Hershey Bears

Bears Sink Pirates, Advance to Round 2

In the only first round series to go to a decisive Game 5, the Hershey Bears jumped to an early lead and held on tight to finish off the Portland Pirates, 2-1. Hershey will now face-off against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a best-of-seven starting on Wednesday.

Justin Peters made his fourth straight start in these Calder Cup Playoffs, saving 23 of 24 shots, including multiple instances of odd-man rushes. Until Simpson’s goal, Peters had 102:51 of shutout hockey starting after the Game 3 3OT winner from Rob Flick.

The Bears got the jump early on Portland, hemming the Pirates in to their own zone. However, the Pirates did hold the puck for around two minutes before the Bears finally broke out to start the play that netted their first goal.

Corban Knight dispossessed Christian Djoos, but his pass hit Liam O’Brien behind the net. O’Brien hesitated a moment before finding a crashing Sean Collins. McKenna came off the posts, and Collins beat him past the glove hand for his first Calder Cup Playoffs goal in his 18th career playoff game.

Even though the Bears looked good on their power play, McKenna and the Pirates were poised to breakout. They had spurts of good play in the first, but the second more showcased why they held two different series leads.

Portland’s penalty kill finished off an early advantage for Hershey to open the middle frame, followed up by waves of attacks at Peters. The former Capitals backup made a goal-line stand amid a maze of stabbing Pirate sticks before the last Bears goal.

Shane Harper ripped a shot wide of the net, which then circled around to Jakub Vrana at the Portland blue line. Vrana hit Ryan Bourque streaking into the zone, who opted to give it right back. Vrana held and waited at the boards for Ryan Stanton. Behind the three defenders back, Stanton settled the puck before snapping the puck through the legs of McKenna.

To open the third, the Portland power play fizzled without much fanfare. Rocco Grimaldi, breaking into the zone, tried to hit a behind-the-defense pass with nobody on the other side. No matter, as the carom came to Michael Matheson for an immediate slap shot. The puck tipped off Simpson in front, off the far post, and then off the twine behind Peters.

Aside from a few chances in front of the net from Zach Sill and Garrett Mitchell, the rest of the game belonged to Portland. The Pirates got seven shots on while the Bears managed three. A minute and 13 seconds of 6-on-5 kept the Bears defense active, clinging to the one-goal win.

The WB/S Penguins finished off the Providence Bruins in three games, all going to at least one overtime. Rookie Jake Guentzel leads all Penguins with seven points (three goals, four assists) while Casey DeSmith played all three games with a 2.45 goals against average and .930 save percentage.

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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