Mannino's March, Kobasew's Scoring Streak and Archibald's First Pro Goal Highlight Penguins 2-1 Win Over Norfolk

In his second pro game, Penguins forward prospect Josh Archibald tallied his first professional goal, Photo credit: @ItsJacki.

In Norfolk, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hold onto a one-goal lead in the third period and take two points from the Norfolk Admirals in a 2-1 victory tonight. These two teams will conclude their regular season series in a rematch tomorrow night at 7:15 p.m. ET.

Josh Archibald scored his first professional goal in the first period and Chuck Kobasew added one early in the second as Kobasew continues to score a goal in each game he has played in the AHL this season to pace the Penguins scoring attack tonight.

Peter Mannino continued his strong play in March stopping 19 of 20 shots he faced tonight to improve to 6-2-1 in nine starts this month with a 1.11 goals-against average, a .949 save percentage and two shutouts. Mannino has not allowed more than two goals in his last ten appearances since being recalled by the Penguins from Wheeling on February 28th.

The Penguins win keeps them within three points of division-leading Binghamton, who defeated St. John's 2-1 tonight, and extends their lead over third place Norfolk to five points. In the conference playoff picture, the Penguins remain one point ahead of Providence for 5th best in the East.

Josh Archibald gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead with 5:55 left in a physical first period. Dominik Uher, back after a one-game absence, won a loose puck battle in the corner and fed a puck to a wide-open Archibald between the face-off circles.

Archibald made no mistake about it, firing a wrist shot past Admirals netminder John Gibson. It was Archibald's first professional goal in just his second game as a pro. Reid McNeill added an assist on the goal at the 14:05 mark of the opening period.

There were several big hits dished out in the first period in what was a very physical contest early on. Zach Stortini punished Nick D'Agostino behind the WBS net with a big hit, and Brendan Mikkelson retaliated with a hit on Stortini. Bobby Farnham was both taking and dishing out hits as well. All of that culminated to an extended fight between Stortini and Pierre-Luc Leblond, which went on for a good minute or two.

Chuck Kobasew extended the Penguins lead to 2-0 in the opening minute, taking Andrew Ebbett's off-wing pass and with a one-touch snap shot, beat Gibson low to the stick side. The goal was Kobasew's 7th in six games since joining the WBS Penguins after being re-assigned by Pittsburgh at the trade deadline earlier this month. Spencer Machacek added an assist on the goal in his return to the lineup.

Through the first half of the second period, the Penguins carried a decided edge in play - not allowing a shot on goal from Norfolk in the first ten minutes of the period. They held the Admirals to four total shots in the middle frame.

One of those four shots, however, ended up in the back of Peter Mannino's net. Emerson Etem used his speed on the edge to beat a WBS defender and went forehand to backhand on Mannino to bring the Admirals within a goal at 2-1 with 7:26 left in the middle frame.

The Admirals pressured the Penguins throughout much of the third period but were unable to find a tying goal in the final frame, despite back-to-back power plays in the second half of the 3rd.

ROSTER NOTES

Peter Mannino got the start in net for the Penguins, stopping 19 of 20 shots he saw and improving to 7-3-1 on the season.

Philip Samuelsson (lower body) is still to be evaluated and did not play tonight. No further update was given on Samuelsson from the team or head coach John Hynes. Barry Goers returned to the WBS blue line in Samuelsson's absence.

Injured forwards Harry Zolnierczyk, Spencer Machacek and Dominik Uher returned to the lineup, taking the spots of Beau Bennett, Anton Zlobin and Nick Drazenovic.

Bennett was called back up to Pittsburgh and played tonight in the NHL Penguins 2-1 win over Columbus. Drazenovic sat out as the team's veteran scratch (his first stint as the healthy scratch). Anton Zlobin sat out to make room for recently recalled forward Carter Rowney.

Denver Manderson remained a healthy scratch along with ATO players Conor Sheary and Matia Marcantuoni, who both made the trip to Norfolk for the weekend.

Lines

Machacek - Ebbett - Kobasew
Zolnierczyk - Payerl - Kostopoulos
Uher - Rowney - Archibald
Farnham - Carman - Leblond

Dumoulin - McNeill
Harrington - Mikkelson
D'Agostino - Ruopp

WBS Scratches: Samuelsson, Sill, Drazenovic, Zlobin, Ruopp, Manderson, Marcantuoni and Sheary.