Lerg's Goal Clinches AHL's East Division For WBS

Bryan Lerg is the hero of tonights 3-2 win over the Hershey Bears, with the game winning goal and an assist.

Bryan Lerg's shortanded goal in overtime gave the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins the game clinching win they needed to wrap up the division.The Penguins have won its third East Division title in the last six years, also winning it in 2006 and 2008. They also broke their franchise record for wins in a season, picking up their 52nd win of the season over the Bears tonight. John Curry got his 100th career AHL win, his 20th of the season, tonight as well stopping 24 of the 26 shots he faced. 

Ok enough records and on to a recap of the game.

Hershey’s Mathieu Perreault took a tripping minor 4:56 into the game and the Pens made no mistake about it, Craig controlled the faceoff to Sterling who got the puck to Hutchinson and he buried one past Holtby just four seconds into the power play.

Referee Tim Mayer, who handed out 17 power plays last night in the Pens game, called four minors in the first period, three of which were on the Pens. Thank goodness he was paired with Chris Cozzan tonight, right? Wrong, the amount of minor penalties whistled tonight (13) weren't much less than last night (17).

The teams traded goals in the second period. First, Hershey got an even strength goal from Francois Bouchard midway through the middle frame. Then the Pens scored another power play goal less than three minutes later with Ben Street scoring his 12^th of the season from Sterling and Lerg.

The third period was a tale of two periods. They outshot the Bears 6-2 midway through the third period and looked to control play.  But the Bears, feeling urgency that they needed to keep pace with 3^rd place Charlotte, took over play in the second half of the third period, outshooting the Pens 7-1 and got a game tying shorthanded goal with 1:41 left in the game. The game headed to overtime.

The Pens were handed a golden opportunity in the extra session, with Steve Pinizzotto getting whistled 29 seconds in Not only would they not score, Brett Sterling took a roughing minor 2:22 in and gave the Bears a power play chance of their own. But the Penguins will to win took over and Bryan Lerg clinched the AHL's East Division for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. A great shorthanded goal with 1:43 left and Lerg has had a goal and an assists in back-to-back games.