Penguins Win Another Overtime Battle Against Bears

HERSHEY, Pa. – Chad Kolarik scored a power-play goal with just over 10 seconds left in overtime, sending the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 2-1 victory over the HERSHEY BEARS on Sunday afternoon at GIANT Center.

Goaltender Dany Sabourin, who turned aside 37 shots sent his way, put forth another tremendous effort to keep the visitors off of the scoresheet in the opening period. Faced with the team’s first penalty kill of the game, Sabourin made three point-blank saves in the opening seconds of the advantage. Penguins netminder Jeff Zatkoff was equally good at the other end, stopping all 10 shots faced in the period.

The BEARS then got on the board, breaking a three-game power-play goal drought in the process. Penguins enforcer Steve MacIntyre retaliated on an earlier clip by BEARS defenseman Steve Oleksy, by charging for a hit on Oleksy and then earning an extra penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. On the second of the two power plays, Boyd Kane fired a one-time pass from Julien Brouillette past Zatkoff at 9:34, a goal which also gave Casey Wellman his first point with HERSHEY.

The Penguins began to pressure late in the second and carried that pressure into the third, a period in which the visitors outshout HERSHEY 14-3. The Penguins tied the game at 12:03, sending a cluster of players toward Sabourin’s crease to jam the puck home. Riley Holzapfel was the player in the group who stuffed the puck underneath Sabourin for the equalizer.

With the game nearly four minutes into overtime and on a line change for both teams, Kane was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct while he was on the bench. Not long after furious penalty killing by Mike Carman, Kolarik was set up by Trevor Smith for a slap shot inside the left goal post at 4:49 of overtime.

Sabourin’s record drops to 6-7-1 in the loss. Zatkoff improves to 15-12-0 with 20 saves on 21 shots. The BEARS ended the night 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The BEARS hit the road for Cleveland, Ohio for a 7:00 PM faceoff against the Lake Erie Monsters on Tuesday, February 5. The club returns home on Saturday, February 9 to take on the Binghamton Senators at 7:00 PM. Chocolate-Covered February continues, and all fans will receive candy upon exit courtesy of the HERSHEY Company. Tickets are available at the GIANT Center box office, by calling (717) 508-BEAR or online at TicketMaster.com.