Bill Zonnon scored in his professional debut, Sergei Murashov made 24 saves and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins opened the Atlantic Division finals with a 2-0 win over Springfield on Tuesday evening at Mohegan Arena.
The teams hit the ice for Game 2 of the best-of-five on Thursday.
Zonnon, Pittsburgh’s first-round pick (22nd overall) in the 2025 NHL Draft, backhanded a shot past Georgii Romanov to break a scoreless deadlock with 10:31 left in the second period. Zonnon joined the Penguins last week following the completion of his junior campaign with Blainville-Boisbriand of the QMJHL, where he notched 46 points in 35 games this season.
Rookie Tanner Howe scored his first playoff goal on a breakaway 7:19 into the third after stealing the puck at the defensive blue line and taking it the other way.
Murashov (4-1) now owns a .947 save percentage in his five playoff starts for the Penguins.
Romanov (5-2) made 23 saves in the loss, but has still allowed two goals or fewer in each of his seven starts this postseason.
(Wilkes-Barre/Scranton leads series, 1-0)
Game 1 – Tue., May 12 – W-B/SCRANTON 2, Springfield 0
Game 2 – Thu., May 14 – Springfield at W-B/Scranton, 7:05
Game 3 – Tue., May 19 – W-B/Scranton at Springfield, 7:05
*Game 4 – Thu., May 21 – W-B/Scranton at Springfield, 7:05
*Game 5 – Sat., May 23 – Springfield at W-B/Scranton, 6:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern