BEARS AND PENGUINS MEET SATURDAY AT 7:00 P.M.

March 27, 2010

The BEARS are at home Saturday night, playing the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the 12th and final time during the 2009-10 regular season. Face-off is at 7:00 p.m., with the game already sold out. Alexandre Giroux scored three goals Friday to reach the 40-goal plateau for the third time in a HERSHEY uniform, downing the Atlantic Division leading Worcester Sharks 7-2 at Giant Center. Jay Beagle, Patrick McNeill, Keith Aucoin and Kyle Wilson each added single goals in the win, HERSHEY’S 54th of the season. Goaltender Braden Holtby picked up his team leading 22nd win of the campaign Friday night, as the Chocolate and White picked up points number 110 and 111. The win evened the season series with the Sharks at a win apiece. With three goals Friday, Alexandre Giroux has forty goals this season. Including his 60 during the regular season last year, Giroux now has 100 goals for HERSHEY over the last two seasons. He also scored 15 goals during the 2009 Calder Cup playoffs. It’s the third time Giroux has reached the 40-goal plateau in a BEARS uniform, scoring 42 during the 2006-07 season. The Penguins enter play Saturday as perhaps the hottest team in the East Division, taking points in 10 straight games. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is in third place in the East, five points behind second place Albany with two games in hand and three points ahead of fourth place Norfolk. The Pens finished off a two-game sweep of the Norfolk Admirals Friday night, winning at Norfolk Scope 3-1. Dustin Jeffrey leads Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in scoring with 67 points. Goaltender John Curry leads the team in appearances and wins, but Brad Thiessen has made six appearances against HERSHEY this season. The Penguins and BEARS have met each of the last four postseasons, with the Chocolate and White winning three of the last four years. It’s a busy day of action in the American Hockey League, beginning with the Rochester Americans visiting the Toronto Marlies at Ricoh Coliseum. It’s a critical game for Toronto, who begins the day five points behind Manitoba for the fourth and final playoff spot with eight games to play. Hamilton plays the second of a two-game series in Abbotsford against the Heat, while Texas plays at Grand Rapids, Bridgeport visits Hartford, and Adirondack heads to Manchester to play the Monarchs. Elsewhere, Springfield visits Portland at the Cumberland County Civic Center, Worcester is in Norfolk to face the Admirals, and Albany heads down the Thruway to play Syracuse at the War Memorial at OnCenter. Out west, Houston is at Peoria, Lake Erie is at San Antonio, and Chicago heads down I-94 to face the Rockford IceHogs. The IceHogs, with a win and some help out of town, can nail down a Calder Cup playoff spot Saturday. Saturday’s game can be heard via the BEARS Radio Network (100.1 FM and www.Sportsjuice.com) beginning at 6:40 p.m. John Walton, Ed Coffey and Jim Jones have the call from Giant Center.