Hayes Scores Twice as Penguins Reach 40 Wins, Top Laval 3-1

Forty wins is the number that separates legitimate playoff threats from the rest of the AHL field, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton punched through that benchmark Saturday night with a 3-1 victory over the Laval Rocket at Mohegan Arena.

Avery Hayes was the engine. The forward scored twice, giving the Penguins exactly the kind of individual output that makes this roster function as a consistent winning machine down the stretch. His first goal opened the scoring and shifted the game's momentum firmly toward the home side. His second provided the insurance. Aidan McDonough contributed the middle marker, spreading the production across the lineup in a way that has defined Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's ability to generate offense from multiple sources.

What made the performance complete was what happened at the other end. Sergei Murashov stopped 33 of 34 shots, absorbing a heavy workload and limiting Laval to a single conversion across 60 minutes. That conversion came courtesy of Alex Belzile, but beyond that tally, the Rocket found little room to operate. Against a Laval club still pressing for playoff positioning, Murashov's consistency was the difference between a tightly contested result and a comfortable one.

The win came on Star Wars Night at Mohegan Arena, giving a lively crowd something worth celebrating beyond the theme. At 40 wins, the Penguins have established themselves as one of the conference's benchmark clubs, carrying the kind of record that shapes favorable seeding and first-round matchup advantages as the schedule tilts toward April.

Hayes' production in a high-stakes spot is precisely the signal this roster needed. Combined with Murashov's reliability in net and a defensive structure that held a dangerous Laval attack to one goal, the Penguins enter the final weeks of the regular season with the standings leverage to prove it.