WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – On a night of returns, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Binghamton Devils in overtime, 4-3, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza on Saturday night.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (26-12-3-1) saw Jean-Sébastien Dea and Tom Kostopoulos tally points in their return to the lineup while Zach Aston-Reese recorded his second game-winner in the last three games.
Fresh down on reassignment from Pittsburgh, Dea put the Penguins up, 1-0, at 10:29 of the first period when he took a pass from Ryan Haggerty in the neutral zone, turned on the jets to beat the Devils defense, and deposit the puck bar-down over Mackenzie Blackwood.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got the second tally of the night on a beautiful drop pass from Gage Quinney back into the slot for Kevin Czuczman 11:59 into the second frame.
The Devils used a pair of power play goals in the second period to pull even with the Penguins, starting with a man advantage marker from Nick Lappin 2:10 after Czuczman’s tally. Lappin scored again on the power play at 18:33 of the second period as the Devils also utilized a drop pass from Bracken Kearns back into the slot for Lappin.
The Penguins appeared to have found a late game-winning goal when Garrett Wilson took a lovely feed from Kostopoulos that Wilson rocketed to the near-side top corner behind Blackwood. However, 35 seconds later, Kearns redirected a shot off the post that then ricocheted off of Tristan Jarry’s back and across the goal line, tying the game, 3-3, and forcing overtime.
It took most of the back-and-forth overtime period, but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got the game-winner from the stick of Aston-Reese at 3:28 of the extra frame. Aston-Reese won a battle below the Devils’ goal line, Teddy Blueger dished him the puck right back. Aston-Reese wrapped around the blue paint and put it behind a floundering Blackwood.
Aston-Reese’s game-winner secured the Penguins’ third win of the season against the Devils, all of which have been decided by identical 4-3 scores.
Jarry made 26 saves in his first game back with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton since Oct. 28. Blackwood was dealt the overtime loss despite also recording 26 stops.
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