MONARCHS COME BACK TO DEFEAT BEARS

March 28, 2015

HERSHEY, Pa. – Jim O’Brien scored two power play goals and Chandler Stephenson tallied shorthanded, but the Manchester Monarchs scored five unanswered tallies – highlighted by a hat trick and five points from Michael Mersch – en route to a 6-3 victory over the Hershey Bears on Friday night at GIANT Center.
 
The Bears dodged a bullet in the opening period, as the Monarchs fired 22 shots at the Hershey net.  But Philipp Grubauer was up to the task each time, tossing everything he faced aside.  On the Monarchs’ lone power play of the period, defenseman Derek Forbort pinched in to chase a rebound and directed the puck home.  But the puck was ruled kicked in, and disallowed.
 
The second frame was a complete turnaround, as six combined goals were scored.  Hershey used their special teams to skate to a 3-1 lead, with two of the three goals buried by O’Brien on power plays.  O’Brien would deflect a shot from Dmitry Orlov through the pads of Jean-Francois Berube at 5:09 for the opening goal.
 
The Monarchs answered at 8:26, when Sean Backman got free in the slot to backhand a rebound of a Mersch shot past Grubauer.
 
Orlov and O’Brien combined again for a slap shot-deflection power play strike at 11:53.
 
Manchester’s second power play would shortly follow, but it would be the Bears taking a two-goal lead instead. Stephenson took off with Nate Schmidt on a two-on-one shorthanded rush.  Stephenson held the puck until he nearly ran out of room on the left side of the net, but managed to lift a shot across the body of Berube and into the upper-right corner at 13:09 for his second shorthanded goal of the season.
 
But the high-flying Monarchs would battle to tie the game before the period expired.  Mersch would make it 3-2 when he reached for a rebound and batted it past Grubauer at 16:48.
 
Then one second after the Monarchs’ third power play expired, Zack O’Brien was able to deflect a Jeff Schultz slap shot past Grubauer at 19:45 to tie the contest.
 
Manchester would score their third unanswered goal at 3:20 of the third.  Mersch was the recipient of a lively rebound off the back wall from a shot by Colin Miller.  The forward was able to hurry a shot inside the left post before Grubauer could recover, and put the visitors in front 4-3.
 
Mersch completed the hat trick when he stripped the puck from a Hershey defenseman, skated in and lifted a shot under the crossbar at 13:33.
 
Jordan Weal then rounded out the scoring, carrying the puck down the left wing and deking to his backhand to lift a shot over Grubauer at 15:58.
 
Grubauer held the Bears in the game with 42 saves but fell to 24-15-4 on the season.  Berube won his league-leading 32nd game (32-8-4) with 21 saves on 24 shots.
 
Hershey hosts Manchester again tomorrow, March 28 at 7:00 PM.  The first 5,000 fans will receive a t-shirt courtesy of Penn State Hershey Medical Center.  Individual tickets for this and all remaining home games are available at the GIANT Center box office, online at TicketMaster.com or by calling 717-508-BEAR.
  
NOTES: D Dmitry Orlov was loaned for conditioning by the Washington Capitals earlier in the day…The Bears scratched D Erik Burgdoerfer, C Joel Broda, LW Philippe Cornet, D Christian Djoos, D Tomas Kundratek, D Jon Landry, G Vitek Vanecek and LW Aaron Volpatti… The Monarchs scratched C Andrew Crescenzi, D Nick Ebert and D Kevin Raine… The Bears finished the night 2-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill…The 22 first-period shots allowed by Hershey was a new season high, and Grubauer’s 22 first-period saves is the third-highest in an opening period of any AHL game…The hat trick by Michael Mersch was the first allowed by Hershey since opening night, October 11 at Norfolk (Chris Wagner).