Hanson Bros. steal the show at Penguins' alumni game

Signed by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to skate in the team's first annual Alumni Game, it didn't take long for Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson, and Dave Hanson to make an impact.

The trio, real-life hockey players who portrayed the famous Hanson brothers in the 1977 film "Slap Shot", punched out the referee on the opening face-off, knocked down the opposing goaltender, and shot the puck into an empty net.

That goal didn't count, but their unconventional penalty shot did.

With the Penguins' alumni team trailing the Hershey Bears alumni squad in the second half of Saturday afternoon's game at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza, the Hanson brothers skated in on Hershey goaltender Frederic Cassivi.

While Steve controlled the puck, Dave and Jeff picked up the net and carried it away from the unsuspecting Cassivi, allowing Steve to score an easy goal.

"It's something we're experts at," Dave Hanson said in character. "We practice a lot back in Bare Butt, Minnesota, where we live. Mom has us out in the barn all the time with the cows and the pigs and chickens. It was nice to bring it here and introduce it to Wilkes-Barre."

Under normal American Hockey League rules, the goal would have been disallowed, but the Alumni Game wasn't an ordinary game. It was a chance for fans to see the former Penguins don the black and gold for one more game; and for the players to see their old teammates once again.

"It's a lot of fun, it's really for the fans. For us to come back and see all the guys again is awesome, but it's for the fans to see us come back and enjoy it," said defenseman John Slaney, who scored 42 goals and 110 points in his 89 games as a Penguin. "That's the whole thing about it, you've got to have a good time and good laughs and that's what we're doing."

"My face is sore, I've been laughing the whole time," said Penguins' alumnus Steve Parsons. "I couldn't have had a better time."

Other participants for the Penguins were defensemen J.P. Tessier, Chris Kelleher, Stephen Dixon, Steve Webb, Jim Leger, Casey Harris, Dennis Bonvie, Greg Crozier and goaltender David Weninger.

Bonvie and Parsons were traded between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hershey during the game, since they skated for both teams during their playing career.

"We're all in this together, and I think it played into the fans and it played into what we're all trying to do," Parsons said of his trade to Hershey and subsequent return to the Penguins. "You just want to excite everybody, they needed a couple bodies and it just worked. I'm not going to put up a fuss, I'm just happy to be here."

Parsons is no stranger to exciting the fans, as he once engaged in a bare-chested brawl with Syracuse's Brad Wingfield during a March 2002 game dubbed as the St. Patrick's Day Massacre.

But the gritty defenseman admitted that he himself was excited to play on the same line as the Hanson Brothers.

"That was so cool," Parsons exclaimed. "I've never met them before.  That's the first time I got to meet them… to play with them and be in the room with them, and just be part of it, that's super."