Pittsburgh Penguins Minor League Report
By Matt Shetler
After dropping their openers, both the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Baby Penguins and the Wheeling Nailers had a busy weekend, both playing three games in three days over the weekend.
Both teams have struggled so far through four contests and are still in search of their first win of the season.
With that being said, let’s jump right into our minor league report.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Baby Penguins (0-4-0)
The Baby Pens are still looking for their first win of the season, dropping all three games and are still without a point through four games.
On Friday, the Pens battled back from a 2-0 hole to tie the contest only to see the Springfield Falcons pull away for a 4-2 win.
Down by two going into the third period, Joe Morrow and Phil Dupuis struck on consecutive power plays to even the score, 2-2. Less than three minutes later, Cam Atkinson pounced on a turnover and netted the game-winner for the Falcons. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was 2-for-10 overall on the man-advantage. Jeff Zatkoff made 23 saves for WBS.
On Saturday, it was a bit more of the same as WBS found themselves in a 2-0 hole in the first period and eventually fell to Bridgeport, 3-2, in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s home opener.
Riley Holzapfel cut the Sound Tigers lead in half at 7:48 of the second with his first goal of the season, but Bridgeport would go back up by two on John Persson’s goal with 3:28 left in the same period. Eric Tangradi pulled Wilkes-Barre/Scranton within one with four minutes left in regulation, but the Penguins could not find the equalizer despite a power play late in the contest.
Finally on Sunday, the Baby Pens found themselves down 3-0 to the Syracuse Crunch before Phil Dupuis broke up Dustin Tokarski’s shutout effort, scoring an extra attacker power play goal with 1:57 to go.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will look for their first win of the season this weekend when they face another three game in three day stretch when they host Rochester on Friday before traveling to Syracuse and Hershey on Saturday and Sunday.
PENGUINS TEAM LEADERS
| PLAYER | GP | G | A | PTS |
| Phil Dupuis | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Trevor Smith | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Beau Bennett | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Brian Dumoulin | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Benn Ferriero | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| GOALIE | GP | REC | SO | GAA | SV% |
| Jeff Zatkoff | 3 | 0-3-0 | 0 | 3.07 | .875 |
| Brad Thiessen | 1 | 0-1-0 | 0 | 3.01 | .864 |
Wheeling Nailers (0-3-1)
The Nailers also had a very tough weekend, dropping all three games by a combined score of 12-2, being shutout in the final two games.
Bobby Farnham and Tom Kuhnhackl both scored their first professional goals for the Wheeling Nailers on Friday; however, it was the host Elmira Jackals who ended up with the final say, scoring three times in a span of less than five minutes, taking home a 4-2 win at First Arena.
On Saturday, Elmira picked up where they left off, scoring five times within the first two periods, three of which came with the man advantage, en route to a 5-0 win.
The Nailers scoring drought continued on Sunday against Reading when rookie goaltender Brandon Anderson, making his second professional appearance, stopped all 18 shots he faced, leading the Royals to a 3-0 win over the Nailers at Sovereign Center.
Wheeling has earned one point through four games and will look for their first win of the season when they host Reading on Friday and Saturday.
Nailers Leaders GP G A PTS
Paul Crowder 4 1 2 3
Cody Wild 4 0 3 3
Chris Barton 1 1 1 2
Peter Marth 4 0 2 2
Goaltenders GP SOG G GAA SV %
Patrick Killeen 4 203 9 2.65 .904
Scott Darling 1 40 5 7.50 .773