WILKES-BARRE – Braden Holtby returned to the net in game action Saturday night for the first time since his stirring Stanley Cup playoff run with the Washington Capitals last season.

Instead of Game 7 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, it was a Hershey Bears exhibition game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Holtby made eight saves on 10 shots before being replaced by Dany Sabourin at 10:56 of the second period of a 3-2 Hershey victory.

He said he used his first exhibition appearance of 2012-13 to start getting back into a game routine. He is scheduled to start and go the distance in Sunday's exhibition finale against WBS at Giant Center.

“That's the plan,” Holtby said. “It will be good to get a full one in and get back into game shape.”

Joe Morrow and Jayson Megna scored power-play goals in the first to stake WBS to a 2-0 lead. Holtby had no chance on Megna's redirection.

“He played solid,” Bears co-coach Adam Oates said. “It's hard for 30 minutes. Obviously, you get two power plays right off the hop. I'm not worried about our goaltending at all. I'm very happy with both of them.”

The Bears limited WBS to 15 shots for the game. Sabourin faced no official shots in the second after replacing Holtby and just five in the third.

“I thought the guys had a great effort,” Oates said. “On the road and we gave them a lot of power plays [2-for-6]. I thought the system really worked and we kept the shots down, which is the goal.”

The Bears rallied on goals by Julien Brouillette (power play at 17:08 of the first), Stan Galiev (5:41 of the second) and Alex Berry (3:31 of the third).

Though it is the preseason and the scores don't officially count, the Galiev and Berry goals had personal significance. It was Galiev's first goal as a pro and the first goal since 2010-11 for Berry, sidelined last season by a compound arm fracture.

“It's the next level for me, a higher step,” Galiev said. “It's my first season in pros. It feels good and, obviously, a good game for us.”

Galiev scored on goalie Jeff Zatkoff with a sharp-angled shot fired from the goal line.

“I saw the goalie a little bit cheating and I just tried,” Galiev said. “He was tired, maybe. I shoot the puck and I scored. I take it.”

The game had more of a regular-season than an exhibition season tempo.

“It was good,” Holtby said. “Higher intensity, higher pace.

“Both teams have a couple games under their belt. Anytime you play Wilkes, obviously it's going to be a hard-fought battle, even in preseason. There are still things that both teams are going to improve on and need to improve on through the regular season.”

Bears forward Danick Paquette suffered a broken forearm in the first period and figures to be sidelined long term.

“I haven't heard yet whether it's surgery right away or not,” Oates said.

“I feel bad for him. You always feel bad. That's a big blow.”

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