Hershey Bears’ Riley Barber Earns Thirtieth and Thirty First goal in 5-1 Win Over Bridgeport Sound Tigers
The Hershey Bears did not disappoint in Saturday night's game against The Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Riley Barber and Mike Sgarbossa would dominate in offense and Ilya Samsonov held his own stopping eighteen of the nineteen shots sent his way. This playoff run has been a fun one, with Hershey now three points behind the second place Sound Tigers and ahead three points in front of the Providence Bruins to stay in third place in their division, at this point anything is possible, and with the way this team is playing be prepared for greatness.
It took just under half of the first for Hershey to strike first with a goal scored by Garrett Pilon at 9:31 in the period. Shane Gersich and Ryan Sproul would each gain a point with assists on the play. Less than two minutes before the period ended Aaron Ness caught a quick pass from Mike Sgarbossa on the Power Play and made it 2-0 Hershey.
Headed into the second top scorer Riley Barber got his thirtieth goal of the season with a sweet pass from Aaron Ness at 1:33 in the period, and it was 3-0 Hershey. Mike Sgarbossa would also earn his second point of the night with an assist on the play. In a controversial moment of the game, as fans clearly thought the net had been knocked off it's moorings, Bridgeport earned their only goal of the game coming at 3:17 in the second, and scored by Steve Bernier. Sound Tigers Travis St. Denis and John Stevens both earned an assist on the play.
From there on out it would be all Hershey as they scored two more unanswered goals. Riley Barber and Mike Sgarbossa would team up at 4:48 in the second to earn Riley's thirty-first goal and Sgarbossa's thirtieth assist of the season, making it 4-1 Hershey.
At 10:22 in the middle period Mike Sgarbossa would get his fourth point of the game and twenty seventh goal of the season to bring the final score to 5-1. Riley Barber would earn his third point of the game with an assist on the play along with Hershey Bears favorite Liam O'Brien.
The third period would play out with neither team scoring and Hershey would take the win on home ice with a crowd 10,171 screaming with excitement. The three stars of the game were (3) Aaron Ness (2) Riley Barber and (1) Mike Sgarbossa. Hershey outshot Bridgeport twenty eight to nineteen.
The Hershey Bears will take on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on a very rare Tuesday night fight on home ice at the Giant Center. Puck drops at 7pm.
