Hershey took the ice for the rare mid-week showdown against the visiting Providence Bruins. This is the first of two straight matchups at the Giant Center between the Bears and Bruins, with the rematch taking place Friday night.
The Bears are looking to continue their momentum from last Sunday’s 3-2 win over Lehigh Valley. That win was driven by two goals from Brett Leason and a strong season debut from Mitch Gibson in net.
Speaking of the goalie crease, the Capitals sent back down Clay Stevenson and brought up Garin Bjorklund to be the backup to Logan Thompson in DC. Comments from Capitals Head Coach Spencer Carbery this morning suggest that injured Capitals backup Charlie Lindgren should be back to full health soon, meaning the Bears goalie situation should return to normal soon.
Only two changes for the Bears from Sunday’s win. Alex Suzdalev came back into the lineup, subbing in for Justin Nachbaur on the fourth line. The other change saw Clay Stevenson get the start in net, replacing Mitch Gibson.
Postgame Takeaways
- Hershey started out slow- The Bruins looked like one of the top five teams in the league, consistently hammering the Bears in their own zone and keeping Hershey’s offensive chances to the bare minimum.
- It would be the Bruins 7th ranked power play that got them on the board- a shot from Brett Harrison from the point barely sneaked under Stevenson’s elbow to make it 1-0 Providence.
- I’ll give a ton of credit to Hershey tonight though- they always fought back. They went toe to toe with the Bruins for the remainder of the first and forced a few really excellent saves out of Michael DiPietro.
- Providence’s second goal would be the first of two that would have to be confirmed by replay. The puck just would not settle in front of Stevenson and Riley Tufte barely got it across the line. The lengthy review did not see a change in the original call and Hershey found themselves down 2-0.
- I did feel like Hershey was able to match with Providence’s physicality well tonight. The third line of Bitten-Kupka-Clarke was particularly noticeable on that front I felt.
- Michael DiPietro really showed why he was the AHL’s goalie of the year last season and why he could repeat as the award winner this season. He made multiple ten-bell saves tonight that stonewalled the Bears at the worst of times.
- Like I said earlier though, Hershey kept battling. They never gave up and absolutely hammered Providence in the third, outshooting the Bruins 17-8 in the final frame.
- Hershey would finally get one past DiPietro via Ilya Protas on the power play.
- Protas now leads the Bears in goals with 11 and in points with 21. The last rookie to end a season with the lead in both goals and points was Connor McMichael in the COVID 20-21 season.
- Then controversy struck- Fabian Lysell got on a breakaway for the Bruins and the puck seemed to get stuck in Clay Stevenson’s skates. The call was no goal on the ice, but after a lengthy review process, the officials determined it was a goal, a dagger for the Bears comeback hopes.
- It was another lengthy review process, which, and this is a personal Joe opinion here, when a review takes longer than three minutes, it should be like college football where the “call on the ice stands” instead of the “call on the ice is confirmed”. I know the lack of video angles in AHL barns limits things for referees in this league, but it is a frustrating process.
The Chocolate Roar 