After the worst result against in well over three decades for the Bears on Wednesday night, losing 9-0 to rivals Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the Bears returned to home ice for a two game set against the Bridgeport Islanders.

The Bears also lost another body pre-game, with Hardy Haman Aktell being placed on waivers earlier in the day for the purpose of a mutual contract termination, likely signaling that Haman Aktell will be returning to Europe.

The injury crisis, while not over, does seem to be coming to an end. Mike Sgarbossa, Hendrix Lapierre, Brennan Saulnier, Riley Sutter and Brad Hunt all returned to the lineup, with Bears nation hoping they’d provide the spark needed to get this team back on track.

First Period

If you want to talk about a spark, the Bears certainly got one in the first minute of the game. First, it was Ivan Miroshnichenko 18 seconds into the period, finishing off a rebound opportunity to put the Bears up 1-0. Then, only 32 seconds later it was Pierrick Dube finishing off a two-on-one chance to put Hershey up 2-0 in 50 seconds.

However, the rest of the period would not turn out as well for Hershey. Former Bear Brian Pinho would get the scoring started for Bridgeport, potting his 18th of the season. Only a couple minutes later, it would then be William Dufour sniping one home after the Bears failed to clear the puck out of their own zone to tie the game.

The Bears would get a late power play opportunity to try and retake the lead, but it went nowhere and the score was 2-2 heading into the second.

Second Period

The second period would see the Islanders continue their momentum. An early penalty for holding against Ivan Miroshnichenko would put Bridgeport on the power play and they would capitalize to take the 3-2 lead.

The Bears would get their opportunities on the power play again, but failed to capitalize on multiple occasions. Miroshnichenko would make up for his mistake though, putting home his second of the night with just under 10 minutes to go in the period to tie the game back up at three.

Each team would fail to capitalize on a power play chance before the period would end, with the score staying at 3-3 heading into the third.

Third Period

The Bears would start on the front foot in the third, and once again it would be Ivan Miroshnichenko who would unleash the hats of war, scoring his third and getting his hat trick. That’s the second hat trick of the season for Miro, with his first coming all the way back in game number two of the season against Cleveland.

Bridgeport would strike back quick though, with Matthew Maggio finding himself in front of Hunter Shepard uncovered and he would capitalize on a puck that bounced right on his stick to make it 4-4.

But the Bears kept fighting- and they would get their reward. Alex Limoges, grabbing his 11th of the season to put the Bears up 5-4.

Hershey would hold onto that lead to the end of the game, getting them the win. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t perfect- but the Bears got the response they needed after Wednesdays disaster.

Postgame Quoteables

“Yea we’re going to have to get some depth on defense. Obviously those guys left for different opportunities and we wish them well, but now we’re getting a bit think. The loss of Jake Massie stings a bit. It’s going to be long term, about 10 weeks, which takes us right up to playoff time. He’s been playing really well for us. So you know, we have a couple of injuries all of a sudden and we don’t have a lot down right now. Management is going to be pretty active here, but you have to keep the Caps in mind too since they are pushing for a Stanley Cup. They will take opportunities to improve their team.” – Head Coach Todd Nelson on the Bears looking for defensive depth after Hardy Haman Aktell left the team.

“Yea it was a really good response. Coach challenged us yesterday and everyone is pretty motivated and determined in there. You saw our start tonight and we just want to keep that up.” – Alex Limoges on the Bears response to Wednesday night’s 9-0 defeat to Wilkes/Barre-Scranton.