PROSPECTS CHALLENGE NOTEBOOK – SEPT. 14 vs. OTTAWA

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Ottawa Senators threw their best punch, sometimes literally, but it was the Pittsburgh Penguins’ prospects standing tall at the end of a 4-2 win in the 2024 Prospects Challenge in Buffalo, New York.

The victory improved the Penguins to 2-0 at this year’s event, surviving a fiery, scrum-filled exhibition on Saturday afternoon.

“Today, the game probably doesn’t look like it was a game. It was more of a fight,” said Penguins forward Vasily Ponomarev. “They tried to show their game, but we played the game how it should look like.”

Sergei Murashov earned the win by playing the whole game, but the Russian netminder didn’t face a shot until 12:44 of the first period. He was tested a handful of times before the first intermission to keep the game in a 0-0 tie.

The Penguins got on the board four and a half minutes into the middle frame on a wicked shot from the slot by Jack Beck. Signed to an AHL deal by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in June, Beck took a pass from Atley Calvert and then pulled the trigger as he received a big, open-ice hit. This led to the first of many spirited post-whistle kerfuffles, the next of which was a shoving match between 5-foot-10 Avery Hayes and 6-foot-7 Gabriel Eliasson.

“I thought they responded well,” said Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Kirk MacDonald when asked about his team’s reaction to the increase in extra-curricular activities. “They had to battle through some, I don’t know if ‘adversity’ is the right word, but they had to battle through some stuff. The guys did a really good job with it. The game was teetering on bubbling over a few times, but the guys did a good job of sticking to it.”

Murashov found himself under siege in the second period with tons of traffic and action surrounding his crease. He was finally beaten during a net-front scramble at 9:29 of the second period. An uncooperative, bouncing puck was giving both teams a hard time with the Pens unable to clear and the Sens unable to settle it down. Eventually, Ottawa’s Matthew Buckley took a whack at it, which careened off of a Pittsburgh defenseman and through Murashov.

Rutger McGroarty and Finn Harding slickly set up Isaac Belliveau for a go-ahead goal while the teams were skating at four-on-four, but Ottawa’s response came quickly in the form of a far-corner snipe by Stephen Halliday.

With 54.1 seconds left in the second period, Pittsburgh seized a lead they never relinquished. Beck bumped a pass from the goal line into the slot for Ponomarev, who rifled a low shot to the back of the net. Calvert picked up his second assist of the game on the power-play goal.

Much like their win to open the Prospects Challenge on Friday, the Penguins played a smothering third period. They allowed just three shots in the final frame. Murashov, who weathered the mightiest storm during the second period, finished with 16 saves.

“As he game went on, in the third period, we just took over,” MacDonald said, “because we stuck with it and battled through some of the slop that was going on.”

Avery Hayes ultimately added an insurance marker with an empty-net goal with a half-minute to go in regulation.

The Penguins will look to close out the 2024 Prospects Challenge with a perfect record when they face the hosts, the Buffalo Sabres, on Monday night at 5:00 p.m.

FINER DETAILS:

• Murashov now has a .920 save percentage in his one-and-a-half games in Buffalo. He was drawing a lot of interest from pundits before this tournament started, and as people get more in-person viewings of the Russian goalie, they’ve catching onto Murashov’s willingness to play the puck.

Murashov gave a ton of credit to his coaches in Russia, Rashit Davydov and Igor Yakubovsky, for helping develop this facet of his game.

• Beau Jelsma left the game with an apparent upper-body injury. The captain of the Barrie Colts did not return, and MacDonald said he did not have an update on Jelsma’s status after the game.

• Jelma’s injury opened the door for Beck to slide up the lineup, and he made the most of his opportunity. In addition to his two-point outing on Saturday, Beck has been making smaller, subtle plays throughout the Penguins’ two games that have played a role in their 2-0 start. After the game, MacDonald was quick to praise both Beck and another two-point performer on Saturday, Atley Calvert.

“Him and Calvert are two guys that are listed on the fourth line, but probably aren’t fourth-line players, right?” MacDonald said. “They’ve been good soldiers, so to speak, and have accepted where they are and have gone to work. They’ve been great. They’ve made a lot of plays. Beck got the opportunity to move up the lineup then [Jelsma] went down, and then made some more plays with (Tristan) Broz and (Ville) Koivunen. It was a great goal he scored today.”

• Hayes and McGroarty could have easily had their second-straight multi-point games to start the Prospects Challenge if not for a massive save by Senators goalie Michael Simpson midway through the second period. Hayes thread the needle to McGroarty on a two-on-one rush, only for Simpson to shut it down.