This game was 2-1 coming into the third period in favor of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.
Boko Imama scores 1:56 in, then Avery Hayes and Owen Pickering connect on the front and back end of a two man advantage for the Penguins and then Rafaël Harvey-Pinard scores on a Matt Dumba assist, his fourth of the game, and the Penguins run over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 6-2 on Sunday afternoon.
We talked Saturday night in the win against Syracuse about starting on time, well the Penguins most defiantly finished on time here and took a perfect weekend to keep pace with the Providence Bruins, who swept the Checkers in Charlotte this weekend.
I am burying the lead story and that’s Matt Dumba. Four assists today to go with the assist and goal Saturday against Syracuse puts him in AHL Player of the Week territory. It’s not that I want to rip the guy for being here and playing bad. I cheer for the front of the jersey and always have but for three guys (Wade Brookbank, Ben Lovejoy and Casey DeSmith in that order) so just because you have the large muscular penguin on skates on your chest doesn’t give you a pass from me to skate around like an idiot and not care.
That said, Dumba had a hell of a weekend and I want to see it continue.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) February 1, 2026
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Lineup Notes: Tanner Howe made his long awaited AHL debut after knee surgery, replacing Brayden Edwards. Aiden McDonough slipped down to the third line. No changes to the defensive pairings.
First Period: Penguins killed two penalties, but in between there was a sequence that the penguins had a dog-on-bone mindset where Aidan McDonough finished this feed from Matt Dumba who threw it at the net that put the Penguins up 1-0.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) February 1, 2026
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Dumba had an active fly by the seat of your pants, assisting on the McDonough goal, taking a penalty and then when the Penguins killed the penalty Fin Harding threw one out to the neutral zone that was picked up by Dumba who nearly scored on the breakaway.
Second Period: I particularly didn’t like the penalties the Penguins were taking and Lane Pederson made them pay early into the second period with this power play goal that tied the game at one.
But then the Penguins fourth line saved the day as Nolan Renwick led a two on one charge down ice with Zach Urdahl and wired one in to make it 2-1 for the Penguins.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) February 1, 2026
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Oof.
The Penguins power play is bad. League worst bad. But against the Phantoms? The Penguins have scored like half of their power play goals this season against the Phantoms penalty kill.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) February 1, 2026
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Referees Liam Maaskant and Sydney Harris thought that the patrons paid to see them, so some goofy penalties were called right to the very end.
Three Stars: 3) Christian Kyrou (two assists) 2) Joel Blomqvist (23 saves) 1) Matt Dumba (four assists)
The Good: I am hoping that this weekend is a turnaround point for Dumba, and that you can expect more of the same out of a guy that has had 10 years in the NHL.
The Bad: The penalties are out of control at this point and you worry that a league memo starts going around to watch the Penguins because they are careless. Tighten things up with all the stick fouls, men!
Turning Point: Connecting on the front and back ends of the two man advantage in the third period will ice it away for just about every team in the AHL, so that gets the nod here.
Standings: Providence 65 – Penguins 62 – Charlotte 53 – Hershey 47 – Lehigh Valley 46 and the rest of it isn’t accurate because the Islanders / Thunderbirds game isn’t final yet.
I mean if there ever was a way to start a hockey game, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins followed the blueprint to a tee Saturday night.
Starting on time and getting a goal from Avery Hayes at 7:09 of the first period followed by a Rafaël Harvey-Pinard goal 1:26 later, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins ride that momentum to a 4-1 win over the Syracuse Crunch Saturday night.
The Penguins also got scoring from Gabe Klassen and Matt Dumba, so all the important guys in these four added offense and Sergei Murashov made 26 saves.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 31, 2026
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Lineup Notes: Back to the standard 12 forwards. 6 defensemen, Brayden Edwards and Zach Urdahl were back in the lineup for the recalled Rutger McGroarty and the seventh defenseman. Emil Pieniniemi made his AHL debut. Scooter Brickey was scratched and David Breazeale was sent to Wheeling.
First Period: Started on time as mentioned in the open, here’s the Hayes goal off a nice give and go with Owen Pickering.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 31, 2026
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Things leveled off from there.
Second Period: Things were pretty level and it was falling into a bit of a blah game. Matt Dumba takes a penalty AFTER the Penguins were awarded one, putting the teams on four on four. Just dumb.
But then Dumba atones for the gaffe, and scores here to make it 3-0.
