Bears force OT, but fall short, lose 2-1 to Springfield.
Emily Fontanella & Matt Bachota
1/11/18
The Hershey Bears hosted The Springfield Thunderbirds at home on Wednseday night. After a low scoring sixty minutes of hockey, the Bears forced a 3 on 3 OT with minutes left in the third period.
The Thunderbirds would score first when Alexander Grenier would sneak a short-handed goal past Hershey Bears netminder Pheonix Copley at 7:50 in the first. The second period would slowly pass with no goals for either team and the game would go into second intermission still 1-0.
In the third Hershey would play their hearts out and find the game scoring goal at 14:38 in the third. Dustin Gazley would score his fourth goal of the season, giving him his 100th point as a Hershey Bear. John Albert and Colby Williams would be the only other players gaining a point in the game with first and second assists on the goal.
During a 3 on 3 OT, Bobby Farnham would get the game winning goal, but not without controversy, and outrage from Hershey’s fans and players alike. Copley would stop a shot from Farnham in the left wing, covering the shot with his glove. Farnham would then crash into Copley knocking him to the ice. In Copley’s struggle to get back in his crease, two of Hershey’s skaters would attempt to cover the net, but unfortunately Farnham would wrap around to the right wing side and find the back of the net. After much arguing at center ice between players and refs, the goal stood as it was, on a play that was not reviewable and Springfield would take away a win three minutes into OT.
This OT loss would bring the Bears to a 17-16-2-3 record. Hershey did however out shoot Springfield 36-23. Hershey will be heading up to Allentown to go against The Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday January 13, 2017 and head back home to host the Phantoms on Sunday January 14,2017. Saturday’s game starts at 7PM and Sundays at the Giant Center starts at 5PM.
