SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks sweep Pennsylvania swing with victories in Hershey and Wilkes-Barre

The Worcester Sharks spent their pre-Easter week in Pennsylvania to take on the Hershey Bears on Wednesday and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday, and with both teams in front of them in the AHL’s Eastern Conference standings and still some clubs close by in the rearview mirror the WorSharks needed to get some points from the road swing in The Keystone State, and they could not have done better for themselves after gaining four points with a 3-2 shootout win over Hershey at the Giant Center and a 4-2 victory over Wilkes-Barre at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Worcester’s magic number to clinch a Calder Cup playoff berth drops to six with the two victories.

Worcester Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell made 63 saves on 67 shots in the WorSharks
victories over Hershey and Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania. Dell also stopped six of
seven shootout attempts against the Bears. Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights of the win over Hershey we’ll use the Bears YouTube channel. For some unknown reason they’ve put some horrible stock music behind the highlights, so we’ll point to another highlights package on AHLlive.com with play by play included.

For video highlights of the win over Wilkes-Barre we’ll use the Penguins YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester on Wednesday against Hershey were Jimmy Bonneau, Chris Crane, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder/out for season), Jeremy Langlois (foot), Trevor Parkes (right leg), and Joakim Ryan. After Wednesday’s game San Jose recalled defenseman Karl Stollery, which put Ryan in the line-up for the first time in a pro uniform Friday against Wilkes-Barre. San Jose’s first round pick in last season’s NHL entry draft Nikolay Goldobin was reassigned to the WorSharks from HIFK (Liiga) on Wednesday and took Rylan Schwartz’s spot in the lineup on Friday. Troy Grosenick was the back-up goaltender for both games.

While not listed as a scratch Friday night Worcester Sharks broadcaster Eric Lindquist was unable to call the entire game due to a respiratory issue, so Jimmy Bonneau helped with the play by play duties after the first period. You could tell Bonneau was nervous but in the opinion of this writer and many others on Twitter and various hockey message boards Jimmy did a really good job. With Lindquist healthy enough to provide color commentary and toss out some stats it was almost like the two of them were having a conversation about the game, which really worked for the pair. Doing play by play is just another line in the Legend of Jimmy Bonneau here in his stint with Worcester.

When two teams don’t play each other often as in the case with the Penguins and WorSharks, using dates as references occasionally makes streaks sound a lot longer than they really are. So when a stat pops up that says Wilkes-Barre hasn’t scored an even strength goal against Worcester since October 19, 2013, it’s often hard to tell how long it really has been. The third period goal by Dominik Uher last night was indeed the first even strength goal the Penguins have scored against the WorSharks since Andrew Ebbett scored on that October 19th date, a stretch that went 178:50 of play between the teams. No matter how you slice it, that’s a long time. It wasn’t like Wilkes-Barre went scoreless over that time though, as the Penguins had two power play goals and a penalty shot goal during the streak.

The three stars vs Hershey (which, as you can see, are a joke):
1. HER – 25 Connor Carrick (2a)
2. HER – 14 Jim O’Brien (a)
3. HER – 31 Philipp Grubauer (30 save loss)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Aaron Dell.

The three stars vs Wilkes-Barrer were:
1. WOR – 19 Daniil Tarasov (g,a)
2. WOR – 8 Nikolay Goldobin (g,a)
3. WBS – 14 Tom Kuhnhackl (2a)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Ryan Carpenter.

Even strength lines:
WEDNESDAY
Lerg/Trupp/Ciampini
McCarthy/Carpenter/Hayes
Haley/Oleksuk/Coetzee
Tarasov/Schwartz/Willows

Stollery/Doherty
Taormina/Tennyson
Young/DeMelo

FRIDAY
Lerg/Trupp/Willows
Goldobin/McCarthy/Tarasov
Ciampini/Carpenter/Hayes
Haley/Oleksuk/Coetzee

Taormina/Tennyson
Young/DeMelo
Ryan/Doherty

BOX SCORE vs Hershey

Worcester 0 1 1 0 – 3
Hershey 1 1 0 0 – 2

1st Period-1, Hershey, Wellman 23 (Carrick, J. O’Brien), 7:01. Penalties-Coetzee Wor (tripping), 1:24.

2nd Period-2, Hershey, L. O’Brien 3 (Carrick, Stephenson), 4:28. 3, Worcester, Oleksuk 9 (Haley, Stollery), 5:50. Penalties-Brown Her (tripping), 10:00; Carpenter Wor (holding), 13:05; Wellman Her (hooking), 13:10.

3rd Period-4, Worcester, Willows 3 (Taormina), 2:23. Penalties-Carrick Her (interference), 3:29; Brown Her (kneeing), 16:11.

OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties

Shootout – Worcester 2 (Ciampini G, Lerg NG, Tarasov NG, Trupp NG, Oleksuk NG, Coetzee NG, McCarthy G), Hershey 1 (Stephenson NG, Burakovsky G, Mitchell NG, Brown NG, Carrick NG, Wellman NG, Gazley NG).
Shots on Goal-Worcester 10-10-7-5-1-33. Hershey 20-6-9-3-0-38.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 4; Hershey 0 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Dell 14-5-0 (38 shots-36 saves). Hershey, Grubauer 26-16-2 (32 shots-30 saves).
A-10,995
Referees-Tom Chmielewski (43), Cameron Voss (78).
Linesmen-Tom George (61), Bob Goodman (90).

BOX SCORE vs Wilkes-Barre

Worcester 1 1 2 – 4
W-B/Scranton 0 1 1 – 2

1st Period-1, Worcester, Goldobin 1 (Tarasov, Young), 19:48. Penalties-Tennyson Wor (holding the stick), 16:53.

2nd Period-2, W-B/Scranton, Syvret 6 (Kuhnhackl, Archibald), 11:15 (PP). 3, Worcester, Coetzee 10 (Oleksuk), 13:57. Penalties-Boak Wbs (tripping), 5:18; Trupp Wor (boarding), 9:27; Coetzee Wor (hooking), 14:40; Kostopoulos Wbs (hooking), 14:46; Harrington Wbs (boarding), 18:34; Tarasov Wor (hooking), 18:44.

3rd Period-4, Worcester, Carpenter 11 (Ciampini, Taormina), 5:33. 5, Worcester, Tarasov 13 (Haley, Goldobin), 9:49 (PP). 6, W-B/Scranton, Uher 12 (Marcantuoni, Kuhnhackl), 11:35. Penalties-Boak Wbs (interference), 6:26; Syvret Wbs (hooking), 9:30; Goldobin Wor (tripping), 17:17.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 10-19-7-36. W-B/Scranton 8-7-14-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 5; W-B/Scranton 1 / 5.
Goalies-Worcester, Dell 14-5-0 (29 shots-27 saves). W-B/Scranton, Zatkoff 15-14-3 (36 shots-32 saves).
A-5,821
Referees-Tim Mayer (19).
Linesmen-Matt McNulty (26), Luke Murray (92).