WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The Hartford Wolf Pack jumped out to a four-goal lead and held on to defeat the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
Hartford dominated the first 20 minutes of the hockey, outshooting the Penguins, 12-3, and would also hold the edge on the scoreboard. The Wolf Pack broke the scoreless tie at 11:57, needing only five seconds on their first power play for Oscar Lindberg to tip a Chris Mueller centering feed into the net. 
Mike Kostka gave the Wolf Pack an important 2-0 lead just 1:06 before the intermission with a wrist shot from right point that got by a well-screened Jeff Zatkoff.
Conor Allen pushed the margin to three with a power play tally midway through the second frame before Chris Bourque backhanded home his own rebound to make the score 4-0 for Hartford with 2:57 remaining in the period.
The Penguins struck for their first goal just 17 seconds later when Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond’s backhand shot went wide, but Josh Archibald was left alone on the doorstep to tap in his fifth goal of the season.
With Wilkes-Barre/Scranton skating 5-on-4, Jayson Megna pulled his team within two at 5:30 of the third, firing a low wrist shot past the blocker of Hartford netminder Jeff Malcolm.
Bourque sealed the win when he found the empty net with 1:16 left to play for his second goal of the contest.
The Wolf Pack outshot the Penguins, 40-13, in the match. Zatkoff’s record fell to 14-12-4 on the season as he stopped 35-of-39 shots. Hartford’s Malcolm made 11 saves on 13 shots to raise his record to 6-3-0.

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