Wilkes Weekly: AHL regular season enters final week

CLEVELAND, OH - FEBRUARY 27: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins goaltender Joel Blomqvist (30) in goal during the second period of the American Hockey League game between the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Cleveland Monsters on February 27, 2026, at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins accomplished the task of clinching second place in the Atlantic Division. It comes with a nice bonus of sitting out the best-of-three first round playoffs that tripped them up the prior two seasons. They’ll await the highest seed that emerges from the 3/6 and 4/5 series, with the lowest seeded team playing top-ranked Providence.

The Penguins had a 1-0-1 previous week, dealing with a few key forwards called up to the NHL. WBSPenguins.com with the recaps:

Thursday, Apr. 9 – PENGUINS 5 at Bridgeport 6 (OT)
In its last-ever regular-season visit to Bridgeport, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton let a three-goal, third-period lead slip away as the Islanders stole their first win of the season series. Daniel Russell and Mikhail Ilyin both picked up assists in their AHL debuts, while Finn Harding, Tanner Howe, Gabe Klassen, Harrison Brunicke and Atley Calvert provided the goals.

Saturday, Apr. 11 – GANDY DANCERS 4 vs. Cleveland 1
It required a proletarian effort, but the Steamtown Gandy Dancers rolled up their sleeves and muscled their way to an intense victory. Calvert conjured the only goal through the first 52 minutes of action, which led to a frenzied finish. Aidan McDonough tallied twice around Cleveland’s lone goal, three strikes that came in 1:50 of game time. Howe lobbed in an empty netter to improve the *Penguins* to 3-0-1-0 in its Community Night presented by Visit Luzerne County.

Sergei Murashov gave up six goals on 28 shots in the Bridgeport game – on a day he started on the NHL roster in New Jersey before being assigned back to the AHL once it was deemed Stuart Skinner was good to go. Joel Blomqvist picked up the win against Cleveland, stopping 25/26 shots.

A lot of fresh faces and young talent have rolled into town, including most recently a 2025 third round draft pick defenseman Brady Peddle. Peddle joins with recent draftees Ryan Miller and Quinn Beauchesne on AHL tryout deals for the rest of the season. Neither Miller nor Beauchesne has appeared in a game yet, but with three meaningless games coming up in the next four days there could be opportunities to give these players a chance to get into the lineup.

Some other players on NHL contracts have made their way to Wilkes, Harrison Brunicke has been back after his junior career wrapped up in a first series loss in the WHL and been used in a key role now with Wilkes. Mikhail Ilyin’s KHL season is over and he’s managed two assists in his first two AHL games. Melvin Fernstrom has also been over in the AHL for a while coming in and out of the lineup.

Here was the lineup in the last game, WBS had to deal with Joona Koppanen, Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen and Avery Hayes playing out the stretch in Pittsburgh. Rafael Harvey-Pinard got an NHL game too but did not miss any games in the minor league. With the NHL playoffs about to begin, all five of these forwards have been assigned back to Wilkes today, presumably to get them ready for an AHL playoff run. Other than the injured Tristan Broz, who has been out since the beginning of March, WBS is locked and loaded.

Wilkes has three games to finish out their 72-game season, all at home. Tonight they play Hershey, a team that should be desperate to clinch a playoff spot (and loaded up themselves by getting Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ilya Protas and Clay Stephenson back from the NHL Capitals). Next up is Bridgeport on Friday, a team that has already clinched a playoff spot but is a potential future playoff opponent. Finally the year ends up with a game against Rochester, 5th place in the North Division, who likely will have clinched a playoff spot by the time they play Wilkes-Barre on Saturday.

In a way, WBS this week will be in the same situation as their NHL affiliate was this past week, being unable to move in the standings and focused on the playoffs. They (likely) won’t go to the extremes of resting all their key players, though sensibly there’s logic in fluid lineups to give youngsters a shot while keeping the key players ready for the playoffs. Those playoffs won’t start for a little bit in Wilkes-Barre who have earned the luxury of some rest and time to prepare for whatever the second round might throw at them (which would be a pretty good Charlotte team, barring an upset).