The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins kicked off their Atlantic Division Semifinal series against the Hershey Bears with a bang on Thursday night.
WBS raced out to a 3-0 lead before winning 4-2, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
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Atley Calvert opened the scoring for WBS at 3:02 of the first period. He carried the puck into the offensive zone and ripped the puck past Hershey goaltender Clay Stevenson from the slot.
WBS took that 1-0 lead into the intermission before Aidan McDonough made it 2-0 at 5:16 of the second period. He also scored from the slot area.
WBS later had a power play in the second period when Owen Pickering made it 3-0. Ville Koivunen dished him the puck and he fired it from the point, giving WBS a three-goal lead.
Hershey made it a one-goal game in the third period before Avery Hayes put the game away with an empty-net goal, giving WBS the 1-0 series lead. Hayes has been one of the baby Penguins’ best players this year and has also scored five goals in the NHL.
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Penguins prospect Harrison Brunicke was all over the ice in this one and he wasn’t afraid to get physical, either. Brunicke played in nine NHL games this year before being sent back to Kamloops. Once his junior season ended, he was sent to WBS.
Goaltender Sergei Murashov finished with 31 saves on 33 shots and got his first career win in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
WBS will try to take a 2-0 lead in the series on Saturday.
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