Penguins Down Bears 1-0 In Shootout

Photo: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

The Hershey Bears fell to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 1-0 (SO) Wednesday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre. The loss drops the Bears record to 7-5-2-2 (18 points) on the season. With the win, the Penguins move to 5th in the Atlantic Division, while the Bears drop to 6th.

The Bears are back in action Friday when they host the Charlotte Checkers for the first of a two-game weekend-set at Giant Center. Puck drop is 7:00PM.

STARTERS
Pheonix Copley (3-3-2-0, 2.96 GAA, .887 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Bears. Casey De Smith (5-4-0-1, 2.97 GAA, .889 sv%) started between the pipes for the Penguins. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:

Lineup for 11/13/2019 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton ⬇️ #HBH pic.twitter.com/rRWdWieKD2

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 13, 2019

Travis Boyd and Tyler Lewington were re-assigned to Hershey on Monday in order to make salary cap space for the return of Richard Panik.

Scratches: Lucas Johansen (lower body injury, day-to-day), Colby Williams (lower body injury-day-to-day), Bobby Nardella (upper body injury, week-to-week). Joe Snively, Kale Kessy, Chris McCarthy, Tobias Geisser, and Riley Sutter were healthy scratches.

Riley Sutter was loaned to the Bears from the Capitals on Tuesday. Sutter was injured in the third period of the first game of this year’s prospect tournament on September 7th in Nashville, and has been on the Capitals “season opening injured reserve” since the start of the season.

FIRST PERIOD
The Penguins held the early possession advantage, leading in shots on goal 4-0 through the first five minutes of the contest. They would also be awarded the game’s first power play (12 for 55) after Travis Boyd was called for slashing at 5:25 of the first period, but no damages were done.

The Bears would go to their first power play at 8:02 of the opening frame, but were also unable to convert. Shots on goal were 8-2 in favor of the Penguins after 10 minutes of play. Copley looked sharp early.

The first period would end with the game scoreless. The Penguins outshot the Bears 14-5 in the first frame. The Bears were 0 for 2 and the Penguins 0 for 1 on the power play after 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD
The Bears and Penguins would skate to a scoreless draw in the middle frame as well. Hershey outshot Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 10-6 for the second period, with the Penguins leading 20-15 after 40 minutes of play. The Bears were 0 for 2 and the Penguins 0 for 3 on the power play after two periods.

THIRD PERIOD
The game would go scoreless for the final frame as well. Bears outshot Penguins 10-7 for the final frame, with the Penguins leading 27-25 in regulation. There were no penalties called in the third frame.

OVERTIME
Boyd, Sgarbossa and Djoos started the extra frame for the Bears. There would be no scoring in the extra frame. Each goaltender earns a shutout.

SHOOTOUT
1. Penguins: Good; Bears (Boyd): No good
2. Penguins: No good; Bears (Sgarbossa): No good
3. Penguins: No good; Bears (Moulson): No good.

SHAVINGS

Attendance: 3,589
The AHL box score is here.
Penguins outshot Bears 30-28.
Brian Pinho led the Bears in shots with 4 for the game.
Pheonix Copley stopped 27 of 27.
This was the third consecutive game for the Bears that went to overtime.
This was the 20th anniversary of the Penguins first home game on November 13, 1999.

SCENES FROM WILKES-BARRE