With the teams skating at four a side, Chris Bourque’s goal at 14:19, his 10th of the season, gave Hershey the 1-0 lead. Andrew Joudrey, though not credited with a point on the goal, was instrumental in making it happen with his tenacious fore checking and forcing a turnover. Joudrey, after gaining control of the puck, fed Sami Lepisto; Lepisto then one-timed a pass to his defensive partner, Karl Alzner. Alzner was able to find Bourque between the circles. Bourque waited patiently before backhanding a shot by the glove hand of his former college teammate, Penguins goaltender, John Curry.
“I know John, he’s a really good goaltender,” said Bourque. “I just kind of waited him out there and put it over his arm.”
Late in the period, with Sean Collins already in the penalty box, Quintin Laing took a tripping penalty to give the baby Pens a 5-on-3 advantage. Despite surviving the disadvantage, and not allowing a shot in the process, Hershey yielded a 5-on-4 goal to Chris Minard at 48 seconds of the second period, just five seconds after the expiration of Collins’ sentence.
“You’ve got to be disciplined. We talked about that before the game. Discipline, controlled emotion in these types of situations, and it’s just one little mental mistake changes the whole game,” commented Hershey head coach, Bob Woods. “We had them on the ropes and they didn’t have much going on. All of a sudden, you take a five minute penalty and give them a 5-on-3 against that team, and you’re letting them back in.”
Alexandre Giroux, who saw his goal scoring streak end at 15 games on Wednesday night in Norfolk, started a new streak during a power play at 5:41 when he lit the lamp for the 35th time this season with a pass from Keith Aucoin, who had only one thing on his mind with the puck on his stick.
“I always think pass first, and I always know he (Giroux) is going to be there,” said Aucoin. “I knew I had the first defenseman beat and if I got by him, Giroux would be wide open, and he was.”
Tyler Sloan’s ‘Hail Mary’ from along Hersheypark Drive took a detour through Richmond–Danny Richmond’s skate, that is–on it’s way into the net at 10:21, giving Hershey a seemingly comfortable 3-1 cushion. Sloan admitted after the game, that he thought there was little likelihood of his shot finding it’s way behind Curry.
“I didn’t (think it had a prayer), but I saw Gordon kind of slip behind the defense and pull up front and I was shooting for his stick and it went off of the defenseman’s skate in front of the net,” said Sloan, who also scored his first goal in a Bears’ uniform against the Penguins during the 2006-07 season. “Lucky bounce; about time it went in for me.”
At 17:42, a normally mild- mannered Keith Aucoin, after having enough of Janne Pesonen’s persistence in trying to persuade referee, Terry Koharski, to award the Penguins a power play, took matters into his own hands and dropped the gloves with the Finnish forward.
“He tried to draw a penalty on the shift before that and that one, and he’s a big rival and I was just trying to get the team going,” said Aucoin, who collected his first fighting major of the season.
With Collins in the box again, Chris Bourque’s major penalty for interference at 19:06 gave the Penguins their second 5-on-3 of the game. Mark Letestu capitalized after only 26 seconds of the advantage, banking a shot off of Bryan Helmer and behind Bears’ net minder, Michal Neuvirth.
With Bourque still serving his sentence, Chris Minard’s power play goal at 3:42 of the third period tied the game at three.
Late in regulation, and early in the overtime session, Hershey squandered a couple of power play chances that would have given them the victory, but the closest they came was 2:30 in overtime, when Giroux’s bid to end the game rang off the post.
Aucoin was the only Bear to solve Curry in the shootout, but Pesonin and Jean-Michel Daoust both nicked Neuvirth to give Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the shootout victory.