Hershey Bears

Bears Blow 4-1 Lead, Lose In Shootout To Pens

Photo of Cory Lyons Cory LyonsDecember 9, 2018
88 4 minutes read
Photo courtesy of Just Sports Photography

Hershey blows a 4-1 lead to lose 5-4 in a 9 round shootout to Wilkes-Barre Scranton.  Penguins score two times (2nd and 3rd period) with less than a minute remaining to secure their comeback.  

 

The Hershey Bears (11-13-0-1) welcome the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins (11-10-3-1) for the third time this year to the Giant Center.  The last time they faced off, the Penguins won 3-1 here in Hershey.  The season series between the two teams so far this year is in Hershey’s favor at 3-2-0-1.

Riley Barber returns from the Washington Capitals.  He did not get suited up while on his short stint with the team.  Barber is second on the Bears in points with 18.

Hershey is also welcoming South Carolina Sting Ray forward Grant Besse.  Besse gets his first AHL call up and will wear number 23.  Besse currently has 24 points (12 goals, 12 assists) for the Sting Rays in 20 games and leads South Carolina in points.

 

1st Period:

Pressure came early from the Bears at the start of period one.  The Penguins turned the puck over on a clearing attempt to Colby Williams.  Williams then threw the puck on net, creating a juicy rebound for Jayson Megna who scored his seventh goal of the season.  Out of those seven goals, four of them have come against his former team, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. Hershey leads 1-0.

While on the power play, Riley Barber found himself alone in the slot while entering the zone.  Barber used the Penguins defensemen as a screen and scored with ease on John Muse.  A small scrum started during the celebration, but nothing came from it.  Hershey went into the locker room with a 2-0 lead.

 

1st Period Shots: HER – 8, WBS – 7

1st Period Scoring:

4:38 – HER: Jayson Megna(7) ASST: Colby Williams(8), Juuso Ikonen(3)

13:28 – HER: Riley Barber(9) ASST: Mike Sgarbossa(9), Aaron Ness(10)(PP)

 

2nd Period:

Wilkes-Barre Scranton answered back half way through the second period.  Kevin Czuczman took a slap shot where the puck found its way through a crowd of people, hit the cross bar and into the net.  It is hard to explain, so here is a video:

 

Hershey regained their two goal lead when Steve Whitney led a 2 on 1 with Liam O’Brien.  Whitney sauced the puck over the defender who was laying down to block the pass. The puck found the stick of O’Brien as he one timed it past John Muse for Hershey’s third goal of the game.  O’Brien now currently leads Hershey with 12 goals on the season.

Moments later, Hershey struck again.  John Muse thought he had the puck under him but the puck bounced behind the net.  Tyler Lewington took it around and banked the puck off of Muse’s back and into the net.  This is only Lewington’s second goal of the season and a 4-1 Hershey Bears lead.

The Penguins had a pair of goals late in the second period.  Both were broken plays but they count the same.  Teddy Blueger collected the loose puck and had a nice spin to backhand goal that beat Vitek Vanecek through the five-hole.

The second goal was a muffed shot by Anthony Angello shot that found its way to Thomas Di Pauli.  Vanecek was already committed to the muffed shot and could not recover in time for Di Pauli’s goal.  The goal was scored with five seconds left in the period, changing the pace of the game going into the third.  Hershey went into the locker room leading 4-3.

2nd Period Shots: HER – 10, WBS – 7

2nd Period Scoring:

8:50 – WBS: Kevin Czuczman(2) ASST: Anthony Angello(4), Ryan Haggerty(10)

13:41 – HER: Liam O’Brien(12) ASST: Steve Whitney(3), Aaron Ness(11)

14:33 – HER: Tyler Lewington(2) ASST: Maximilian Kammerer(6), Brian Pinho(2)

16:12 – WBS: Teddy Blueger(8) ASST: Matt Abt(5)

19:55 – WBS: Thomas Di Pauli(7) ASST: Anthony Angello(5), Teddy Blueger(11)

 

3rd Period:

Hershey locked down on defense throughout the third period but no one was better than Vitek Vanecek.  Vanecek was square to every shot he faced.  Ten saves in the period.

With the goalie pulled for the Penguins late in the period, Wilkes-Barre Scranton brought an army into the Hershey zone.  41.2 seconds left in the period, Ethan Prow entered the zone, he received a nice pass in the slot from Teddy Blueger and one timed the puck past Vanecek.  This tied the game 4-4 and went into overtime.

 

3rd Period Shots: HER – 4, WBS – 11

3rd Period Scoring:

19:18 – WBS: Ethan Prow(8) ASST: Teddy Blueger(12), Adam Johnson(5)

 

Overtime:

While in overtime, Hershey received a power play but could not capitalize.  Most of the period was skated 4 on 4 due to the penalty being over with no whistle.  The game went into a shootout.

Overtime Shots: HER – 1, WBS – 2

Overall Shots: HER – 26, WBS – 31

 

Shootout:

Vitek Vanecek did everything he could to keep the shootout in reach for Hershey.  Here is his best save during the shootout:

 

Here is the goal that gave the Penguins an extra point and completing the comeback:

 

Total list of shooters:

 

Three Stars:

  1. HER – Jayson Megna (1 goal)
  2. WBS – Teddy Blueger (1 goal, 2 assists)
  3. WBS – Joseph Cramarossa (shoot out winner)

 

All photos in this post are brought to you by Just Sports Photography.  You can find them on Facebook here.

Photo courtesy of Just Sports Photography
Photo courtesy of Just Sports Photography
Photo courtesy of Just Sports Photography
Photo courtesy of Just Sports Photography
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Photo of Cory Lyons Cory LyonsDecember 9, 2018
88 4 minutes read
Photo of Cory Lyons

Cory Lyons

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