Tale of two games for the Hershey Bears to start the week
On Wednesday night the Hershey Bears started a four game home stand that included four games in seven nights. Springfield, Toronto, Bridgeport and the rival Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins all on the coming schedule. The Bears would need a hot start and get points every night the best they could.
Hershey’s first opponent the always feisty and tough Springfield Thunderbirds. Highly touted goalie Ilya Samsonov of the Hershey Bears made a mistake and turned the puck over behind the net to a wide open Sebastian Repo for the games opening goal. That would be Repo’s 12th goal on the season.
The bleeding would continue, as Jean-Sebastien Dea, well known from his time with the Penguins breaks out of the box and gets past defender Colby Williams and just chops the puck up and over Samsonov to make the game 2-0.
The Bears would answer however as mid season signing Ryan Sproul who has been an absolute spark plug on the back end would blast a shot past the Thunderbirds goaltender Driedger for his ninth goal of the season.
Hershey would go on to tie the game just over a minute later as “DSP” Devante Smith-Pelly would score his fourth of the season and fourth goal in the last two games. Aaron Ness would get assist number 41 on the season for the Hershey Bears.
Assist number 42 for Aaron Ness would come on the very next goal as he would set up a wide open Mike Sgarbossa on a back door feed to put the Bears up 3-2. Just 2:10 later Riley Barber would find Jayson Megna in the slot and he would snipe one top left corner of the next for the Bears first two goal lead of the game at 4-2.
Minutes after agitator Bobby Farnham went face first into the glass causing him to need stitches he would come out and find a puck off a rebound and pot one to a crowd of loud boo’s from the Giant Center faithful. Bobby would cut the lead to one, at 4-3.
The Thunrderbirds would pull the goalie and take a time out, but it would not matter as second later Mike Sgarbossa would get his second of the game and 26th of the season into an open net. Bears would take a two goal lead and end the game with a 5-3 victory.
Bears would get points in four straight games, and have won three games against the Birds. It would not take long for the Hershey Bears however to get another point to add to their season total as Friday night the Bears would take on the Toronto Marlies.
The Bears and Marlies would battle to a scoreless first period, even after the Bears gave Toronto three power play opportunities. Hershey’s penalty kill and five on five play in the defensive end was spot on.
The flood gates however would open up in the second period. Adam Brooks would score his 17th goal of the season at 7:28 of the second period. Jayson Megna however just would not be outdone as he would also score his 17th goal of the season to tie the game at one a piece.
Liam O’Brien would get crushed against the boards and get a cut from his helmet. He would stay down for a few seconds to collect himself then skate towards then bench. When nearing the bench he throws a wild cross check a Marlies Sam Jardine and the two throw gloves aside a start throwing bombs. They each would get five minutes for fighting but the Bears would get an extra two minutes for too many men as a player already stepped onto the ice to replace the injured O’Brien. Between the fight and and staying on the ice Liam O’Brien earned himself the rest of the game off with a game misconduct.
The Marlies and Bears would exchange goals again just under a two minutes apart as Bracco would get loose to take the lead for Toronto 2-1. A pass intended for DSP was instead tipped in by Nathan Walker to tie the game at 2-2.
Just over two minutes later the back and forth would continue. 17’s would be wild on Friday night as Michael Carcone would score his 17th goal of the season to retake the lead for the Marlies at 3-2. Just :59 seconds later the younger bother of P.K Subban, Jordan Subban would give Toronto a 4-2 lead.
The third period the Bears needed to be the better team and they were. Hershey would score two goals, just a minute and a half later “DSP” Devante Smith-Pelly would get his fifth goal of the season, and points in five straight games to tie the game at 4-4.
Mike Sgarbossa would have to take a penalty to stop a break away chance, and found himself sitting in the sin bin. Tyler Lewington in OT would plow a Marlies player into Vitek Vanecek causing him to drop his stick. Jonas Siegenthaler had given Vitek his stick back but it was just too much confusion as a shot from the point by Toronto’s Jeremy Bracco was tipped home by Mueller who just came off the bench giving the win and the extra point to the Toronto Marlies.
The Bears continue their four game home stand with game three of four against the Bridgeport SoundTigers. Check out the link below for the game day preview for tonight!
