the way they did tonight.
This was also the most physical game of the four the Penguins have played, and it should come as no surprise that it came against the Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers top minor league affiliate. The two teams had some pretty exciting battles in the early 2000's and with the Phantoms moving their team back to Pennsylvania in Allentown for the 2014-15 season, this is the year for the Pens and Phantoms to rekindle their rivalry.
More on the rivalry between these two teams later this weekend, as I spoke with rugged Phantoms forward Zack Fitzgerald and AHL Penguins team captain Tom Kostopoulos about the way these two teams play the game and how their similar styles cause them to butt heads from time to time.
Recap of tonight's game after the jump.
The Penguins took a 1-0 lead after a great play by Brian Gibbons. Gibbons forced a turnover at the offensive blue line while on his stomach to start a 2-on-1 rush with Jayson Megna. Gibbons floated a pass across to Megna, who finished the play 1:08 into the game to put the Pens out in front.
After a Bruno Gervais goal tied the game at 1-1, the Pens finished off another odd man rush to regain the lead. Andrew Ebbett fed a puck up to Dominik Uher, who used his speed to create a 2-on-1 with Tom Kuhnahckl. Uher passed it across the top of the crease to Kuhnhackl, who slammed it home past Heeter for his first goal of the season.
The Pens got right back to where they left off to start the 2nd period. Adam Payerl tipped home a Philip Samuelsson point shot to give the Pens a 3-1 lead 5:24 into the middle frame. From there, things started to get physical.
Wile shorthanded, Gibbons found Megna again for Megna's second goal of the game. After the goal there was a gathering of bodies in the corner down low, which broke out into a small scrum. The tension between the two teams was mounting. After all, the two teams' NHL affiliates had just battled it out the night before. The AHL teams followed suit tonight.
After a snipe show goal from Dominik Uher made it 5-2 Penguins, things started to boil over. Pierre-Luc Leblond and Zach Fitzgerald dropped the gloves and the two experienced heavyweight fighters exchanged shots while Bobby Farnham and Steven Delisle partnered up for a fight of their own.
The physical play continued in the third and it seemed like anyone who touched the puck was getting checked. The Penguins added a power play goal from Gibbons to push the Pens ahead 6-2 before Bobby Farnham was later clipped up high by Phantoms defenseman Mark Alt.
Despite only playing four times this season, the Penguins and Phantoms continue to leave it all on the ice and when two competitive hard-working teams clash, the game tends to be physical. All in all, the men in stripes whistled 26 infractions for a total of 80 minutes in penalties. In other words, just another Penguins/Phantoms game.
The Penguins hit the road for the rest of the weekend as they take on the Worcester Sharks up in Massachusetts tomorrow night, before a Sunday afternoon game with the Manchester Monarchs. I'll have coverage of both games right here, so stay tuned.
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