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A championship warmth soothes a cold city’s night

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Northwest posts lone WVC boys basketball win in Conference Challenge

<p>Anthony Angello scored twice, Dustin Tokarski stopped 27 shots and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins evened the score Saturday against the Cleveland Monsters with a 3-1 victory.</p><p>The win followed Cleveland&#8217;s 4-0 victory over the Penguins a day earlier in a two-game battle on consecutive nights atn Cleveland&#8217;s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (14-10-3-1) raced out to a two-goal lead Saturday and hung on until the very end. Angello&#8217;s two goals were supported by two assists from Kevin Czuczman.</p><p>Angello&#8217;s first tally came at 9:20 of the first period when he powered his way down the left wing and snuck the puck short-side on Veini Vehvil&#228;inen. His second goal arrived at 8:40 of the middle frame. After his initial shot was blocked by the Monsters&#8217; defense, Angello gathered his own rebound and wired it to the back of the net, giving the Penguins a 2-0 lead.</p><p>The Monsters&#8217; lone goal came on the power play, as a Dillon Simpson slap shot navigated its way in at 14:25 of the second period.</p><p>Tokarski had multiple sequences in the third period that required consecutive saves, including a double denial of Paul Bittner midway through the final frame of regulation.</p><p>Thomas Di Pauli sealed the victory for the Penguins with an empty-net goal with only 54.1 seconds left in the game.</p><p>On Friday, the Penguins out-possessed Cleveland in the first and third periods, but were unable to capitalize on goalie Mat&#299;ss Kivlenieks.</p><p>Kevin Stenlund scored on a one-timer at 14:08 while Cleveland was on a two-man advantage and the Monsters extended their lead a little over halfway through the second period. Casey DeSmith turned aside Justin Scott on a mini-break after a turnover in the Penguins&#8217; zone and then followed that up by denying Jakob Lilja on the rebound. However, Lilja scooped up the puck for a third attempt that slid past the Penguins&#8217; goaltender and in.</p><p>Kivlenieks made a flurry of stops on the Penguins after they pulled the goalie for an extra attacker late in the final frame. Eventually, Marko Da&#328;o found the empty net for the Monsters, sealing the 4-0 win.</p><p>Kivlenieks was awarded a 23-save shutout, while DeSmith posted 26 saves on 29 shots in defeat.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div>

Angello, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins even the score with Cleveland