WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – Patrick Maroon potted the game-winner at 1:21 of overtime as the Norfolk Admirals defeated the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins by a score of 3-2 at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in their first meeting of the season.
 
Awarded a power play just 27 seconds into overtime, Norfolk’s man-advantage unit went to work.  Maroon found himself open near the far post for a cross-crease pass from Peter Holland and quickly tapped the puck behind goaltender Jeff Zatkoff for the decisive tally. 
 
Brian Gibbons wristed home the first goal of the game from the high slot at the 4:14 mark of the first period.  Sidestepping two Admirals, Gibbons shot the puck past the right side of Igor Bobkov, as linemate Jayson Megna set the screen.
 
The second period told a different story, as the Admirals dictated the pace, outshooting the Penguins 14-6.  Chris Wagner tied the game 6:06 into the second, deflecting a Gabe Guentzel point shot under the blocker of Zatkoff.
 
After a promising Penguins rush, a loose puck picked up by Holland resulted in a breakaway goal for a 2-1 Admirals lead at 16:33. 
 
The Penguins would tie the game late less than a minute later with Megna’s third goal of the year.  Trevor Smith pushed forward on the faceoff and sent the puck over to Megna, who slid it under Bobkov’s legs.  The Admirals goaltender finished with 23 saves on 25 shots.
 
Zatkoff turned aside 25-of-28 for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
 
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will wrap up 2012 at home on New Year’s Eve where they will battle with their Eastern Division rivals Syracuse Crunch at 5:05 P.M.
 
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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The Hershey Bears kept the offense of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at bay for the second straight night, sweeping the home-and-home series with a 4-1 decision at Mohegan Sun Arena at the Casey Plaza. 
 
The Bears’ Garrett Mitchell struck early again against the Penguins, just 3:32 into the first period.  Zach Hamill tossed a cross-crease pass that dropped down at the feet of Mitchell, who backhanded the puck past the outstretched leg of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goalie Jeff Zatkoff. 
 
Hershey continued its offensive push in the second period, scoring twice in the frame.  Steve Oleksy finished off a three-on-two rush for his first of the year, beating the Penguins goalie on the blocker side at the 5:55 mark. 
 
With 1:30 left in the middle period, the Bears added another tally when Mathieu Beaudoin cashed in on the man-advantage to give Hershey a 3-0 lead going into the third period.
 
Zatkoff was lifted to start the third as Brad Thiessen came in for relief work in the final 20 minutes of action.
 
Paul Thompson cut the lead to two 4:52 into the final frame with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on the power-play.  Thompson redirected a point shot from Joseph Morrow past netminder Dany Sabourin for his ninth goal of the season.
 
The Bears would cement the victory with a Boyd Kane wrist shot that beat Thiessen over the glove hand with 1:39 left in regulation.
 
Zatkoff took the loss with 12 saves on 15 shots over two periods of play.  Thiessen stopped 3-of-4 in the third.  Sabourin turned aside 26 for the Bears. 
 
The Penguins will host the Norfolk Admirals Saturday, December 29 at 7:05 at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. 
 
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins avenged last Saturday’s shutout defeat against the Syracuse Crunch, picking up a 3-2 win at Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter.  The win put Coach Hynes atop the leaderboard with the most wins in WBS Penguins’ franchise history (116). 
 
Leading 2-1 at the 10:20 mark of the second, the Penguins went ahead by two on Trevor Smith’s 10th of the season.  Eric Tangradi worked by the Crunch defense to muscle a backhander on goal that was stopped with the pad by Dustin Tokarski, but Smith swooped in to roof the rebound.
 
Syracuse shrunk the Penguins’ edge to just one with 1:15 remaining until the intermission as Tyler Johnson found a loose puck among traffic in front of goalie Jeff Zatkoff and knuckled a shot across the goal line.  
 
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Zatkoff held the Crunch off the board for the rest of the contest to earn the 3-2 victory and snap a six-game winless streak.  Zatkoff stopped 29-of-31 shots to go to 11-7-0 on the season. 
 
Paul Thompson ended the Penguins recent 0-for-27 drought on the power-play at 3:57 of the first period.  Thompson finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Brian Gibbons and Riley Holzapfel by elevating the puck over Tokarski’s shoulder to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.
 
The Crunch’s Alex Killorn continued to add to his goal streak, tying the game at the 9:21.  The tally marked his sixth goal in as many games; the longest current streak in the AHL.  J.T. Wyman and Gudas assisted on the goal.
 
Fourteen seconds later, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton regained its lead when Joey Mormina pounced on a turnover at the near blueline and ripped a shot by Crunch goalie Dustin Tokarski for his first goal of the year. 
 
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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins took a 3-0 lead into the third period, but it was Binghamton Senators coming away with the 4-3 win at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena after finding the back of the net four times in the final twenty minutes. 
 
It took just 59 seconds at the beginning of the third for the Senators to whittle the Penguins’ three-goal cushion down to one.  Jakob Silfverberg got Binghamton on the board at 3:52 when his shot from the bottom of the right circle knuckled off the arm of goalie Jeff Zatkoff and into the net. 
 
