Bears Take A Trip Up North And Visit Divisional Foes
It was a busy weekend this past weekend for the Hershey Bears, as it was one of their few 3-in-3 weekends. A taxing weekend that was commonplace in the AHL nearly a decade ago, when Hershey had 14 of these 3-in-3 weekends.
Hershey began its weekend with a trip to upstate New York to take on the Syracuse Crunch, a team Hershey has seen twice so far in this young season. The Crunch had not seen the Bears since opening weekend over a month ago, and this was not the same team that took the ice that night.
The two clubs were scoreless after one period, with Hershey leading in shots 9-5, even with killing two penalties in the period. Ilya Protas would break the ice on a power play goal for his 3rd of the season to make it 1-0. Graeme Clarke would get his 3rd assist of the season on the play. Hershey would get an insurance goal in the 3rd, as Andrew Cristall scored on a nice feed from Protas. It would be Cristall's 2nd of the season and a sign that the rookie is heating up his scoring touch. Hershey would try to sit on this lead and earn Clay Stevenson a shutout, but thanks to some late-game penalty trouble, the Crunch finally got one past Clay on a 6-on-4 power play to make it 2-1 with 1:47 to go. Hershey would take a tripping penalty with 35 seconds left to make things really interesting, but the PK held firm and the Bears got the win in Syracuse.
Photo Credit: Leah Hollenbach/Olde City Sports Network
On Saturday, November 15th, Hershey traveled down 81 from NY and took 78 to the corner of the 7th and Hamilton in Allentown to take on the Phantoms. The two clubs have split the season series so far, getting wins in their own arenas. A repeat of Syracuse, both teams would stay scoreless in the first period, with Lehigh holding a sizable lead in shots at 13-6. Hershey would once again break the ice in the first with a Matt Strome kneeling one timer to make it 1-0. It would be his 4th of the season and came on Hershey's 10th shot of the game. Late in the 2nd, during a power play, Goaltender Garin Bjorklund spotted Bogdan Trineyev up ice and flung the puck to him during a Phantoms line change. Trineyev and Cristall lead a 2-on-0 charge on the goalie Carson Bjarnason, as the two easily scored to make it 2-0. It was Trineyev's 4th of the season and Bjorklund's first AHL point on the secondary assist. In the third, both teams traded goals as the Phantoms scored on a breakaway by Denver Barkey for his 5th on the year. Hershey would respond with Ilya Protas getting his 4th of the season as he jabbed a puck underneath the Bjarnason to make it 3-1. Lehigh would take advantage of the Bears' late-game penalty trouble as the Bears would take three straight penalties, and the Phantoms scored on two of them. Cooper Marody and Lane Pederson each get power-play goals and tie the game at 3 with just over five minutes left to go. However, the Bears would find some alternate game heroes of their own as Brett Leason stole a breakout pass at the blue line with 8 seconds to go. Leason shot a low wrister, and Matt Strome deflected the puck just enough to get it past Bjarnason to give Hershey the lead with 13 seconds to go. It would be Strome's 5th of the season and 2nd of the night, and Leason's first point as a Bear this season. Hershey would hold off the Phantoms and secure their 5th straight road win of the season, beating the Phantoms 4-3 on Phan Con night in Allentown.
On Sunday, November 16th, the Bears and Phantoms went at it once more in Hershey in an early afternoon game. Both teams were spending time from each club playing their 3rd game in 3 days, even though this was Lehigh's only travel of the weekend. The game was also sloppy, overreaching, half-stride, and showed that both teams were exhausted, dipping into their rosters for fresh legs. The Phantoms would get the opening goal as Alexis Gendron would get his 4th of the season to make it 1-0. Hershey would answer in the third period with Ilya Protas getting his 5th of the season and 3rd of the weekend to make it 1-1. Both teams would get to the extra frame with the game tied at 1-1, and Hershey would find an OT hero from an unlikely source. Connor Mayer, a call-up from the South Carolina Stingrays, boarded a 6 am flight to make it to Hershey. Mayer scored the game-winner after a feed from Henrik Rybinski, who would win the game for the Bears and sweep the weekend!
Hershey would improve to 9-4-1-0 on the season with 19 points, good for 4th in a very competitive Atlantic division. The Bears will hit the road this week for a pair of games against the Cleveland Monsters, a team against whom Hershey has had success over the past few seasons.
Hershey will return home Thanksgiving Eve for the annual turkey shoot game against the 1st place WBS Penguins.
- Richard Blosser/Olde City Sports Network
- Photo Credit/Thom Freeman/Leah Hollenbach/Olde City Sports Network
