Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Advance To Atlantic Division Finals

Wilkes-Barre/ScrantonPittsburgh Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov (1) looks on against the Utah Mammoth during the second period at PPG Paints Arena. (Source: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images)

The Wikes-Barre/Scranton beat the Hershey Bears 4-1 to advance to the Atlantic Division Finals where they will face the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scored with their first shot of the game when Tanner Howe stole the puck from Hershey's David Gucciardi in Gretzky's office and passed it to alternate captain Joona Koppanen who finished with the game-opening goal from the slot at the 1:15 mark of the first. For the next 11:18 minutes the Penguins outshot the Bears 11-3, but then after Hershey began rebounding back and outshooting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4-2 for the next 6:18 minutes, the Penz slipped up and put the Bears on the power play which forward Ivan Mioshnichenko cashed in five seconds before first intermission.

In the second period, Hershey found themselves on the power play again at the 5:01 mark, but it was Wilkes-Barre/Scranton that ended up with shorthanded goal from defenseman Harrison Brunicke, putting the Penguins up 2-1.

In the third period, Hershey got the opening three shots and the first five of the six shots of the frame. The one lone shot of Penguins came off a Bears' takeaway forced by forward Ville Koivunen in the Hershey end and then punched it the other way in the Penz' goal thanks to some teamwork with forwards Mikhail Ilyin and AHL All-Star Tristan Broz. Overall in the final period, Hershey would outshoot Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 14-8 but it said more about the poor performance of the Bears power play unit: nine of Hershey's 14 shots in the frame would come in all four UNSUCCESSFUL man-advantage situations while also giving up yet another short-handed goal to put the final score at 4-1 for the Penguins.