HERSHEY, PA – The battle of Pennsylvania part two officially got underway Saturday night. The Hershey Bears took the first game as they received goals from five different Bears. Thanks to those goals the Bears won 5-3 over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Game 1 of the East Division finals before 7,980 fans at the Giant Center in Hershey. The AHL’s top two regular-season offenses went at it with Hershey striking first on Staffan Kronwall’s third goal of the playoffs at the 9:38 mark of the first period while on the power play. Chris Bourque scored his first goal of the playoffs 1:35 later to make it 2-0 Bears. The Penguins battled back to tie the game at 2-2 when J.M. Daoust and Nick Johnson scored at the 14:31 and 16:55 marks of the second period. It looked as though the period would end in a tie but Andrew Gordon gave the Bears a 3-2 advantage with just 17 seconds to go in the period on the power play thanks to Joe Vitale’s interference penalty.
Kyle Wilson extended the Bears lead to 4-2 with his second goal of the playoffs 1:38 into the third period. Johnson got Wilkes-Barre Scranton back to within a goal on the power play at 7:45, but that is as close as the Penguins would get the rest of the night. Alexandre Giroux, the AHL MVP during the regular season, scored 1:36 later to put the game out of reach.
The Bears were 2-for-3 on the power play, while the Penguins went 2-for-6. Hershey goaltender Michal Neuvirth made 35 saves on 38 shots while John Curry made 18 of 23 for the Penguins.
Win the win the Bears have opened the 2009 postseason with five consecutive victories. They will try to extend the string when they host Game 2 on Sunday afternoon.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com Catch all the playoffs at Intotheboards.net
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