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HARTFORD,CT — Andrew Ebbett found his Hartford magic again in overtime.
In the four-on-four portion of overtime on their second shot, defenseman Brian Dumoulin sprung Ebbett free for a clean breakaway for his 13th of the season on Hartford goalie Yann Danis at 2:27 to give Wilkes Barre/Scranton a 3-2 win.
Ebbett scored twice last week the Penguins victory.
“It was a great play by Brian to make that pass and Tommy Kostopoulos winning the battle along the wall and Pierre Luc (Letourneau-Leblond) said during intermission be sure to go five hole,” he said. “I scored two last week the same spot so that’s all I was thinking going down.”
Ebbett has four game-winning goals this season, second highest on the team.
“You want to capitalize in overtime when when you have a chance,”Penguins head coach John Hynes said. “That was good to have a guy like Andrew with the puck on his stick on a breakaway.”
The Penguins boosted their third-best conference road record to 12-8-3-3 and go to Bridgeport Sunday afternoon to play the Sound Tigers who lost for the eigth time in a row in Springfield 3-0.
In a highly entertaining third period, the Wolf Pack tied the game up at two as Chris Mueller got between Penguins defenseman Taylor Chorney and Dumoulin and after deflecting the original shot by Mike Kostka from the right point buried the rebound for his second of the game and 10th of the season.
The goal came 28 seconds after the Wolf Pack’s Dylan McIlrath and the Penguins Letourneau-Leblond staged an old time Dennis Bonvie like good long scrap that started deep in the Wolf Pack defensive zone and ended up near the Penguins bench that clearly energized the Wolf Pack.
The Penguins broke the scoreless drought early in the second period as defenseman Reid McNeill drifting backwards toward the left point, took the puck off the boards and fired a shot on net. Hartford goalie Danis was completely screened by his own defenseman Sean Escobedo and was beaten shortside.
It was McNeill’s second of the season.
The Wolf Pack tied the game up on the games first power play just seven seconds into the man advantage.
The Penguins snapped the tie late on the power play as Jayson Megna put in the rebound off a Scott Harrington shot. The rebound went off Hartford defenseman Conor Allen’s skate and Megna got his stick between his legs and was able to flip it over the Hartford goalie. For Megna it was his 19th of the season with 8.6 seconds left in the period.
“That was an important goal for us,” Hynes said. “We knew power play would be important and it was good to answer back and naytime you can get a goal like that at the end of the period it always gives you momentum going intot he next period.”
NOTES: 1980 US Olympians Dave Silk and Steve Janazak were honored with the ceremonial puck drop and the home Hartford Wolf Pack wore USA jersey styled jerseys in honor of the 35th year of the US Olympic gold medal team at Lake Placid. … Mike Pomichter former WB Penguin stopped in to see former coach John Hynes and Tom Kostopoulos a teammate when he first turned pro in the mid-90’s.
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Wilkes Barre/Scranton at Hartford
First Period — No Scoring. Penalties-Hartford-Allen- major (fighting) 9:38, WBS-Farnham major (fighting) 9:38
Second Period — W-B Scranton-McNeill 2 (Uher, Rowney) 1:54, Hartford-Mueller 9 (C. Bourque, Bodie) 6:00 PPG W-B Scranton-Megna 19 (Harrington, Chorney) 19:51 PPG. Penalties-W-B Scranton-Megna (tripping) 5:53, WB-Scranton-Megna (high sticking)14:27, Hartford-Crabb (interference) 18:15
Third Period — Hartford-Mueller 10 (Kostka, Vaive) 11:17. Penalties-Hartford-C. Bourque (interference) 3:37, WB-Scranton-Kostopulos (roughing) 4:12, Hartford-McIlrath (roughing) 4:12, W-B Scranton-Letourneau-Leblond major (fighting) 10:49, Hartford-McIlrath major (fighting) 9:49, W-B Scranton-McNeill (roughing) 13:26, Hartford-Lindberg (roughing) 13:26, Hartford-Spinnell (holding the stick) 15:20, Hartford-Vaive major (fighting) 18:56, W-B Scranton-McNeill major (fighting) 18:56.
Overtime — W-B Scranton-Ebbett 13 (Dumoulin) 2:27 Penalties-None. Shots On Goal — W-B Scranton-4-13-10-2-29 Hartford-8-12-10-1-31. Power Play Opportunities- W-B Scranton 1-3 Hartford- 1-2.
Goalies-WB-Scranton-Zatkoff 14-10-3 (31 shots-29 saves) Hartford-Danis 9-11-1 (29 shots-26 saves)
Referee: Evgeny Romasko
Linesman:Paul Simeon and Derek Wahl
A-7,951