Graber Scores First AHL Goal in Loss to Penguins

Hershey scored the icebreaker in the first period on Graber's tally. The rookie defender walked in off the left point, cutting around an attacking Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defender. He fired a shot to the net that Penguins goaltender Max Lagace stopped, but Graber was able to pop the rebound through a cluster of players and past Legace to make it 1-0. Paul LaDue and Garrett Pilon assisted on the goal. 

The Penguins responded before the period ended on Radim Zohorna's first AHL goal. The forward charged the net, and a poke from Hershey's LaDue sent the puck up in the air and over Bears goaltender Ilya Samsonov to tie the game at 19:48. 

In the second period, the teams traded goals, with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pulling ahead, 3-2. Anthony Angello gave the Penguins the lead at 7:37, sliding a rebound past Samsonov, but Mike Sgarbossa responded for Hershey just over two minutes later. Sgarbossa inadvertently blocked a Reece Willcox shot, and the puck landed at his feet. With Lagace out of position, Sgarbossa scored his third goal of the season to make it 2-2. 

Less than a minute later, Zohorna gave the Penguins the lead back, powering his way to the net, sliding a shot past Samsonov's right pad for his second goal of the contest at 10:39. The tally stood up as the winner, and Nick Schilkey added an insurance marker at 3:58 of the third period to give the Penguins the win. 

Hershey out shot Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 28-19 in the game, including 10-4 in the third period. Neither team scored on the power play with Hershey going 0-for-4 and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finishing 0-for-2.

The Bears are back in action on Friday versus Binghamton in Newark, New Jersey. The puck drops at 7 p.m. and the game may be heard on the Bears Radio Network and viewed on AHLTV.