After a mid-week trip that ended in victory in Bridgeport (which you can read about here from Luke Brown), the Bears returned home to face off against a foe that they haven’t seen in a long time.

The Chicago Wolves, the Bears Western Conference opponent this year, came to town for the first time since 2006. The affiliate of the Hurricanes brought some NHL names with them, with former first round pick Tyson Jost, the recently sent down Brendan Lemieux, and starting goalie Spencer Martin.

The Bears only made one change from Wednesday’s lineup- a goalie switch, with Clay Stevenson taking the first part of the back to back this weekend over Hunter Shepard.

First Period

While the first period ended an unassuming 0-0, it was not a boring period. Both teams had their skating legs and fans were treated to an entertaining first period.

Chicago’s best chance came early on in the period, when a shot from the point sat there and the Wolves nearly buried a chance that even I couldn’t believe didn’t go in. But the post gave Clay Stevenson some help, and the Bears avoided an early deficit.

The Bears would also have to kill off the first penalty of the night after Vincent Iorio went to the box for a cross check. Hershey would do what it does on the PK though and kept the Wolves out.

Hershey would then have the better of the chances throughout the rest of the period, with Spencer Martin standing out in more ways than one for the Wolves. Not only did Martin make some excellent saves, but he also committed a Spencer on Spencer crime, when he punched Spencer Smallman with his blocker after the whistle blew on a Bears power play.

Martin was able to keep his head for the remainder of the period and made some strong saves to keep it at 0-0.

Second Period

The second period added a little more flavor and fun. But it took a while – the first eight minutes did not provide much action, as the Bears and Wolves only put together 5 combined shots in the first eight minutes.

But in the last 12 minutes, the game flicked back on to the back and forth affair it was in the first period. And the Wolves took advantage of it first. Chicago caught the Bears on a change, and a lovely breakout pass from Spencer Martin to Ryan Suzuki, who found Bradly Nadeau on the rush and Nadeau made no mistake to make it 1-0 Wolves.

But the Bears would answer back just 16 seconds later. A perfectly executed give and go between Pierrick Dubé and Alex Limoges saw Limoges bury his chance past Martin to tie the game right back up.

The Bears ended the second on the PK, after a questionable roughing call on Bogdan Trineyev, and had a minute left to kill going into the third, with the score still knotted at one apiece.

Third Period + OT

The Bears would finish off the kill of the Trineyev penalty and then almost immediately get a power play chance of their own. And this time, the Bears capitalized.

The second unit got the job done this time, with Spencer Smallman taking advantage of a breakdown in Chicago’s coverage and finding a wide open Pierrick Dubé in front of the net. I do not recommend leaving Pierrick Dubé open in front of the net. He made no mistake and the Bears made it 2-1.

But the Wolves copied the Bears response and only a few seconds later, Brendan Lemieux scored his first for the Wolves to tie the game up at two apiece.

There were multiple opportunities from both team through the remainder of the third, but neither team could get it past either goalie, with Spencer Martin coming up with some big saves to send this game to overtime.

Sadly, OT would not go the Bears way. After a great save from each goalie to start the OT period, Chicago wound up with strong zone time, and after the Bears failed to clear it into the Wolves zone, Ryan Suzuki found Scott Morrow on a 2-on-1 and Morrow got it past Stevenson and ended the game.

The Bears look to get revenge tomorrow afternoon, in a rematch with the Wolves starting at 3 p.m.

Postgame Quotes

“I thought we came out pretty strong in the first and we had our chances…I thought it was a good hockey game tonight. They’re a good team, they’re young, skate well and play a pretty aggressive system. We’re going to get everybody’s best game and tonight we played well and just lost in overtime unfortunately.”: Head Coach Todd Nelson on tonights OT loss.

“I know Limo and Dubes have played together for a while last year and coming in a playing with guys of that caliber is a treat for me. There’s a learning curve for sure and I think I’m just starting to get used to their chemistry and starting to read off them a little better.”: Spencer Smallman on playing on the second line with Luke Philp out.