AHL: McGroarty Settles It, WBS Penguins Defeat Hershey Bears 5-4

In a game that could’ve gone either way, as both teams held on strong and played exceptionally well, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins stood tall over the Hershey Bears, defeating them 5-4 on Saturday, November 30th, at the GIANT Center. The game was back-and-forth goals, constantly tying the game until during the last bit of time left in regulation, Rutger McGroarty settled it with his second goal of the season to prevent going into overtime. With this loss, the Bears have lost two games straight after a three-game win streak that began after an overtime loss against the Toronto Marlies on November 20th. This is their third victory straight for the Penguins after taking a tough 5-2 loss against the Bridgeport Islanders on November 16th. The Hershey Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins meet again on Wednesday, December 4th at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Penguins Lineup:

Bemstrom – Katchouk – Koivunen

McGroarty – Broz – Poulin

Ponomarev – Koppanen – Puustinen

Imama – Gruden – Joshua

Knyzhov – Curman

Kral – Hollowell

Belliveau – Renouf

Murashov

Blomqvist

Bears Lineup:

Vecchione – Sgarbossa – Frank

Limoges – Philp – Dube

Funk – Rybinski – Smallman

Strome – Sutter – Trineyev

Ness – Iorio

Hunt – Bear

Massie – Priskie

Shepard

Stevenson

Only 55 seconds into the opening frame, Filip Kral scored to put the Penguins in front 1-0. This goal was marked the earliest allowed from the start of the game this season. Rutger McGroarty got ahold of the puck, attempting to stuff it in short-side of Hunter Shepard, but Shepard didn’t allow it, and the puck got to Kral, who shot from the left point and it went in past Shepard for the early goal. Bogdan Trineyev struck his fourth of the season off a pass from Riley Sutter, who had collected the loose puck and sent it over to Trineyev to tie the game 1-1 with 11:48 on the clock.

Late in the second period, Vasily Ponomarev put Wilkes-Barre ahead 2-1 on the power play with 6:29 remaining. Tristan Broz passed the puck to Filip Kral, who sent it up and Ponomarev got it, sweeping in the rebound for his first goal of the season. Vincent Iorio put the game back in a tie at 2-2 at 3:29 of the second with his third goal of the season, but soon after the second Hershey goal, Emil Bemstrom went top shelf to get the lead back at 2:10 with an absolute laser.

Chase Priskie knotted it to 3-3 with a power-play goal early at 19:22 of the final 20 minutes after a late unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by the Penguins had allowed the Bears to start out the third on the power play. Ethan Bear received the puck and passed it to Mike Vecchione, who sent it to Luke Philp, and Philp passed it to Priskie, who fired a one-timer past Sergei Murashov. On their fourth man-advantage of the night, Filip Kral grabbed his second goal of the game with 15 seconds remaining on the power play at 12:16 of the third period to put the Penguins in a 4-3 lead. Only nine seconds later, Ethen Frank responded, tying it right back up to 4-4 when he beat Murashov for his league-leading 15th goal of the season, and extended his scoring streak to four consecutive games. Rutger McGroarty made his way to the front of the net with little time remaining in regulation when both he and Tristan Broz skated up into the Bears’ zone, and Broz sent the puck to his fellow rookie, and McGroarty buried his chance for the 5-4 final.

Notes:

– Filip Kral finished the night with a total of four points (two goals, two assists), Tristan Broz picked up three assists, and Rutger McGroarty picked up a pair of points (one goal, one assist).

– Sergei Murashov made a total of 30 saves for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and Hunter Shepard made a total of 18 saves for Hershey.

– Earning this victory, this had been Sergei Murashov’s first AHL start since October 13th.

– Chase Priskie’s goal was his fifth on the man-advantage, tying with the Charlotte Checkers’ Trevor Carrick for first in the league among defensemen.

– Vincent Iorio recorded two points (one goal, one assist) for this fifth career two-point game. He picked up the assist when he assisted on Ethen Frank’s goal in the third period.

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