Walker and Pens Waddle by Bears 12.28.11

Although the logo on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ uniforms is a penguin, the Baby Pens are apparently living a cat’s life as the visitors overcame a two-goal third period deficit and emerged with a 6-5 shootout win over the Hershey Bears at Giant Center on Wednesday night.

The win by the Penguins was their ninth straight triumph at Giant Center, a streak that dates back to last season.

After a scoreless first period, the Penguins tallied the first goal of the game when Eric Tangradi tickled the twine 1:21 into the second period.

Hershey’s Graham Mink (power play) and Cody Eakin countered Tangradi’s goal to give the Bears their first lead of the game, but a goal by Geoff Walker with just over a minute after Eakin’s marker tied it up at two entering the last minute of the second period.

In the eventful last minute, WBS’s Zach Sill struck with his club in shorthanded mode, but a power play goal by Hershey’s Tomas Kundratek at 19:38 sent the game into the third period tied at three.

Power play goals seventy-five seconds apart by Chris Bourque (4-on-3) and Ryan Potulny gave the Bears a 5-3 lead less than eight minutes into the third period, but the pesky Pens sent the game into overtime and eventually the shootout when Tangradi (at 11:02) and Nick Petersen (at 18:07) put pucks behind Bears’ netminder, Dany Sabourin.

Ironically, the shootout went nine rounds and ended with Walker beating Sabourin on the Pens ninth attempt.

Notes-Potulny has a point in each of the five games he has played this season against WBS.

The game drew a sellout crowd of 10,801 and improved Hershey’s average through 17 home dates to 9,250 which is nearly double the average AHL home attendance (5,023).