Oct 29, 2021 3 min read

Penguins face suit over alleged assault

A federal lawsuit filed by a former minor league assistant and his wife accuses the Pittsburgh Penguins of negligently retaining a coach who sexually assaulted and harassed her and then retaliating against him for reporting the incident.

Jarrod and Erin Skalde sued the Penguins nearly a year ago in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleging former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Clark Donatelli molested Erin Skalde during an outing on a road trip in 2018. The team is the American Hockey League affiliate of the Penguins.

They also allege that current Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who was GM for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and assistant GM for the Penguins at the time, asked Jarrod Skalde to keep the reason for Donatelli’s termination quiet and that the team punished Skalde for reporting the assault and later terminated his position under the guise of pandemic-related staff cuts.

Guerin is also the assistant GM for the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team. The GM, Stan Bowman, resigned from that job and from his job as head of hockey operations for Chicago earlier this week amid the fallout from the Blackhawks scandal.

TSN reported last week that the U.S. Center for SafeSport had opened an investigation into Guerin’s handling of the situation with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

In the lawsuit, the Skaldes allege that Donatelli sexually assaulted Erin Skalde twice during an outing during the November 2018 road trip.

Jarrod Skalde said he ended up reporting the incident to Guerin in June 2019 and that the GM assured him he would take care of the situation. Donatelli resigned later that month.

The Penguins in a statement to The AP on Thursday said: “We took this incident very seriously and acted immediately. The team investigated and addressed the alleged incident within hours of being notified in June 2019 despite the fact that Mr. Skalde delayed seven months before he made any complaint. Following the report, Mr. Skalde continued to coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for an additional year, until we made significant staff reductions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The lawsuit is still active and a judge on Sept. 30 denied the Penguins’ motion for arbitration instead of a jury trial.

PAC soccer

The Washington & Jefferson women’s soccer team will host Waynesburg for a Presidents’ Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal match Saturday (2 p.m.) at Alexandre Stadium.

W&J qualified as the No. 4 seed after finishing the regular season with a 6-2-1 conference mark and a 9-7-2 overall record. The Presidents are playing their best soccer of the season, having won their final four regular-season contests.

Waynesburg earned the No. 5 seed after posting a 4-4-1 league record and an 8-7-1 overall mark. The Yellow Jackets enter the tournament winners of three straight.

In golf

Taylor Pendrith of Canada got married two weeks ago and wasn’t sure what to expect out of his game. Once the weather cooperated, it proved to be better than ever Friday in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

Pendrith ran off five straight birdies at the turn and flirted with a sub-60 round until settling for two closing pars and a 10-under 61 at Port Royal, giving him a one-shot lead over Patrick Rodgers going into the weekend.