Hershey Bears Force Game Five with 4-1 Win
Bears Graham Mink (left) and Zach Miskovic (right) celebrate with Cameron Schilling after Schilling’s goal during Friday’s game (Photo by Kyle Mace)
There was a confidence among the Hershey Bears that we hadn’t seen in quite a while, on Friday night. It was a resolve to show their fans and themselves that this team wasn’t about to let the season end, as easily as it looked to be ending after the first two games of the series. The Bears beat the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins on Friday night 4-1 to even the best of five series at two games each.
Like they did in game three, the Bears scored the first two goals of the game. This time though they would never lose the lead. Late in the first period Cameron Schilling got his second professional goal in as many games, taking a Zach Miskovic pass to give Hershey at 1-0 advantage on the power play.
Just under eight minutes into second period, Boyd Kane picked up a loose puck in front of the Penguins goal and spun it home to give Hershey a 2-1 lead. It was the Bears second power play goal on their second power play opportunity.
Bears fans sensed a shift in momentum when the Penguins Jason Williams cut the Bears lead with just over two minutes left in the second period, to make the score 2-1.
Hershey rallied in the third, when Kane tallied his second goal off a Ryan Potulny drive to make it 3-1. Chris Bourque added an empty net goal to make the final 4-1.
“We know if we lose this one, we’re going home,” said Potulny. “We played with urgency and stuck with our game plan all night.”
Bourque was very pleased with his teams effort “That was our best effort in the last two and half months. That’s a really nice game for us going into the deciding game five”
Coach Mark French wasn’t pleased with his teams nine penalties, but was happy with a second straight victory. His team killed off every one of the nine penalties “We certainly came out with a purpose. We were certainly hoping that we had built some confidence from game three. It got us off to a good start and a good team wide start.”
The fifth and deciding game of the series will be played Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre starting at 7pm.
More photos from tonight’s game
Schilling scores his second goal of the playoffs
Boyd Kane scores on the power play
Boyd Kane, trying out his figure skating moves
Jason Williams scores for WBS
Brandon DeFazio had two less teeth at the end of the night…
Graham Mink watches Boyd Kane’s deflection
Do we need a caption other than “Awesome”?
Bourque’s empty netter
See you in Wilkes-Barre!