With road games this weekend in Cleveland, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins called the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex their temporary home for practice here today. 

Preparation is key for the Penguins, who have eight games left in their regular season, including three against the Monsters, and still have plenty to play for ahead of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Wilkes-Barre currently ranks third in its division, despite matching the Charlotte Checkers with 82 points. Charlotte owns the tiebreaker. Finishing second in the division is significant considering the top two teams earn a first-round bye. AHL first-round matchups consist of a best-of-three series, so two losses would end the season.

"I actually went and looked and five of the six teams that made the finals in the American League since they changed the playoff format got the bye," Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Kirk MacDonald said Thursday. "It’s not the end of the world if we have to play a best-of-three, but we do know it’s important.” 

If that sounds like postseason success is important to this group, it is.

MacDonald and his staff focus on the development of their players all year long in hopes of accomplishing the end goal of ensuring players that don a Wilkes-Barre uniform end up in the NHL sooner rather than later. There is also value in winning, though. And that's something the Penguins have done quite a lot of this season. They enter the weekend with a 37-19-7 record and have won six of their last seven games dating back to March 16. They had won six straight games prior to suffering a 5-2 loss to the Checkers on Sunday. 

"You go through the year and you want to help your skill and development and you want to get better with how you play, your details, but I think there’s a lot of development that goes into winning. Just being in those pressure situations in the playoffs, and we’re obviously looking toward that," MacDonald said. "It’s a different kind of development this year as opposed to maybe the earlier parts of the year, but I think the guys have shown they’re really committed to being about that with our efforts in big games.” 

MacDonald has praised his group for its collective ability to work hard, compete and buy into what the coaching staff is preaching. He said it doesn't matter what 12 forwards, six defensemen or goalie are in the lineup, they've all executed and reaped the benefits of the hard work. 

Young forwards like Ville Koivunen (21 goals, 55 points), Avery Hayes (21 goals, 39 points), Sam Poulin (19 goals, 39 points) and Rutger McGroarty (14 goals, 39 points) have joined more established players like Boris Katchouk (21 goals, 48 points) and Emil Bemstrom (21 goals, 46 points) in leading a group that has scored more goals (225) than any other team in the Atlantic Division. Koivunen, Poulin, McGroarty and Bemstrom have all spent time with the NHL club, but the offensive production hasn't seemed to dip. 

There's youth and talent on the blue line, too, with Owen Pickering and now Harrison Brunicke continuing their development. Not to mention the talent that has rotated in net with Sergei Murashov, Filip Larsson, Joel Blomqvist and Tristan Jarry all spending significant time in a Wilkes-Barre sweater. 

Talent and youth has certainly played a role in Wilkes-Barre's success this season, but they've also enjoyed this run more than anything. Sure, they're going out and competing in hopes of ultimately lifting that Calder Cup, but they're also taking time to enjoy the process. Like MacDonald said, "It’s a lot easier to show up every day and work hard and compete." 

The practice here today was a perfect example. The Penguins competed with a high energy level, but they also shared smiles and had fun with it all:

"Off the ice is probably bigger for us," Pickering told me. "We're a very close-knit group, we're competitive and we love going to war for each other. I think that helps us more than anything in terms of on ice." 

Once the Penguins begin what they hope to be a lengthy playoff run, leadership will undoubtedly be key with the amount of young players on the roster. That's where Dan Renouf, a 30-year-old veteran defenseman, will be invaluable. 

Renouf has only appeared in 24 career NHL games, but he's played in over 500 career AHL games, not counting the 42 playoff games he's appeared in. He's lifted the Calder Cup twice, too, winning it with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2017 and with the Mike Vellucci-led Checkers in 2019. 

Simply put, Renouf knows what it takes to accomplish the ultimate goal for an AHL player. And he believes this group is capable of accomplishing it, too.

"I think it's all about focusing on getting our game to a place where we're playing the same way every night and having our 'A' games as much as we can. Making sure we don't have our 'C' and 'D' games, maybe give a 'B' here and there," Renouf told me. "It's just buying into our game, our systems, and kind of having everyone pull on the same rope ... We want to build momentum with these last games, clinch as high as we can and roll that into the playoffs."