Minor league report: Penguins beat Wolf Pack; Nailers' winning streak hits 10
A hat trick and an assist by forward Vasily Ponomarev led the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 6-2 win against the Hartford Wolf Pack at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. on Saturday.
Forward Valtteri Puustinen had two goals and an assist for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (12-5-1-0) while defenseman Filip Kral contributed three assists.
Joel Blomqvist made 28 saves on 30 shots to boost his record to 3-2-0.
Highlights:
The Penguins’ next game is a road contest against the Providence Bruins on Sunday, 3:05 p.m.
Goaltender Taylor Gauthier made 17 saves and led the Wheeling Nailers to a 3-0 shutout of the Cincinnati Cyclones at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati.
It was Gauthier’s first shutout of the season and improved his record to 2-0-0.
The Nailers extended their winning streak to 10 games. The franchise record for longest winning streak — since the club moved to Wheeling in 1992 — is 12, shared by the 2003-04 and 2023-24 teams.
Defenseman David Drake recorded two assists for Wheeling (14-3-1-0) which moved into first place of the ECHL’s North Division.
Highlights:
The Nailers’ next game is a home contest against the Reading Royals on Sunday, 4:10 p.m.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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