The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins extended their winless streak to three games, falling to the AHL’s best team, the Hershey Bears, in overtime 4-3 on Saturday evening. The loss marked the second time in four days that the Bears had defeated the Penguins, who last beat them 5-4 on Tuesday.
Unlike their previous meeting earlier in the week, the Penguins opened the scoring with Avery Hayes’ unassisted goal in the first period at 8:59. The lamplighter extended Hayes’ point streak to four games.
Despite each team getting three power-play opportunities in the opening period, the score remained 1-0 heading into intermission.
However, that changed in the second, when Alex Limoges knotted things up at 1-1 with a power-play tally at 4:55. Interestingly, it turned out to be the only special team’s goal of the game, even though WBS had four power-play chances to the Hershey’s five.
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As the intensity picked up for the final 20 minutes, so did the goal-scoring and march to the penalty box.
The Bears gained their first lead at 4:04 when Pierrick Dube scored. Then, Valtteri Puustinen rallied the home team back into a tie at 8:41 thanks to an assist from Rutger McGroarty.
Less than two minutes later, at 10:17, Hayes scored his second goal, securing his first two-goal game of the year to put the Penguins up by a goal at 3-2.
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However, with their goalie pulled, Chase Priskie scored the game-tying goal with just 13 seconds left, sending the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Bears pulled out a win from the jaws of defeat thanks to Hendrix Lapierre’s winner at 3:13.
Meanwhile, the third period was wild. Vincent Iorio and Sam Poulin fought at 11:01. Then, Dube and Vasily Ponomarev got into it at 12:31, leading to a match penalty for fighting on Ponomarev.
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Filip Larsson made his first appearance for the Penguins between the pipes since Jan. 15, where he lost to the Laval Rocket in overtime. On Saturday, the 26-year-old Swedish netminder made 29 stops for a .879 SV%.
Clay Stevenson finished with a .906 SV% for the visiting Bears, thanks to 29 saves on 32 shots.
The Penguins are back in action on Sunday against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. With a 26-12-5-1 record, they remain in third place in the Atlantic Division, now seven points behind the Bears for the top spot.
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