Momentum was starting to slip, as the Penguins were back on a penalty kill. But then Gabe Klassen scores this goal shorthanded to make it 4-1 Penguins.
A SHORTY FOR GABE
For every shorthanded goal we score this year, Borland and Borland will donate $250 to the Penguins GOALS Foundation pic.twitter.com/k8QUTKyI2Y
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) February 1, 2026
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Syracuse pulled their goaltender with about four minutes left but didn’t find any goals. Sergei Murashov tried for the empty net, missed wide by about fifteen feet.
Three Stars: 3) Sergei Murashov (26 saves) 2) Gabe Klassen (goal, assist) 1) Matt Dumba (goal, assist)
The Good: Easy when the plan comes together right? Get on them early, stay on them, force mistakes, win the game.
The Bad: Didn’t like how careless they were with the penalties.
Turning Point: The Klassen shorthanded goal took all the air out of the Crunch sails.
The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have a lot of guys injured. Despite this, they are only three points off of the Providence Bruins coming into the weekend.
The guys that were traded are gone and aren’t walking through that door ever again. So they have to manage with the guys that they have, but help has to get here soon or else the Penguins are in danger of falling out of the top two in the division thus putting them in a dreaded Best of Three series against Lehigh Valley.
Music to Set the Mood…
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I guess you can see where I am going here.
A Quote…
Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful.
– B.F. Skinner
The Setup…
Home against Syracuse Saturday, a road trip to Allentown Sunday afternoon. Simple enough.
Was last week a good week for the Penguins? They lost in overtime last Wednesday at home against Belleville and had their $2.6M man Matt Dumba on ice for all of the goals against, beat Hershey in Hershey on Friday and then were subjugated Saturday against a hard charging Charlotte Checkers team.
They fell out of first place to a Providence Bruins team that has a ton of games in hand on them so that may have been inevitable, but now the Pens are three points off the Bruins and have to keep pace, while slipping.
Syracuse split a home and home with the Utica Comets last weekend where the home team won and hosted Laval last night and lost in overtime. They come to Wilkes-Barre with a 23-15-3-1 record with 50 points and second in the North Division.
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms got blasted by the Charlotte Checkers 8-5 last Friday, then beat Hershey 4-3 in overtime Saturday and lost in Springfield Friday. They host Bridgeport Saturday and have a 20-17-2-2 record with 44 points and are fifth in the Atlantic Division.
Records
The Penguins have a 27-12-2-2 record and have 58 points in second place in the Atlantic Division. I gave you Syracuse and Lehigh Valley’s records above.
The Rest of those Rascals…
This should be easy because Providence and Charlotte play each other down in North Carolina this weekend starting Saturday afternoon.
Providence had a three in three last weekend and won all three. Belleville in OT Friday; Bridgeport via shootout on Saturday and Toronto in overtime on Sunday.
Charlotte smoked the Phantoms and Penguins as noted above and then obliterated the Hartford Wolf Pack 7-1 on Wednesday.
The Bruins lead the Atlantic Division with a 30-8-1 record and 61 points. Charlotte has a 25-12-3 record for 53 points in third.
Hershey spent the week in Rochester, beating the Americans on Wednesday and then lost 3-1 on Friday. Hershey is in Utica on Saturday and have a 19-14-5-2 record and are fourth in the Atlantic with 45 points.
Bridgeport lost in Hartford last Friday then lost via shootout to the Providence Bruins. The Islanders then destroyed the Hartford Wolf Pack last night. They are in Allenton Saturday and then host Springfield on Sunday. The Islanders have a 18-18-2-2 record, good for 40 points and sixth in the Atlantic.
Bridgeport is turning into a sneaky good team. Watch out.
Hartford and Springfield bring up the rear, with the Wolf Pack beating the Islanders last Friday then losing big to Toronto 4-1 on Saturday then just embarrassing themselves against Charlotte on Wednesday (7-1) and going down 5-0 after two periods against Bridgeport last night. The Wolf Pack have Springfield Saturday and have a 16-21-4-1 record for 37 points and seventh in the division.
Springfield certainly isn’t playing like a last place team per se. They beat Toronto in overtime last Friday, lose 1-0 to Belleville on Saturday and then won 2-1 against the Phantoms last night. The Thunderbirds host Hartford tonight and then head to Bridgeport Sunday evening. Springfield has a 15-20-4-2 record with 36 points.
Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Who’s Out?
