PREVIEW: AHL Penguins Host Hershey Tonight at 7:05 p.m. EDT

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (WBS) host the Hershey Bears (HER) tonight at 7:05 p.m. EDT in what is the fourth of 12 meetings between the two rival teams this season. The Pens are a perfect 3-0 against the Bears so far this season, and look to make it four in a row with a home win tonight.

The Penguins are coming off a 5-3 win over East Divison foe Syracuse. Hershey, meanwhile, is coming off a successful weekend in Charlotte, where they beat the Checkers 8-1 Thursday night in their most recent game.

Nick Drazenovic leads the Penguins in scoring against the Bears this season with four assists. Chris Conner has two goals against Hershey as well. For the Bears, forwards Jeff Taffe and Dane Byers have a goal and an assist each against the Penguins this season. Penguins goaltender Jeff Deslauriers is 3-0-0 against Hershey this season with a 1.63 GAA and .925 SV%. Bears netminder Philip Grubauer is 2-0-1 in his last three starts.



PREGAME NOTES

WBS Penguins: 9-3-0-2, 20 pts., 1st Place East Division
Hershey Bears: 5-4-2-2, 14 pts., 5th Place East Division

Expected Starting Goaltenders

WBS - Jeff Deslauriers: 8-2-2, 2.60 GAA, .892 SV%, 0 SO
HER - David Leggio: 2-3-1, 3.31 GAA, .898 SV%, 0 SO

Expected Hershey Lineup

Walker-Taffe-Wellman
Whitmore-Stoa-Segal
Brittain-LeBlanc-Deschamps
J. Mitchell-Watkins-G. Mitchell

Schilling-Wey

Orlov-Kolomatis

Wellar-Carrick

Expected Penguins Lineup

Zolnierczyk-Gibbons-Conner

Kuhnhackl-Ebbett-Kostopoulos 

Uher-Drazenovic-Megna

Farnham-Carman-Payerl 

Despres-Samuelsson

Dumoulin-Harrington

Mikkelson-D'Agostino

Expected WBS scratches: Peter Merth, Reid McNeill, Paul Thompson and Pierre-Luc Leblond