SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks feast on Penguins, win 4-1

The Worcester Sharks are using this weekend’s road trip to the Keystone State to do some “team building” with every roster player, including those that are injured, making the jaunt out west. With the trip just one third over it looks like the team building is working as the WorSharks took down the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, one of the top teams in the American Hockey League, 4-1 Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in front of a crowd announced at 4,121.

WorSharks defenseman Taylor Doherty levels Penguins center Dominik Uher
during Worcester's 4-1 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Friday night.
Photo courtesy of THETIMES-TRIBUNE.COM

For video highlights we once again point to AHLlive.com. Listen carefully at the WorSharks goals because Worcester broadcaster Eric Lindquist can be heard shouting over Penguins play by play man Mike O’Brien.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Adam Comrie, Matt Pelech (shoulder), Nick Petrecki (back), Lane Scheidl (knee), Sebastian Stalberg, and Daniil Tarasov (groin). Troy Grosenick was the back-up goaltender. Add Comrie’s name to what appears to be a growing number of people in Roy Sommer’s dog house, joining Stalberg and Petrecki. Comrie, Worcester’s leading blueliner in points, was benched in the WorSharks 5-1 loss to Portland for reasons currently unknown as he was far from the worst playing defenseman that evening. What’s funny is a Petrecki/Comrie pairing, despite them both usually playing the same side, might not be all that bad together. San Jose Sharks scout Bryan Marchment joined Sommer and Dave Cunniff behind the bench, maybe in an attempt to get Roy to stop benching the players actually putting points on the board.

The empty net tally was the first AHL goal on the season for Dan DaSilva, making it 1005 days between goals for Worcester for the former Crazed Rat member. That’s the third longest stretch in WorSharks team history between goals, with Derek Joslin leading the pack at 1096 days and Danny Groulx coming in at 1051 for his “streak”. In an interesting twist there, in the 2012-2013 season Groulx and Joslin were traded for each other with Joslin gaining the “advantage” of coming to Worcester later in the season. As with almost all Worcester pro hockey records, the longest stretch between goals is held by Terry Virtue, who went over four seasons between markers for the IceCats. Former WorSharks (and IceCats) defenseman Patrick Traverse would have easily had the record as his stints in Worcester were nine seasons apart, but Traverse failed to score goals in any of his 24 IceCats games in the 1996-97 campaign.

Count this writer as shamed: WorSharks enforcer Jimmy Bonneau has scored four goals for Worcester in his tenure here, and somehow I have missed seeing each of them live. The one at the DCU Center was on the February weekend I historically take off from anything hockey related, and the other three took place in games I was watching online but had for a moment walked away from the monitor to do something else. Look for Bonneau to connect again Saturday night as this writer will be attending a holiday function and won’t be able to watch the game live.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 25 Marek Viedensky (g,a)
2. WOR – 35 Harri Sateri (24 saves)
3. WBS – 10 Nick Drazenovic (penalty shot goal)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Jimmy Bonneau.

Even strength lines
Hayes/Hamilton/Kearns
Schwartz/Oleksuk/DaSilva
Gogol/Viedensky/Livingston
Bonneau/Brace/Reid

Davison/Tennyson
Abeltshauser/Doherty
Acolatse/Demelo

BOXSCORE

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

1st Period-1, Worcester, Hamilton 7 (Kearns, Tennyson), 6:35 (PP). Penalties-Mikkelson Wbs (slashing), 0:14; Severyn Wbs (high-sticking), 6:14.

2nd Period-2, Worcester, Bonneau 1 (Viedensky, Abeltshauser), 2:41. Penalties-Doherty Wor (roughing), 5:43; Sylvester Wbs (high-sticking), 9:38; Acolatse Wor (roughing), 13:57; Carman Wbs (boarding), 13:57; Thompson Wbs (roughing), 13:57.

3rd Period-3, Worcester, Viedensky 2 (Acolatse, Livingston), 9:36. 4, W-B/Scranton, Drazenovic 4 17:30 (PS). 5, Worcester, DaSilva 1 19:49 (EN). Penalties-Bonneau Wor (boarding), 10:45; Davison Wor (checking to the head), 14:05.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 10-4-6-20. W-B/Scranton 3-5-17-25.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 4; W-B/Scranton 0 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Sateri 6-8-1 (25 shots-24 saves). W-B/Scranton, Hartzell 4-2-0 (19 shots-16 saves).
A-4,121
Referees-Jamie Koharski (84).
Linesmen-Leo Boylan (97), Jud Ritter (34).