Hershey Bears

Bears Force Game Five

Photo via Hershey Bears on Twitter.

With no room for error, the Hershey Bears did all their scoring in the first period to force a decisive Game 5 in their first round series with the Portland Pirates. Justin Peters shut out the Pirates with 19 saves while Travis Boyd and Chris Bourque put their first of the playoffs behind Mike McKenna. The Bears won, 2-0.

The closest the Pirates came to scoring all game came when Peters mishandled a Logan Shaw shot off his shoulder. Christian Djoos was first to the rolling disk and he flicked it away. Peters did move back toward the crease and have the puck bank off his backside, but this ricochet went wide of the net.

For Hershey, they held a 6-2 lead in shots seven minutes into the first; it turned into a 13-4 advantage after the full 20 minutes were played. Jakub Vrana turned up ice and pulled off an Evgeny Kuznetsov-style twister as the period approached 13 minutes of play. The puck found its way through four pairs of skates to hit Travis Boyd for a one-time goal.

Minutes later, Jonathan Racine took an interference penalty behind the play as his teammates came toward the Bears zone with the puck. Chandler Stephenson held the puck in by slim margins and allowed the Bears to stay set up within the first minute of the advantage. Carter Camper shot the puck through the crease, and that’s where it found Chris Bourque across the ice.

The AHL MVP skated with the utmost casualness from the faceoff circle to the blue line. As he overlapped with Aaron Ness, Michael Matheson and Brett Olson could not tell who would block him. Before Olson could get in position, C. Bourque was at the bottom of his shot. The screamer made it all the way past everyone, getting the Bears all the scoring they would need.

From there, Peters and McKenna held serve with limited offense coming either way. A lot of chippy play came in the second half of the game, but the referees opted to let them play for the most part.

With McKenna pulled for the most part of the last 2:24, the Pirates kept pressing. The Bears got two attempts at the empty net, as many as the Pirates had Peters in that time.

The series is now tied at two games apiece. Game 5 will be tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.

Max Wolpoff

Churchill High School graduate (2015) and current Boston University journalism student. Follow me on Twitter (@Max_Wolpoff) for game-day tweets or my random musings about being a college student.

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