We may not be in person for the first time this year (we all have real jobs and that makes it a little hard to get farther than Wilkes-Barre in person…), but we’re keeping our coverage of the Bears live this year, even when they hit the road.
Hershey started their first northeast road trip of the year tonight in Bridgeport. This will lead into a Friday/Saturday set against Springfield and Providence respectively. It’s nice that’s not a 3-in-3 like it’s been a couple times over the last few years.
Couple of changes to the lineup from Saturday against the Phantoms. With Ethen Frank back up in Washington because of the injury to Dylan Strome (which luckily does not seem as bad as first feared), Bogdan Trineyev got the promotion to the first line. Eriks Mateiko and Alex Suzdalev swapped spots.
In good news, Henrik Rybinski is back after a one game absence. He takes his spot as third line center back, joined by Andrew Cristall and Matt Strome on the wings. The fourth line stayed the same.
On the back end, Ryan Chesley came back in, replacing David Gucciardi in the lineup. Garin Bjorklund got his second straight start after a solid performance against Lehigh Valley.
Postgame Takeaways
- Garin Bjorklund was given a lot of trust by being handed his second straight start. He repaid that trust from the coaching staff immediately. He made a couple of key stops in the first that made sure the score was only 1-0 after one.
- That’s not to say the Bears played poorly in the first. They had some strong opportunities, but were a little flakey in the first defensively.
- The second really saw the Bears turn it on. To start- I’m running out of words to describe Ilya Protas. A patient and perfect semi-breakaway early in the second saw him deke the goalie pants off Parker Gahagen to tie it at one.
- Ryan Chesley would give the Bears the lead a 1:12 later. He got a rest day last Saturday and it seemed to pay off. He looked excellent with Aaron Ness tonight.
- On that second goal- huge credit to Andrew Cristall as well. His work behind the net got the puck back towards the front and he was honestly unlucky to not put it in the net himself.
- The Bears power play has well and truly woken up. After not scoring at all on the man advantage through the first four games of the year, Hershey has scored on the man advantage in each of the last three games.
- Tonight the power play strike came, once again, from Graeme Clarke. Hershey needed a shooter to step up with both Frank and Miroshnichenko unavailable. Clarke has done so with three goals in the last three games.
- Speaking of special teams- how about the Bears PK? After letting up a goal on Lehigh Valley’s first power play opportunity last Friday night, Hershey is 9/9 on the kill since. The improvement in special teams play aligns with the better all around play from Hershey the last three games.
- With another assist tonight, Calle Rosen now leads the team in points with 6, all assists. The Swede has been huge in helping replace the offensive output lost on the backend after Chase Priskie and Ethan Bear left the organization in free agency.
- It didn’t show up on the score sheet, but it felt like Spencer Smallman was everywhere when he was on the ice.
- And that was felt the most on the last shift of the game. The Suzdalev-Smallman-Trineyev line got stuck out on the ice for almost four minutes after the Islanders pulled their goalie and did an incredible job. The puck stayed to the outside and Bridgeport barely got in good positions to score. And when they did, Bjorklund stopped them cold. Just amazing determination and grit that helped close the game out.
- Bjorklund went 23/24 in his best performance of the season so far. It’ll be interesting to see if Coach King rides Bjorklund’s hot hand into Springfield on Halloween this Friday.
Now Watch This Goal
In lieu of no postgame interviews tonight, I figured it’s best to highlight the best goal of the game. No doubt- it’s Ilya Protas with the opener that deserves to be shown off.
The Chocolate Roar 