For the Hershey Bears, the road problems continued during Friday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Once again, the Bears trailed 1-0 in the first period when Kasper Bjorkqvist squeaked a shot past Hershey netminder Zach Fucale, just 4:54 into the game
At 10:48, Hershey tied it on newcomer Ethen Frank’s first professional goal. With the Bears on the power play, Frank ripped a shot from the left circle past Pens netminder Tommy Nappier. Bobby Nardella and Aliaksei Protas recorded the helpers.
The second stanza was scoreless, and then the teams traded goals in the third period. Mason Morelli gave Hershey its first lead at 8:49 on another power play goal. Protas and Nardella assisted again for multi-point nights.
Late in regulation, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton pulled Nappier in favor of the extra attacker, and it paid off for the Pens at 17:59 when Radim Zohorna redirected a drive from Juuso Riikola into the Hershey cage.
In the overtime, the Penguins took advantage of another power play opportunity when Brett Leason was called for tripping 34 seconds into sudden-death and Valtteri Puustinen unloaded the game-winning shot at 1:45.
Final shots totaled 38-30 Penguins. Hershey’s special teams finished 2-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the kill.
Hershey returns to Giant Center on Easter Sunday to battle the Providence Bruins at 5 p.m.
Bears Notes:
The Bears are 8-2-1, with one more game remaining with the Penguins on Tuesday, April 19 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
It was Hershey’s first game versus the Baby Pens since Feb. 22, and the club’s first visit to Mohegan Sun Arena since Jan. 16.
The Bears are now 21-9-2-3 on home ice and 12-19-4-1 away from Giant Center.
Hershey is 23-9-4-1 when scoring the game’s first goal.