Up: Bryan Rust was suspended three games necessitating a Rutger McGroarty recall to Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Down: David Breazeale was sent to Wheeling in a swap for Emil Pieniniemi. Pieniniemi is about three months late. He didn’t make the AHL team out of camp, pointed and went home, they suspended him and then they made amends and he returned to the States. Coal Street also recalled Forward Brayden Edwards on Thursday in the wake of the McGroarty recall.
Out: Daniel Laatsch (week to week, lower body), Sebastian Aho (week to week, lower body), Alex Alexyev (day to day, upper body), Raivis Ansons (week to week, upper body) are injured. Add Joona Koppanen we think, who blocked a shot last Wednesday and didn’t play Friday or Saturday.
Reading the teal leaves….
Makes me think since they recalled Edwards that they aren’t expecting any of the forwards who are injured to return this weekend. Which kind of nixes the whole “reinforcements” trope. Oh, well.
What can we learn about the Penguins this week?
Syracuse can give them fits. They are a competitive team out of necessity. You can start the weekend in second place and if you don’t watch out, can end the weekend in sixth place. They are also very well structured and well coached. I don’t want to use the word “overcome” here for a team that has led it’s division all season for the most part, but the dynamic of this team isn’t the same dynamic as it was two months ago when they were just running over teams and getting excellent goaltending.
Whatever forward and defensive group that Kirk MacDonald put out there this weekend have to play nearly. perfect in order to put themselves in a position to win I think.
I’m more worried about Syracuse than I am Lehigh Valley and I shouldn’t be, given it’s been the Phantoms the last two seasons which have sent the Penguins into the summer.
Who’s in Goal?
Murashov – Blomqvist Saturday / Sunday. Ryan Fanti for the Crunch and Aleksei Kolosov for the Phantoms is my educated guess.
Who’s Running the Show?
Austin Rook and Hayden Verbeek have the assignment Saturday in Wilkes-Barre with John Rey and Davids Rozitis on the lines.
Sunday sees Liam Maaskant and Sydney Harris with Rozitis manning the lines again with Patrick Dapuzzo joining him.
Looking Ahead…
All Pennsylvania, all the time. Home against Hershey Wednesday, a trip back to Allentown Friday, then Hershey on Saturday.
Give us a bold prediction…
They get one of the guys on the injured list into a game this weekend, winning both.
The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are the AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh does take care of its minor league affiliate, but the primary focus has always rightly been the enhancement of the Pittsburgh Penguins, not the AHL Penguins.
This usually means that players in Wilkes-Barre on NHL contracts, get traded away.
Sometimes the return is for another NHL contract playing in the AHL and sometimes it isn’t.
Phil Tomasino, Danton Heinen, Sam Poulin and Valtteri Puustinen were all with the AHL Penguins and traded away so far this season in separate transactions.
Sam Poulin was flipped with Tristan Jarry in a trade to Vancouver for Stuart Skinner.
Danton Heinen was traded to Columbus for Egor Chinakov. Chinakov has done well with the Penguins.
Phil Tomasino was traded to Philadelphia for Igor Zamula. Zamula was assigned to Wilkes-Barre, never reported and had his contract terminated freeing up an NHL contract for the Penguins.
Valtteri Puustinen was traded to Colorado for Ilya Solovyov. Now Solovyov hasn’t had enough of a look in Pittsburgh to make a call on whether it was a “good” trade or not.
But do you sense a pattern here? The Penguins shed the Jarry contact, get a diamond in the rough player in Chinakov and shed an NHL contract with the termination of Zamula. This is a huge benefit for Pittsburgh but comes at the expense of Wilkes-Barre because all four players traded are still in the top 12 in scoring for the AHL team.
It sucks if you are a regular fan in Wilkes-Barre, but in reality, those four had no real future in Pittsburgh and their NHL careers have met a “dead end” in Pittsburgh, so they were expendable.
Now, let’s take a look at the current construct of NHL contacted players on Coal Street and examine what the likelihood of a trade could be. All mentions of player contact statuses is from Puckpedia.com
No Chance in Hell
G Sergei Murashov – He’s their future in goal and something special. He’s not going anywhere.
D Harrison Brunicke – Looked rough in the AHL as they were trying to decide to keep him in the NHL or not, but they rightly sent him back to juniors. He’s not going anywhere either.
