During the Penguins' development camp in 2019, I spoke with Finnish defenseman Niclas Almari about what it was like having five of his fellow countrymen in camp with him.
"And Kasper Bjorkqvist is (injured) so we could've had seven," Almari boasted at the time "Who is the Swede here? The second-round pick? (Filip Hallander). Yeah, he's the only Swede here. ... I say the tables have turned. It's cool."
If that was the table turning for the Finnish prospects in the Penguins' system, then what's happening now with the Finns in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton must be the table whipping around in the spin cycle.
Wilkes-Barre opened the 2021-22 AHL season at home against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday night. When the final buzzer sealed the Penguins' 2-1 win, the lineup of three stars who came out of the tunnel afterward were fittingly all Finns.
The clear No. 1 star was goaltender Filip Lindberg, who was making his professional debut after being signed by the Penguins out of UMass in the offseason.
"It felt great," Lindberg said of getting his first career win in his first game. "I had a lot of fun. I think we played well as a team. The win tonight was an absolute team effort. I just loved every second out there in my first pro game and I'm excited to play more."
Lindberg stopped 30 of 31 shots faced, and kept the Penguins in the game amidst Wilkes-Barre being outshot 14-6 in the first period and five power play opportunities for Lehigh Valley throughout the game.
Head coach J.D. Forrest thought that Lindberg thrived under the pressure.
"It's not easy for sure, especially when you get peppered early on and you're counting on to make some big saves on a penalty kill," Forrest said of Lindberg's workload. "But I just think this kid uses the pressure cooker, whether it's his first pro game, a national championship game. They played a lot of big big games at UMass when he was there and one of the main reasons is because he was the goalie there. I think he's kind of built for it."
Forrest said that in this game and throughout the preseason, his impressions of Lindberg have been that he's "poised, in control, confident."
"All those things that make the team in front of you feel really good, he exudes that," Forrest said. "He knows how to win, he's won national championships. That's not an easy task. ... We've got all the confidence in the world with him in net."
And while Lindberg's debut was a success by any measure, he's not totally satisfied with this game.
"You always want to stop 30 out of 30," Lindberg said. "There's a lot of areas where we can improve. Me personally, playing pro is a little different from playing college. There's a lot of veterans and really skilled older guys here, so it's it's a faster game, more skilled game. You can always get better."
The opening goal of the season came from another Finn making his AHL debut, forward Valtteri Puustinen.
Puustinen was set up at the left circle on Wilkes-Barre's top power play in the first opportunity on the man advantage in the game, and he fired an absolute snipe of a shot past Phantoms goaltender Felix Sandstrom to open the scoring:
Sam Poulin and Juuso Riikola earned the assists on the goal.
When Puustinen was in Pittsburgh for the preseason, one of the things Mike Sullivan said about his game was that they'd like to see him improve defensively.
"He can improve on the defensive aspect of the puck in certain areas, and we're trying to help him there," Sullivan told me after the Penguins' preseason game in Buffalo. "But what we see as far as his attributes, what he has, it's hard to teach those things. We're really encouraged by the progress that he's made."
Puustinen definitely showed effort in that area in this game, like with this diving play to get the puck out of the Penguins' zone in the first period:
After the Phantoms tied the game with a power play goal of their own in the second period, Almari put the Penguins ahead just over a minute into the third period with this goal that would prove to be the game-winner:
Michael Chaput and Chris Bigras earned the assists.
It's a good early sign from Almari, who only scored one goal and six assists in 51 games in his last AHL season in 2019-20. After Almari spent the last year in Finland, director of player development Scott Young told me that Almari had all of the tools needed, he just needed to have more confidence to jump up in the play more often and find ways to contribute offensively. Almari was a shot-producing machine in the training camp scrimmages in Pittsburgh and showed that confidence in the preseason as well.
When Lindberg, Almari, and Puustinen were lined up in the tunnel after the game waiting to hear their names called for the three stars, they took a moment to laugh about the three of them being the ones to turn the tables in the game.
"That was funny," Lindberg said. "All the three stars were Finns, we were kind of laughing about in the hallway. I'm happy for those guys. They played well, so did the whole team. *laughs* The Finnish guys. It was funny, but they they worked hard and they deserved the credit for those goals. So I'm happy for those guys."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• On Friday the Penguins named defenseman Taylor Fedun the 20th captain in team history. Jordy Bellerive, Matt Bartkowski, and Chaput are serving as alternates.
• Anthony Angello was a late scratch. No reason was given. He was not on the bench with the rest of the scratched players during the pregame player introductions, which could indicate a call up.
• Wilkes-Barre went 1-for-4 on the power play, and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
• Two of the penalties taken by the Penguins were for too many men.
• With so many left-handed defensemen in the lineup, Cam Lee played on his off side, on the right.
• Enforcer Jamie Devane dropped the gloves with Lehigh Valley's Brennan Saulnier after Devane laid a heavy hit on another Phantoms player:
• Bellerive led the team with four shots on goal. Puustinen, Riikola, and Radim Zohorna were next with three apiece.
• Poulin had two shots on goal, Nathan Legare had one, Hallander had none.
• Legare briefly left the game after being hit up high with a puck but he returned.
• This was the first time in AHL history that a woman officiated a game, with referee Katie Guay making her debut.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza
1. Filip Lindberg, Penguins
2. Niclas Almari, Penguins
3. Valtteri Puustinen, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Goaltender Louis Domingue didn't dress with an undisclosed injury.
THE LINEUPS
Forrest's lines and pairings:
Filip Hallander - Radim Zohorna - Valtteri Puustinen
Sam Poulin - Michael Chaput - Sam Houde
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Jordy Bellerive - Nathan Legare
Jamie Devane - Jonathan Gruden - Jan Drozg
Juuso Riikola - Taylor Fedun
Matt Bartkowski - Cam Lee
Niclas Almari - Chris Bigras
And for Ian Laperriere's Phantoms
Garrett Wilson - Morgan Frost - Tyson Foerster
Isaac Ratcliffe - Cal O'Reilly - Gerry Mayhew
Linus Sandin - German Rubtsov - Samu Tuomaala
Brennan Saulnier - Connor Bunnaman - Jackson Cates
Cam York - Wyatte Wylie
Linus Hogberg - Adam Clendening
Mason Millman - Logan Day
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will host the Charlotte Checkers on Sunday at 3 p.m.
THE CONTENT
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