Papineau makes big return for B’port

Playing for the first time in nearly five months, Justin Papineau scored the winning goal on Wednesday night as Bridgeport moved into third place in the East Division with a 5-4 overtime victory over visiting Hershey on Wednesday night.

Papineau, who suffered a shoulder injury in a game back on Nov. 2, converted with the Sound Tigers skating 6-on-3 in the extra session. Hershey goaltender Kirk Daubenspeck was whistled for holding, Lawrence Nycholat was sent off for roughing and a delayed penalty was upcoming on Jakub Cutta when Papineau buried his sixth goal in eight games this season.

Jeremy Colliton scored twice and Ryan Caldwell joined Papineau with a goal and an assist as the Sound Tigers moved a point ahead of Norfolk and into the third spot in the East.

Wade Dubielewicz stopped 38 shots to improve to 15-3-2 in his last 20 decisions.

Kris Beech led the Bears with two goals and an assist.

Elsewhere on Wednesday:

Jesse Schultz scored his 35th goal of the season just 24 seconds into overtime, giving Manitoba a 4-3 win over Toronto

Derek Gustafson made 33 saves, improving to 2-0-2 with Providence and leading the Bruins to a 3-0 win over Albany

Darren Haydar scored three power-play goals and Libor Pivko recorded four assists as Milwaukee shut out Rochester, 6-0

Tony Voce had a pair of goals and Martin Houle stopped 39 shots as Philadelphia blanked Norfolk, 5-0

Jani Hurme made 28 saves for Portland in a 3-0 win at Manchester

Francis Lessard and Ramzi Abid scored two goals apiece and Pat Dwyer, Kevin Doell and Travis Roche each had three points in Chicago’s 7-3 victory over San Antonio, the Wolves’ fifth win in a row