The Hershey Bears are playing again on Saturday in Game Five. A narrow 3-2 loss for the Bears in Game Four necessitated another game with Hershey leading the series 3-1. The good news? It’s another chance for the Bears to finish the job on enemy ice and advance to the Calder Cup Finals. Hershey has been bit by the injury bug of late, most recently losing Ethen Frank for the back half of the third period on Thursday. With Henrik Rybinski, Aaron Ness, and Pierrick Dubé missing Game Four and Lucas Johansen already ruled out, it’s a tenuous time for the Chocolate and White.
The Bears were honest about their effort after Game Four, with Mike Vecchione vowing the team would be ready for Saturday.
“Definitely gotta change it up,” Vecchione told FOX43’s Todd Sadowski. “Obviously, we weren’t ready to go here. Whatever we did yesterday, we’ll probably switch it up and go from there. It’s on us, we weren’t ready for the first or second periods. We got what we deserved.”
Cleveland came out and played desperate hockey, enough to extend the series another game at home. To Hershey’s credit, the Bears hung around enough to stay in the game and keep it at a one-goal deficit for the most part. After a pedestrian second period, the Bears outshot the Monsters by a 17-4 margin and were a post hit away from sending the game to overtime. In the Calder Cup Playoffs, comebacks are hard to manage in a similar vein to the way the Bears prevented three comeback attempts by the Monsters.
Hershey has some major question marks in terms of their lineup for Saturday’s game. None of the injured players from Tuesday’s game had any concrete status updates for Thursday. Although none of the players dressed for Thursday, they’re not completely ruled out as Johansen was. Frank’s status is the biggest concern, with the forward seemingly taking a shot either off his hand or his midsection. He’d exit during a break and not return in a major loss for the Bears.
The team’s depth, which has been tested of late, is wearing a bit thin. If Frank and the others cannot play on Saturday, the next man up would be rookie forward Ryan Hofer. Hofer skated in 40 games during the regular season, but hasn’t dressed in game action for the last month and a half. With up-and-coming players Andrew Cristall and Alexander Suzdalev no longer with the team, it leaves Kevin O’Neil and Tyson Empey as the last available forward options for the team.
Personnel options are only part of the puzzle for the Bears in terms of winning Game Five. Hershey needs to bring it from the start and pile up goals like in Game Three in order to put Cleveland down. When the Bears have been most successful, they’ve been able to clamp down on their opponent and prevent them from having much to build on. It’ll be an important game for everyone across the board to bounce back from.
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