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Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights

Postula Nets Two, Knights Win Penalty-Filled Affair

December 8, 2018 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights News Release


Brett Postula scored twice and Zach Stejskal turned aside 46 shots in a 4-0 Knights win over the Northeast Generals Saturday night. Wilkes-Barre has now won five straight games.

At 4-0, the Knights are one win away from completing a perfect road trip. They finish their time away from Pennsylvania with a weekend finale Sunday afternoon against Northeast.

Friday's game between the clubs was a structured, fairly discipline contest. The same cannot be said for Saturday in what turned into a war. A combined 49 penalty minutes were assessed in the game. 33 belonged to Wilkes-Barre. In the third period alone, 33 minutes were handed out. Knights defenseman Jordan Strand took a five minute major for boarding, while Lincoln Hatten was tossed for a 10 minute misconduct.

Nonetheless, Wilkes-Barre managed to kill off eight Generals power plays and hold off a Generals club that outshot the grey and blue by a 34-17 margin through the final two periods.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got the first of their four goals in the first by defenseman Davis Pennington. With the puck in the right corner of Northeast's defensive end, players jabbed at it until the puck turned free from the crowded corner and right onto the tape of Pennington who stood in-between the circles for a laser, beating Generals goalie Marko Sturma.

Pennington scored his fifth goal of the season, and in the second period he managed to grab an assist off Adrian Danchenko's seventh of the year. William Ottwell created a turnover in the Generals attacking end, leading to a two-on-one with Danchenko. The master of the Generals was fed for a goal that went bar down, giving Danchenko his fifth goal against Northeast this season and 21st point in the last 19 games he's played against Northeast.

At the mid-way point of period two, Brett Postula would begin his big night. After a defensive zone face-off win, Wilkes-Barre rushed the other way and Postula found the puck on his tape inside the right circle. The forward's first shot was stopped, but the rebound popped free and Postula grabbed the puck and wrapped it around the other side for a goal that made it 3-0 Knights.

The game's dagger came off Postula's tape again, this time in the third period. At the 6:15 mark, Postula saw a mostly unguarded net with goaltender Sturma out of position. The '99 forward pounced on the chance and put one upstairs for his first career two goal game at the NAHL level.

Despite leading by four, Knights head coach Tom Kowal was furious with several penalties going against his team, forcing them back in their own end and giving Northeast every chance to climb back into the contest. Fortunately for Wilkes-Barre, starting goaltender Zach Stejskal was lights out, posting his third shutout of the season, with all of them coming in the last 30 days. Stejskal helped the penalty killers and his club by not allowing a single goal, even with the Generals having a two man advantage at one point in the third.

The Knights see their overall record improve to 11-15-1, dropping Northeast to their seventh straight loss. Wilkes-Barre leads the season series 4-1 and will play game six of the season against Northeast, as well as their fifth and final game of a two week road trip Sunday at 4:30pm.

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