The Hershey Bears, despite a spirited and gritty effort, came up short when they fell to their interstate rivals, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday.

Bears’ head coach, Mark French, faced with the challenge of finding new player combinations because of recalls to the Washington Capitals, relied on an old formula by reuniting last year’s rookie line of Francois Bouchard, Matthieu Perreault, and Oskar Osala. 

Prior to the puck drop on this evening, the three combined for a total of two points on the season, both assists.  The trio found their offensive stride in this encounter with a collective four points tallied, including a pair of markers from Bouchard.

“It’s kind of a little surprise for me since we haven’t played together since last year, but I guess we picked it back up right away,” said Bouchard.  “I know how Perry plays because I played a lot with him in junior.  Oskar is a big guy and he just goes to the net.  We played together today, and I hope that carries into the rest of the year.”

The point total might have been even greater, had Osala not been stoned on all of his six shots, which included several point blank efforts.

“It would be nice to see one go in for him, but I was very encouraged by his effort tonight and the quality of chances he got,” said French of Osala, who has yet to light the lamp this season.  “He’s going to get goals if he works the way he did tonight, but right now, it’s just not going in for him.”

Despite outshooting the Baby Pens 6-0 in the opening three and a half minutes, the Bears entered the first intermission with a two-goal deficit on goals off the sticks of Ryan Bayda and Mark Letestu.

Bouchard’s first strike came at exactly three minutes of the second period and made it a one-goal game.  A late second period goal by Luca Caputi sent the Penguins into the second intermission with the same two-goal lead they enjoyed during their first break.

Bouchard’s goal at 48 seconds of the third period started a five goal scoring frenzy, three for Hershey and two for the Penguins, which culminated in a goal by Andrew Gordon, putting the score at 5-4 in the Pens favor after the dust had settled.

“(Patrick) Wellar said he saw the replay, and it looked like it just went off the tip of the defenseman’s stick,” said Gordon of his fifth goal of the season. “It may have changed direction by a couple degrees, just enough to throw the goalie off.”

The Penguins managed to hold the Bears off the board the rest of the game, even though the visitors applied serious pressure in the final minutes after pulling their goalie for the extra attacker, and despite a controversial non-call by the referee.

“On the play where we pulled the goalie, and I’ll have to look at this on video, I thought there was a hit on Perry (by former Bear Deryk Engelland) that could have been called,” said French.  “He thought it was embellished, but I saw it a little bit differently, but again, I’ll have to look at the tape.”

Though they were unable to come up with a win, the Bears’ Gordon said if his team continues to bring the same amount of effort to both of the remaining games this weekend, the results should be favorable.

“Coach always stresses the fact that you can watch tape and break things down and make corrections, but the only thing we can guarantee to bring every night is effort.”