Bears take the Soundtigers to a shootout, fall short, lose 3-2
Emily Fontanella & Matt Bachota
Hershey, PA- It all started with the crowd cheering for former Hershey Bears forward Ryan Bourque being announced in the starting line up. R. Bourque made his debut back in Hershey only wearing a different sweater, now playing for Bridgeport. The game opened up with Chris Bourque, Ryan’s older brother scoring the first goal on the power play, his eighth of the season at 8:47 into gameplay. Boyd and Johanssen would both tally an assist on the play.
Goal number two of the game would come less than ten minutes later at 18:05 also by Chris Bourque making the game 2-0 Hershey. Travis Boyd would again add another assist to his season along with Wayne Simpson. Less than ten seconds later Bridgeport would answer back. Ryan Bourque would find the back of the net at 18:14 in the first period. This would be his second goal of the season.
The second period would play out scoreless, but see many unanswered power plays as Hershey goes 0-4 and Bridgeport doesn’t make it happen during their only power play of the period. The one lone goal of the third period would also come from Ryan Bourque as he added his third goal of the season tying up the game 2-2 at 19:25 with only thirty five seconds left in the game. The Bears unfortunately couldn’t respond and the game would head to overtime.
Overtime would play out all five minutes with no goal and we quickly head on to the shootout. Copley would stop 33 of 35 shots while Gibson makes 31 saves out of 33.
The shootout starts and goes scoreless after three shots until Tanner Fritz scores first for Bridgeport. Chris Bourque would score in the shoot out to tie up the skills competition. Unfortunately this goal would not count for the hat trick nor would it be enough to help the Bears. Casey Bailey answered back and wins the game for Bridgeport. With a final score of 3-2 Bridgeport comes out on top, but not before leaving behind a point for the Bears.
Hershey doesn’t hit the ice again until Dec 1, 2017, when they meet up with The Lehigh Valley Phantoms in Allentown at 7 pm.
