Game Story: Hershey - 7 at W-B/Scranton - 5 (11/29/23)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (9-8-2) and Hershey Bears (16-4-0) clashed for the third straight Wednesday night, and sixth meeting already this season in the opening 20 games of the season, in one of the more unpredictable Bears-Penguins matchups to date this season.

The Penguins jumped out to a 3-1 first period lead behind a pair of goals from Sam Houde and a pair of power play goals, including one from Rem Pitlick as part of that 3-1 lead in the opening 20 minutes.

But the Bears rebounded and began to cash in in bunches in the middle frame, with Mike Sgarbossa, Joe Snively, Pierrick Dube and Riley Sutter all scoring goals in a span of 9:20 in the second half of the second period to flip the script and give the Bears a 5-3 lead heading to the third.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton twice got to within a goal - on goals from Joona Koppanen and Jonathan Gruden - but the Bears had the answer both times with Ivan Miroschnichenko and Snively (EN) hitting the back of the net to preserve Hershey's 7-5 win and extend their win streak to seven games.

Vincent Iorio also scored for the Bears in the win, while Hunter Shepard made 22 saves to improve his AHL record this season to 9-1-0.

Joel Blomqvist surrendered five goals on 19 shots through two periods, and Penguins head coach JD Forrest opted to switch goalies for the third period with Magnus Hellberg stopping four of the five shots that came his way in the final frame.

GAME STORY

The Penguins came out firing Wednesday night, getting an early power play and putting pucks on net on their way to taking an early 1-0 lead.

Peter Abbandonato, making his WBS Penguins debut, got a puck to the left point for an Xavier Ouellet - and Houde was able to get a piece of Ouellet's blast to re-direct it past Shepard to give the Penguins a power play goal 3:07 into the contest.

Houde got himself into similar position in a soft spot in the Bears' defensive zone coverage just over two minutes later - re-directing a Taylor Fedun shot past Shepard for his second of the game to extend the Penguins' lead to 2-0 in the opening six minutes of play.

From there, the two teams continued to take penalties. A total of six power plays were handed out in the opening period - three for each team.

Hershey got on the board just seconds after one of their power plays expired - with Aaron Ness sliding a pass across to the top of the right-wing circle for a snipe from Iorio to cut the Pens' lead in half with 7:47 remaining in the period.

That one-goal game was short-lived, as Bears' captain Dylan McIlrath took an elbowing penalty on the next shift and the Penguins converted on the ensuing power play.

The Penguins wasted no time, with Ty Smith getting a puck across to Valtteri Puustinen before Puustinen's give to the middle for a quick tap-in from Pitlick to restore the Penguins' two-goal lead with 6:51 to go before the first intermission.

The penalties continued - with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton taking back-to-back penalties to close out the first frame. Luckily for the Penguins, they were able to escape the end of the period unscathed and carry their 3-1 lead into the middle frame.

The middle frame began with a Bears' penalty, and while things seemed to slow down as the period progressed a Penguins' bench minor for too many men ultimately spelled big time trouble for the home team.

Chase Priskie kept a puck in at the left point on the ensuing power play, got it over to Sgarbossa and the Bears converted on the power play to make it a one-goal.

Sgarbossa's goal opened the flood gates, as the Bears rallied to score a total of four unanswered goals in a span of 9:20 to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead before heading into the second intermission.

Alex Limoges hit Snively with a stretch pass for a goal to tie the game at 3-3 just 96 seconds after Sgarbossa's power play goal.

Then some pretty passing displays resulted in some more goals, with Dube finishing off a play after Bogdan Trineyev and Garrett Roe connected on a pass in the offensive zone and Sutter tapping one home in front after good work down low by Matt Strome and Ivan Miroschnichenko.

That goal from Sutter that made it 5-3 Hershey with 1:07 left in the period was a visibly deflating goal for the Penguins.

Magnus Hellberg came on in relief of Blomqvist for the third period, and the Penguins made it a one-goal game with 13:45 left in regulation.

Alex Nylander got a puck up to the right point where Fedun was able to fire an uncontested shot that Koppanen was able to re-direct past Shepard to make it a 5-4 game.

A tripping penalty prevented the Penguins from trying to even the game at five apiece. They were able to kill off the penalty, but Miroschnichenko finished off a scramble play at the net to put Hershey back on top by two, at a 6-4 count, with 9:43 left to play.

The Penguins pulled their goalie down two with just over four minutes left and got back within one again on a goal from Gruden but Snively sealed the deal with an empty net tally to complete the Bears' 7-5 victory.

POST-GAME EXTRA!

Hershey Bears Head Coach Todd Nelson

On the team's start, and being able to battle back

"I was kind of concerned. Like.. our team's going through the flu bug right now - we're a bit under the weather - so I didn't know what kind of energy we would have. We got down early three to one, but we battled back. And as it went along, it was a very unpredictable game just because it seemed like, on both sides, when scoring chances happened the puck found the back of the net."

