The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are headed off to the Calder Cup playoffs following a 3-0 shutout victory over the Cleveland Monsters on Saturday night, Taylor Gauthier’s first in the AHL. 

The season-defining win, the Penguins’ 40th, came one day after they were defeated by the Hershey Bears 4-2 on Friday.

WBS finished the campaign with a 40-24-7-1 record, the first time the franchise collected 40 wins since the 2017-18 season and the 14th time the Penguins won at least 40 in a single season.

Ahead of their upcoming playoff series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, here’s a recap of WBS’s final two regular-season games.

Bears 4 Penguins 2

Following a loss to the Providence Bruins on Wednesday, the Penguins’ winless streak reached two in a row following a 4-2 loss to the Bears on Friday. 

The Atlantic Division’s top team jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 9:41 of the first period before WBS tied the contest up at 1-1 at 16:08 thanks to Zach Gallant’s second goal of the year. 

It was a milestone goal for several players, including Gallant, while Jack Beck earned his second assist of the campaign, and Gabe Klassen picked up his first. Meanwhile, the Penguins found the back of the net once on just three shots in the period.

The Bears regained their one-goal lead with the only tally in the second at 5:17 before extending the score to 3-1 at 12:23 of the third.

Down, but not out, Beck scored his first AHL goal at 16:01 to cut the deficit to one goal again, thanks to feeds from Klassen and Nate Clurman. 

However, Hershey sealed the win with an empty net goal at 18:59. 

Neither team scored on the power play, each going 0-for-3, while the home team dominated in shots, 37-21, limiting the Penguins to just five shots in the third period. 

Between the pipes, Joel Blomqvist made 33 saves, while Hunter Shepard picked up his 23rd win of the season thanks to 19 saves.

Penguins 3 Monsters 0

As mentioned, Gauthier picked up a 32-save shutout on Saturday, his second-career AHL shutout, having earned one last season with WBS. 

The 24-year-old from Calgary, AB, is now 10-5-7 in the minors with a .908 SV% in 25 games. While with the Wheeling Nailers this season in the ECHL, he’s 18-10-2 with a .928 SV%. 

He was busy for the entirety of the contest, stopping 10 shots in the first, six in the second, and 16 in the third. Meanwhile, the Penguins had another questionable game regarding shots, registering just eight in the first and the second before only three in the final period.

However, that didn’t slow down the WBS attack. Neither team scored in the first before Dan Renouf netted his second of the year at 13:56 of the middle period. Tristian Broz and Ville Koivunen set up his lamplighter. 

Despite only three shots on goal in the third, the Penguins converted on two of them. First, Avery Hayes scored his 23rd of the season at 13:17, thanks to Broz’s second helper of the day.

Then, 19 seconds later, Joona Koppanen fired home his eighth of the campaign with assists going to Vasily Ponomarev and Renouf. 

Regarding special teams, WBS didn’t score on their only power-play opportunity, while the Monsters went 0-for-4.

After a relatively quiet game, with eight total penalties, things boiled over at 17:28 when the teams combined for 13 penalties, all of which were ten-minute misconducts, following a low hip check on Harrison Brunicke that led to everyone on the ice engaging in a scrum.

First star Gauthierfinished with 32 saves,while Evan Gardner was on the hook for the loss with 16 saves.

WBS next begins their best-of-three-game series against the Phantoms on Wednesday, April 23 at 7:05 pm.