Strong Third Period Propels Penguins to 5-1 Win Over Portland

Carter Rowney scored his first goal as a Penguin late in the first period to give Pens a 1-0 lead. Photo credit: @ItsJacki

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins broke open a tied game early in the third period, scoring four goals in the first 8:47 of the final frame en route to a convincing 5-1 win over the Portland Pirates.

Andrew Ebbett, in his first game back with the AHL Penguins, scored two goals and assisted on another in the win. Newly acquired forward Spencer Machacek scored his first goal as a Penguin in his WBS debut. Eric Hartzell, who started his 6th straight game in net for the Pens, stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced to improve to 10-5-1 on the season.

Next up for the Penguins is a home game tomorrow with the Adirondack Phantoms before traveling to Hershey to take on the Bears at 5:00 p.m. EST on Sunday.

The Penguins got back to basics in the first period, getting pucks in deep and setting up offense off the forecheck, out shooting the Pirates 10-4 in the opening 20 minutes and taking a 1-0 lead in the final minute of the period off a good keep in at the blue line by Reid McNeill.

McNeill got the puck in between the face-off circles to Dominik Uher, who found Carter Rowney streaking to the net on the off wing. Rowney's one-timer beat Mark Visentin to put WBS in front to start the 2nd period.

The Pirates picked things up in the 2nd period, killing off two WBS power plays and tying the game with a shorthanded breakaway goal courtesy of Jordan Martinook. Martinook jumped on a miscue between Simon Despres and Nick Drazenovic, beating Hartzell up high and tying the game at 1-1 with 5:12 left in the 2nd period.

The Pirates were whistled for a delay of game penalty with 1:15 left in the 2nd period, giving the Pens 45 seconds to start the third period to try and snap a 0-for-34 drought on the power play.

The Penguins not only scored on the power play to start the 3rd period, they scored four goals in the first 8:47 of the final frame to break open a tied game and help the Penguins cruise to victory.

Andrew Ebbett started things off with a power play goal 0:20 into the period, snapping a streak of 39 straight power plays without a goal, to give the Pens a 2-1 lead early in the third period.

That was followed up by Spencer Machacek's first goal as a Penguin just 50 seconds later to make it 3-1 WBS. Ebbett's 2nd goal of the period and 8th of the season made it 4-1 WBS 3:33 into the third period and captain Tom Kostopoulos added another power play goal to make it 5-1 about five minutes later.

ROSTER NOTES

Eric Hartzell got the start in net, making his 6th straight start. He stopped 12 of 13 shots he faced for the win.

Andrew Ebbett returned to the WBS lineup along with Harrison Ruopp and Zack Torquato, replacing Harry Zolnierczyk, Barry Goers and Denver Manderson, respectively.

Newly acquired forward Spencer Machacek made his WBS debut tonight, wearing Paul Thompson's number 17 and scoring his 10th goal of the season in the third period tonight.

Lines

Zlobin - Ebbett - Kostopoulos
Uher - Drazenovic - Machacek
Kuhnhackl - Carman - Rowney
Farnham - Torquato - Leblond

Samuelsson - Despres
Harrington - Mikkelson
McNeill - Ruopp

WBS Scratches: Brian Dumoulin (lower body), Zach Sill (upper body), Nick D'Agostino (healthy), Adam Payerl (upper body), Barry Goers (healthy) and Denver Manderson (healthy).