HERSHEY, Pa. — It has been 10 years since the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins last won a playoff series. In fact, the last time they advanced to a second round, Jake Guentzel was fresh from college, but that decade long drought is over as the WBS Penguins beat the Hershey Bears 4-1 at Giant Center Thursday in Game 4 of their best of five series.
The Penguins won the series 3-1, though it was far from pretty, crisp, or anything resembling their best. However, Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov made no less than a handful of brilliant saves, including a sprawling save on Ilya Protas in the final minutes to preserve the win. He stopped 37 of 38 shots.
Avery Hayes scored the empty netter with 31 seconds remaining.
For those missing the Penguins-Capitals rivalry, Hershey is the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals and featured several prospects, including Ilya Protas, Andrew Cristall, and Ivan Miroshnichenko.
Meanwhile, the Penguins had more than their share of prospects in the lineup. Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, Avery Hayes, Tristan Broz, Mikhail Ilyin, Owen Pickering, Harrison Brunicke, and goalie Sergei Murashov led the 2026-27 Pittsburgh hopefuls.
The game was a slog for both sides, with far too many turnovers, blown spots, and more missed connections than the personal pages of Craig’s List. However, early in the third period and with a 2-1 lead, WBS put the wrapper on Chocolate City’s season.
Broz led a three-on-two. After Hershey’s defensemen slid to the right wing to cover Broz, he slipped a pass to Ilyin, who was at full speed in the left circle. However, instead of shooting as everyone, including goalie Clay Stevenson, expected. The Penguins’ 2023 fifth-round pick fooled everyone with a deft pass to Koivunen alone in the slot.
Koivunen (1) easily buried his shot into a yawning cage at 3:33 of the third for a 3-1 lead. Ilyin, 21, had three points (1-2-3) in the series and was playing in just his ninth game in North America since arriving from the KHL just a few weeks ago.
The Penguins put the game away in the third period with their best hockey of the game, despite that being a low bar.
While the first shift was a game of hot potato with the puck in the neutral zone, the Penguins struck on the second shift.
Penguins prospect Tanner Howe (2024 second-round pick, 44th overall) couldn’t find the headman pass that would have sent him on a breakaway. Instead, he turned his miss into a forecheck and Hershey turnover. Howe set up Joona Koppanen (1) who swept into the slot and backhanded a shot past Hershey goalie Clay Stevenson at 1:15 of the first period.
The Penguins held the lead for over 18 minutes, but Boko Imama got a little carried away by the extra-legal physicality and boarded Hershey defenseman Ryan Chesley near the benches. After Murashov couldn’t hold the original shot, Miroshnichenko (2) poked a loose puck from the crease into the net for a tie game, 1-1 at 19:55 of the first.
The teams squared up at the red line to end the period, but threw no punches.
The Penguins claimed the lead for good early in the second period at the end of a wild sequence. On a Hershey power play, the Penguins’ penalty kill got far too aggressive on an odd-man rush. They failed to get a shot or hold the puck, and Hershey countered with a three-on-one break.
In the turning point of the game, Hershey hit the post, and the Penguins countered that counter with a two-on-one. Stevenson stopped Hayes’s first shot, but Brunicke (1) had finished the rebound at 6:20 of the second.
The goal did little to settle the game, but it gave the Penguins a lead they did not relinquish.
It was the Penguins’ first series win since that prospect laden roster of 2015-16. The names from back then still echo in the Penguins’ ether, including Teddy Blueger, Dominik Simon, and Guentzel, with goaltenders Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith.
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