The Hershey Bears claimed the Atlantic Division crown on Friday night on home ice. Facing off against their archrival, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Hershey put forth a strong effort. They outshot their opponent and Bogdan Trineyev’s third period goal was the decisive one in a 4-2 win. Hunter Shepard earned the win with 19 saves.
Bearing Down
Hershey was led by a strong effort from the line of Hendrix Lapierre, Alex Limoges, and Spencer Smallman. Although the Bears got contributions up and down the lineup, those players had their fingerprints all over this one. They’d get the scoring started on a pretty passing play from Lapierre and Jake Massie. The latter made a perfect pass to Ivan Miroshnichenko, who took over the team lead in goals with his 21st of the year.
However, much has been the case over the course of 11 prior games between the two teams, Wilkes-Barre fought back. Zach Gallant was able to beat Shepard on just the Penguins’ second shot of the game to even the score. Hershey outshot Wilkes-Barre in all three periods, putting up double digit shot counts in each of them.
Hershey pulled ahead with the only goal of the second period. In reverse to a goal scored on Wednesday night’s game, this time Limoges found Lapierre with a perfect pass. Lapierre made no mistake with his seventh goal of the year. Ryan Chesley picked up his first AHL assist with the secondary helper. Lapierre finished with multiple points for the second straight game.
Bears Roaring for More
Hershey secured some important insurance in the third period. After a great shift and a better keep in the blue line by Miroshnichenko, Vincent Iorio found Trineyev all alone at the side of the net. Trineyev is enjoying a career year in goals with his 14th of the season. The Bears were rewarded for their strong efforts with the goal.
The insurance became essential as Wilkes-Barre again cut into the lead. Jack Beck tallied his first AHL goal in his fourth contest, recording three points overall. The Penguins pressed, but Matt Strome tallied on the empty net to give the Bears their seventh win of the season series.
“(The Penguins) only had half their team out there tonight,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said. “They have a lot of guys called up, others injured. They worked extremely hard and made us earn it tonight, but our guys stuck with it. Our guys could have looked at the lineup and went through the motions, but for the most part I thought they worked hard.”
“(The division title) gives us confidence. I’m proud of the guys in there; it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t like last year where we breezed into the playoffs. That’s alright, we worked for everything we got. I’m proud of the guys. When you walk around town and people say, ‘what’s wrong with the Bears?’ Well, we’re in first place and second or third overall. That’s a pretty good year.”
“We had plenty of adversity this year. Plenty. I’ve always said that we invite that adversity to overcome it. You become stronger in the end and that should help in the playoffs.”
The Road Ahead
Hershey will wrap up the regular season on Saturday in Fan Appreciation Night at Giant Center versus Lehigh Valley. The Bears are unable to gain any ground on the league’s top overall team, the Laval Rocket. They will be the only team to finish with a better record than the Bears. As such, the Bears will get a look at the incoming young players while utilizing some that impressed like Chesley.
“(Chesley) is making me make hard decisions but is also making it easy with the way he’s playing,” Nelson said. “He’s playing some good hockey for us. We’re going to see him again tomorrow night. We’re going to try get the young kids into the lineup (on Saturday). We can’t go anywhere in the standings so it’s also an opportunity to rest some guys.”
“These young guys have come in and looked really good. It’s exciting for the years to come.”
Some of those players include Ludwig Persson and Terik Parascak, who would be making their AHL debuts in Saturday’s game if they play. Other players getting in the lineup include Leon Muggli, David Gucciardi, and goaltender Seth Eisele.
Typically, there’d be more names to get into sweaters, but several key players kicked off ECHL playoff action in South Carolina. The South Carolina Stingrays took a 5-3 win in Game One on Friday night. Bears hopefuls Alexander Suzdalev, Ryan Hofer, and Garin Bjorklund all made big contributions in the win.