F Rutger McGroarty – I want to add a forward in this group and so McGroarty gets the “safe” tag. They seem to like him, he fits in well but makes too many dumb mistakes in the NHL from time to time so since he is waiver exempt, he is in Wilkes-Barre. He’s also getting $950K a year at the NHL level.
Blockbusters Brewing
F Tristan Broz – I can see it, in a package with a lot of other players in exchange for a lot of other players. I picked Broz over McGroarty here based off of the NHL work they both have this season. Broz debuted this season but it was one game and right back to the minors. He’s vulnerable, but it would need to be a blockbuster deal. He’s also 23 and McGroarty is 21.
D Owen Pickering – I don’t think he is developing the way they want him to. He’s been passed over for defensive recalls and when he’s been up hasn’t lit the world on fire. He’s going to be the next Derrick Pouliot if he isn’t careful. Again, he could be that “prospect in the wrong system” that gets thrown in with a bunch of other players.
G Joel Blomqvist – I think he’s an NHL goaltender, but clearly he’s been passed by Sergei Murashov. Still though, I don’t think he’s given away for nothing. It would take a block buster.
For the Right Price
F Avery Hayes – Hasn’t played in the NHL yet but that won’t stop a scout with clout to convince an NHL GM somewhere to make a sweet deal to GM Kyle Dubas and take Hayes off their hands for the right price.
Throw Ins
F’s Ville Koivunen, Boko Imama, Joona Koppanen, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard; D Alex Alexyev – These guys are all on expiring contracts, Koivunen and Alexyev are restricted free agents. Not that Kyle Dubas would, but he could.
Sorry, Not Interested!
F Tanner Howe – he’s been practicing with Wilkes-Barre and should begin his pro career very soon. Unless they have scouts at practice, there’s no interest in him.
D’s Daniel Laatsch, Chase Pietila, Finn Harding, Emil Pieniniemi, Phil Kemp – Laatch (23) is currently hurt, Pietila is 21, Harding and Pieniniemi are 20. Kemp is 26 and the captain of the AHL team. They are still “prospects” but for Kemp. I like Harding’s trajectory the most and haven’t seen any of Pieniniemi’s work yet because he’s been in Wheeling. I don’t think any of these guys are commanding any interest at all from other NHL teams, but you could easily “throw in” a few of them if you were looking to move on, I just don’t see it.
Paying Out the String
G Filip Larsson – he’s 27 and can’t crack the AHL lineup and in purgatory because he hasn’t been assigned to Wheeling. No one is taking on $775,000 for a guy like this. He’s UFA at the end of the season.
Please for the Love of God Get Rid of This Guy
D Matt Dumba – Waived to the AHL and costing them $2.6M a year, there’s no NHL GM in his right mind that would take on this contract unless they want to get fired or play an April Fools joke. The Penguins would love to get rid of the guy but can’t because of that albatross of a contract. He’s also a UFA at the end of the season.
The rest of them not mentioned (draft picks mainly) could be considered “throw ins” or “for the right price” players but haven’t had any kind of impact in Wilkes-Barre so it would just be seen as business from the NHL team with no affect on the AHL franchise.
The problem that they had Wednesday was that they were the better team at five on five but ran into a hot goalie and had a $2.6M/ year defenseman do them no favors and they lost in overtime.
They were the better team Friday in Hershey and scrapped and clawed to even it in the third and win it in a shootout.
It was men against boys in the second period where the Checkers outshot the Penguins 20-3 and scored on two delay of game penalties that the Penguins took.
Joel Blomqvist started and wasn’t the problem. The game would have gotten way out of hand if not for his efforts. The Checkers needed dirty goals to beat him and got them on deflections with sticks and defensemans skates.
The honeymoon at the top of the division is probably over as well, as the lack of true scoring was prevalent and teams, Charlotte included, that have games in hand on the Penguins.
We’ll see. What matters really is the top two spots in the division for the bye. Winning the division would be great but is overall meaningless in the broader scope.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 24, 2026
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Lineup Notes: Zach Urdahl took warmups, but he comes out for Scooter Brickey as they went seven defensemen.
First Period: Penguins nose ahead on a Gabe Klassen goal after a yeoman-like keep in from Rutger McGroarty who passed to Ville Koivunen who shot it and Klassen was there for the rebound goal that put Wilkes-Barre on the board first at 13:10.
