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HERSHEY — When the Hershey Bears scored twice in the span of 32 seconds to take a commanding 5-3 third-period lead, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins didn’t feel like a loss was inevitable.
For a team that had already erased two Hershey leads and battled through six Bears power plays in the second period, panicking in Sunday’s contest wasn’t an option.
“There was no feeling this game was over at 5-3,” head coach Clark Donatelli said.
The Penguins scored twice in the third period to force a 5-5 tie, and then a big save by Tristan Jarry in overtime sprung a rush the other way that ended with a goal from Will O’Neill and a 6-5 Penguins win.
The Penguins sweep the weekend home-and-home series against the Bears and both teams are now tied with 81 points. The Penguins have the edge for the Atlantic Division lead with a 5-4 advantage in the season series against Hershey.
While Sunday’s game ended in dramatic fashion, it also began that way.
Kael Mouillierat started things off with a unique goal early in the first period. While standing behind the Bears net, Mouillierat scooped the puck onto the back of his blade, swung his stick around the post and flipped the puck under the crossbar for the lacrosse-style goal.
It was the third lacrosse-style goal that Mouillierat has scored in the AHL, and he said the timing just felt right to give it a try.
“It was the start of the period so that’s the time I can really keep the puck on my stick because there’s fresh ice,” Mouillierat said. “I wasn’t planning on it. It just kind of happened.”
Hershey scored twice after that, however, to take a 2-1 lead into the second period.
And that’s when the Penguins penalty kill was tested relentlessly by six Hershey power-play opportunities. The Bears scored on one while the Penguins killed off the rest and, in between it all, managed to score twice.
Dustin Jeffrey put home a rebound at the corner at the midway point to make it 2-2, and after Hershey’s Jakub Vrana scored on the power play for a 3-2 lead, the Penguins went on the attack while shorthanded.
During the Penguins’ sixth penalty kill of the period, rookie Adam Krause gained the puck at the Bears blueline, raced wide around Chris Bourque and roofed a backhand shot over Justin Peters to send a 3-3 tie into the third period.
“We have to do a better job of staying out of the box, no matter what type of penalties we’re taking,” said O’Neill, who was whistled for a delay of game penalty in the period. “It really wears our penalty killers down.”
Hershey quickly broke the game open by scoring goals 32 seconds apart in the first four minutes of the third period to take a seemingly insurmountable 5-3 lead.
But for the third time in the game, the Penguins battled back to tie it up.
Jean-Sebastien Dea redirected a Tom Sestito shot at the five-minute mark to make it 5-4.
“We answered with one pretty quick and we knew we were right back in it,” Donatelli said. “I knew when we got that one we were going to come back. It was game-on after that. It felt right.”
Tom Kostopoulos cleaned up a rebound from a Steve Oleksy point blast for the 5-5 tie with six minutes left as the Penguins forced overtime.
And that’s when the dramatic ending occurred, sparked by a stellar stop from Jarry on the AHL’s leading scorer, Chris Bourque, in front. After the save, the Penguins raced the other way and Carter Rowney carried the puck behind the net, dished in front to Kostopoulos whose shot was stopped. O’Neill was open at the side and put home the rebound in the open net for the win.
“I was dead tired or I probably would’ve put a bigger celebration on it if I had more energy,” O’Neill said. “We knew this was going to be a tough game. That was a big one. A huge team win.”
