PENGUINS COME BACK TO DEFEAT BEARS IN OVERTIME

November 7, 2014

WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP, Pa.– Jayson Megna scored two goals, including the tying goal inside the final minute of regulation and the overtime winner, to help the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins erase a two-goal deficit and claim a 3-2 victory over the Hershey Bears on Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

The Hershey penalty kill, second-best in the AHL entering the game, was put to the test twice in the opening period.  Philipp Grubauer made saves on tricky shots to keep the Penguins off of the scoreboard, including a game-opening breakaway denial of a chance by Jean-Sebastien Dea.

The Bears would strike first early in the middle frame, when Jon Landry found wide-open ice in the left side of the offensive zone.  He collected a pass from Tomas Kundratek, skated toward traffic and blasted a slapper into the upper-right corner behind a screened Matt Murray at 1:30. 

Moments after Beau Bennett was denied a tying goal by video review, Hershey would make it 2-0 at the 11:40 mark.  Nathan Walker made a strong play to keep the puck alive high in the Bears’ attacking zone, and steered a pass to the right side.  Casey Wellman grabeed it, skated inside the right circle and let a low snap shot go that eluded Murray to the blocker side for his team-leading seventh goal of the season.  Kris Newbury also kept pace atop the AHL scoring leaderboard with his 16^th point of the campaign.

Grubauer and the Bears would hold the attacking Penguins off of the board until halfway through the third period.  At the 9:33 mark, defenseman Taylor Chorney walked off of the right half-wall and took an unimpeded path to the Hershey net.  He snuck a shot inside the far post behind Grubauer, giving the Penguins life.

While six attackers were on the ice inside the final minute of play, Chorney fired a slap shot into traffic.  The puck deflected off of Megna and behind Grubauer with 47 seconds left to play, knotting the score. 

Chris Brown would be denied on an early chance in overtime, as the forward skated through two Penguins defensemen and in alone on Murray.  The Penguins took the puck and flew back the other way, and after a few seconds of cycling the puck in the right corner, rookie Derrick Pouliot spotted Megna with a backhand, backdoor pass.  Megna fired it home at 1:01 of overtime, completing the comeback.

Grubauer made a season-high 31 saves but fell to 3-3-1.  Murray improved to 3-2-1 with 14 saves.

The Bears return home to battle the Hartford Wolf Pack tomorrow, November 8 at 7:00 PM.  The first 3,000 fans will receive a Hershey / CKC Pharmacy Gift Card.  Tickets for this game and all home contests may be purchased at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com. Information on group tickets and season tickets for the 2014-2015 Hershey Bears regular season is available by calling (717) 508-BEAR.  Many different flexible plans are offered and start as low as $170.

NOTES: The Bears scratches were D Erik Burgdoerfer, RW Chris Conner, RW Stanislav Galiev, LW Tim Spencer and D Patrick Wey…Three stars: 3-Pouliot, 2-Chorney, 1-Megna…Hershey finished the night 0-for-1 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill…Hershey scored its league-leading ninth first-goal of the season.