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AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

Penguins Cap off Electrifying Comeback for 6-5 OT Win

March 9, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins News Release


WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins completed a wild come-from-behind 6-5 overtime victory against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza on Wednesday night thanks to an inconceivable series of individual feats.

One game after his first three-assist game in almost 13 years, Tom Kostopoulos put forth the first five-assist performance of his 1231-game professional career. On the day Carter Rowney inked his first NHL contract, he scored twice, including the overtime game-winner. Both on professional tryout contracts, Jarrett Burton scored his first AHL goal, and goalie Franky Palazzese earned his first AHL win in his first AHL start.

Down 5-2 going into the third period, all of these individual performances came together to forge what became a great team effort in the Penguins' comeback win.

"We said we couldn't get caught looking at the score, we had to score one at a time," said Penguins head coach Clark Donatelli. "You could feel the momentum building, and you could tell the guys were feeding off of it. Guys were more aggressive than we were at the start of the game."

Lehigh Valley got on the scoreboard first when Kevin Goumas roofed a shot underneath the crossbar 5:54 into the opening period.

Steve Oleksy scored his second goal of the season at 10:46 of the first, tying the game, 1-1.

One minute and two seconds after Oleksy's equalizer, the Phantoms went back on top thanks to Cole Bardreau.

Phil DiSimone made it 3-1 in favor of the Phantoms just 1:16 into the second period, and Adam Comrie added another tally to Lehigh Valley's score with a power play goal at 5:14 of the middle frame.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pulled within two when Rowney tipped in an answer-back power play goal at 8:14 of the second, making it 4-2.

Another man advantage marker reestablished Lehigh Valley's three-goal lead. This time it was Danick Martel redirecting in the goal that made it 5-2.

The Penguins came out firing on all cylinders to start the third period after Donatelli altered his forward lines and put Palazzese in net to replace Brian Foster. Kael Mouillierat scored on the power play 5:30 into the period, cutting the Phantoms' lead to 5-3.

A mere 44 seconds later, Burton sniped the top corner for his first career AHL goal, making it only a one-goal deficit for the Penguins to erase.

With Palazzese pulled in favor of an extra attacker unit composed of six forwards to try and tie the game late, a pinballing puck found its way to Jean-Sébastien Dea and into the net with only 4.1 seconds remaining in regulation.

The ensuing overtime session was filled with end to end action despite limited shots on goal. The Penguins' second shot of the OT period came from Rowney, and it found a way to trickle through Anthony Stolarz's equipment and across the goal line, giving Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the 6-5 win with 1:32 left in the extra frame.

Palazzese stopped all four shots faced in the third period and overtime en route to his first AHL win. Foster exited the game having made 15 saves on 20 shots. Stolarz ended up with 35 stops in the overtime loss for the Phantoms.

Both teams' power plays were highly efficient in the contest. The Penguins went two-for-four on the man advantage, while the Phantoms were a perfect two-for-two on the night.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's next game is Saturday, Mar. 12 against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Puck drop between the Penguins and Sound Tigers is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

GAME NOTES

- Tom Kostopoulos has assisted on eight of the Penguins' last 12 goals.

- By grabbing an assist on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's extra attacker goal, Dustin Jeffrey moved into sole possession of second place on the Penguins' all-time assist leaders (106), surpassing Toby Petersen. Jeffrey trails Kostopoulos for first place by 124 assists.

- With two assists tonight, defenseman Will O'Neill now has 16 points in 17 career games against the Phantoms franchise.

- Tim Erixon recorded his 100th AHL career assist on Jarrett Burton's third period tally.

- Burton became the fifth Penguin this season to score his first AHL goal with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Dominik Simon, Oskar Sundqvist, Clark Seymour, Niclas Andersén).

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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