Less than a minute later, with the Senators on the power play, Shane Prince blasted a slapshot just under the crossbar and, that quickly, the Penguins were clinging to a one-goal lead.
 
A failure to clear the defensive zone by the Penguins saw Binghamton defenseman Peter Wiercioch slide along the blueline and release a shot that Jean-Gabriel deflected past Zatkoff at 15:18. 
 
Two minutes after Pageau’s game-tying goal, the Senators completed the comeback when Cole Schneider found Prince with a backdoor pass for his second goal of the match and the deciding tally.  The loss extended Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s winless streak to six games. 
 
The Penguins got a jump on the home team with a strong first period and were able to first solve Senators goalie Robin Lehner at 5:49. 
 
Defenseman Brian Dumoulin held in the puck at the left point and put a shot on net where Paul Thompson and Brian Gibbons each had a swipe at the rebound before Warren Peters swept it through the pads of Lehner. 
 
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went up 2-0 with 1:52 left until the intermission as Bobby Farnham raced down the far wing and drilled a snapshot to the top corner for his first AHL goal. 
 
It was another Penguin picking up his first of the season with Philip Samuelsson making it a three-goal cushion for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton six minutes into the second period. 
 
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins next take the ice on Saturday, Dec. 22 to face the Syracuse Crunch at 7:30PM.
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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – Kevin Marshall’s goal at 3:18 of overtime gave the Hershey Bears a 5-4 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.  The loss ended the Penguins’ five-game winning streak and a stretch of six victories in a row at home. 
 
The Penguins trailed, 4-3, heading into the third, but started the period with 3:34 of power play time.  Eric Tangradi would convert at 3:04, swinging out from behind the Hershey net and squeezing a shot under the right arm of Hershey goaltender Dany Sabourin for his 10^th goal of the season.
 
The tied game carried through the end of regulation and into overtime, where a turnover by the Penguins at the Bears blueline created a 2-on-1 rush the other way for Hershey.  Pens netminder Jeff Zatkoff was able to deny T.J. Syner’s first shot, but Marshall nudged the loose puck across the goal line.  Zatkoff had his string of six consecutive wins halted as he finished with 21 saves. 
 
It was the Bears striking first at 3:42 of the opening period when Mattias Sjogren flashed across the crease to redirect Steve Oleksy’s point shot past the glove of Zatkoff.
 
The Penguins need only four seconds of the game’s first power play to even the score.  Trevor Smith won a draw to the point where Benn Ferriero rattled a one-timer in off the post at 9:12.
 
Three minutes later, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton took a 2-1 lead when Bobby Farnham’s forecheck freed the puck in the far corner to Warren Peters, who found Simon Despres alone in the slot for a wrist shot over the shoulder of Sabourin.
 
Mathieu Beaudoin allowed the Bears to head into the locker room with the game tied at two as he cleaned up the rebound from a Sjogren chance with 3:12 left until the first intermission.  
 
Robert Bortuzzo put the Penguins up at 1:29 of the second period with a slapshot through a screen for his first of the season.  Hershey battled back with a pair of markers in the second half of the frame by Jon DiSalvatore and Tomas Kundratek
 
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins host the Portland Pirates on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 7:05PM Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. 
 
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HERSHEY, Pa. – Garrett Mitchell notched two goals for the Hershey Bears as they skated past the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 4-1, on Saturday night at GIANT Center. 
 
Mitchell’s second of the game put Hershey ahead, 2-1, at 15:29 of the middle period when he worked toward the left side of the Penguins net and roofed a backhand shot over goalie Brad Thiessen.  Video replay confirmed the goal for the Bears.
 
Hershey was then able to take a two-goal cushion into the break when they converted on a man-advantage with just 0.4 seconds left in the period.  A point shot from defenseman Garrett Stafford changed direction three times before finding the stick of Tomas Kundratek for the easy put-back.  
 
Boyd Kane added an empty net goal for Hershey with 30.3 seconds left in regulation. 
 
With the Penguins skating on the power play midway through the first period, it was the Bears generating the opportunity for the game’s first goal. 
 
After Mike Carman intercepted a puck at the Hershey blueline, Mitchell caught up to a lead pass and was taken down during a shorthanded breakaway. On the ensuing penalty shot, Mitchell threw a shoulder fake before wristing a puck over the glove of Thiessen.  
 
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was able to even the match at 8:10 of the second with its own power play tally. 
 
Eric Tangradi carried the puck into the Bears zone before stopping at the far circle and dropping a pass for Beau Bennett.  The Pens rookie floated a backhand feed to the near post that Trevor Smith one-timed past Bears goalie Braden Holtby.
 
Thiessen suffered the loss with 17 saves on 20 shots. Holtby turned aside 23-of-24 for Hershey. 
 
The Penguins next take the ice on Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 7:00PM as they face the Bears once again at GIANT Center
 
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