The Hershey Bears concluded the month of March on Saturday in Hartford for their last matchup against the Wolf Pack. Hershey was outshot in large stretches of this game, but ultimately held on to break their drought in shootouts to earn a 2-1 win. Hunter Shepard was easily the game’s first star with 32 saves. The Bears clinched the franchise’s best-ever road win percentage in addition to Todd Nelson’s 400th win behind the bench.
Hershey got on the board early in this game on their first shot of the game. Ethen Frank took a pass from Pierrick Dubé with a bit of space created by Mike Vecchione. That’s a combination that spells doom for many teams. Frank tallied his 25th goal of the season to put the Bears ahead early.
The Bears got into some penalty trouble again that ultimately cost them. After a lengthy stretch down two skaters, another penalty haunted Hershey. Brennan Othmann got a fortunate bounce hitting Jake Massie in the skate on the far side of Shepard. Hershey was outshot 25-8 after two periods, as Shepard kept the Bears in the game with multiple key saves.
It’d be a tough outing for the Bears on the power play, coming up empty in five tries. Hershey fired 12 shots in the third and five in overtime. Hershey missed out on chances to win late in the third as well as twice in the extra session. Shepard made several key saves, including a breakaway stop inside of the last five minutes to keep the score even.
The Bears would have to break their drought in shootouts to earn an extra point in this game. After winning two skills competitions in the first half of the season, the Bears lost five in a row to suddenly struggle in shootouts. This time around, the Chocolate and White scored on all three of their shots while allowing only two to take a 2-1 final score.
With the win as well as a loss for the Providence Bruins, Hershey’s magic number to clinch the Atlantic Division drops to just one point. The Bears can wrap up the division title on Tuesday should they defeat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The four-point swing also applies to Hershey’s quest to wrap up the AHL title, dropping that number to seven as of publishing.
It’s a step in the right direction for the Bears, but there’s work to be done yet. Getting back into the win column after Tuesday’s debacle is important, but the game was far from a complete effort for the Bears. Fortunately, the team showed some resilience with a much better third period. Hershey was short a few key players in the wake of Matthew Phillips and Vincent Iorio being recalled to Washington. Dmitry Osipov was tabbed to play forward in the game, with Garrett Roe still unable to play. Lucas Johansen was unable to play due to illness, leaving new forward Haakon Hanelt as the only available extra.
There are only eight games left on the schedule for the Chocolate and White, as they open the month of April on Tuesday. They’ll face the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the 11th time this season. Hershey’s next point will give them 100, the first time the team has hit triple digits since the 2014-15 season. While the Bears don’t have the ability to match the 2009-10 team’s final standings of 123, if the team exceeds 100, it’ll be their highest mark since that splendid season. It’s even more excellent in considering this year’s squad has eight less games to work with than they did in 2009-10.
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