Wilkes-Barre advances to next round of AHL Playoffs

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins dispatched the Hershey Bears in Game 4 last night, booting the Washington Capitals’ AHL affiliate from the playoffs with a 4-1 victory.

Harrison Brunicke scored what ended up as the game-winning goal in the second period while shorthanded. Brunicke followed up on a shot from Gabe Klassen and activated all the way up on the rush to sling in a rebound, right after Hershey failed to score at the other end of the ice.

The Bears couldn’t get much going, WBS’s Sergei Murashov had by far his best night of the playoffs so far in stopping 36 of 37 shots. Hershey was desperate with their season on the line and pushing to get back in the game but they just couldn’t beat Murashov.

Wilkes went up by two goals early in the third, and let’s talk about this setup from Mikhail Ilyin to make it happen. He’s made this type of cheeky little touch pass so many times in the KHL, now these highlights are starting to pop up in the AHL. It’s a nice finish by Ville Koivunen but it’s just that creativity, vision and special something from Ilyin is starting to get to the surface and show up at this level. It’s really exciting. Ilyin, 21, is up to three AHL playoff points in four games. It’s not quite the production level of 21-year old Jake Guentzel scoring 14 AHL playoff points in 10 games his first taste of pro hockey in 2016, but let’s see him make more plays like this with any frequency in the weeks ahead and it will start to make you at least begin to wonder about just how much of his scoring talent might translate to North American hockey.

While making lofty comparisons to 2016, is IBK the new HBK?

Ilyin, Tristan Broz (who also made a nice play on the rush in that Koivunen goal) and Koivunen are tough to handle as a third line, arguably talented enough to be a first line. Wilkes has some serious talent and has it all split out for now into a nice, deep lineup. It’s been working.