Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 36-13-4-2, riding six-game streak; Koivunen AHL Player of Month

Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton entered March with a 36-13-4-2 record and momentum, the club announcing a six-game point streak while ranking in the AHL top five in goals for per game (3.29) and goals against per game (2.55). Ville Koivunen capped February with league recognition, being named AHL Player of the Month for February on the team’s recent roster of announcements.

The Penguins claimed a 3-2 win at Cleveland on Feb. 27, a result preserved in an automated recap from The Rink Live/Textbot that lists Atley Calvert scoring at 6:44 of the first, Ville Koivunen scoring at 7:29, Luca Del Bel Belluz pulling Cleveland within one at 31:15, Aidan McDonough restoring a two-goal lead at 39:37, and Guillaume Richard closing the gap at 41:15. The automated piece noted the club “now has four successive wins” after that game; the team’s March 3 release is the authoritative status heading into March and records the stretch as a six-game point streak.

Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton faced Springfield at home with a chance to sweep the season series, the March 3 weekly preview noting the Penguins were 3-0-0-0 against the Thunderbirds that season and had won nine of their last 10 matchups. The release also pointed to roster disruption on the Springfield side: Springfield’s leading scorer Matt Luff was traded on Feb. 24 and NHL veteran Mathieu Joseph was reassigned by St. Louis three days later.

The week produced mixed results. The Penguins forced overtime but fell to the Syracuse Crunch, 3-2, in an overtime decision reported on the team site for March 6; the boxscore lead line begins “BOXSCORE SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins fell in overtime to the Syracuse Crunch, 3-2, on Friday night at Upstate...” The March 3 preview had warned that Syracuse carried momentum of its own, noting that since dropping a 4-1 contest to Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton on Jan. 31 the Crunch had gone 9-1-0-0 and scored 40 goals.

Roster movement accompanied the stretch run. The Penguins published a March 5 item that Pittsburgh reassigned defenseman Emil Pieniniemi to Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton. Other transaction headlines on the team site include Penguins Recall Brickey, Renwick and Urdahl, Penguins Reassign Four to Wheeling, and Penguins Reassign Ryan McAllister to Nailers; full details on those specific transactions are available through the individual team transaction posts.

The combination of league honors for Koivunen and the club’s Top-5 offensive and defensive rates frames Wilkes‑Barre/Scranton’s bid to maintain pace in the standings. The March 3 team release, republished on OurSports Central, positioned the Penguins as a team riding streaks and awards into a busy March schedule that included the Springfield home game and a season-closing trip to Syracuse.