Wilkes Weekly: Blowout games in each direction for AHL Pens

Tough times on the injury horizon in Wilkes-Barre

The Wilkes-Barre Penguins are coming off a 1-2-0 week that saw all their games decided by four or more goals. From Nick Hart at WBSPenguins.com:

Wednesday, Dec. 4 – PENGUINS 1 vs. Hershey 6

The Bears enacted revenge on the Penguins for their triumph at Giant Center on Nov. 30 by coming to NEPA and running up the score. Boris Katchouk notched Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s only goal, tying him for the team lead with seven on the year.

Saturday, Dec. 7 – PENGUINS 6 at Hartford 2

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s special teams led the way with three power-play goals and a pair of shorthanded goals. Vasily Ponomarev scored the first hat trick of his career, part of his first four-point game. Valtteri Puustinen also tallied two of his team’s man-advantage markers, while Filip Král also earned two power-play assists.

Sunday, Dec. 8 – PENGUINS 0 at Providence 5

Shut-out for the second time this season, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lost its first meeting with Providence. The P-Bruins scored once in the first period, but tallied three goals in the second period to pull away. Brandon Bussi made 21 saves to blank the Pens.

The injury situation is becoming a pressing matter. This week alone Wilkes saw Jack St. Ivany, Emil Bemstrom and Raivis Ansons all pick up undisclosed upper body injuries. The latter two are considered day-to-day but St. Ivany is out a on week-to-week basis. Key defenseman Mac Hollowell was also banged up enough to miss a game.

The blueline is particularly thin now with St. Ivany, Hollowell, Sebastian Aho and Scooter Brickley all on the shelf. That’s opened up a bigger than expected role for Nikolai Knyzhov. What a career journey for him, after spending a good bit of time with NHL San Jose, Knyzhov had a brief pro tryout in Pittsburgh that went no where fast. He played for ECHL Cincinnati at the start of the year before the AHL Penguins brought him back on an AHL contract. A couple injuries later and Knyzhov is suddenly a key piece for Wilkes.

Here’s a recent lineup card for the AHL Pens to give a sense of how they are looking lately.

Some various news and notes about figures that NHL fans seem to care about:

• Sam Poulin had 1G+1A in his first game back in the AHL after being re-assigned. Since then, zero points in four games
• Valtteri Puustinen went down at the same time as Poulin, and has gone the opposite way. After only recording one assist in his first three AHL games of the season, Puustinen exploded for 2G+1A in the big win over Hartford
• Vasily Ponomarev has 4G+2A in his last five AHL games in the same general timeframe that the two above forwards were sent down. Most of that came in his 3G+1A outburst over Hartford
• Rutger McGroarty recorded two assists (both in the win over Hartford) and was held off the scoreboard in the other two games last week
• Tristan Broz put up the same stat-line as McGroarty this week; two assists both coming in the Hartford game, nothing in the others. (Wilkes only scored one goal in the two other games, so that kinda makes sense upon further reflection why the trend is continuing)
• Ville Koivunen’s last nine games, broken into three-game segments: 0 points, 5 points, 0 points. He’s run hot and cold this year and has been back to cold lately
• Joel Blomqvist gave up six goals (26 saves, 32 shots) in two periods against the mighty Hershey Bears and didn’t play in the third period. He would shake it off to stop 30/32 and earn the win over Hartford

It will be a busy upcoming week for WBS, three home games are on the docket (tonight and Friday both against Charlotte, on Saturday they’ll see Springfield come to town). That Saturday game, 6pm start, is available for free on streaming if you’re so inclined to want to fire up the hockey a little early before the NHL Pens get started.

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