Game Story: W-B/Scranton - 3 at Hershey - 4 (11/6/22)

HERSHEY, Pa. - The Hershey Bears (5-2-2) jumped out to a 4-0 lead halfway through the contest, and ended up needing every bit of that four-goal lead as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (6-2-1) stormed back with three goals in the third period before coming up short in their comeback attempt in a 4-3 defeat.

Shane Gersich, Mason Morelli, Ethen Frank and Henrik Rybinski provided the Bears with plenty of offense in the opening half of the contest, and Hunter Shepard (30 saves - 33 shots) earned his first win of the season the hard way - facing 20 Penguins shots in the third period before helping his team grind their way to the one-goal victory.

Filip Hallander (two goals, one assist) and Jonathan Gruden (one goal, one assist) propelled the Penguins' attack forward in the final frame to turn what was a blowout into a nail-biter. Filip Lindberg stopped 25 of the 29 shots he faced in a losing effort.

After a pretty sloppy opening 10 minutes for both teams, Hershey started to gain momentum - seizing control of a turnover and capitalizing to open the scoring.

Shane Gersich blocked down Ty Smith's attempt at a breakout stretch pass, and found himself with the puck behind the Penguins' defense before firing a quick shot that eluded Lindberg with 7:06 left in the opening period.

The Bears made it 2-0 just over two minutes later after a fore-check started by Ethen Frank down below the goal line caused a turnover at the left wing wall. Hendrix Lapierre was first to a loose puck along the wall and quickly sent it to the middle for Mason Morelli for a wrist shot past Lindberg from inside the left-wing circle.

Hershey continued to control play in the middle frame, adding two more goals in a span of 1:39 to break open the game to the tune of a commanding 4-0 lead.

Ethen Frank made it goals in four straight games, scoring from the right wing on an odd-man rush during a delayed penalty call stemming from a hit Nathan Legare put on Alex Alexeyev.  Lapierre was credited with his second primary assist of the game, getting the puck to the right to Frank on the goal.

Shortly thereafter, Henrik Rybinski went to the net and had a rebound pop out and right onto his stick as he was crashing the crease for his first pro goal to make it a four-goal lead.

Jonathan Gruden broke Hunter Shepard's shutout bid on the opening shift of the third period to get the Penguins on the board. Mark Friedman got a puck down low to Filip Hallander, who quickly shuffled the puck in front for Gruden's quick shot past Shepard for his first goal of the season.

Gruden had a strong third period as the Penguins applied pressure and got the game to within 4-2 after Gruden took a pass from Valtteri Puustinen and fired a hard shot from the high-slot toward Shepard. The Bears' goaltender made the save, but the puck bounced out in front and right to Hallander for a put back goal with 8:19 left in regulation.

Hallander added his second goal of the contest, and third point of the period to bring the Penguins within a goal in the final 1:22 of regulation.

With Lindberg pulled for the extra attacker and the Penguins on the power play, the Penguins forced pucks toward the net with Hallander again getting to the net and finding a loose puck amid traffic at the top of the crease. Puustinen and Tyler Sikura added assists on Hallander's third of the season, but ultimately that's as close as the Penguins would get in dropping their second straight game in regulation.

Post-Game EXTRA!

Penguins' head coach JD Forrest

On the slow start, strong third period

"Yeah it was a terrible first 40. We just kind of gave them a bunch of opportunities, they capitalized, they played a sound game in the first 40, so you gotta give him credit. I mean they held their home ice and came out out moving, and we just kind of played with some apprehensiveness. I'm not really too sure why. In the third we didn't, we started playing better. It's a different game when it's 4-0 of course, but we made a push, that's a good sign. It's hard to win you play 20 minutes."

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Lineup Notes

Filip Lindberg got the start in net for the Penguins Sunday at Giant Center. Dustin Tokarski served as the team's backup after getting the start on home ice Saturday evening.

Raivis Ansons, who by all accounts had been a healthy scratch in the team's past six games, returned to the lineup with Jamie Devane exiting Saturday night's game with an injury.

Penguins Scratches:  Mitch Reinke (lower body since 10/22), Jordan Frasca (lower body), Colin Swoyer, Jamie Devane, Kyle Olson (upper body since 10/26)

Lines/Pairings:

Alex Nylander - Drake Caggiula - Lukas Svejkovsky Filip Hallander - Sam Houde - Valtteri Puustinen Raivis Ansons - Jonathan Gruden - Nathan Legare Ty Glover - Tyler Sikura - Corey Andonovski

Ty Smith - Mark Friedman Xavier Ouellet - Jack St. Ivany Jon Lizotte - Taylor Fedun

Filip Lindberg - Dustin Tokarski

Hershey Bears

Hunter Shepard got the start in net Sunday for the Bears in the rematch against the Penguins. Zach Fucale served as the team's backup after earning the win Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre.

Garrett Pilon returned to Hershey after being called up to the Capitals earlier this week. Washington claimed forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel off waivers from Toronto.

Bears Scratches: Jake Massie, Logan Day, Julian Napravnik and Matt Strome

Lines/Pairings:

Mike Vecchione - Mike Sgarbossa - Sam Anas Henrik Rybinski - Henrik Borgstrom - Garrett Pilon Mason Morelli - Hendrix Lapierre - Ethen Frank Kale Kessy - Riley Sutter - Shane Gersich

Aaron Ness - Dylan McIlrath Alex Alexeyev - Bobby Nardella Gabriel Carlsson - Vincent Iorio

Hunter Shepard - Zach Fucale

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

12:54: HER - Gersich (1) - unassisted 14:59: HER - Morelli (1) - Lapierre 16:30: HER - (PP) McIlrath, minor (roughing)

2nd Period

6:28: HER - Frank (4) - Lapierre, Alexeyev 8:07: HER - Rybinski (1) - Borgstrom, Ness 12:59: HER - Sgarbossa, ten-minute misconduct (abuse of officials) 15:46: HER - (PP) Nardella, minor (slashing)

3rd Period

0:16: WBS - Gruden (1) - Hallander, Friedman 0:47: WBS - (PP) Caggiula, minor (tripping) 2:21: HER - (PP) Morelli, minor (high-sticking) 11:41: WBS - Hallander (3) - Gruden, Puustinen 17:05: HER - (PP) Lapierre, minor (cross-checking) 18:38: WBS - PPG Hallander (3) - Puustinen, Sikura 19:45: WBS - (PP) bench minor, too many men (served by Nylander)

BOXSCORE

W-B/Scranton  0 - 0 - 3 = 3 Hershey Bears  2 - 2 - 0 = 4

Shots

W-B/Scranton  4 - 9 - 20 = 33 Hershey Bears  8 - 18 - 3 = 29

Goalies

WBS: Filip Lindberg (25 saves - 29 shots) HER: Hunter Shepard (30 saves - 33 shots)

Power Play

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

Penalty Kill

WBS: 2-for-2 HER: 3-for-4