Game Story: Hershey - 1 at W-B/Scranton - 5 (10/25/23)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins took it to the defending Calder Cup champions Wednesday night on home ice to the tune of a 5-1 blowout victory.

Sam Houde led the way with two goals, while the Pens also got goals from Alex Nylander (one goal, one assist), Marc Johnstone and Vinnie Hinostroza. Joel Blomqvist made 18 saves to pick up his second win on the season.

Joe Snively tallied the lone goal for the Bears in the loss, with Bears' goalie Clay Stevenson stopping 20 of the 25 shots he faced in a losing effort.

The Penguins got an early power play thanks to Jonathan Gruden forcing a hooking minor 1:11 into the contest, and while it was a sloppy start to the man advantage they ultimately cashed in to take a 1-0 lead.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton wasn't able to get much offensive zone time, and they actually surrendered a 2-on-1 odd-man rush against before a missed shot and fortuitous bounce off the endboards sent the Penguins the other way with a 2-on-1 of their own.

Poulin carried the puck through the neutral zone and across the blue line before sending a pass across to Nylander, who tucked it in the top shelf short-side on Stevenson to put the Penguins ahead 1-0 just 2:54 into the first frame.

The two teams settled in from there, with the 1-0 Penguins lead holding through to the first intermission.

The Pens were shorthanded early in the middle frame, but were able to get the kill to preserve their 1-0 lead before failing on a power play chance of their own shortly thereafter.

Hershey was able to even up the game 8:05 into the second period, getting a snipe from the left-wing circle from Snively after Dylan McIlrath and Garrett Roe teamed up to force a turnover in the Penguins' defensive zone. Roe slid the puck from right-wing to the middle for Snively, who picked the top corner on Blomqvist for his first of the season.

The game didn't remain tied up for long, as the Penguins were able to get a go-ahead goal from Houde to re-take the lead at 2-1 with 7:14 left before the second intermission.

Avery Hayes got the puck to the right point for Jack St. Ivany, whose hard shot to the net was re-directed in past Stevenson by Houde. With the secondary assist on the goal, it marked Hayes' first career pro point.

The third period began similarly to the first two stanzas in that an early period penalty gave way to 5-on-4 hockey.

With Riley Sutter in the box for a boarding penalty on the opening shift of the third, Houde knocked in a rebound for his second tally of the night to extend the Pens' lead to 3-1.

The flood gates opened from there as Johnstone and Hinostroza tallied goals 32 seconds apart to break the game open to the tune of a commanding 5-1 Penguins' lead.

POST-GAME EXTRA

Head coach JD Forrest

On starting the season series with Hershey (12) with a big win:

Like you said, we see them 12 times. So it's nice to get the first one. But, as we know, this rivalry - the first one doesn't matter when you play the second one and the next game is its own beast. I'm sure they won't be happy with the results tonight, Although I think that there's a lot of things we could have done better. And they had moments where they pressed and Joel was really strong and net. And we kind of absorbed that. But it is nice to get the one but I don't think when we see him on Sunday that this one's gonna matter so much.

*On penalties in the opening minute of each period, power play getting two goals tonight:^

I mean, we scored, but it's not like we were executing to the level that we think we should be executing and creating chances, the way we think we should be creating chances. You know, we got the end result that we're looking for. But the way we went about it isn't a sustainable operation for a good power play throughout a season.

Forward Sam Houde

*On the 5-1 score not being quite indicative of the way the game was played:

I think it was pretty tight, actually. We just.. we kept working and we got paid off in the third.

On the general mood of the team

It feels good, great group of guys. I think we're having fun. Right now we're on a two-win streak. We're trying to keep it like that. And just like I said, keep working hard, having fun and have a good chemistry. I think [that is] going to be a great aspect to win some games."

Hershey Bears Lineup Notes

Clay Stevenson got the start in net for Hershey Wednesday night. Mitch Gibson served as the team's backup with Hunter Shepard on recall to Washington.

Bears Scratches: Nicky Leivermann, Jimmy Huntington, Ryan Hofer, Aaron Ness, Dmitri Osipov, Julian Napravnik, Henrik Rybinski, Alexander Suzdalev and Matt Strome

Lines/Pairings:

Mike Vecchione - Mike Sgarbossa - Ethan Frank Joe Snively - Garrett Roe - Alex Limoges Ivan Miroshinchenko - Hendrix Lapierre - Pierrick Dube Bogdan Trineyev - Riley Sutter - Nic Aube-Kubel

Colin Swoyer - Dylan McIlrath Chase Priskie - Logan Day Jake Massie - Vincent Iorio

Clay Stevenson (Backup: Mitch Gibson)

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Joel Blomqvist got the start in net for the Penguins Wednesday night. Garret Sparks served as the team's backup goaltender with Magnus Hellberg off to Pittsburgh due to an injury to Alex Nedeljkovic.

Forward Colin White is injured and considered day-to-day with an upper body injury per head coach JD Forrest as relayed on the broadcast by Penguins' play-by-play voice Nick Hart.

Penguins Scratches: Andreas Johnsson (veteran scratch, away from team on personal leave), Austin Rueschhoff, Justin Lee, Colin White (injured, veteran scratch), Matt Filipe and Libor Hajek

Lines/Pairings:

Alex Nylander - Jansen Harkins - Vinnie Hinostroza Rem Pitlick - Sam Poulin - Valtteri Puustinen Sam Houde - Joona Koppanen - Avery Hayes Jagger Joshua - Jonathan Gruden - Marc Johnstone

Ty Smith - Taylor Fedun Jack Rathbone - Dmitri Samorukov Xavier Ouellet - Jack St. Ivany

Joel Blomqvist (Backup: Garret Sparks)

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:11: HER - (PP) Massie, minor (hooking) 2:54: WBS - PPG Nylander (1) - Poulin

2nd Period

1:26: WBS - (PP) Pitlick, minor (high-sticking) 4:46: HER - (PP) Roe, minor (hooking) 8:05: HER - Snively (1) - Roe, McIlrath 12:46: WBS - Houde (1) - St. Ivany, Hayes

3rd Period

0:21: HER - (PP) Sutter, minor (boarding) 1:28: WBS - PPG Houde (2) - Hayes, Smith 5:28: WBS - Johnstone (1) - unassisted 6:00: WBS - Hinostroza (2) - Nylander, Rathbone 17:33: HER - (PP) Snively, minor (slashing)

BOXSCORE

Hershey  0 - 1 - 0 = 1 W-B/Scranton  1 - 1 - 3 = 5

Shots

Hershey  6 - 8 - 6 = 20 W-B/Scranton  8 - 7 - 10 = 25

Goalies

HER: Clay Stevenson (20 saves - 25 shots) WBS: Joel Blomqvist (19 saves - 20 shots)

Power Play

HER: 0-for-1 WBS: 2-for-4

Penalty Kill

HER: 2-for-4 WBS: 1-for-1