Hershey Bears

Bears Fall, Will Host Game 7 Sunday

Photo via Hershey Bears on Instagram

Absolutely nothing went right for the Hershey Bears in the opening 20 minutes of play from Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. They allowed four goals to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and only got off five shots on goal. Wilkes-Barre went on to win 6-2 to force a decisive Game 7 at GIANT Center on Sunday night.

Justin Peters made eight saves on 12 shots in his only period of play, yielding to Dan Ellis for the remaining 40. Ellis, in his first game action since Game 1 against Portland, stopped 14 of 16. Casey DeSmith made 18 saves on 20 Hershey shots.

Kael Mouillierat opened the scoring from a sharp angle below the faceoff dot, followed up quickly by Tom Kostopoulos on a deflection, Carter Rowney off a Madison Bowey turnover, and Will O’Neill on a back-door pass from Kostopoulos.

Bears head coach Troy Mann put Ellis in to start the second and things gradually changed in Hershey’s favor. Though the Penguins remained in control of possession, they were not getting as many quality chances as the first period.

Tyler Lewington broke the clean sheet for DeSmith at 12:51 of the middle period, deflecting in a pass from Travis Boyd.

Three minutes later, a save by DeSmith on Nathan Walker put the Penguins on the counter-attack. Kostopoulos took the shot, but the deflection off Jake Guentzel‘s leg gave him his fifth goal of the playoffs.

The final period saw Wilkes-Barre keep the pressure on. Rowney scored again from long range to make the score 6-1. With his secondary assist on the goal, Kostopoulos ended the night with five points.

Of the 70 combined penalty minutes, 56 came in the third period. At 16:05 with the puck firmly underneath the glove of Ellis, Tom Sestito took a few lumberjack hacks at him to draw the ire of the Bears. Liam O’Brien wrestled with him behind the net while Walker and O’Neill dropped gloves at the blue line. O’Neill got more than he bargained for, as the Australian took him down. O’Brien got tossed from the game for Abuse of Officials.

On a late power play, Zach Sill tipped in a Chris Bourque shot, but it was too late. The Penguins defended their home ice and forced a Game 7 back in Chocolate Town.

 

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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