Bears’ Quick Start Defeats Penguins, 3-2

Photo via Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Facebook Page

The Hershey Bears kicked off the month of March with a trip north on I-81 to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The Bears entered play win-less in their last three consecutive matches against the W-B/S Penguins. Philipp Grubauer, fresh off his National Hockey League debut, looked on from the bench as Dany Sabourin backstopped Hershey to a nail-biting 3-2 win at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Brad Thiessen drew the start in goal for the Penguins, but he would not make it past the midway mark of the opening frame. Following the dying seconds of Hershey’s first power play of the night, Boyd Kane spun a backhander over the glove of Thiessen to give the Bears an early lead at the 4:45 mark.

Exactly four minutes later, Hershey continued to test Thiessen’s glove hand, and again succeeded. Following a pass from long time teammate Jon DiSalvatore, Jeff Taffe backhanded an identical shot past Thiessen to put the Bears up 2-0.

Only 45 seconds later, Ryan Potulny ended Brad Thiessen’s night with a goal to the top-shelf of the cage, off the inside of the goal post. Casey Wellman picked up the primary helper, giving him a five-game point streak.

While the Bears jumped out to a comfy first period three goal advantage, long time Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin Tom Kostopoulos answered the bell for his team. On his team’s second power play of the night following a Wellman boarding infraction, Kostopoulos tallied his 100th career goal in a Penguins uniform to make it a 3-1 game with 4:45 left in the period.

Shots were tied a nine after 20 minutes, with Jeff Zatkoff facing only two after replacing Thiessen, who faced seven and stopped four.

Into the second period, Hershey looked to be at their flattest being held to only two shots in the stanza. Wilkes-Barre dominated play and spent at least half the period in their offensive third of the ice. Joey Mormina, newly named captain of the Penguins scored on a slap shot through a host of bodies to cut the Bears’ lead to 3-2.

Despite being man-handled all period long in the hands of Wilkes-Barre, and with the hometown fans sensing a comeback, Sabourin heroically held the Pens to only one goal in the second.

Entering the third period, the Pens clearly had the momentum edge over Hershey. Despite firing a total of 25 shots within the final 40 minutes on Dany Sabourin, “Sabou” stonewalled Wilkes-Barre and proved to be clutch in a 3-2 win at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Although the Bears were only held to three third period shots, the offensive effort was not nearly as dreadful as the second period.

With sixteen seconds left, gloves suddenly flew in front of the Hershey cage when Steve Oleksy pounded Tom Kostopoulos with several punches in a late game scrap. Luckily for the Bears, following the altercation the face off was placed in neutral ice, where Hershey was able to burn off the game’s final seconds.

The win broke a three game losing streak against the Penguins, and gave Hershey a two point boost in the standings to begin March.