BREAKAWAY - Issue 13 - Game 27 - May 5, 2021 by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

COVER

Meet the team behind your team. Michael Moreland, DO Hans Olsen, MD Mark Pallis, DO David Ross, MD Geisinger is the official sports medicine and orthopaedics team that helps keep the Penguins on their skates. Because big dreams need all the support they can get. Learn more at geisinger.org/BigDreams.

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES 6-8: PAGE 10: PAGE TOC 11: PAGE 13: PAGES 16-17:

COVER STORY: Alex D’Orio Opponents Roster Penguins Roster This Day In Penguins History Declassified - Chase Berger

BREAKAWAY: Issue 13 / May 1, 2021

ON THE COVER Alex D’Orio’s path to WilkesBarre/Scranton has been anything but a straight line. After starting the season in Pittsburgh on the NHL club’s taxi squad, the goaltending prospect made his way to Wheeling, before eventually earning a recall to the AHL Pens. Read up on D’Orio and how he’s been able to carve out his niche in NEPA this season in our COVER STORY.

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2020-2021 SEASON

Dear Fans, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2020-21 American Hockey League season, the latest chapter in a tradition of excellence that can be traced back more than eight decades.

SCOTT HOWSON PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

The last several months have been difficult in so many ways, and this season is going to look and feel different than what we are all used to. But we are looking forward to being back on the ice and continuing our role as the top development league for nearly all of the players, coaches, executives, trainers, broadcasters and officials in the National Hockey League today. Since we first dropped the puck in 1936, generations of our great fans have been able to cheer on future superstars and Stanley Cup champions, as well as more than 100 eventual members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. On behalf of all of our clubs across North America, thank you all for your continuing support of the AHL. Sincerely,

SCOTT HOWSON PRESIDENT & CEO | AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

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D’ORIO DEVELOPING INTO SOLID PRESENCE IN PENS NET

By Nick Hart

After the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ 6-3 win over the Hershey Bears on Sunday, head coach J.D. Forrest and team captain Josh Currie both used the same word in their postgame press conferences. “Fantastic.”

But when using that word, they weren’t referencing the team’s effort or the catharsis of beating their in-state rival. Independently of one another, both Forrest and Currie used that adjective to describe the play of their goaltender, Alex D’Orio. D’Orio turned aside 26 shots in the Penguins’ victory, a triumph that was in part emblematic of his development this season. The rookie netminder has earned the trust of his teammates in his short stay with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton so far this season, but this opportunity didn’t arrive by happenstance for D’Orio. He’s had to earn it. “Our conversations have remained constant, with a growth mindset at the forefront,” said the Penguins goaltending development coach, Andy Chiodo. “We’ve been reiterating that we have to earn everything through practice, through our performance in games. If there’s an opportunity to be had, we’re constantly reiterating that you have to earn it.” D’Orio started this season as the second goaltender on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ taxi squad. He remembers that segment of the season fondly, referencing the positive impact of being able to observe the NHLers work habits first-hand, but the reality is those first two months kept him idle while everyone else was playing. Then, after close to a year without seeing game action, D’Orio was suddenly thrown into the fire as the Wheeling Nailers’ starter in the ECHL. The inactivity had D’Orio’s puck-stopping ability in a virtual power outage. For the first few games in Wheeling, he was routinely giving up four or more goals a game. His stats took a nosedive, and a lesser athlete may have let his confidence follow in that downward trajectory. “That’s when ‘Earn It’ was born,” Chiodo said. “His first few

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games were ADSfar from his standard, and we had a conversation. You can’t come to Wilkes-Barre until you earn your way from Wheeling. You can’t get to the NHL until you earn your way out of the American Hockey League. “I think with that thought in mind, Alex really shifted his focus. He got in the present, he started stopping pucks, one thing leads to another, and it snowballs.” In his next five games with the Nailers, D’Orio posted a 1.80 goals against average and .931 save percentage, including his first professional shutout. That earned his a call-up to WilkesBarre/Scranton, where he has since procured a 2.59 goals against average and his first AHL win. Unfortunately, that win-loss record doesn’t reflect just how solid D’Orio has been in his first extended look at the AHL level. D’Orio’s agility and athleticism has kept the Penguins in a lot of games, bringing them to down-to-the-wire finishes only not to be rewarded in the end. If you think the lack of victories would discourage the youngster, you’d be dead wrong. It hasn’t fazed him at all. In fact, he’s been embracing that adversity as part of his development. “I’ve been working on letting go, mentally,” D’Orio said. “Things are going to happen, that’s hockey. I have to keep building and keep going for the rest of the game. A couple goals or a bad bounce can’t shake me. That’s a lot of my focus this season.” Which brings us back to Sunday’s game. Played at a dizzying

