Game Story: Hershey - 1 at W-B/Scranton - 2 (11/3/23)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hershey Bears played in a bit of an old-school hockey game Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

A low-scoring, tight-checking defensive battle ensued between bitter Atlantic Division rivals as an early power play tally from Hershey's Mike Vecchione was the lone tally until the Penguins found an equalizer in the final minute of the second period from Alex Nylander.

In the third, it came down to quite literally the last second as a shot from inside the blue line from Marc Johnstone found the back of the net with a half-second remaining on the scoreboard to lift the Penguins to a big 2-1 regulation win.

Joel Blomqvist stopped all but one of the 20 shots he faced to pick up the win, while Hunter Shepard played valiantly albeit in a losing effort after stopping 22 of the 24 shots that came his way.

An interference penalty put the Penguins behind the eight-ball early as the Bears converted on the ensuing power play to take a 1-0 lead just 6:27 into the contest.

Some quick passing resulted in a goal as Chase Priskie got the puck at center point and got it to the right-wing wall for Mike Sgarbossa, who shuffled the puck inside the right-wing circle for Vecchione's shot past Blomqvist. It marked Vecchione's fourth of the season.

Another Penguins penalty toward the middle of the period prevented them from generating much of an attack offensively, but credit Blomqvist and the defense for keeping it a one-goal game as the home team started to get to their game in the second half of the stanza.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton started to control large portions of play toward the end of the period, getting their first power play in the process. Though able to generate consistent pressure in the waning moments of the period, they headed to the locker room trailing by a goal.

Things were more even to start the middle frame than they were in the opening 20 minutes, despite the Penguins taking another early period penalty similar to the first.

The teams traded power plays in the middle part of the period, but neither side was able to produce a goal.

It wasn't until the final minute of the period, after an offensive zone face-off, that the Penguins were able to even the game at 1-1.

After gaining control of the face-off, Dmitri Samorukov got the puck back to center Jansen Harkins. Harkins took the puck behind the net before stopping and sending a pass up the middle of the ice to an open Nylander in the slot. Nylander's quick shot found the back of the net with just over 35 seconds left - sending the two teams to the second intermission deadlocked at one apiece.

The name of the game in the third period was trending toward missed opportunities.

The Penguins had not one, but two power plays in the final nine minutes of the period with a chance to break the tie. Not only were they unable to score on the man advantage, they had trouble generating much of anything in the way of dangerous chances during those 5-on-4s.

But on Friday night, the Pens ultimately found a way.

With time winding down, Jonathan Gruden won one more puck battle along the right-wing wall and got it to the right point for Johnstone - who exhibited good patience with time expiring to hesitate just a moment before putting the puck on net.

The puck ended up kissing the crossbar and going into the net with 0.5 seconds left to provide a dramatic 2-1 victory for the home team.

POST-GAME EXTRA

Penguins Head coach JD Forrest

Overall thoughts on tonight's game:

"It was a good game. I thought each team had their moments. I think one thing we would change there is just the effectiveness of our power play. You know, we made one little misread on the penalty kill and it cost us. They have a dangerous power play, and then we didn't capitalize on ours but five on five we did a lot of things that we talked about doing. Our guys played really hard all the way to the last buzzer, and it paid off."

Penguins forward Marc Johnstone

On what he saw leading up to his buzzer beating goal:

"Nothing really. I'm hearing the crowd say 'Shoot', and kind of just put a muffin on goal & luckily it went in."

Hershey Bears Lineup Notes

Hunter Shepard got the start in net for Hershey Friday. Clay Stevenson served as the Bears' backup goaltender.

Bears Scratches: Nicky Leivermann, Jimmy Huntington, Dmitry Osipov, Colin Swoyer, Henrik Rybinski, Alexander Suzdalev and Garrett Roe

Lines/Pairings:

Mike Vecchione - Mike Sgarbossa - Ethen Frank Joe Snively - Alex Limoges - Pierrick Dube Ivan Miroshnichenko - Ryan Hofer - Bogdan Trineyev Matthew Strome - Riley Sutter - Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Aaron Ness - Dylan McIlrath Jake Massie - Logan Day Chase Priskie - Vincent Iorio

Hunter Shepard (Backup: Clay Stevenson)

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Joel Blomqvist got the start in net for the Penguins Friday night. Taylor Gauthier served as the team's backup goaltender.

Two lineup changes for the Penguins Friday from their lineup Wednesday night, with Taylor Fedun and Matt Filipe entering the lineup in place of Jack St. Ivany and Corey Andonovski, respectively.

Penguins Scratches: Garret Sparks, Jack St. Ivany, Mark Pysyk, Corey Andonovski, Andreas Johnsson, Sam Poulin, Justin Lee and Valtteri Puustinen

Lines/Pairings:

Alex Nylander - Jansen Harkins - Avery Hayes Sam Houde - Colin White - Rem Pitlick Jagger Joshua - Jonathan Gruden - Marc Johnstone Matt Filipe - Joona Koppanen - Austin Rueschhoff

Ty Smith - Xavier Ouellet Jack Rathbone - Dmitri Samorukov Libor Hajek - Taylor Fedun

Joel Blomqvist (Backup: Taylor Gauthier)

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

5:50: WBS - (PP) Rueschhoff, minor (interference) 6:27: HER - PPG Vecchione (4) - Sgarbossa, Priskie 9:34: WBS - (PP) Smith, minor (hooking) 14:59: HER - (PP) Sgarbossa, minor (high-sticking)

2nd Period

4:16: WBS - (PP) Hajek, minor (tripping) 10:26: HER - (PP) McIlrath, minor (holding) 13:29: WBS - (PP) Koppanen, minor (interference) 19:23: WBS - Nylander (2) - Harkins, Samorukov

3rd Period

2:20: WBS - (PP) Fedun, minor (tripping) 11:09: HER - (PP) McIlrath, minor (hooking) 15:26: HER - (PP) Trineyev, minor (tripping) 19:59: WBS - Johnstone (2) - Gruden, Samorukov

BOXSCORE

Hershey  1 - 0 - 0 = 0 W-B/Scranton  0 - 1 - 1 = 2

Shots

Hershey  7 - 6 - 7 = 20 W-B/Scranton  7 - 6 - 11 = 24

Goalies

HER: Hunter Shepard (22 saves - 24 shots) WBS: Joel Blomqvist (19 saves - 20 shots)

Power Play

HER: 1-for-5 WBS: 0-for-4

Penalty Kill

HER: 4-for-4 WBS: 4-for-5