Bourque Scores 600th AHL Point in 6-2 Loss

December 10, 2016

(Wilkes-Barre, PA- December 10, 2016)- Chris Bourque collected his 600th career AHL point, but four goals from Oskar Sundqvist led the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 6-2 victory over the Hershey Bears Saturday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena. The loss snapped Hershey’s 10-game point streak.

The Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead for the second straight night on Saturday. Christian Djoos opened the scoring with his third goal of the season at 3:54. Paul Carey maneuvered the puck behind the goal and fed Djoos on the far side. His shot beat a sprawled Casey DeSmith to make it 1-0. Carey’s assist on the goal extended his point streak to an AHL-best 14 games. 

Hershey scored again at the 12:11 mark as Chandler Stephenson struck for the second straight night. Chris Bourque deflected the puck to the slot and Stephenson beat DeSmith under the crossbar to make it 2-0. With the assist, Bourque became the 46th player in AHL history to collect 600 career points.  He now has 206 goals and 394 assists in 605 AHL games. 

After Stephenson’s goal, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton struck for six straight goals with four coming from Sundqvist. The Penguins forward is the first player to score four goals versus the Bears since Steve Konowalchuk did it on October 10, 1993 for Portland. 

Sundqvist scored a power play goal at 16:59 of the first period to cut Hershey’s lead to 2-1, then struck again, knocking a bouncing puck past a sprawled Cannata at 9:31 of the second period to tie the game.

Only 29 seconds later, Jake Gunetzel gave the Penguins the lead with his ninth goal of the season, then Sundqvist completed the hat trick, deflecting a Kevin Porter shot past Cannata on the power play at 12:37. 

Sundqvist struck for his fourth goal at 3:36 of the third period, racing in on a breakaway and maneuvering around Cannata to make it 5-2 Penguins. 

Tom Kostopoulos also scored for the Penguins who outshot the Bears 36-23 on the night. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was 2-for-4 on the power play while Hershey was 0-for-3. 

Hershey returns home tomorrow to host Rochester at 5 p.m. for Dietz & Watson Dollar Dog Night, a Toys for Tots Drive, and College Night delivered by Papa John's. Ticket information is available at HersheyBears.com.