HERSHEY, Pa. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins earned a 1-0 victory in their last game before the holiday break, defeating the Hershey Bears on Sunday evening at Giant Center.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (16-8-1-0) received a 33-save shutout from Filip Larsson, with several of those stops coming in the final moments of regulation. It was Larsson’s third shutout of the season in just his eighth start.
The Penguins’ young line of Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen and Tristan Broz combined to create the game’s only goal at 5:33 of the second period. A frenzied sequence at the Bears’ net-front led to McGroarty threading a pass to Koivunen on the doorstep, but when Koivunen’s shot was denied, Broz was there to knock in the rebound.
Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton continued to trade chances back and forth through the rest of the middle frame, combining for 30 shots. However, the 1-0 score persisted through the second intermission.
Larsson came up big for his club with five and a half minutes left, flashing his left leg pad to deny Bogdan Trineyev who broke free for a shorthanded breakaway.
The Bears pulled their goalie for an extra attacker with two minutes remaining and were awarded a power play shortly thereafter. Up six-on-four with the game on the line, Hershey generated five point-blank shots in the last 71 seconds of regulation, but Larsson turned them all aside.
Larsson pulls into a seven-way tie for the most shutouts in the league.
Bears goalie Hunter Shepard recorded 24 saves in the loss.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s next game is another rivalry showdown with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday, Dec. 27. The team’s first game out of the holiday break marks another WBRE 28 / WYOU 22 Fan Friday. Select draft beers will be on sale for $2 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. courtesy of Coors Light, and two Penguins players will stick around for postgame autographs presented by Northeast Music Center.
Puck drop for the Penguins and Phantoms is set for 7:05 p.m. at Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza.
Season-ticket packages for the Penguins’ 2024-25 season are on sale now. Full-Season, 22-game, 12-game, Flexbook and Premium Seating plans are available by reaching out to the Penguins directly at (570) 208-7367.
Every minute of Penguins hockey can be watched online with the league’s streaming service, AHLTV on FloHockey. AHLTV on FloHockey provides its subscribers access to not just every regular-season and Calder Cup Playoff game for all 32 AHL teams, but also more than 21,000 hockey contests from other professional and junior leagues on FloHockey, as well as access to all other live event streams and replays across FloSports.
The post LARSSON STONEWALLS BEARS AS PENGUINS WIN, 1-0 appeared first on WBS Penguins.
