POSTPONED GAME SET TO GO SUNDAY AT 1:00 P.M.

February 7, 2010

A day later than expected, the BEARS and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins meet for a matinee performance Sunday afternoon at Giant Center. Face-off is set for 1:00 p.m. For just the third time all season, HERSHEY rallied from a deficit after two periods to win, defeating the Norfolk Admirals 3-2 in a shootout Wednesday night at Norfolk Scope. Andrew Joudrey was named the game’s number one star, scoring both goals in regulation for the Chocolate and White. Goaltender Jason Bacashihua won his 10th game of the season, making several game-saving stops in sudden death overtime. Chris Bourque scored the game-winning strike in the shootout to lift the BEARS to win number 38 on the season against just nine regulation setbacks. HERSHEY enters play tonight with a record of 38-9-0-2, good for 78 points with 31 regular season games remaining. The BEARS are just 14 wins short of setting a new franchise record for most victories in a season (51 is the current record, set under Bruce Boudreau in 2006-07) and 19 wins away from tying the American Hockey League single-season record for most wins in one year. The Binghamton Rangers own the AHL single-season record for wins (57) and points (124). With 31 games to go, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finds themselves in a battle for playoff positioning. With HERSHEY and Albany entrenched in the top two spots in the East Division race, the Penguins are battling Norfolk, Adirondack and Syracuse for what potentially could be just one playoff spot left when the music stops in April. Should the fifth place team in the Atlantic Division have more points than the fourth place team in the East at the end of the season, the Atlantic team would cross over to play in the East playoffs, and the East team could miss the 2010 Calder Cup playoffs. Scores from Saturday around the league: Rockford fell in Lake Erie 5-3, Albany slipped past Springfield 7-6 in overtime, Bridgeport moved past Manchester 6-4, Houston edged Grand Rapids 3-2, Portland won a shootout over Lowell 4-3, and Hamilton edged Toronto 2-1 at Ricoh Coliseum. Rochester escaped Binghamton with a narrow 5-4 regulation win, with Graham Mink scoring two goals to lead the way for the Amerks. Providence defeated Worcester 5-3, Hartford pasted Norfolk 5-1, the first time in nine games that the Admirals did not record at least one standings point. Former BEARS center Jared Aulin had two goals as Syracuse won 5-1 over Adirondack, and Manitoba won a shootout over San Antonio 4-3 at MTS Centre. The only other game Sunday features Worcester and Providence at Dunkin Donuts Center. Sunday’s game can be heard via the BEARS Radio Network (100.1 FM and www.Sportsjuice.com) beginning at 12:40 p.m. John Walton, Ed Coffey and Jim Jones have the call of the action from Giant Center.