Photo: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
The Hershey Bears downed the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 2-1 Saturday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre. Zack Fucale stopped 30 of 31 shots faced and Vinny Iorio recorded his second AHL point in the victory. The Bears record improves to 4-2-2-0 on the season.
HERSHEY BEARS LINEUP
Zach Fucale got the start in goal for the Bears. Dustin Tokarski got the start between the pipes for the Penguins. The forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:
Mike Vecchione – Mike Sgarbossa – Sam Anas
Mason Morelli – Henrik Borgstrom – Henrik Rybinski
Matthew Strome – Hendrix Lapierre – Ethan Frank
Kale Kessy – Riley Sutter – Shane Gersich
Jake Massie – Aaron Ness
Gabriel Carlsson – Vinny Iorio
Alex Alexeyev – Bobby Nardella
Scratches: Garrett Pilon, Dylan McIlrath (suspended), Julian Napravnik and Logan Day.
Recalls/Reassignments: Sonny Milano, Garrett Pilon and Lucas Johansen were recalled by the Capitals on Wednesday, November 2 [More here.]. Garrett Pilon was returned to the Bears Saturday, November 5, but not in time to tonight’s game. [More here and here]
FIRST PERIOD
The Bears and Penguins skated to a scoreless draw in the first frame.
Penguins led in shots 13-6.
The Penguins were 0 for 1 on the power play. The Bears did not have man advantage in the opening frame.
SECOND PERIOD
The Penguins were awarded a double-minor at the start of the second period when Bobby Nardella was called for high-sticking, but the Bears were able to kill the Pens’ four-minute power play.
Mike Sgarbossa was called for tripping just as the Nardella penalty expired, sending the Bears penalty kill right back to work, but they were up to the task once again, keeping the game scoreless.
The Bears finally broke the seal on the scoring midway through the middle frame. Mike Sgarbossa finished a nice passing sequence started by Vincent Iorio (2) and relayed by Mike Vecchione (6) at 13:23 of the second period.
Nice passing sequence, Vincent Iorio to Mike Vecchione to Mike Sgarbossa for the 1-0 lead. #ALLCAPS #HBH pic.twitter.com/TFxgJroiR1
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) November 5, 2022
The Bears quickly made it 2-0 with a power play bomb from Ethan Frank (3) at 18:30 of the second period. Sam Anas (4) and Bobby Nardella (5) had the helpers.
Ethan Frank fires a bomb on the power play and the Bears lead 2-0. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/H54nBnv82J
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) November 5, 2022
The middle frame concluded with the Bears holding on to a 2-0 lead. Hershey led in shots 13-4 in the middle frame and 19-17 after two periods. The Penguins were 0 for 5 and the Bears 1 for 1 on the power play after two periods.
THIRD PERIOD
Things got chippy at the start of the final frame. Matthew Strome jumped Jonathan Gruden after Gruden applied a big hit to Arron Ness.
Assorted unpleasantries. pic.twitter.com/Ko9nuNZz6E
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) November 5, 2022
The Penguins would add a power play goal with 55 seconds remaining in the game to cut the Bears lead to one. Alex Nylander (5) had the tally for the Penguins. Tyler Sikura (2) and Ty Smith (4) had the assists.
That would be the final.
The same two teams do it again Sunday afternoon in Hershey. Puck drop is set for 4:30 PM.
SHAVINGS
- AHL box score
- Attendance: 5,203
- This was Kale Kessy’s season debut.
- Penguins led in shots 31-27 for a .967 save percentage.
- Wilkes-Barre was 1 for 6 and Hershey 1 for 3 on the power play.
- The Bears played their first game 84 years ago today. They won 2-1.
- Bears had a road record of 7-18-4-1 since Jan 1, 2022, coming into game.
That was a solid win. Game was a little dry in first and third. Goaltending is top notch so far this season.
Goaltending has been excellent. Good to see Besrs get a road win. They have a lot of talent, if they can just deal with the contents callups and other distractions, we might have something.
Hope to watch the game this afternoon. Particularly interested to see how Alexyev looks. Pilon back today will be good as well. Great to see Frank contributing.
Alexeyev’s last rehab game. Will be interesting to see what transpires in the next 24 hours.
I have (am) watching the game this afternoon. Alexyev has looked better. But he is not NHL ready. Still has a lot of timing to get back. So waive him for purposes of loan to Hershey (No NHL team will sign him to their active roster). Let him play a bunch of games. Hopefully he finds his game and get some games in WSH.
Agree. He’s dealt with so many injuries in his career. He looked good for most of season in KHL, so I feel he can eventually make the jump. But this season is slipping away for him.
Still a lot of season for him. I hope we see a different player in 5-10 more games and would like to see him stand out for an extended period and earn a call-up. I’d really like to see him in the NHL, but like all prospects, he’s gotta earn it. Standing out in the AHL is the next step.