The Hershey Bears and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins met for the eighth installment of the I-81 rivalry series. This iteration took place at Giant Center before a sold-out crowd. It was a tight game befitting the battle for the Atlantic Division crown. In the end, Hershey rallied from a 3-0 deficit to force overtime. Pierrick Dubé went coast-to-coast and scored the winning goal to lift Hershey to their latest 5-4 victory. Clay Stevenson earned the win in goal with 12 saves.
Tested Versus Rested
The Penguins bused in late following a win in Syracuse on Friday. Wilkes-Barre completed a set of three games in four days on Saturday. They had the weary legs while Hershey hadn’t played in game action in nearly a week. Perhaps playing on adrenaline, the Penguins raced out to a big lead in the first half of the game. Rutger McGroarty opened the scoring on a perfect passing play for a power play goal. Valtteri Puustinen scored a dagger in the last 80 seconds of the opening stanza to double the lead.
Ville Koivunen capped off the goal rush for the Penguins with a snipe midway through the second period. Hershey faced plenty of adversity in the game, with two glorious chances staying out by pure misfortune. Mike Vecchione had a shot that got through goaltender Tristan Jarry, but rolled on its side away from going over the line.
Hershey broke through late in the second. Alex Limoges won the race from a dump-in by Ethan Bear. He’d quickly pass to Ivan Miroshnichenko, who beat Jarry with a quick low angle shot to get the Bears on the board. The Bears trailed 3-1 going into the final frame.
Bears Tidal Wave
The third period was a perfect storm for the Bears. Wilkes-Barre, perhaps feeling the effects of their long road trip, played a lot in their own zone. Hershey had a 15-4 shot advantage in the final frame, and strong shifts built up into a tidal wave of Bears chances. Vecchione scored an important goal, deflecting a shot from Alexander Alexeyev to pull the home team within one goal.
“Getting that second goal sparked us,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said. “We started coming in waves. It was our first game of the week; it was their third. We found a way to win, the guys played a solid game. Our bench was quiet up until that point. Once we got the second goal, the guys found their legs. They bused in, it was a difficult trip for them, and I think it caught up with them in the third period.”
Alexeyev was a surprise addition to Hershey’s lineup on Saturday. The Washington Capitals sent him to Hershey on a conditioning loan, good for 14 days at most. Alexeyev has been healthy with the Capitals but had not played since November 8. The 25-year-old defender started his professional career in Hershey back in the 2019-20 campaign. The assignment got him into game action for the first time in nearly five months. He finished with an assist and a plus-four mark for the game.
“I thought he was very good,” Nelson said of Alexeyev. “He’s a big man; I thought he did a great job for us tonight. I was wondering if there would be a bit of rust. There might be a few passes he would want back, but other than that he was really solid for us.”
Dubé’s Heroics
Hershey tied the game with Miroshnichenko’s second goal of the game. He deflected a shot from Ethan Bear past Jarry to bring the count level at three. The wild back-and-forth game took a strange turn as Wilkes-Barre answered eight seconds later. Puustinen got loose and buried his second of the game over Stevenson’s shoulder to put the Penguins back in front.
The Bears responded one more time to force extra time. Dubé picked the puck up off the boards, moving past a defender for a little space. His shot had a little bit of a screen to help beat the goaltender with Riley Sutter cutting to the net. Extra time would be needed for the second straight game between the two established rivals.
In overtime, Dubé intercepted a centering pass from Boris Katchouk (who had two assists in the game) and went the other way. He looked off a pass to Chase Priskie and ripped a perfect shot past Jarry to give Hershey the second point. Five of Dubé’s 12 goals have been against the Penguins, two of which were game winners.
Standings Race
The win gives Hershey a three-point lead in the standings over Wilkes-Barre. The Atlantic Division standings are incredibly close, with four teams separated by three points. Fifth place Lehigh Valley trails leader Hershey by just six points with plenty of games to play. Hershey has among the fewest games played of any team in the battle royale but will have to keep their foot on the gas pedal.
“I told (the players) this morning that the playoffs start right now,” Nelson said. “We have to get into that mode, we’ve had plenty of time off in February. The way we came back tonight was a really positive thing for our hockey team. They understand that it’s go time now and these games are important.”
“We have a tough team coming in tomorrow, Lehigh Valley always gives us fits. We’re going to take it game-by-game and treat it like the playoffs to get through this month.”
The Bears do have a challenging opponent on Sunday versus Lehigh Valley. Nelson will have a challenge to potentially replace Mike Sgarbossa, who left in the first period and did not return with injury. Hershey’s bench boss alluded to possibly more than one injury and the possibility of getting fresh players in for Sunday’s tilt.
Hershey has a record of 3-2-1-0 against Lehigh Valley this season. The Phantoms have been on a roll to enter the conversation of the top teams in the division. They’ve played the most games of any team in the Atlantic, a disadvantage that may pose a challenge in the long term. It adds importance to the points available in head-to-head matchups on both sides and should make for an exciting tilt on Sunday in Hershey.
