Anthony Angello scored twice, Dustin Tokarski stopped 27 shots and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins evened the score Saturday against the Cleveland Monsters with a 3-1 victory.
The win followed Cleveland’s 4-0 victory over the Penguins a day earlier in a two-game battle on consecutive nights atn Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (14-10-3-1) raced out to a two-goal lead Saturday and hung on until the very end. Angello’s two goals were supported by two assists from Kevin Czuczman.
Angello’s first tally came at 9:20 of the first period when he powered his way down the left wing and snuck the puck short-side on Veini Vehviläinen. His second goal arrived at 8:40 of the middle frame. After his initial shot was blocked by the Monsters’ defense, Angello gathered his own rebound and wired it to the back of the net, giving the Penguins a 2-0 lead.
The Monsters’ lone goal came on the power play, as a Dillon Simpson slap shot navigated its way in at 14:25 of the second period.
Tokarski had multiple sequences in the third period that required consecutive saves, including a double denial of Paul Bittner midway through the final frame of regulation.
Thomas Di Pauli sealed the victory for the Penguins with an empty-net goal with only 54.1 seconds left in the game.
On Friday, the Penguins out-possessed Cleveland in the first and third periods, but were unable to capitalize on goalie Matīss Kivlenieks.
Kevin Stenlund scored on a one-timer at 14:08 while Cleveland was on a two-man advantage and the Monsters extended their lead a little over halfway through the second period. Casey DeSmith turned aside Justin Scott on a mini-break after a turnover in the Penguins’ zone and then followed that up by denying Jakob Lilja on the rebound. However, Lilja scooped up the puck for a third attempt that slid past the Penguins’ goaltender and in.
Kivlenieks made a flurry of stops on the Penguins after they pulled the goalie for an extra attacker late in the final frame. Eventually, Marko Daňo found the empty net for the Monsters, sealing the 4-0 win.
Kivlenieks was awarded a 23-save shutout, while DeSmith posted 26 saves on 29 shots in defeat.