(hersheybears.com) — Joel Broda scored the game-winning goal and added a second, Tim Kennedy earned three assists and the Hershey Bears’ power play struck four times in a 6-1 rout of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Sunday evening at GIANT Center. The game was the culmination of pre-season for both clubs.
The Bears posted a textbook performance in the opening period. The team scored twice, generated three shorthanded scoring chances, killed off all three Wilkes-Barre/Scranton power plays and netted the team’s first man advantage goal of the pre-season. Stanislav Galiev tallied his third when his hard slapper from the left circle flew by Penguins goaltender Eric Hartzell at 6:53, on Hershey’s first power play of the contest. Kennedy and Tomas Kundratek each earned their third pre-season assists on the play.
Broda made it a 2-0 game at 10:13, following up a scrum at the Penguins net front and chipping a shot over Hartzell’s shoulder.
In a second period that took over twice as long as the first to complete due to the dishing out of a combined 143 penalty minutes, the Bears would strike for two more goals. Before the tension grew, Chris Conner burned his former teammate Hartzell with a snap shot inside the right post for his first goal of pre-season at 1:41.
The sequence that elevated tempers started when Penguins forward Pat McGrath attempted to engage Bears winger Dane Byers in a scrap. When the dust settled the Bears were awarded nine minutes of power play time. On a tic-tac-toe passing play, Broda buried his second goal of the contest by knocking a pass from Dustin Gazley behind Hartzell at 1:41, putting the Bears up by a 4-0 score.
Garrett Mitchell made it a 5-0 count just 26 seconds into the third, chipping a shot behind Hartzell after Kennedy set him up with a cross-crease pass.
Forward Scott Wilson would be assessed a major penalty for charging after leaping into Conner along the side boards, and the Bears would cash in once on the extended time. Defenseman Erik Burgdoerfer swooped in from the right point to finish off a pass from Nathan Walker at 6:06.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton would end Philipp Grubauer’s shutout bid when the puck came off of the stick of Bryan Rust and banked in off of the goaltender’s right pad at 9:22.
Grubauer turned aside 18 of 19 shots to finish 2-0-0 in pre-season. Hartzell dropped his first decision, making 25 saves on 31 Hershey shots.