Continued ON Page 8 BREAKAWAY 2020-21 - Page 7

Continued From Page 7 pace, the two I-81 rivals traded goals throughout the first 40 minutes. D’Orio surrendered a power-play goal, a shorthanded goal, and a goal that fooled him when a shot went wide but took ads a volcanic bounce off the boards to an open player at the unprotected side of the net. Right in line with his mental objective, D’Orio shook off those three goals against held firm when he was under fire in the third period. Hershey took 16 shots in the final frame in an attempt to mount a comeback. Many of those bids came during a pair of Bears power plays. Two of those shots were breakaways. D’Orio steered away all 16 to keep his team in the lead and lock down the win. After so many close calls that didn’t go D’Orio’s way, Chiodo is hoping to see that successful third period performance springboard the 22-year-old to another stratosphere of promising play. “For Alex to be able to take a step in the third period like that and rise and elevate his game, I think it’s a testament to his character and his ability to be a gamer,” Chiodo said. “A period like that, it’s a marker that you’re working on the right things, that your game is in a good place, that you’ve got some gamer in you. This was the marker telling you that you’re capable.” Where D’Orio goes from here in his development is yet to be seen, but whatever come next, he knows that he’ll have to earn it. And that’s a mentality he’s fully embraced.

D’ORIO CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY IN STYLE D’Orio blew out the candles on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday night, stopping a career-best 40 shots to lead the Penguins to a 2-1 overtime victory. “It was the first time for me when I was playing on my birthday, so it was pretty special.” The victory was the second in a row for D’Orio after an impressive win over the Hershey Bears earlier in the week. “We’ve been playing well for the last two to three weeks, and even if the result wasn’t there, all of the guys stayed focused and we know what we were capable of. For the last two games we got the rsult that we wanted.”

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BEARS RECORD 18-6-2-0 HEAD COACH Spencer Carbery ASST. COACHES Scott Allen, Patrick Wellar NHL Affiliate Washington Capitals

# Pos. Player 30 G Zach Fucale 31 G Pheonix Copley

# 2 4 5 6 7 10 13 14 15 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 32 33 34 36 39 40 42

GP MP GA GAA W-L-OT SO 10 605:42 18 1.78 8-2-0 1 12 723:07 32 2.66 8-3-1 1

Pos. Player GP D Tyler Nanne 1 D Reece Willcox 23 D Cameron Schilling 24 D Lucas Johansen 5 D Macoy Erkamps 3 LW Shanne Gersich 26 LW Mason Morelli 9 RW Axel-Jonsson-Fjallby 26 C Connor McMichael 26 C Philippe Maillet 11 RW Damien Riat 26 LW Joe Snively 23 LW Kale Kessy 14 RW Brett Leason 26 C Riley Sutter 22 D Will Graber 15 LW Matt Moulson 26 D Alex Alexeyev 5 C Brian Pinho 10 D Martin Fehervary 21 D Andrew Nielsen 3 D Eddie Wittchow 12 RW Kody Clark 19 LW Blake Pietila 6 C Aliaksei Protas 9 D Rob O’Gara 23

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G 0 0 3 0 0 6 0 7 10 4 2 5 1 6 0 1 10 1 8 3 0 0 7 0 1 1

A PTS PIM +/0 0 0 -1 4 4 4 4 12 15 24 10 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 -3 4 10 20 -1 3 3 10 4 5 12 8 4 8 18 14 3 12 16 4 7 6 8 12 2 10 15 8 5 3 4 79 3 8 14 6 7 7 7 10 5 3 4 10 6 9 19 10 4 4 5 0 4 4 12 6 9 13 16 29 11 0 0 4 -1 2 2 41 4 2 9 10 -2 1 1 8 E 3 4 2 2 3 4 16 E

