BEARS POST THRILLING COMEBACK WIN OVER PENS IN OVERTIME

February 7, 2015

HERSHEY, Pa. – Mike Moore capped off a three-goal comeback for the Hershey Bears, scoring his first Hershey goal 3:24 into overtime and sending his club to a 4-3 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 10,821 at GIANT Center.

The first period ended scoreless, despite the Penguins having a slight edge in possession time.  Hershey would kill off the only two power plays of the game to keep Wilkes-Barre/Scranton off of the board.

The middle frame was anything but quiet, as the teams combined for four goals.  The Bears would come out of the gate with a hard charge, and after forcing a turnover at center ice, Chris Conner and Stan Galiev took off on a two-on-one rush.  Conner’s backhand pass landed perfectly for Galiev to one-time the puck past Jeff Zatkoff just 57 seconds into the period.

The Penguins would knot the score in the final seconds of a Bears power play.  Carter Rowney held the puck on another odd-man rush, and sent a hard wrist shot under the blocker of Philipp Grubauer at 5:40.

A third power play would be handed to the visitors, and Nick Drazenovic would put the Penguins ahead 2-1 after he set up in the slot and redirected a Conor Sheary pass into the upper-left corner.

Inside the final two minutes of the period, the Penguins would add an insurance goal after relentless pressure in the offensive zone.  Reid McNeill’s shot from the left point would float into traffic, off of Tom Kuhnhackl and through the pads of Grubauer at 18:12.

The Bears began their charge just 17 seconds into the third.  Killing off the remainder of a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton carry-over power play, the Bears controlled the puck in their own zone.  Dustin Gazley flipped a pass to center ice where Kris Newbury was waiting to go in alone on Zatkoff.  Newbury picked the upper-right corner for his 15th of the season, cutting the deficit to 3-2.

Conner then provided the true heroics, tying the game with 3:30 left to play.  Cutting into the high slot, Conner’s snap shot sailed over Zatkoff’s glove for his third goal of the weekend.

In overtime, the Penguins got two early chances on Grubauer, but the netminder stopped them both.  Jim O’Brien later slid a pass around to the left wall where Moore waited.  He stepped into a low slap shot that went in and out quickly behind Zatkoff, sending the Bears off the bench in celebration.

Grubauer made 23 saves for his sixth consecutive win, and improved to 17-9-4 on the year.  Zatkoff made 31 saves but fell to 11-10-3.

The Bears extended their point streak to nine games (8-0-0-1), and improved their division lead to five points with a record of 27-13-4-2.

The Bears are home again tomorrow, February 8 to host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at 5:00 PM.  It’s a Dietz and Watson Dollar Dog Night, and fans may purchase hot dogs at select concession stands for $1.  The first 4,000 fans will also receive a PSECU Bears knit cap.  Individual tickets for this and all remaining home games are available at the GIANT Center box office, online at TicketMaster.com or by calling 717-508-BEAR.



NOTES: The Bears scratched LW Dane Byers, D Michal Cajkovsky, C Chandler Stephenson, D Nate Schmidt and D Patrick Wey… The Penguins scratched LW Pierre-Luc Letorneau-Leblond, D Harrison Ruopp, C Dominik Uher and LW Anton Zlobin…The Bears finished the night 0-for-3 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill… Three stars: 3-Newbury, 2-Galiev, 1-Conner...The Bears scored their league-leading 30th first goal, and are 20-7-3-0 when scoring first…Galiev netted the first goal, his team-leading sixth of the season…Hershey leads the season series against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, improving to 6-2-2-0.