Chirps from Center Ice

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The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins opened their 2025-26 campaign with a 2-1 win Saturday night at home against the pesky, speedy and probably-deserved-a-better-result Hartford Wolf Pack.

They ran into Sergei Murashov, however, who was as good as advertised, stopping 23 shots and only being beat on a wicked deflection by Trey Fix-Wolansky while the Wolf Pack had an extra man.

But fear not, Wolf Pack fans, you have a quick team and a fairly good team. You just ran into a team that I think is better and has a hell of a goaltender.

Valtteri Puustinen and Owen Pickering scored the goals for the home team.

Murashov opposed Dylan Garand. Here’s how they lined up.

Let’s hope I remember how to do this…

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It is the year 2025 and there are still AHL teams that don’t post a lines graphic. The Hartford Wolf Pack are one of them.

Also, why the hell is Ryan Graves wearing #27? That number belongs to Dennis Bonvie in this town and Dennis Bonvie only. The number, along with the #29, should already be retired. The franchise is 26 years old. What the hell are they waiting for? He should change the number to something other than 27, in my opinion. I don’t know how some of you day one-ers feel about it, but I don’t like it.

Lineup Notes: Scooter Brickey and Taylor Gauthier are listed as injured….Scratches were Sebastian Aho, Boko Imama (veterans) Mathieu De St. Phalle. Also, Pittsburgh sent their only player who was healthy that doesn’t require waivers back to Wilkes-Barre, Ville Koivunen back after Bryan Rust came off injured reserve.

First Period: Hartford with a ton of pace, outshooting the Penguins 8-2 at one point, then Trey Fix-Wolansky finishes a nice tic-tac-toe play for a goal which was initially waved off by ref Damien Figueira. After video review (a new system and all this year) it was adjudged to be a good goal.

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I didn’t particularly like the first period, but this was live fire for a lot of guys in big moments for the first time in months.

Second Period: A much better response for the Penguins, who get a goal from Valtteri Puustinen flying down the wing and found by Joona Koppanen for a goal.

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Your goalie is keeping you in it, so you need your heavy hitters to get out there and muck one in. Good to see.

Third Period: Good to see them tie it, but job not done. Need to get the lead.

Enter Owen Pickering.

Perhaps given a raw deal from Pittsburgh and perhaps flirting with am-I-an-NHL-player-or-not territory, he scores a big goal here in this spot to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

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Seeing eye shot.

You would think that the Wolf Pack would throw the kitchen sink at Sergei Murashov, but nope. The Penguins defense held them just to five shots.

With Garand pulled for the extra skater with about two minutes to play, the Wolf Pack never found the equalizer.

Three Stars: 3) Sergei Murashov (23 saves) 2) Valtteri Puustinen (goal) 1) Owen Pickering (game winning goal)

The Good: Hoo boy, play like that every night and I don’t think there are many teams that can beat them. Hartford is a solid, speedy team. They should have and could have won the game, but the Penguins and Sergei Murashove in particular, were too much.

The Bad: Relying on the above paragraph night in and night out is a fools errand. They need a better start. It’s only game one, so we will give them a pass.

Turning Point: Don’t have to look far, the Pickering go ahead goal gets it here.

Around the Division: Hershey loses at home to the Syracuse Crunch 5-2….Lehigh Valley wins 5-2 over the Belleville Senators in the Phantoms home opener….Charlotte beats Springfield 4-3…Providence beats Bridgeport 4-3 in overtime.

Standings: Too early for this. Pens, Phantoms, Bruins, Charlotte, 2, Bridgeport 1, Hartford, Springfield, Hershey 0.

Wheeling Update: Nailers are in preseason, they get ripping next week for real.

Video Highlights: 

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Back at it Sunday afternoon in Allentown. Talk to you then.

Let’s Go Pens!