Trailing 2-0 heading into the third period tonight, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins needed another third period comeback. But with six regular forwards out of the lineup, who was left to step up for the WBS Penguins?
Tonight it was Pierre-Luc Leblond and former Hershey Bears and current Penguin Mike Carman, tallying back-to-back goals in the third period to get the Penguins to overtime, though the Bears would win it with 6.6 seconds left in overtime as David Kolomatis swatted a loose puck into the net after a mad scramble in front of Jeff Deslauriers' net.
The win was the Bears' first against the Penguins this season, in the 5th meeting between the teams. The Pens OT loss, combined with a Binghamton Senators shootout loss to St. John's, still leaves the Pens in first place in the East Division tied with the BSens.
The Pens, coming off a hard-fought 1-0 win last night, got off to a bit of a sluggish start and fell behind 1-0 3:46 into the game while on the penalty kill. Bears defenseman Chay Genoway faked a shot from the center point and fed a perfect pass to the face-off circle for Stanislev Galiev, whose one-time shot beat Jeff Deslauriers to put Hershey in front. Casey Wellman added the secondary assist.
There were two fights in the first period as the heavyweights, Penguins' Pierre-Luc Leblond and Bears' Joel Rechlicz, squared off in a spirited minute long fight 1:47 into the period. Adam Payerl took control of Dane Byers in a scrap after the first period had ended.
The Bears had come into tonight's game well rested having not played since Wednesday and it showed in the first period as Hershey had the jump in their step in the first 20 minutes. While the Penguins had some chances on David Leggio, they hadn't really tested him with much sustained pressure. Shots after the first period were 9-8 in favor of Hershey.
The buzz of the second period centered around a hit on Brian Gibbons 1:46 into the period. While on the power play, Gibbons made a pass to Harry Zolnierczyk before being blindsided by Bears forward Garrett Mitchell. Mitchell was assessed a major for charging as well as a game misconduct for the hit on Gibbons. Here's a replay of the hit, what's your take? It's hard to tell what the primary point of contact is on the replay, but the fact that Gibbons did not have the puck and it was well after he had made a pass had to figure in on the call.
The Bears added to their lead in the second period six seconds after Adam Payerl's high sticking minor had ended, giving the Bears a 2-0 lead.
With the Penguins down 2-0 and searching for scoring, they dug deep and it was Pierre-Luc Leblond with a shot from the wing that got the Pens on the board and back into the hockey game 3:33 into the third period.
The Pens seemed to carry the momentum from the goal through most of the third and tied the game at two with 5:15 left in regulation. Adam Payerl and Mike Carman teamed up on a nice give-and-go play and Carman finished off the play, scoring against his former team on his second goal of the season to tie things up and get it to overtime. Defenseman Nick D'Agostino added a secondary assist on the goal.
ROSTER NOTES
Jeff Deslauriers got the start in net after Eric Hartzell shut out the Binghamton Senators last night. In a pre-recorded first intermission interview, Hartzell talked about his leg cramping up in the third period last night. Not an injury for those who saw my tweets during last night's game.
Dominik Uher did not take the warmup skate and remains out of the WBS lineup. Reid McNeill and Nick Drazenovic are also both on the injured list.
Peter Merth made his season debut tonight, as he returned to the WBS blue line tonight. Dustin Stevenson was the lone healthy scratch as the team's 7th defenseman.
Lines
Zolnierczyk - Gibbons - Megna
Kuhnhackl - Carman - Thompson
Farnham - Payerl - Leblond
Sylvester - Manderson - Rowney
Dumoulin - Samuelsson
Harrington - Mikkelson
D'Agostino - Merth
0 comments:
Post a Comment