Bears offense shines in Hershey’s win over Bridgeport
The Hershey Bears continued to ride a wave of recent success, picking up their fifth win in a row Saturday night, defeating the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 5-2.
For a large chunk of this season, the Bears have had their struggles getting scoring from all four lines – especially from the bottom six. Through the first 20 minutes of Saturday night’s contest, they did the opposite.
One player that stood out in the first period was Axel Jonsson-Fjallby. The Swedish forward got back on the score sheet for the first time in well over a month on a great feed to Brian Pinho in the early stages of the first period to give the Bears a 1-0 advantage.
They wouldn’t be the only ones racking up points in the first period, however. The Bears would also get goals from Mike Sgarbossa and Philippe Maillet in the first 13 minutes of the first, giving Hershey a 3-1 advantage at first intermission.
The Bears offensive onslaught would carry over into the second period. As the Chocolate and White would score two goals in 14 seconds; one from Matt Moulson on the power play, and then followed up by Liam O’Brien’s sixth goal on the season.
“It’s critical,” said Spencer Carbery on Hershey’s scoring depth. “Really really tough to rely on two or three guys to do all of the scoring and producing offensively.
“I thought tonight was one of the best games of the year at being ready to execute.”
It wasn’t just Hershey’s offense that was firing on all cylinders. Goaltender Vitek Vanecek looked solid throughout this game as well, surrendering only two in Saturday night’s contest.
All three of the goals scored in the second period were in the first six minutes of the period, leaving the rest of the period scoreless on both sides with the score 5-2 after 40 minutes.
The MVP of the third period I give to the penalty kill unit. Assistant coach Patrick Wellar’s group has done a phenomenal job as of late, killing off 26 straight penalties – including a lengthy 5-on-3 in the third period.
There’s a sense of pride within Hershey’s penalty kill unit to continue to improve and keep teams scoreless on the power play. “Tt’s a small group within the team that want that percentage to rise,” Carbery commented. “They want to kill off and be the difference in the game”.
All in all, another solid team win for the Chocolate and White. Penalty kill was perfect yet again, and three different Bears had themselves multi-point nights.
They’ll be looking to make it six wins in a row Sunday night at home against Lehigh Valley.
