Wilkes Weekly: At the All-Star break

For the second week in a row a member of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins was named the AHL’s player of the week. Avery Hayes claimed the honors this week by producing four goals in two games. Oh, and in between he found the time for a little dalliance in the NHL as well.

Fresh off his two-goal game in the NHL on Thursday, Hayes scored a hat trick against Hershey in a 4-3 OT win that culminated in Hayes scoring that game-winner while breaking his stick.

All in all, not a bad week for Hayes with six goals in three games combining time in Pittsburgh and WBS.

The same could be said for the Pens having a good week, winners of their three games. From Nick Hart at WBSPenguins.com:

Wednesday, Feb. 4 – PENGUINS 4 vs. Hershey 1
Sergei Murashov stonewalled the Bears in the first two periods, leading to a 0-0 score. The Penguins then uncorked four goals in the third period, including Tanner Howe’s first as a pro.

Friday, Feb. 6 – PENGUINS 6 at Lehigh Valley 5
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton survived a high-scoring affair down the PA Turnpike thanks to a four-point, hat trick night from d-man Matt Dumba. Ville Koivunen also logged four points (1G-3A). Melvin Fernström made his AHL debut and recorded two assists.

Saturday, Feb. 7 – PENGUINS 4 at Hershey 3 (OT)
Avery Hayes came back from a dream NHL debut to give the Bears nightmares before the All-Star Break. Hayes scored a hat trick, capped off with the overtime winner. The Penguins’ other goal came from 19-year-old Fernström, his first in the AHL.

New faces and fresh blood were key, former second round pick and 20-year old Tanner Howe is back from his ACL rehab to get a belated start to his first pro season. Swedish import Melvin Fernstrom has taken to the AHL for his first taste of North American pro hockey and generated three points over the two games he’s played.

No change in the standings, the Penguins remain in second place in the Atlantic Division. WBS is on a five-game winning streak, which is nice but hardly anything compared to first-place Providence’s current 10-game heater. Both first and second place are pulling away big time at this point from the rest of the pack. Charlotte has four games in hand but are 13 points back of WBS. Fourth place Hershey has the four games in hand but are a whopping 20 back of WBS. Good news for getting a bye as a top-two seed in the division.

As a result of the heavy early schedule, things lighten up for WBS. They only have seven games remaining in February and just 10 scheduled in March (compared to the 17 that will be played by NHL Pittsburgh, though the NHL regular season is 10 games longer).

The AHL is currently celebrating their All-Star festivites, the skills challenge event was last night. Tristan Broz and Sergei Murashov are the Penguin representatives.

The overall AHL All-Star challenge is tonight in Rockford Illinois. The WBS Pens will be back at it this weekend with Saturday and Sunday home contests against Syracuse and Cleveland, respectively.

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