Bears come back from 3-1 deficit to defeat first-place Hartford
The Hershey Bears came into play Saturday night, coming off a rough road trip to Charlotte earlier in the week, dropping both games to the Checkers. They looked to take advantage of some home cooking with a Saturday night tilt against the division-leading Wolf Pack.
In the opening period of play, the Chocolate and White got off to an ideal start. With Beck Malenstyn sniping one top shelf past Hartford’s Adam Huska, to give the Bears the early 1-0 lead. In the later stages of the first frame, things started to sour for the Bears. Hartford was able to score three goals in just under five minutes, taking a 3-1 lead over Hershey into the first intermission.
Head Coach Spencer Carbery went on record postgame, saying that a lot of the first period struggles were caused by “uncharacteristic stuff” and “some really really easy individual reads” that the guys in the brown jerseys weren’t picking up on.
The Bears remained resilient in this one again. Coming out of the gate strong, the Bears were able to get back into the game. Garrett Pilon scored 30 seconds into the frame. With a little over three minutes to play in the second, Shane Gersich scored to tie the game at three apiece. One of the other big keys to the turnaround was the rebound by goaltender Pheonix Copley, who came up with some clutch saves in the middle frame to keep the equalizer in reach.
“Yeah the one save on the back door was a huge save because that would go to 4-2, and that can really take the wind out of your sails right there” Carbery mentioned. “[Copley] made some other really big saves for us in the second and third to keep it at 3-2, and we’re able to tie it up and then take the lead.”
The final period of play was another strong one for the Bears, but it did warrant an equally strong response from Hartford. After Tyler Lewington pocketed his first goal of the season to take a 4-3 lead, Hartford’s Vitali Kravtsov scored just over a minute and a half later to tie the game back up at four, and eventually force overtime.
Speaking of Tyler Lewington, he became the most unlikely overtime hero with a snipe off of an amazing feed from Christian Djoos, that ended the game and won it for the Chocolate and White. This 5-4 win against the Wolf Pack brings the Bears within two points from the first-place team, which happens to be Hartford.
Lewington’s goals were his first two of the season, and they could not have been any bigger. As for Djoos, his primary assist on the OT winner is his 100th point as a member of the Hershey Bears.
Hershey looks to keep the home cooking going, as they play their final home game of the month of January
