The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hershey Bears meet for the 8th time this season at 5:00 p.m. EST at the Giant Center. The Penguins own the season series 5-0-1-1, but the Bears won the last meeting in a shootout and enter today's game winners of four straight and six of their last seven.
Follow the latest in-game updates of tonight's game on Twitter (@H_P_Hockey), which is now on the left hand side of this online column. A look at news, notes, expected goaltenders and lineups for both teams after the jump.
Be sure to check back shortly after the conclusion of today's game for a recap of all the action.
For the Penguins, they won a hard-fought eight round shootout over Norfolk last night. Eric Hartzell was a game changer, stopping 14 third period shots, four shots in overtime and all eight Norfolk shootout attempts en route to the Penguins 2-1 win over the Admirals last night.
One thing to note on Hartzell is that he seemed to be favoring a lower body ailment in the game's final minutes of regulation and was mentioned on Norfolk's radio broadcast as looking slowed and not as quick in his movements. This happened once earlier this season and it turned out to be that Hartzell was just cramping up. Certainly possible he was exhausted as he faced 17 straight shots at one point in the second half of the game.
Scary moment in the final minute of the third period, as Zach Sill appeared to take the skate of Admirals defenseman Nolan Yonkman across his left forearm. Sill immediately left the ice to the locker room as back up goaltender Jeff Deslauriers called for WBS trainer Kyle Moore. No update on Sill, but I'm sure he won't be in the lineup tonight.
For Hershey, after a slow start to the season it seems the Bears are getting things together, judged by their recent win streak.
By The Numbers
WBS: 25-13-1-3, 54 points - Second Place East Division (4th - East)
Last Ten Games: 6-4-0-0
HER: 21-14-3-3, 48 points - Fourth Place East Division (9th - East)
Last Ten Games: 8-2-0-0
WBS Leading Scorers: Tom Kostopoulos (15G-12A), Harry Zolnierczyk (13G-11A), Nick Drazenovic (8G-15A)
HER Leading Scorers: Brandon Segal (13G-21A), Jeff Taffe (9G-17A), Nicholas Deschamps (11G-13A)
Expected Starting Goaltenders
WBS - Jeff Deslauriers (16-11-2, 2.39 GAA, .902 SV%, 1 SO)
HER - Philipp Grubauer (5-4-1, 2.44 GAA, .916 SV%, 1 SO)
Expected Lineups
WBS
Zolnierczyk - Drazenovic - Kostopoulos
Kuhnhackl - Torquato - Zlobin
Uher - Carman - Thompson
Farnham - Manderson - Leblond
Samuelsson - Despres
Harrington - Mikkelson
Dumoulin - McNeill/Ruopp
WBS Scratches: Adam Payerl (upper body), Zach Sill (upper body), Carter Rowney, Nick D'Agostino and Harrison Ruopp
HER
Deschamps - Stoa - Segal
Taffe - Latta - Gazley
Byers - Potulny - Watkins
Walker - LeBlanc - Rechlicz
Schilling - Strachan
Brouilette - Oleksy
Genoway - Kolomatis
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment