Vecchione’s OT Winner Powers Bears Over Monsters in Seesaw Affair
After playing seven games in a span of 40 days, the Hershey Bears were back in action Thursday
night when they squared off against the Cleveland Monsters at Giant Center. Thousands of Bears
fans descended upon the sweetest place on Earth, bringing immaculate vibes and their cheering
voices to make home ice a hostile environment.
The Bears needed every ounce of energy from the fans. Mike Vecchione, Mr. OT, brought the
curtains down in overtime to lift the Bears past the Monsters’ quick strike offense by a 5-4 final.
Game one’s theme? Bend but don’t break. This contest turned out to be the Bears’ first playoff
game with significant adversity – especially on home ice.
“We went through some adversity, and it is good for our hockey team,” said head coach Todd
Nelson. “That would’ve been a tough one to lose, but we got the job done. I’m glad that we went
through it. I’m glad we got the win. That’s a good hockey team we are playing, and they’re not
going to quit.”
No matter if the game was high scoring or tight checking in the regular season, the Bears – over
the course of this season – found themselves on the right result more times than not.
Did the team use that experience to propel them to victory? Or, are the playoffs a different beast
and it’s a new slate?
“I think it’s mostly a new slate,” said Bears blueliner Chase Priskie – who notched a power-play
goal. “I think all of those experiences, whether it’s individually or collectively, this season or
from previous seasons, you learn how to play in different moments in the game. We’ve got a
really talented group that goes on the ice, whether it’s the power play, the penalty kill, or five-on-
six. We expect to execute and do the job when we’re out there.”
For the sixth time in eight games, the Chocolate and White opened the scoring at 4:24 of the first
period. Hendrix Lapierre fed a streaking Ethen Frank down the left wing on a breakaway,
beating goaltender Jet Greaves low glove side to put the locals up 1-0.
Cleveland’s penalty kill was tested early and often, eventually going shorthanded seven times.
Hershey drew a holding call and two high-sticking penalties – one of which was a double minor
– but they could not capitalize on their four man-advantage opportunities. The Chocolate and
White generated a few chances, but the Monsters stood tall to prevent further damage by the
revered home team.
The second frame featured four goals, split evenly, with each team capitalizing once on the
power play. Hunter McKown scored his second of the playoffs with the man advantage to tie the
at one apiece. McKown slid a shot low to the ice underneath Shepard from the side of the net.
Cleveland grabbed the lead just 1:21 later, which – at the moment – was the fastest time the
Bears gave up consecutive goals this postseason. Alex Whelan beat Shepard on the backhand all
alone in front to make it 2-1.
The lead did not last long. The Bears, who have shown their ability to be opportunistic, tied the
game at two just 1:23 after Cleveland’s second goal. Defenseman Aaron Ness created space by a
net front drive for Vecchione to rip a wrister from the left faceoff circle. The shot clicked off of
Ness and past Greaves high glove side.
“It was pretty wonky,” chuckled Ness. “[Cleveland’s] goalie played really well. [Greaves] is
really good. Vecchione made a good shot and good play on it. It hit my leg and went in.”
Despite coming up empty in the first period with the man advantage, Hershey hit paydirt on the
fifth power play opportunity. Priskie unleashed a slapshot from the top of the right faceoff circle
past Greaves at 17:12 of the second to re-establish their lead at 3-2.
Lapierre widened Hershey’s gap to two goals on the Bears’ seventh power play of the game.
Collecting the puck in the neutral zone, he threw on the jets to create some separation and whip a
wrist shot past Greaves to make it a 4-2 game.
When asked by Chocolate Hockey’s Joe Szymanski about Lapierre’s progression before and after his call up, “He was this good when he got called up,” echoed Nelson. “He’s producing for
us right now. We expected that. He understands that he’s a young guy, but he’s one of our
leaders.”
Bears fans were seemingly comfortable heading into the latter stages of regulation, but Cleveland
stormed back to tie the game with two goals in a span of 1:03 – the new fastest time conceding
consecutive goals to the opposition this postseason.
With Ness sitting in the box for slashing, Trey Fix-Wolansky tallied his first goal of the playoffs
at 18:37 of regulation similarly to how McKown scored the Monsters’ first goal – low to the ice
past the leg pad. With 19.1 seconds remaining, David Jiricek notched his third point of the night
with a wicked shot bar down past a screened Shepard to force overtime.
Nelson instructed his troops to be ready for the first five minutes of overtime. Not only did they
do just that, but Vecchione struck gold just under three minutes later on a three-on-one jailbreak
to end the game. Vecchione popped the puck passed a Cleveland defender to Alex Limoges to
spring the odd man rush with Jimmy Huntington on the other flank. Limoges and Vecchione
played tic-tac-toe and sniping the winner past Greaves.
“I was trying to get it out,” Vecchione said. “I knocked it off of somebody and whacked it up to
Limo. I just played catch with Limo a bit, and you can see the [defender] peep on one side. The
weak side was wide open, and that was it.”
“I think he relishes the pressure,” mentioned Nelson when asked by Ian Oland of Russian
Machine Never Breaks about Vecchione’s clutch gene. “I thought he played well tonight. He’s
been working hard. He’s just one of those guys where certain guys rise to the occasion in
overtime. He’s one of them.”
Hershey will look to clean up their game Friday at practice. Game two at Giant Center is
Saturday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