# 31 33 38

WBS RECORD HEAD COACH Assistant Coach NHL Affiliate Pos. G G G

10-11-3-2 J.D. Forrest Kevin Porter Pittsburgh Penguins

Player Max Lagace Alex D’Orio Tommy Nappier

GP MP GA GAA W-L-OT SO 8 486:30 17 2.10 4-3-1 0 9 538:54 20 2.23 4-3-1 0 1 57:28 5 5.22 0-1-0 0

# Pos. Player GP 2 D Dylan MacPherson 10 4 D Zach Trotman 8 6 D Billy Sweezey 16 7 D Kevin Czuczman 22 8 D Will Reilly 21 10 LW Drew O’Connor 14 12 D Jesper Lindgren 0 13 RW Jan Drozg 24 14 LW Justin Almeida 8 15 C Jordy Bellerive 23 17 LW Anthony Angello 6 18 C Josh Currie 18 20 RW Kasper Bjorkqvist 0 21 LW Luke Stevens 11 24 D Josh Maniscalco 7 26 RW Zach Nastasiuk 20 28 D Cam Lee 25 34 C Chase Berger 25 36 C Felix Robert 22 37 LW Sam Miletic 17 39 RW Kyle Olson 23 44 C Jonathan Gruden 26 47 RW Nick Schilkey 26 55 D Jon Lizotte 26 57 D Pierre-Olivier Joseph 16 59 C Tim Schaller 26

G 0 0 0 0 2 6 0 5 2 9 3 7 0 0 0 1 1 4 4 1 2 4 5 3 1 9

A PTS PIM +/1 1 6 3 2 2 4 -3 2 2 15 -2 3 3 4 -4 3 5 19 -7 8 14 10 -2 0 0 0 E 2 7 4 -2 0 2 0 -4 4 13 38 -7 2 5 9 E 11 18 15 -9 0 0 0 E 0 0 4 -4 0 0 4 2 2 3 2 -8 9 10 8 -3 3 6 12 -14 6 10 10 1 2 3 2 -4 4 6 15 -2 6 10 4 4 11 16 4 -14 6 9 16 -4 9 10 22 -11 6 14 12 -9

BREAKAWAY 2020-21 - Page 11

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THIS DATE IN PENGUINS HISTORY MAY 1, 2001 - Milan Kraft (pictured) scored at 1249 of overtime to give the Penguins a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phantoms in Game Six of the Mid-Atlantic Division Final, ousting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s in-state rivals from the postseason. Kraft and Toby Petersen recorded regulation goals for the Penguins, and Rich Parent stopped 27 shots for the victory in net. MAY 1, 2005 - Kris Beech and Michel Ouellet record third period goals to lead the Penguins to a 2-1 wi over the Binghamton Senators, and closed out the East Division Semifinal series, 4-2. The win was the fourth straight for the Penguins, who dropped the first two contests to the heavilyfavored Sens. Andy Chiodo stopped 30 shots in goal for WilkesBarre. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU: Right wing Eric Meloche (5/1/76) spent parts of four seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (200004) posting 138 points (61+77) in 249 regular season games. He also suited up in 61 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins during that time, posting 17 posts (8+9). Meloche split the next three years between the Philadelphia Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers and Norfolk Admirals, before spending four years playing in Germany…Center Frederick Gaudreau (5/1/93) appeared in six games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier this year, posting four points (1+3). He has an identical points line in 13 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins this season as well. He joined the organization this year after spending six years with the Nashville Predators/Milwaukee Admirals.

BREAKAWAY 2020-21 - Page 13

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NAME: Chase Berger Hometown: St. Louis, MO

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Family: Cindy and Dan (mom and dad); Jack, Jimmy, Scotty, Christian

Pet: Two Yellow Labs - Riley and Scout What Age Did You Start Skating: 2 years old Favorite NHL Team Growing Up: St. Louis Blues Favorite NHL Player Growing Up: Alexander Steen Your Greatest Hockey Accomplishment: Being named the captain at Penn State Social Media Handles: Instagram - c_berger8 If you were shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs (food, water, etc) were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you? One of my brothers to hangout with and a TV Did you pick up a new hobby during quarantine? Pickleball If you had a choice between two superpowers, being invisible or flying, which would you choose and why? Flying. Get anywhere you want without going through airport security. World looks cool from up above Have you ever walked out of a movie because it was so bad? If yes, which movie? Yes. The Mask 2

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Crunchy or Creamy Peanut Butter? I want it all If you could visit any place in the world for a day, where would you go? Switzerland Do you believe in ghosts? Not really. But have an open minded about their existence What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse? A butterfly If you could only choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what would it be? What Is Love by Haddaway How do you feel about putting pineapple on pizza?

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BREAKAWAY 2020-21 - Page 17

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