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By STEVE SEMBRAT steves@leader.net
Sunday, March 09, 2003 Page: 1C
WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Every great run starts with a single step in the right
direction.
That’s why the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins were so pleased Saturday
after their 4-3 victory against Hershey in front of a crowd of 8,345 at First
Union Arena.
“Great game for us,” said Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Glenn Patrick.
“Hershey is one of the better teams in the league and this is a big win for
us.”
The Bears are one of the teams the Penguins hope to catch in the race for
the South Division title of the American Hockey League’s Western Conference.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (29-26-5-5, 68 points) pulled within five points of
Hershey (30-22-11-2) in the standings, and within eight of Norfolk
(32-19-8-4), the division leader. Norfolk lost at home, 2-1, to Worcester.
“We have a lot of home games left,” said center Toby Petersen, who scored
twice, as did Michal Sivek. “We’re in a good position to make a run.”
The Penguins play 11 of their final 16 games at home, a stretch that
started with the game against Hershey. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which has won
two consecutive games, has today off and will play host to Syracuse tomorrow
(7:05 p.m. faceoff, First Union Arena).
“We struggled a little in the third period,” said Penguins defenseman
Francois Leroux, who flattened Bears’ tough guy Brent Thompson during a fight
in the second period. “But Hershey is such a good team that you can’t ever
rest against them.”
Sivek opened the scoring when he zipped a wrist shot over the right
shoulder of Hershey goalie Peter Budaj at 9:37, just as a Penguins power play
expired.
Petersen made it 2-0 on a nifty feed from Alexandre Daigle. Daigle was
behind the net when he flipped a pass over the outer lip of the net right onto
Petersen’s stick. Petersen then chipped it over Budaj at 13:33.
Goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin, playing his first game for
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton since the 1999-2000 season, came up with some strong
saves in the second period. Aubin, assigned here by the parent club in
Pittsburgh a week-and-a-half ago, stopped Hershey’s Vaclav Nederost on a
shorthanded breakaway about two minutes into the period. Aubin, who stopped 30
of 33 shots, made a point-blank save on Mikhail Kuleshov during a power play
to maintain the two-goal cushion.
“He played another great game,” Patrick said of Aubin. “The ones that
went in were perfect shots. That’s the type of game that you need, where you
can’t fault the goalie.”
The Penguins stretched their lead to 3-0 on Petersen’s second goal of the
game, which came at 14:08 of the middle period. It was almost a carbon copy of
the first goal and was his team-leading 24th of the season.
Then Leroux flexed his muscles, leaving Thompson bloodied and beaten in a
fight involving two of the AHL premier heavyweights. The crowd was chanting
Leroux’s name after the fight, but he had already gone to the locker room
because he had drawn a five-minute fighting major with four minutes left in
the second period.
“That’s great, the guys told me about it,” Leroux said in acknowledging
the fans. He added of the fight, “It’s part of the game. It’s a good show.”
The Bears weren’t down and out, though, as they took advantage of a
Penguins turnover to pull within 3-1. Steve Brule came up with a steal, skated
in all alone on Aubin and was able to reach around the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
goalie and shovel in a short shot at 17:28.
Sivek scored his second goal of the game to make it 4-1 at 4:30 of the
third period, as his steal led to a breakaway. Hershey answered 15 seconds
later when Brian Willsie blasted a slapshot past Aubin. The Bears pulled
within 4-3 on Brule’s second goal, which came with 4:06 remaining.
The Penguins clamped down from that point, aided by a two-minute minor
against Hershey in the closing minutes.
“The first 40 minutes, we took it to them,” Petersen said. “We really
played them hard. In the third period, things got a little closer than we
would have liked but we still got the win.”
Trenton 3, Wheeling 2
WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Mike Hurley, Scott Bertoli and Shaun Fisher scored
power play goals to lift Trenton past Wheeling in an East Coast Hockey League
game played at the First Union Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Titans (33-20-9, 75 points) went 3-for-7 with the man advantage, while
the Nailers went 1-for-7. Bobby Russell and Michel Ouellet scored for Wheeling
(23-34-3, 49 points), which is Pittsburgh’s ECHL affiliate.