Bears defenseman Vincent Iorio

On what led to the comeback

"We're a resilient team, for sure. Coach [Todd Nelson] is very good, in terms of keeping the boys even keel - not getting too high and not getting too low. And, you know, we were able to come out [in the second period] - Shepard made a couple of huge shapes for us and the power play got going and found the back of the net."

W-B/Scranton Head Coach JD Forrest

On what changed

"In the second, I thought we had a good chance to kind of make a statement there with the power play that we got, and we didn't really execute well on it. And then they just, you know they're a good team, so they did what good teams do... I think that we gave them a few opportunities to take advantage of and then, in the D-zone, we were just kind of.. we had opportunities to make plays coming out of the zone and we just didn't really execute that well. So, that was pretty much that last.. whatever... half or more than half of the second period, cost us the game."

Hershey Bears Lineup Notes

Hunter Shepard got the start in net Wednesday night for Hershey, with Clay Stevenson serving as the team's backup goaltender.

Jake Massie (lower body) and Henrik Rybinski (upper body) remain out of the Bears' lineup due to their injuries.

Defenseman Nicky Leivermann was loaned to the ECHL.

Bears Scratches: Jake Massie, Ryan Hofer, Dmitry Osipov, Colin Swoyer and Henrik Rybinski.

Lines/Pairings:

Mike Vecchione - Mike Sgarbossa - Ethen Frank Joe Snively - Jimmy Huntington - Alex Limoges Bogdan Trineyev - Garrett Roe - Pierrick Dube Ivan Miroshinchenko - Riley Sutter - Matt Strome

Hardy Haman Atkell - Dylan McIlrath Aaron Ness - Vincent Iorio Chase Priskie - Logan Day

Hunter Shepard (Backup: Clay Stevenson)

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Joel Blomqvist got the start in net for the Penguins Wednesday night, while Magnus Hellberg served as the team's backup.

Some roster moves in advance of Wednesday night's game:

Alex Nylander was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from Pittsburgh.

The WBS Penguins acquired defenseman Owen Headrick and forward Peter Abbandonato from the Chicago Wolves in exchange for future considerations.

Jordan Frasca and Cedric Desruisseaux were reassigned to ECHL-Wheeling.

Penguins Scratches: Garret Sparks, Corey Andonovski, Sam Poulin, Colin White, Owen Headrick, Raivis Ansons and Avery Hayes

Lines/Pairings:

Alex Nylander - Joona Koppanen - Valtteri Puustinen Sam Houde - Peter Abbandanato - Rem Pitlick Jagger Joshua - Jonathan Gruden - Marc Johnstone Matt Filipe - Justin Addamo - Austin Rueschhoff

Ty Smith - Libor Hajek Xavier Ouellet - Jack St. Ivany Jack Rathbone - Taylor Fedun

Joel Blomqvist (Backup: Magnus Hellberg)

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:35: HER - (PP) Ness, minor (slashing) 3:07: WBS - PPG Houde (3) - Ouellet, Abbandonato 5:23: WBS - Houde (4) - Fedun, Abbandonato 6:37: HER - (PP) Dube, minor (tripping) 10:09: WBS - (PP) Smith, minor (tripping) 12:13: HER - Iorio (2) - Ness, Snively 12:58: HER - (PP) McIlrath, minor (elbowing) 13:09: WBS - PPG Pitlick (5) - Puustinen, Smith 14:59: WBS - (PP) Nylander, minor (tripping) 17:01: WBS - (PP) Filipe, minor (holding the stick)

2nd Period

1:53: HER - (PP) Snively, minor (high-sticking) 8:17: WBS - bench minor, too many men (served by Nylander) 9:33: HER - PPG Sgarbossa (4) - Priskie 11:09: HER - Snively (5) - Limoges, Ness 15:34: HER - Dube (8) - Roe, Trineyev 18:53: HER - Sutter (3) - Miroschnichenko, Strome

3rd Period

6:15: WBS - Koppanen (3) - Fedun, Nylander 7:54: WBS - (PP) Ouellet, minor (tripping) 10:17: HER - Miroschnichenko (5) - Sutter 17:16: WBS - Gruden (5) - Puustinen, Smith 18:17: HER - ENG Snively (6) - Trineyev 18:48: HER - (PP) Roe, minor (cross-checking)

BOXSCORE

Hershey  1 - 4 - 2 = 7 W-B/Scranton  3 - 0 - 2 = 5

Shots

Hershey  10 - 9 - 6 = 25 W-B/Scranton 10 - 6 - 11 = 27

Goalies

HER: Hunter Shepard (22 saves - 27 shots) WBS: Joel Blomqvist (14 saves - 19 shots in 40:00) and Magnus Hellberg (4 saves - 5 shots in 16:39)

Power Play

HER: 1-for-5 WBS: 2-for-5

Penalty Kill

HER: 3-for-5 WBS: 4-for-5