AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

Second Period Outburst Sees Penguins Beat IceCaps, 5-2

Published on November 4, 2015 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins News Release


WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - After Wednesday's morning skate, Jean-Sébastien Dea had the chance to break from his regular routine. And he couldn't have been happier about it.

"It will be nice to speak French, again," Dea said before jumping in front of cameras for an interview with Canadian television outlet RDS.

With Stéphane Leroux, RDS reporter and longtime friend of Dea's family, in the press box and a French Canadian audience tuned into the game, Dea put on a show and led a second period offensive surge as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins won their seventh straight game, defeating the St. John's IceCaps 5-2 at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

Dea scored a power play goal and added three assists, giving the Laval, Québec native a career-high four points.

Going into the second period in a 1-1 tie with the IceCaps, Dea and the Penguins scored four goals on their first five shots in the period to jump out to a commanding 5-1 lead.

The first three goals of the second came from Carter Rowney, Dea, and Tom Kühnhackl, and the goals were separated by 2:45 of game time.

Kühnhackl extended his personal scoring streak to five games with two goals and one assist. Kühnhackl opened the scoring at 8:36 of the first period and later scored to make it 4-1 with a goal that meant the end of the St. John's starting goalie, Zach Fucale.

After allowing four goals on nine shots and goals on three consecutive shots, Fucale was replaced by IceCaps head coach Sylvain Lefebvre with Eddie Pasquale.

Pasquale was beaten by David Warsofsky at 14:01 of the second period, giving the Penguins a 5-1 lead. The goal was Warsofsky's first as a Penguin, and an earlier assist on Dea's goal was Warsofsky's 100th career point as a professional hockey player.

Will O'Neill earned assists on three consecutive goals for a three-point output against his former team.

The IceCaps pushed the Penguins in the third period trying to erase the four-goal deficit, but Matt Murray stopped 20 of the IceCaps' 21 third period shots on goal. Christian Thomas was able to beat Murray to make it 5-2 at 11:56 of the third, but St. John's didn't come any closer to beating Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The final shots on goal tally was 43-22 in favor of St. John's, the most shots surrendered by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season.

Both teams went one-for-three on the man advantage, with the IceCaps' power play goal coming off the stick of Michael McCarron at 11:08 of the first to tie the game 1-1 at the time.

The Penguins and IceCaps will meet again for a rematch this Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena, where Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is undefeated so far this season at 5-0-0-0. The contest is an Eyewitness News Fan Fridays game with $14 tickets and select draft beers available for $2 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Check out the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from November 4, 2015


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