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120th District candidate forum to be held Friday at Wyoming Seminary

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Reported domestic dispute leads to woman facing drug charges

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins assistant coach J.D. Forrest hopes his team&#8217;s penalty kill is on the mind of their opponents.</p><p>He hopes they think about not only how effective the unit has been, but the three shorthanded goals they&#8217;ve tallied so far this season.</p><p>And if teams aren&#8217;t thinking about the Penguins&#8217; dangerous penalty kill, Forrest, who is in charge of the defense and penalty kill, has a message.</p><p>&#8220;It should be,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They&#8217;ve got to be aware. And when they&#8217;re not, we&#8217;ve been able to make some teams pay.</p><p>&#8220;Hopefully that&#8217;s something that&#8217;s always in the back of the other team&#8217;s mind.&#8221;</p><p>The Penguins&#8217; penalty kill is second in the AHL at 95.8 percent, killing of 23 of the 24 power plays they&#8217;ve faced. They&#8217;ve also scored a league-high three shorthanded goals, making the unit even more potent.</p><p>It can even be argued that the Penguins penalty kill has been responsible for winning games. On Oct. 22 when the Penguins defeated Syracuse 3-1, Kevin Porter&#8217;s first of two shorthanded goals on the night proved to be the game winner. Three times in the first five games the penalty kill staved off five power plays or more, and the Penguins won two of those contests. The single loss was a 1-0 defeat to Springfield.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re definitely helping with momentum,&#8221; Forrest said. &#8220;Anytime guys on the kill can shut a team down or get a shorthanded goal, they&#8217;ve done a real good job of changing momentum or keeping it on our side.&#8221;</p><p>So what has made the penalty kill so effective early in the season?</p><p>Numbers.</p><p>Head coach Clark Donatelli said the Penguins have a lot of players that can kill penalties and they even enjoy it. That helps to spread the work around a bit.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re able to roll them over and we don&#8217;t get guys caught out there when they&#8217;re tired,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;Short shifts and we&#8217;re not getting pinned in.&#8221;</p><p>For as good as the penalty kill has been, Forrest said it can get even better. There are areas to improve no matter how good the numbers are, but there&#8217;s one element that is right where he wants it to be.</p><p>&#8220;When we&#8217;re on the penalty kill, you can tell there&#8217;s a confidence with the guys that they&#8217;ll kill it off,&#8221; Forrest said.</p><p>That confidence allows the Penguins to kill penalties with a quick, attacking style that pressures opponents into making bad plays.</p><p>It&#8217;s a confidence that&#8217;s spread to every player.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of guys that trust each other right now,&#8221; forward Ryan Haggerty said. &#8220;Every time we go over the boards we have confidence that we&#8217;re going to kill it off and force them to make bad plays.&#8221;</p><p><strong>McGrath gets a fighting major back</strong></p><p>Patrick McGrath was assessed two fighting majors in the season opener, leaving him with only eight more before a mandatory one-game suspension kicked in. The Penguins asked the AHL to review the major assessed for McGrath&#8217;s first fight against Hartford&#8217;s Chris Brown, bout with few punches as both players were tied up, and the AHL determined the fight won&#8217;t count against McGrath&#8217;s total for the season.</p><p><strong>Injury updates</strong></p><p>Kevin Porter practiced on Thursday and is considered day-to-day with an upper body injury. D Chad Ruhwedel didn&#8217;t skate but Donatelli expects him to be ready for the weekend.</p><style>
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<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 penalty kill among tops in the AHL