Joel Blomqvist had highlight save after highlight save, keeping his team in it. Finally Finn Harding takes a puck over glass penalty and Jack Studnicka scores and then Scooter Brickey did the same and a Robert Mastrosimone pass across the low side is deflected off of the skate of Matt Dumba that makes it 4-1.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 25, 2026
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Penguins have a late power play to get it within one, but the Checkers kill it and the guy that took the penalty (Wilmer Skoog) comes out of the box and Jack Studnicka finds him for an empty net goal.
No GIF here but there was some bad blood and some fighting. They showed more fight here then they did the whole third when they were having their heads indirectly kicked in.
Same thing at the buzzer, where Boko Imama had words and needed to be held back by linesman John Rey (who is jacked by the way) against a handful of Checkers players. Again, more fight where it doesn’t matter vs. fight where it does.
Three Stars: 3) MacKenzie Entwistle (goal) 2) Noah Gregor (two assists) 1) Wilmer Skoog (goal, assist)
The Good: I thought Rutger McGroarty played well when he was out there, but he didn’t really have a lot of help. He also tries the same shot all the time.
The Bad: They are not good against Charlotte. I didn’t like the lack of a pushback when it was shift after shift after shift in their own zone in the second.
Turning Point: The Mastrosimone goal that went off of Dumba’s skate gets it here. Different story if they kill it off there and get the McDonough goal.
Around the Division: Providence comes back from down 0-2 to win 4-3 in a shootout against Bridgeport….A Jan Jenik goal is all the Belleville Senators need to beat the Springfield Thunderbirds as they win 1-0. Leevi Meriläinen, who beat the Penguins Wednesday, makes 40 saves and what the hell, it gives me another blog entry to type out Leevi Meriläinen.
The rest of them are still in the third as this goes up. Toronto leads Hartford here and Lehigh Valley leads Herhsey here.
Standings: Providence 59 – Penguins 58 – Charlotte 51 — the rest we really can’t do because they are still in action.
Wheeling Update: Nailers lose 5-2 to Reading. Max Pavlenko started the game but was replaced to start the second by Taylor Gauthier, who took the loss, stopping 15.
Video Highlights: Are probably out there if you want to find them. I gave you the pertinents above.
They get a week off and hopefully can get guys back because this isn’t sustainable.
I may have something for you this week on the blog I have been kicking around idea wise. Stay tuned.
This is a classic game to show a new hockey fan to get them hooked on the sport and possibly the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.
On the road, at a rival, coming off a gut wrenching overtime loss two nights prior, the Penguins scratch out a 4-3 shootout win against the Hershey Bears Friday night.
They get a late goal from Avery Hayes setup by Rutger McGroarty who factored into every non-shootout goals this evening which tied the game late and then a thill a second overtime saw no scoring and then a shootout round that saw Ville Koivunen score the only goal in the round. Koivunen also scored a goal in regulation.
Sergei Murashov stopped 27 shots. The Penguins also got scoring from Owen Pickering.
Amazing how an edge of your seat game like this makes things feel a bit better for a Penguins team that lacks any serious scoring threat because they are either hurt or playing for another team at the present time. And to do so where they trailed for a large portion of the third period and win in comeback fashion.
Would make a new hockey fan hungry from more, right?
Here’s how they lined up:
Projected lines for tonight's I-81 clash with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton:
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 23, 2026
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Lineup Notes: Joona Koopanen is the latest add to the Penguins infirmary, lower body with no timetable. All others status quo. Tristan Broz has a lower body injury. Zach Urdahl came in for Koppanen.
First Period: Disaster start for the Pens, taking a penalty at :21 and then Ilya Protas scoring at :43 to make it 1-0 Bears.
Not even a minute into the game, and Pro grabs his 16th of the season!
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 24, 2026
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Wilkes-Barre was cycling in their zone for a good bit but then took what I thought was a momentum busting penalty, but they killed that with literal ease and then Rutger McGroarty finds Ville Koivunen for a goal that made it 2-1.
Bears outshot the Penguins 16-10 in the period and just flattened any chances that the Pens mustered in the period.
Third Period: No disaster starts here and the Penguins were pushing for the first 10+ minutes of the period with no results.
Hershey takes a puck over glass penalty with about 5 minutes left to play but the Penguins never got rooted in the offensive zone for any threats.
But then McGroarty notches his third assist of the game to find Avery Hayes for the Sidney Crosby-esque knee drop goal far post that ties the game at three.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 24, 2026
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No further regulation scoring.
