PROVIDENCE, R.I — The Hershey Bears are coming home to Chocolate Town with a chance to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bears defeated the Providence Bruins 3-2, and take a 3-2 series lead in the Atlantic Division Finals.
Madison Bowey ended the game with a ripper from the blue line, up and over the glove of Zane McIntyre for Providence.
“We were looking to get more pucks in,” Hershey head coach Troy Mann said. “We certainly made a conscious effort to get a little bit more to that area tonight.”
For the third time in the first five games, Hershey and Providence needed overtime to find a winner.
“I think that’s probably up there for the top one [in my career],” Bowey said. “I know our last two starts previous to this game haven’t been our best. They like playing in this rink, and they come out hard, so we wanted to match their compete level.”
Vitek Vanecek, in his first start of the playoffs, made 29 saves. Vanecek came up big in the first period with a stop in Chris Cave’s breakaway, and a sliding glove save on Jake DeBrusk in the second.
Mann praised Vanecek’s work in the later stages of the game, keeping the Bears in a game where Providence threatened late for the decisive goal.
“We were much, much more committed without the puck tonight,” Mann said. “By far our best road game of the last three.”
Chris Bourque tipped Tyler Lewington’s slap shot behind McIntyre for the early lead on Hershey’s fourth shot. With the goal, Providence goaltender Zane McIntyre allowed his first goal in the opening frame of the playoffs.
McIntyre ended the game with 14 saves on 17 shots, his largest workload in the three games at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
Tommy Cross tied the game with a high backhand to cap a good start to the second period for Providence. Cross stepped from his point position and sent a shot high over the downed Vanecek.
“We saw him all season, how good he did,” Bowey said. “He gets a lot of credit for the W tonight.”
Paul Carey welcomed himself to the playoffs with a goal of his own today. His first of the playoffs beat McIntyre to the top-right corner of the net. The crowd was so silent, the puck could be heard nicking the crossbar before entering the net.
“I tried to find the soft spot and get the shot off as quick as I could,” Carey said. He credits the chemistry with Stanislav Galiev and Travis Boyd for his ability to slide back in the lineup after a long layoff.
Austin Czarnik made it a contest midway through the third period. After the Bears iced it, Czarnik scored off the faceoff for his second of the playoffs.
Following Czarnik’s goal, play opened up as both teams looked for the decisive goal. Wayne Simpson and Christian Thomas both missed on clean looks at the net.
It took close to two minutes into overtime for the puck to find Bowey on the right point for his second goal of the playoffs.
Games six and seven will be at the Giant Center.
“We’ve just got to be mentally ready,” Mann said. “We know what they did to Wilkes-Barre, they came in and won two out of three.”
“We played one of our best games of the series tonight,” Carey said. “It’ll be nice to get back and play at the GC. I’ve missed that building, and the boys I’m sure. It’s nice to move on and play in front of our fans.”
