Bears fans packed Giant Center on Friday (Caps Outsider)
A 4-1 third period Monsters lead proved too much to overcome Friday, as the Hershey Bears lost Game 2 at home by a final of 5-3. Tyler Lewington and Liam O’Brien scored in the final frame to give the Bears a chance at tying the game.
Hershey now finds itself in the same position as the club was in the last time they came this far in the Calder Cup Playoffs. In 2010, the Texas Stars took the first two games before the Bears won the next four to take the Calder Cup.
Justin Peters made 24 saves on 28 shots while Anton Forsberg stopped 27 of 30 shots. Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice for the Monsters while Markus Hannikainen, Michael Chaput and Craig Ryan each finished with two assists. Aaron Ness paced the Bears offense with three assists.
In the first five minutes, the Bears ran into penalty trouble. Chris Bourque went off for roughing and Zach Werenski made the Bears pay. The Chocolate and White never led in this contest.
To open the second period, Bjorkstrand scored his first of the night. While trying to pass to Lukas Sedlak on a 2-on-1, his shot went too far ahead, but also went underneath Peters’ leg pad and into the net.
After Jaime Sifers threw the puck out of play, the Bears power play crawled the home side within one. Carter Camper saucered the puck over the outstretched stick of Justin Falk for Sill. Forsberg stopped the first shot, but not the second. Sill now has his sixth goal of the playoffs.
Later in the second, after Christian Djoos cleared the zone, Steve Eminger restarted the Monsters’ attack. His bank pass made it to Hannikainen, who simply dropped the puck for Kerby Rychel. With Sedlak crashing, Rychel just sent the disk his way hoping for a a quick shot. Sedlak delivered and retook Lake Erie’s two-goal advantage.
After Bjorkstrand’s second goal in the dying seconds of an early third period power play, the Bears faced a three-goal uphill climb amid the chance of getting embarrassed at home. It took a few minutes, but the Bears gave it a fight.
Lewington fired one from the slot to bring his boys within two, then a dandy of a no-look pass from Ness set up a tap play for Travis Boyd to find O’Brien. Within one, the ice tilted in Hershey’s favor.
Despite the heavy possession advantage and time with the sixth attacker, Hershey could not penetrate for the equalizer. Instead, with Ness slashing at him all the way to the net, Daniel Zaar put away the comeback efforts on an empty netter.
The Calder Cup Finals will now shift to Cleveland, Ohio for at least two games. Should Hershey win one of them, Game 5 will also be at the Quicken Loans Arena.
Two quick goals by @ob61 & @LewDog_5 makes it a 4-3 game. #HERvsLE #CalderCuphttps://t.co/MFP2mQ38GW
— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) June 4, 2016
.@TheOleC11 grabs his own rebound to put @TheHersheyBears on the board. #HERvsLE #CalderCuphttps://t.co/ASy9Y32l9H
— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) June 4, 2016
