Hershey continued their Northeast road trip tonight with a visit to Springfield. This is already the Bears third time playing the Thunderbirds this season, after the Bears split the weekend set in Hershey earlier this month.
In fact, the Bears won’t see the Thunderbirds again until April 3, when they travel to Springfield for another Friday night showdown. Funny how the schedule works like that sometimes.
In terms of lineup changes, there’s only three total changes. In the forward group, Patrick Thomas came in for Alex Suzdalev on the top line with Spencer Smallman and Bogdan Trineyev. Andrew Cristall and Eriks Mateiko also swapped spots, with Cristall moving up to the second line and Mateiko moving to the third line. Cristall-Protas-Clarke sounds fun.
The defense remained unchanged from Wednesday, while Clay Stevenson returned to the net after Garin Bjorklund got the last two games.
Postgame Takeaways
- The game started off with a bang. Kale Kessy and Justin Nachbaur dropped the gloves less four seconds into the game.
- However, the AHL is trying to tamp down on the gloves being dropped at puck drop. Both received 10 minute game misconducts and an ejection for doing so. That put both teams shorthanded for the rest of the game.
- It was a helter-skelter first period. Each team had 13 shots on goal in the first, yet each goalie stood tall and the period ended with the score somehow still tied at 0.
- This was a huge bounce back game from Clay after he was rested the last two games after his rough start against the Phantoms on the 24th. He made multiple 10 bell saves throughout the game, but his best moments came in the first.
- Grant Cruikshank has really impressed me since he came into the lineup. He’s looked quicker than last season and he was finally rewarded with a breakaway goal to kick off the scoring early in the second. Coach King is going to have a tough time making some lineup decisions when the Bears get back to full strength.
- The Trineyev-Rybinski connection hit again tonight, when Rybinski found a streaking Trineyev, who proceeded to beat Zherenko on the backhand. With a goal and assist tonight, Trineyev already has six points in the first eight games of the year and seems set to blast past his career high in points he set last year with 22 in 66 games.
- Sometimes the puck just doesn’t bounce your way. It didn’t for the Bears on either of the Thunderbirds goals. The first goal hit the post first before bouncing back off of Stevenson’s arm to cut the Bears lead to 2-1, then the second goal took about three wicked bounces before Springfield tied it up. Such is life.
- Real big shoutout to Spencer Smallman tonight. He missed much of the first and second period after taking a heavy hit early in the first, but came back to take a shift late in the second and played throughout the third period and overtime. Glad to see he’s ok.
- I loved Eriks Mateiko tonight. He didn’t show up on the scoresheet, but the Latvian rookie was in the right place a lot tonight and had a few crucial shot blocks. He’s getting better and better with each game he plays.
- Speaking of getting better and better, Andrew Cristall has turned it on since scoring his first AHL goal against the Phantoms last weekend. He was solid positionally tonight and made plays on both the offensive and defensive sides of the game. Capitals brass will be especially happy to see that last part.
- Cristall brought his point streak to three on the OT winner. With Hershey on the power play and time ticking down, he found Calle Rosen with a pretty pass right in front.
- Another big game for the former Thunderbird Rosen too. His first goal as a Bear extended his personal point streak to four games and he’s got a point in six of the Bears eight games so far.
- After starting the season 1-3-1, Hershey will head into November with a winning record at 4-3-1. The last four have looked much better than the first four and this group seems to be clicking.
- Finally, another shout out to the special teams groups. Hershey was 2/2 on the PK tonight, meaning they have now been perfect on the PK in all three wins of the current streak, and have killed 11 straight penalties since letting up an early power play goal against Lehigh Valley on the 24th.
- The power play has also connected in four straight now with the Rosen OT winner. Special teams success breeds overall success.
Now Watch This Goal
All three goals have a reason to be the one highlighted tonight, but you always have to go with the overtime winner. Again, what a pretty pass by Cristall to find Rosen.
The Chocolate Roar 