The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins extended their winless streak to three games, falling to the AHL’s best team, the Hershey Bears, in overtime 4-3 on Saturday evening. The loss marked the second time in four days that the Bears had defeated the Penguins, who last beat them 5-4 on Tuesday.
Unlike their previous meeting earlier in the week, the Penguins opened the scoring with Avery Hayes’ unassisted goal in the first period at 8:59. The lamplighter extended Hayes’ point streak to four games.
Despite each team getting three power-play opportunities in the opening period, the score remained 1-0 heading into intermission.
However, that changed in the second, when Alex Limoges knotted things up at 1-1 with a power-play tally at 4:55. Interestingly, it turned out to be the only special team’s goal of the game, even though WBS had four power-play chances to the Hershey’s five.
As the intensity picked up for the final 20 minutes, so did the goal-scoring and march to the penalty box.
The Bears gained their first lead at 4:04 when Pierrick Dube scored. Then, Valtteri Puustinen rallied the home team back into a tie at 8:41 thanks to an assist from Rutger McGroarty.
Less than two minutes later, at 10:17, Hayes scored his second goal, securing his first two-goal game of the year to put the Penguins up by a goal at 3-2.
However, with their goalie pulled, Chase Priskie scored the game-tying goal with just 13 seconds left, sending the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Bears pulled out a win from the jaws of defeat thanks to Hendrix Lapierre’s winner at 3:13.
Meanwhile, the third period was wild. Vincent Iorio and Sam Poulin fought at 11:01. Then, Dube and Vasily Ponomarev got into it at 12:31, leading to a match penalty for fighting on Ponomarev.
Filip Larsson made his first appearance for the Penguins between the pipes since Jan. 15, where he lost to the Laval Rocket in overtime. On Saturday, the 26-year-old Swedish netminder made 29 stops for a .879 SV%.
Clay Stevenson finished with a .906 SV% for the visiting Bears, thanks to 29 saves on 32 shots.
The Penguins are back in action on Sunday against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. With a 26-12-5-1 record, they remain in third place in the Atlantic Division, now seven points behind the Bears for the top spot.
