WBS Game 1 Recap: AHL Penguins lay an egg, now face elimination

You can’t afford to lose Game 1 in a best-of-three and Wilkes-Barre gave up the first five goals last night in their eventual 5-2 loss to Lehigh Valley

Last year the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins lost Game 1 at home of the best-of-three opening round to Lehigh Valley and were quickly bounced in Game 2, ending a promising playoff for the AHL Pens just as it started.

Sad to say, history has quickly halfway repeated itself in a hurry in the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs. WBS fell behind 5-0 against Lehigh Valley in Game 1 at home last night before scoring two goals in the last five minutes to make the score look a little more respectable, but the result is the same as last year. The Penguins now face elimination on the road and are left picking up the pieces wondering how this has happened.

Here were the lines:

One name you don’t see above is Emil Bemstrom. Pittsburgh GM Kyle Dubas announced the forward is out for the rest of the season due to injury. Big loss at this time of year.

Joel Blomqvist started the game in net for Wilkes, but he wouldn’t finish it. Backup Taylor Gauthier led the team back on the ice to start the third period and took over. Blomqvist wasn’t seen on the bench. Head coach Kirk MacDonald confirmed after the game that Blomqvist was injured on a night where he stopped 23 out of the 26 shots flung his way. Gauthier would give up two goals in the third period. In tough timing, arguably WBS’s best and most consistent goalie this season, Filip Larsson, is currently injured.

Avery Hayes broke the shutout attempt for Lehigh Valley and Gabe Klassen tacked on the other goal for the Penguins. Hayes’ goal was a nice one to finish some sharp passes by Tristan Broz and Sam Poulin. Wilkes’ first goal came far too little and too late down 5-0 and only having 4:54 to play.

Rookie Tristan Broz didn’t pull any punches after the game, according to Pensburgh alum Tony Androck (which, let’s mention- follow and support him in his journey of very quality minor league hockey coverage).

It’s not a good look to lay an egg in Game 1 of any playoff series, but multiply that a thousand-fold for a best-of-three series. There’s such little margin of error to kiss a game away like the Pens did last night. The players can recognize and own that with very honest post-game comments, but how they respond and come together in the next day or so will be crucial. Pittsburgh management will surely be watching to see who is rising to the occasion and who is failing to do so. After night one, there can’t be many, if any, in the first category.

Wilkes heads over to Allentown on Friday night, in a must-win game. They’ll be looking to change up the script from last season and extend the series to the rubber match in Game 3. Something has to change or WBS will be done for the season way too soon for a second season in a row.