Photo: The Hershey Bears
The Hershey Bears fell to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 3-1 Tuesday night at Giant Center in Hershey. The loss drops the Bears record to 25-18-3-3 (56 points) for the season.
Following a scoreless first frame, the Penguins finally dented the twine midway through the second period and held a 1-0 lead at the second intermission. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton would add an empty net goal near the end of the regulation before the Bears finally got on the scoreboard for a 2-1 score with a minute left to play. The Penguins would add a second empty net goal for the 3-1 final.
STARTERS
The Bears started goaltender Hunter Shepard (5-1-0-1, 2.07 GAA, .921 sv%) in net, while the visiting Penguins countered with Tommy Nappier (6-6-2-0, 3.05 GAA, .892 sv%) in goal. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:
Injuries: Garrett Pilon (upper-body injury), Mike Sgarbossa (upper-body injury), Matt Moulson (back surgery) and Bobby Nardella (lower-body injury).
Scratches: Nick Isaacson, Macoy Erkamps, Christopher Brown.
FIRST PERIOD
The Bears and Penguins skated o a scoreless draw in the first fame.
Hershey led in shots 7-4. Wilkes-Barre was 0 for 3 and Hershey 0 for 2 on the power play in the first 20 minutes.
SECOND PERIOD
The Penguins opened the scoring midway through the middle frame with a goal from Kyle Olson (7) at 6:57. Jordy Bellerive (14) and Jonathan Gruden (12) had the helpers.
Kyle Olson scores to put the #WBSPens up 1-0 assisted by Bellerive and Gruden pic.twitter.com/d52phcp98v
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) February 23, 2022
The second period would end with the Penguins leading 1-0. Bears led in shots 12-9 in the middle frame and 19-13 after two periods. Wilkes-Barre was 0 for 4 and Hershey 0 for 2 on the power play after 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
The Bears and Penguins skated to a scoreless draw for a majority of the final frame before the Penguins would add an empty net goal at 18:16 to make it 2-0 late.
The Bears would cut the lead in half with a goal from Brian Pinho (6) at 19:00. Alex Alexeyev (10) and Kody Clark (9) had the assists.
Brian Pinho deflects an Alex Alexeyev shot from the point to make it 2-1. Pens add a late goal to make it 3-1. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/j70LZtWRNd
— Jon Sorensen (@jon_m_sorensen) February 23, 2022
Unfortunately the Penguins would add another empty net goal in the final minute for the 3-1 final score.
The Bears are back in action on Friday when they visit the Comets in Utica. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM.
SHAVINGS
- AHL box score
- Attendance: 9,266
- Bears led in shots 27-25.
- Shane Gersich led all Bears in shots with 6.
- Hunter Shepard stopped 22 of 23 shots for a .956 save percentage.
- The Penguins were 0 for 5 and the Bears 0 for 3 on the power play.
- This was the 4th game in five nights for the Bears and second game in six nights for the Penguins.
- Tonight’s game was originally supposed to be played Dec. 5, but the contest was rescheduled due to COVID-19 protocol issues.
- Tonight marks the return of Hershey’s vintage inspired cream third jerseys. Tonight’s game is the first of five times the club will sport them this year.
