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<p>A trend developed for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in their third game of the season.</p><p>Facing Lehigh Valley on Oct. 17, the Phantoms scored the first three goals in the opening frame - all within the first five minutes, in a scoring spree that would&#8217;ve forced most teams to call it a night.</p><p>But not the Penguins.</p><p>They responded with an even bigger outburst by scoring five straight goals, including four in the second period, en route to a 6-4 win.</p><p>Not only were the Penguins able to move on from a poor period and wipe out a significant lead, but the win at Lehigh Valley came on the heels of a 4-1 loss to Bridgeport.</p><p>The Lehigh Valley game wasn&#8217;t the first time the Penguins dug themselves out of a hole .</p><p>On Oct. 24, the Springfield Falcons led the Penguins all night, and carried a 2-1 advantage into the third period. But in the end, the Penguins recovered for a 3-2 overtime win.</p><p>Facing St. John&#8217;s on Nov. 6, the Penguins watched the IceCaps take the lead with a first period goal and outshoot them 11-6. From there, however, the Penguins outshot the IceCaps 24-10 and scored the next four goals to win 4-1.</p><p>What allows the Penguins to quickly recover from a bad period or bounce back after a loss?</p><p>Disappointment.</p><p>&#8220;Going into every game we expect to win. That&#8217;s our mindset in the locker room and we know what we have here,&#8221; said veteran defenseman Steve Oleksy. &#8220;The disappointment we feel after a bad period or bad game allows us to bounce back and re-focus.&#8221;</p><p>Head coach Mike Sullivan attributes his team&#8217;s resiliency to leadership. Players such as captain Tom Kostopoulos, Kevin Porter, Kael Mouillierat and Oleksy have seen enough hockey to know that a stumble here and there doesn&#8217;t mean everything has to unravel.</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t get rattled when things don&#8217;t go our way. We just continue to play,&#8221; Sullivan said. &#8220;For me, our responses to the ebbs and flows, and the adversity, in a season or in a game have been the right kind. That always goes back to the leadership we have in making sure we&#8217;re in the right mindset and don&#8217;t lose the focus.&#8221;</p><p>Oleksy said focus and the ability to quickly regain composure was critical to the Penguins&#8217; franchise-record 11-game win streak.</p><p>&#8220;In this league there&#8217;s a very fine line between a winning streak and a losing streak. One turns into two, two into three pretty quickly,&#8221; he said. &#8220;When you start losing a couple games sometimes you get in a different mindset.&#8221;</p><p>Perhaps at no other time in the season did the Penguins display the right mindset than in the Nov. 15 game against Hartford. The Penguins had won 10 in a row with the last few victories coming via dominating performances.</p><p>But against the Wolf Pack in their building, the Penguins watched Hartford score three times in the first 10 minutes. The Penguins stopped the bleeding with a goal at the midway point to make it 3-1, but Hartford responded with two more goals to gain a commanding 5-1 lead.</p><p>And how did the Penguins respond?</p><p>They scored five times in the second period and went on to a 7-6 overtime win.</p><p>&#8220;The reality is things don&#8217;t always go your way,&#8221; Sullivan said. &#8220;Your reaction to those circumstances really define your team.&#8221;</p><p>That point was driven home again last weekend when the Penguins saw their 11-game win streak snapped with a 3-1 loss in Binghamton, and traveled to Albany the next night and squandered a 3-1 lead by allowing the Devils to score twice in the third period.</p><p>Sullivan said his team&#8217;s response after that was a defining moment.</p><p>After the third Albany goal, a high-energy shift from the line of Josh Archibald-J.S. Dea-Tom Sestito swung the momentum back in the Penguins&#8217; favor. Minutes later, a goal from Scott Wilson and an empty netter from Oskar Sundqvist gave them the win.</p><p>&#8220;To come out of there with two points was big for us,&#8221; Kostopoulos said. &#8220;It says a lot about our depth and our character. Everyone&#8217;s going to make mistakes, but as a team we&#8217;re able to regroup.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Leadership from veteran players like Steve Oleksy are a big reason why the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have been able to bounce back after a bad period or a loss this season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_Oleksy2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Leadership from veteran players like Steve Oleksy are a big reason why the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have been able to bounce back after a bad period or a loss this season. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams|for Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Pens&#8217; knack of responding when down has been key this season</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins stay cool under pressure