WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hershey Bears each went into Wednesday night’s game with a legitimate claim to the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
Not any longer.
Hershey scored twice in the last minute of the first period and two more times in a span of less than two minutes in the second period on the way to a convincing, 6-1 victory before a paid crowd of 2,521 at Mohegan Arena.
The Bears (15-5-3-0) started the night on the top line of the way hockey teams are traditionally listed, by standings points earned with two for a win and one for losses in overtime or shootouts.
It was the Penguins, however, who had the best winning percentage in fewer games with the help of Saturday’s 5-4 win in Hershey before a crowd of 10,097 at the Giant Center. They fell to 11-5-1-0 with Wednesday’s loss.
“It’s easy to get up and compete hard on a Saturday in front of 10,000 people,” Penguins coach Kirk MacDonald said. “It’s another thing on a sleepy Wednesday to come in and give that same effort.
“We knew they were mad. We beat them on their ice on a Saturday and they were going to come with a better effort. We talked about it, and lo and behold they did.”
The two-time defending Calder Cup champions came out firing. They put a shot on goal 15 seconds into the game and registered the first six shots before the game settled into more even play.
Once Hershey broke through, however, the Bears scored six times in less than 25 minutes.
Henrik Rybinski was one of six players to score goals for Hershey. He also had two assists.
The Bears got assists from 10 players, including two from Mike Sgarbossa. Alex Limoges and Ethen Frank each provided a goal and an assist.
Hershey consistently strung together series of passes in transition, beating the backpedaling Penguins as the Bears were entering the offensive zone.
The first two goals came on such rushes.
Sgabrossa’s pass from the left wing found Rybinski in the slot for a wrist shot at 14:48.
Limoges tipped a pass as the defense converged on him just inside the blue line, allowing Pierrick Dube to break to the net alone from the left side for an easy goal with 44 seconds left in the period.
“It was a good start,” MacDonald said. “We were fine. Then, two breakdowns off of rush coverage and a bad read on a neutral zone forecheck.
“You make three mistakes, three goals. They’re one of the best teams in the league. Those things are going to happen.”
The last mistake gave Hershey just enough time to add to its lead.
The Bears scored with 5.6 seconds left when Rybinski and Bogdan Trineyev got in low behind the defense for Trineyev’s goal off one of Rybinski’s assists.
The Penguins were having a better second period until Rybinski broke through at 14:32 and Limoges scored 1:49 later.
Aaron Ness and Spencer Smallman did the work behind the net to send the puck in front to an open Rybinski. Limoges was at least in a crowd in the slot when he managed a deflection at the end of a sequence where the Bears controlled an offensive faceoff and worked the puck around to a shot from the center point.
The Penguins answered with their goal 16 seconds later. Emil Bemstrom sent a pass through the slot behind goalie Hunter Shepard to Boris Katchouk standing at the left post.
Hershey restored the five-goal lead with another goal in the final minute of the period.
Frank connected from the right side of the slot with 18 seconds left.
Between periods, first-year Penguins coach Kirk MacDonald made a goalie change for the first time, replacing Joel Blomqvist with Filip Larsson.
NOTES
The six goals allowed were the most against the Penguins since they lost to the Charlotte Checkers 7-6 in the opener. … Rybinski, Frank and Shepard were the game’s three stars. … Shepard made 29 saves. Larsson stopped all eight shots he faced. Blomqvist made 20 saves while facing 26 shots. … Both teams were 0-for-2 on the power play. … The Penguins are in Hartford Saturday and Providence Sunday before playing five straight games at home. … Hershey is just 6-5-1-0 at home, but improved to 9-0-2-0 on the road.
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