Koivunen and McGroarty Spark Penguins to 4-3 Thriller Over Hershey

 

At the GIANT Center on Friday night, the Bears hosted the WBS Penguins, where in a high-stakes battle, WBS snapped a late deficit to edge the Bears in a 4-3 shootout. Thanks to Avery Hayes with 2:18 on the clock in the third, set up by Rutger McGroarty's third assist of the night, the Penguins forced overtime after falling behind 3-2 in the second period. Ville Koivunen scored one in regulation and provided the finishing touch in the shootout to lift WBS to its 27th victory of the season. For Hershey, Ilya Protas continued his hot stretch, extending his point streak to six games (three goals, three assists) with the game's opening tally. The Penguins head home on Saturday to host Charlotte, while the Bears visit Lehigh Valley.

WBS Penguins Lineup:

McGroarty - Klassen - Koivunen

Harvey-Pinard - Huglen - Hayes

McDonough - Calvert - Urdahl

Imama - Renwick - Gallant

Pietila - Dumba

Pickering - Kemp

Breazeale - Harding

Murashov

Blomqvist

Hershey Bears Lineup:

Cristall - Protas - Trineyev

Miroshnichenko -  Rybinski - Leason

Pinard - Strome - Clarke

Smith - Cruikshank - Nachbaur

Gucciardi - McDonald

Muggli - Belpedio

Schueneman - Webb

Stevenson

Bjorklund

Ilya Protas opened the scoring not even a minute into the game, recording his 16th goal of the season on the man advantage when he cleaned up a rebound of a wrist shot by Louie Belpedio, who received a pass from Bogdan Trineyev, and put it past Sergei Murashov just 43 seconds in. Right off the face off at 13:20, Rutger McGroarty got the puck, passed it towards the blue line, where Phil Kemp then quickly handed it over to Owen Pickering, who fired a slap shot past Clay Stevenson for his fourth goal of the season to tie it up 1-1. Ville Koivunen put the Penguins in front 2-1 with 5:22 on the clock of the first, picking up his fourth of the season with a pinpoint shot to the top corner after McGroarty had forced a turnover on the Bears' breakout.

Just 41 seconds into the second period, Grant Cruikshank knotted it up 2-2 on his sixth goal of the season, scoring a shorthanded breakaway goal unassisted. This was his team-leading third shorthanded goal of the campaign. Burying a rebound off a shot from Trineyev, Andrew Cristall put the Bears back in the lead 3-2 on his eighth of the season with 11:31 on the clock in the middle frame. Jon McDonald earned the secondary assist on the third Hershey goal.

Avery Hayes tied it back up to force extra hockey late in the third period with little time remaining when Hayes skated with McGroarty in Hershey's end, passing the puck to McGroarty, who went around the net before sending it back to Hayes with a backhanded pass. Hayes passed it back around to McGroarty, who flipped it back to the point to Koivunen before getting the puck back and firing from the right wall to the back post for Hayes to tip it in. This was Hayes' 10th goal of the season.

Overtime wasn't enough for Wilkes-Barre and Hershey, so it went to a shootout where Koivunen scored the lone strike of the shootout for either team for the 4-3 win.

Rutger McGroarty on the win, and the tying goal at the end/the Bears: "I think we know we got a good team, and we got a lot of depth, so I think that's the biggest thing... I know whenever the first, second, third, fourth line hop over the boards, they're going to do their job, and they're going to gain momentum for us, so that's a sign of a really good team. At the end of the day, the talk on the bench was positive the whole time. We got a lot of opportunities, and we finally got one goal at the end there, and then Sergei stood up big in the shootout." - "You can always kind of sense it in the game, but I mean, I think I've played those guys like 18 times in my AHL career now, so I know that they don't quit. Stevenson is a really, really good goalie, so it's tough to get one by him. But at the end of the day, as a team, we could feel one coming."

Notes:

- Sergei Murashov made a total of 27 saves for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

- Clay Stevenson made a total of 28 saves for Hershey.

- WBS: 27-11-2-2; HER: 18-14-4-2

- Power Play: HER - 1-for-3; WBS - 0-for-2

- This was Phil Kemp's 300th AHL game.

- Reilly Webb made his AHL debut for the Hershey Bears.

- With the game going to a shootout, the Bears have now played beyond regulation in six consecutive games, a new franchise record. This surpasses the previous mark of five games set back in 2021.

- Despite the shootout loss, Hershey extended its season-high point streak to nine games (4-0-3-2). This is the club's longest stretch with at least one point in every game since the 2023-24 season.

- The Bears move to 1-4-0-1 against the Penguins this season. The two rivals won't have to wait long to meet again, as they are scheduled for a home-and-home series in early February.

- By going to a shootout on Friday, the Bears set a new franchise record by playing beyond regulation in six consecutive games, surpassing the previous mark of five set in 2021. Additionally, Hershey matched a 25-year-old club record by playing its fourth straight home game requiring overtime, a feat originally established in December 2001.