Tonight is a special night for the game of hockey. It is Hockey Fights Cancer night as the Hershey Bears take on the Hartford Wolfpack. The Bears will wear a lavender jersey that will be auctioned off at the end of the night. The proceeds will go towards finding a cure.
Recent call up, Parker Milner will get the start over Ilya Samsonov tonight. Milner was the ECHL goaltender of the year while playing in South Carolina last season. Aaron Ness also returns to Hershey as he was sent down from the Washington Capitals earlier this evening. Travis Boyd was sent back to Washington earlier this evening as well and not in the lineup.
Tonight is a special night for Bears defensemen Logan Pyett. He is a cancer survivor that took two years to get back in the game of hockey. He was honored by being apart of the ceremonial puck drop and given the opportunity to start the game.
Jan Waybright, wife of late Bears off-ice official, Randy Waybright dropped the puck before tonight's game. Randy passed last month from cancer. Jan was escorted by Riley Barber and Colby Williams, whose moms both battled and beat cancer #HBH #DefendTheDen #HBHIFightFor pic.twitter.com/St7BoxUqeI
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 4, 2018
1st Period:
The game started early with a penalty. Hartford would be the guilty party as John Gilmour was called for high sticking. Hershey would not capitalize.
The period would be pretty even until Parker Milner would need to make a sprawling save to keep the game tied.
Michael Lundqvist of Hartford would take a slashing call, giving the Bears their second power play. Hershey would have a few good opportunities but would hold on to the puck too long, giving up quality scoring chances.
Colby Williams would get caught for holding during the power play, putting the game 4 on 4 for a minute. After the 4 on 4, the Wolf Pack would go on the power play and generate nothing as Hershey played keep away with the puck.
Hershey would go into the locker room all tied up, but looking for an answer on how to generate more offense.
1st Period Shots: HER – 9, HFD – 8
1st Period Scoring: None
2nd Period:
Hartford came out of the gates early, scoring just two minutes into the period. Matt Beleskey scored his first goal of the season with a shot that went off Parker Milner’s glove and into the net. This was Beleskey’s first goal of the season.
Hartford would take another penalty half way through the period when Gabriel Fontaine was called for tripping. Hershey would not take advantage of the situation.
The Bears would have a hard time producing any pressure in front of Marek Mazanec, making the saves pretty routine.
With less than a minute remaining, Jonas Siegenthaler would take a shot from the point and connected with the post. As the Bears would try to collect the rebound, Tim Gettinger would get called for holding, giving Hershey their fourth power play. This power play would run into the third period.
2nd Period Shots: HER – 11, HFD – 9
2nd Period Scoring:
2:01 – HFD – Matt Beleskey(1) ASST: Michael Lindqvist(3), Vince Pedrie(1)
3rd Period:
As the power play would end, Connor Hobbs would blast a puck from the point, scoring his second goal of the season. Assists would go to Jayson Megna and Garrett Pilon. The goal would be important for two reasons, Hershey finally cracked the code of scoring and it brought life back into the Giant Center for the first time since the game started.
We are tied at 1-1 with 4:42 left in regulation thanks to this goal by @chobbs15! #HBH #DefendTheDen pic.twitter.com/hG1qiwTzRC
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 5, 2018
At the 12 minute mark, Mike Sgarbossa would make a nice feed to Colby Williams, creating a beautiful scoring chance but Marek Mazanec would make the save, keeping the game tied at 1.
Jayson Megna would dump the puck into Hartford’s zone, but unnecessarily hooks a Wolf Pack player, giving Hartford their second power play tonight. Jonas Siegenthaler would be called for tripping during the penalty kill, giving Hartford a 5 on 3 with seven minutes remaining.
Hartford would hit the post during the 5 on 3, causing a mad scramble. The puck would bound around as many players had a chance to put home the puck. The play ended as Parker Milner would absolutely rob Hartford with a glove save that no one thought he would save. This would make up for the first goal Hartford scored earlier in the second period.
After sixty minutes of play, it would still be tied. We would go to overtime.
3rd Period Shots: HER – 4, HFD – 12
3rd Period Scoring:
1:49 – HER – Juuso Ikonen(1) ASST: Connor Hobbs(7), Jayson Megna(1)
Overtime:
Riley Barber, Aaron Ness and Mike Sgarbossa would start the period for Hershey. Parker Milner would make four saves, one being pretty big but would turn them all down.
Hershey would get one great scoring chance with Riley Barber would make a pass over to Mike Sgarbossa for a one timer but Marek Mazanec would slide over, making a great kick save.
A shootout was in order to find the winner for this game.
Shootout:
10 – HER – X
11 – HFD – X
19 – HER – X
22 – HFD – X
17 – HER – X
19 – HFD – X
18 – HER – X
81 – HFD – X
20 – HER – X
28 – HFD – X
14 – HER – X
34 – HFD – X
27 – HER – O
19 – HFD – X
.@Aaron_Ness scores to win it in the 7th round for @TheHersheyBears vs @WolfPackAHL !#HBH #HersheyBears @CapsOutsider pic.twitter.com/cq9JvKJdbB
— Cory Lyons (@CoryLyonsAHL) November 5, 2018
Look at that! @TheHersheyBears win in the 7th round of the shootout! Parker Milner is the hero tonight with 32 saves and one huge save during the 5 on 3!#HBH #HersheyBears @CapsOutsider pic.twitter.com/eJuVshZRxn
— Cory Lyons (@CoryLyonsAHL) November 5, 2018
Hershey would win in a 7 round shoot out with Aaron Ness and Parker Milner being the heroes this evening. Milner would allow zero goals in the shootout and Ness would be the only one to score.
Three Stars:
- HER – Parker Milner – 32 save victory
- HFD – Marek Mazanec – 28 saves
- HER – Aaron Ness – Game winning shootout goal
Hershey will be back in action on November 10th as they host the Springfield Thunderbirds. The game will start at 7:00 PM at the Giant Center. We will be back with more coverage of Hershey’s home games. Please follow @cory_lyons_pics on twitter for live game updates!
Here are some pictures from tonight’s game, courtesy of @cory_lyons_pics :
