Penguins Cruise to 5-2 Win Over Bears

The Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins really put on a show tonight for the home crowd. Five goals and a handful of fights gave fans plenty of entertainment. The Penguins also dominated the play, out shooting the Bears 41-16 and winning their preseason home opener by a score of 5-2.


The Bears got on the board first after a quick transition led to a 2-on-1. Joey Mormina blocked a Jacob MicFliker shot, but the rebound came right back to MicFlikier and he roofed a shot past Thiessen. Hershey took the 1-0 lead into the 2nd period but were outplayed tonight.

Penguins forward Brian Day had one heck of a game. He got the Penguins on the board early in the middle frame, with the puck bouncing in off his skate. Kevin Veilleux and Cody Chupp got the assists. Day also made his presence felt, hustling hard to make plays, delivering some pretty good body checks and even dropped the gloves to stick up for himself. He knows he has to stand out and make an impression with the coaching staff and the way he played tonight has to be good for his future with this team. Day is one of the new faces on the Penguins roster that has an AHL contract.

Brian Gibbons was also flying out there tonight. His speed down the wing and great cross-ice pass led to a Geoff Walker tap in for a 2-1 lead about halfway through the game. He also scored a goal of his own in the third period. Wearing #23 tonight, Gibbons' speed and willingness to create space kind of reminded me a little bit of Chris Conner.

Veilleux wore Eric Tangradi's #25 and sported a tinted visor tonight. Hopefully his injury in the 2nd period is nothing major.

The bad news of the night came late in the 2nd period. Keven Veilleux seemed to be favoring his leg/ankle area and was trying to get off the ice when Hershey tied the game at 2. He didn't return for the third period, which could just be precautionary since it was only a preseason game. It will be interesting to see if Veilleux plays at all tomorrow or Sunday.

Brandon DeFazio, Brian Gibbons and Bryan Lerg added goals in the third period to make the 5-2 final score. An all around good effort from the guys tonight.  The Penguins really seemed to dominate play.

These two teams will rematch tomorrow night in Hershey and I'm sure there will be some bad blood between some of the guys on the ice. Especially Ryan Schnell (two fights tonight) and Devin DiDiomete (one fight).