Local Penguins Let Victory Get Away

By STEVE SEMBRAT [email protected]
Wednesday, October 31, 2001 Page: 1B

WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton put together a third-period rally
that had it seconds away from a much-needed victory.

Then the Penguins found a new and bizarre way to let another game slip
away.
Hershey’s Jeff Daw scored the tying goal with 45.7 seconds left in
regulation, and Matt Herr won it for the Bears with a power play goal at 3:19
of overtime, as the Penguins lost 4-3 in front of 8,257 fans at the First
Union Arena.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (1-9-1-1, four points) got one point out of the
contest, as it was an overtime loss. “At least it’s better than nothing,”
Penguins defenseman and assistant captain Peter Ratchuk said.

However, it dropped Wilkes-Barre/Scranton behind Hershey (2-7-1-0, five
points) in the South Division of the American Hockey League’s Western
Conference. The Penguins are tied with Cincinnati for fewest points in the
league, and the Mighty Ducks have played four fewer games.

“We gave this one to them,” Wilkes-Barre/Scranton center Darcy Verot said
of the loss. “It’s always tough when you give the other team a win.”

The Penguins grabbed a 3-2 lead on Shane Endicott’s power play goal with

the blue line, and it was his fifth goal of the season.

Hershey pulled goalie Frederic Cassivi moments later, and kept the Penguins
pinned in their own zone. The pressure paid off when Radim Vrbata pried the
puck out of the right offensive corner and sent a pass in front of the net to
Daw, who roofed a shot, tying the score at 3.

“That happens about one out of 10 times a team tries it,”
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Glenn Patrick said of the chances of scoring a
goal with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker. “This time it worked for
them. We’ll take the one point and work from here.”

Any chance the Penguins had for pulling the game out in overtime virtually
evaporated when Verot was hit with a five-minute major for high sticking Daw
at the end of regulation.

“I got him,” Verot said. “I went to hop his stick and my stick came up
on him.”

Teams are reduced to four skaters each for a five-minute, sudden-death
overtime in regular-season games, so Hershey had a four-on-three power play
for the entire extra period.

The end came when Herr put in the rebound of Bryan Muir’s shot from the
blue line. The goal light never went on and there was some discussion as to
whether the puck ever went in, but some of the Penguins said the puck did
enter the net.

“We battled back,” Ratchuk said. “We could have had the win.”

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was outshot 16-7 in the first period and trailed only

nice saves, but was finally beaten on a pinpoint wrist shot by Vrbata at 16:01
of the first period.

The Penguins tied the score in the second period as the result of a nice
individual effort by Alexander Zevakhin. He intercepted a clearing attempt at
the blue line, curled, skated back into the zone and beat Cassivi with a wrist
shot from the inside edge of the left offensive faceoff circle at 10:28.

Hershey regained the lead later in the second on a soft goal. Daw got off a
weak wrist shot that trickled between the pads of Caron and in at 17:03.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton tied the score at 2-2 at 10:19 of the third period.
Tomas Surovy tipped David Koci’s shot from the blue line, and the puck somehow
got under Cassivi, who was on the ice, and trickled just over the goal line.

“We played a great game,” Caron said. “We just messed up on a couple of
things.”