Overtime: Thrill a second, but not in a good way for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. Louie Belpedio misses an empty net. Matt Dumba, who I thought had a decent, quiet defensive game, was shaky in overtime, stumbling while defending and then turning over the puck on the same shift that Sergei Murashov had to bail him out on.
Kirk MacDonald called his timeout to settle his team and it worked, but there was only :56 left on the clock. Gabe Klassen had two great looks but wasn’t able to beat Clay Stevenson.
Shootout: Murashov stops Ivan Miroshnichenko in the top of the first, Ville Koivunen flips one upstairs on Clay Stevenson in the bottom of the first, Ilya Protas, Aaron Huglen can’t score in the second with 9,000 moves combined between the two and then Sergei Murashov shopped Brett Leason in the third to secure the extra point.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 24, 2026
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Three Stars: 3) Bogdan Trineyev (two assists) 2) Rutger McGroarty (three assists) 1) Ville Koivunen (goal, assist, shootout goal)
The Good: Great to shower off the stink of the disappointing overtime loss on Wednesday with a gritty come from behind road win at your biggest rival.
The Bad: I thought the Penguins were the better team at five on five and probably deserved to win in regulation but not starting on time, and giving up a shorthanded goal shows that yeah, this is a great team, but they still have shortcomings.
Turning Point: The Hayes goal that tied it late gets it here.
The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have a legitimate chance to get a First Round bye and make a deep 2026 Calder Cup Playoff run.
There’s one player holding them back.
Matt Dumba.
On the ice for all three Belleville goals scored on a lazy Wednesday night game in Wilkes-Barre, the sub .500 Belleville Senators team steals one winning 3-2 in overtime.
Since Dumba’s arrival about a month ago after clearing waivers, he’s been an abject disaster.
I have random, casual, sometimes readers of this blog come up to me and tell me that he looks like he just doesn’t care.
Team worst -5 in 13 games.
Every time something bad happens to the Penguins, it’s usually directly or indirectly caused by #24.
Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he’s content at, at 32, to live out his playing days on buses playing in the minor leagues collecting $2,600,000 for the remainder of the season.
But, where is the accountability? Where is it? If Finn Harding was making these same mistakes and putting forth a, “LOL I just don’t give a crap anymore” attitude on skates, he would be buried in Wheeling. Kirk MacDonald doesn’t get a pass here. Unless he is under strict orders from Pittsburgh to write Dumba’s name in with indelible ink every Penguins game day, he bears some of the blame too.
Four on four, puck played to him at the point, like it would in 3,000 other simulations and he’s not ready for it. Then, at center ice, he stops skating for a split second leaving his man to get by him for a breakaway and a goal.
Motioning to his defense partner Chase Pietila to cover his space while he goes to the side of the net to watch a guy dish to the goal scorer. This tied the game late.
In overtime he’s in the corner with Aidan McDonough for some reason, they lose out on the puck. McDonough busts his ass to try to get back, Dumba gets tangled up with a trailing Senator then coasts in at the last second when Belleville is celebrating.
Mind. Numbing.
Wilkes-Barre dominated the game in all facets, outshooting the Senators 26-9 after two periods but Leevi Meriläinen stood on his head and kept it tied at one a side. Then Belleville comes out and makes a push, as any team that is being badly outshot does, but a turnover by Meriläinen to Joona Koppanen sets up an Atley Calvert goal that puts the Penguins ahead 2-1.
Oh, while we are still burying Dumba, it was his useless interference call in the third period that put Belleville on a power play. I think he removed a stick from an opposing player, which, going into the rulebook on a Wednesday work night, you are not allowed to do. On said penalty kill, Koppanen blocked a shot and went straight to the locker room and wasn’t seen the remainder of the period.
Directly, indirectly, it doesn’t matter. As long as that check clears, baby!
No other divisional action to speak of, so there’s that. The Penguins have 56 points in first now, and Providence has 55 in second but have five games in hand.
Here’s how Wilkes-Barre lined up, Joona Koppanen for the traded Valtteri Puustinen was the only lineup change.
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) January 21, 2026
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Tristan Broz was listed on the ever detailed injury report with what I thought I heard Nick Hart in postgame call and upper body injury.
Perhaps change comes in the form of leaving Dumba out of the lineup when they travel to Hershey Friday. Perhaps another trade is in the works and Dumba is dealt for a 2036 7th round draft pick. Change is needed, and accountability is paramount towards the cause.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 