SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins extended their winning streak to four games and goalie Matt Murray collected his fourth shutout of the season as they blanked the Springfield Falcons, 5-0, on Friday at MassMutual Center.
The Penguins opened up the unofficial start to their second half of the season with a trio of goals in the first period. 
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got the scoring started at 6:54 of the first frame while on its first power play of the match. Bryan Rust teed up a quick shot from the blueline that was stopped by Falcons goalie Oscar Dansk, but Jayson Megna collected the rebound and backhanded home his 13th goal of the season.
Tom Kostopoulos doubled the Penguins lead with 6:41 remaining in the period as he completed a 2-on-1 rush with Nick Drazenovic, lifting a wrist shot to the top of the net from the right circle.
The Penguins struck for a second time on the man-advantage and made the score 3-0 when Taylor Chorney’s long shot from the far point skirted through traffic in front and found twine with 2:40 left until the intermission.
In the second period, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton stretched its lead to 5-0 thanks to some quick scoring from a pair of rookie forwards. Conor Sheary gathered his team-leading 14th goal of the year at 8:55 after a backdoor pass from the left circle by Derrick Pouliot was deposited to the top corner by the left-winger.
Just over a minute later, Bryan Rust stickhandled by a Falcons defenseman and sneaked a shot under the left arm of Dansk and the Penguins built a lead of five. Dansk exited the game having made 12 saves on 17 shots over 30:09 of play. Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton netminder Scott Munroe would stop all 10 shots he faced in relief.
Murray turned aside all 28 shots he faced for his fourth win in a row and sixth victory in his last seven starts. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finished 2-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
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