The Bears began their longest road trip in franchise history on Friday night, a ten game stint that includes trips to Cleveland, Chicago, Utica and Scranton among others.

On that first of ten on Friday night, Hershey blanked Cleveland in a 3-0 win. Nicky Leivermann opened the scoring up with 11:13 remaining in the opening period, on an assist from Hendrix Lapierre.

Then, with 6:22 to go until the first intermission, Alex Limoges scored to put Hershey ahead by two. Ivan Miroshnichenko and Chase Priskie had the assist to “Limo” for the score.

Luke Philip struck again in the third, scoring and putting the Bears ahead 3-0 with 4:50 to go in the meeting. His goal was assisted by Spencer Smallman and Chase Priskie. Clay Stevenson finished the game 24 for 24 on shots.

“I thought everybody played pretty well tonight,” said Todd Nelson. “It started with Clay Stevenson in net – he played a real strong game for us when we broke down – he was there for us. But everybody played pretty well and once again, special teams were huge. We got two power-play goals, we shut them down, just a good effort for 60 minutes.”

Then, Hershey turned the page to Saturday afternoon, and another chance to defeat Cleveland. And they did, 4-3, in a much more challenging and eventful game.

Mike Vecchione was the only player, Bears or Monsters, to score in the opening period. His goal, assisted by Chase Priskie and Garrett Roe, came at the 5:37 remaining mark in period one, and lifted Hershey to a 1-0 lead.

It made three assists in two games for Priskie, and it was Roe’s 100th assist in his AHL career.

Cleveland tied it up just 17 seconds into the second period from Luca Del Bel Belluz.

The 1-1 score carried into the final period, where the scoring spree began for both sides. Ivan Miroshnichenko scored nearly midway into the third period, off assists from Ethan Bear and Hendrix Lapierre.

Joseph LaBate responded, and made it 2-2 just under three minutes later. 60 seconds after LaBate’s goal, Ethan Bear buried one off a Miroshnichenko assist, and put Hershey back ahead.

Then, the Bears really got rolling with a Vincent Iorio goal to put Hershey ahead 4-2, and unassisted goal that really helped Hershey.

Cleveland scored from the stick of Luca Del Bel Belluz with one second remaining, which would’ve sent the game to overtime if it weren’t for the insurance goal from Iorio that came just over a minute before.

“Tonight we knew that they’d be coming out pretty snarly against us and so we counter-punched them and it was one of those games, it was a playoff-style game,”s aid odd Nelson. “We played well and we’ve got guys like Stromer and Perrott going to war for us. And as a total team effort, I’m proud of the guys.”

“I think we just have to stick to our game plan and that sometimes it’s just simple hockey – getting pucks in, making sure we’re really managing the game the way we want, and just not trying to create too much at the offensive blue line and just being smart, not giving them any chances,” said Ethan Bear.

The Bears have a short break before they hit the road next, a Wednesday night game in Scranton against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Then, they’re back on the road for another back-to-back next Saturday and Sunday in Chicago.

Hershey currently sits atop the Atlantic Division standings with a 35-15-5 record, while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton sits just below them at second place with a 31-15-7 record. In the entire AHL, Hershey is second, just behind Laval Rocket, who are 37-15-2.