WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins battled back from a two-goal deficit, defeating the Springfield Thunderbirds, 6-3, on Wednesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. 
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (15-7-1-1) tallied five unanswered goals in the final two frames to earn its second win in a row. Rookies Daniel Sprong (2G-0A) and Zach Aston-Reese (0G-3A) led the offensive onslaught for the Penguins, and Patrick McGrath (1G-0A) scored the second AHL goal of his career and first on home ice.
Andrey Pedan put the home team on board first at 14:55 of the opening frame, but the Thunderbirds evened things up less than two minutes on a point shot by Maxime Fortunus. Springfield pulled ahead, 2-1, just 90 seconds later when Maxim Mamin used slick stickhandling in a tight space at Casey DeSmith’s netfront and lifted the puck over the goaltender.
The Thunderbirds’ lead increased to 3-1 at 8:43 of the middle frame when a strange bounce victimized DeSmith and the Penguins. Chase Balisy attempted a cross-slot pass that ricocheted off of a Penguins defenseman’s boot and then snuck through DeSmith.
Unfazed by the inopportune puck luck, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton took over from there.
The Penguins’ run of five unanswered goals started with Greg McKegg scooped up a rebound floating around Samuel Montembeault for his first goal with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at 12:50 of the second period. Less than three minutes later, Sprong scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season by ripping a blistering one-timer to tie the game, 3-3.
The Penguins regained the lead at 5:07 of the final period as Sprong notched his team-leading 14th goal of the year. Following a wonderful forecheck, Aston-Reese set-up Ryan Haggerty 8:24 into the third stanza for a tally that extended Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s lead to 5-3.
McGrath, a Shavertown, Pennsylvania native, put the game away with an empty-netter with just 1:07 left in regulation, bringing the game to its final score of 6-3.
DeSmith turned aside 24 of the 27 shots he faced in his first game back with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after a two-week stint in Pittsburgh. Montembeault denied 30 of 35 for Springfield.
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