The Bears recalled Austin Fyten from South Carolina to start the week, giving him a start in their Friday game against the Syracuse Crunch. Madison Bowey struck fast to open the scoring, extending his point streak to three games. Unfortunately for the Bears, the Crunch woke up and scored four unanswered on Dan Ellis. Ellis made 28 saves to Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 27.
Upon returning home, Hershey gained three crucial standings points over the weekend games. Saturday, the Bears beat the St. John’s IceCaps 4-2. Garrett Mitchell, Liam O’Brien, Paul Carey, and Dustin Gazley scored four unanswered for the Chocolate and White after falling behind 2-0 early. Chris Bourque tallied his 400th career AHL point with a primary assist on Carey’s goal and Justin Peters saved 26 of 28 shots.
Sunday night saw Hershey with their back against the wall the entire game. Despite Christian Djoos’s equalizer in the first, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms hit three unanswered to put Hershey down 4-1. Paul Carey began the comeback on a power play goal with eight seconds left in the second period. Halfway through the third, Chris Bourque struck on the power play to make the deficit one. At 17:53 of the period, Zach Sill scored his first Bears goal to tie the game. Overtime solved nothing, so a 10-round shootout was needed to determine a winner.
Riley Barber scored in the third round to keep the Bears in it after Taylor Leier put one past Ellis in round one. Sean Collins looked to win it for the Bears in round eight, but Brandon Alderson responded to continue the skills competition. Finally, Kevin Sundher finished the shootout in the bottom of the tenth.
CURRENT STANDING
4th in Atlantic Division, 4-3-0-2 (W-L-OTL-SOL), 10 points
