Bears Blanked by IceHogs, 5-0

October 22, 2017

The Hershey Bears first meeting with the Rockford IceHogs in franchise history didn't go as planned. The IceHogs used two first period goals to take an early lead, and they never looked back in a 5-0 victory over the Bears on Sunday night at the BMO Harris Bank Center.

Rockford opened the scoring 4:45 into the contest on Graham Knott's first American Hockey League goal. Knott deflected a center-point drive from Carl Dahlstrom past Hershey goaltender Parker Milner for the goal that made it 1-0.

Less than 10 minutes later, the IceHogs saw their lead double on a goal by Matheson Iacopelli. The Rockford forward turned and fired a second chance from the right faceoff circle. The shot beat Milner past the glove to make it 2-0 for the home team.

Rockford added insurance at the 7:41 mark of the second period. On a 4-on-3 power play, Vinnie Hinostroza finished a 3-on-1 rush, tapping a loose puck in the blue paint past Milner. The goal came after Hershey missed a 2-on-1 chance and was caught up ice.

In the third period, the IceHogs got goals from Erik Gustafsson at the 4:29 mark, as well as a strike from Viktor Svedberg with 5:09 remaining to seal the 5-0 win.

Rockford goaltender J.F. Berube was perfect with 23 saves, earning his second shutout of the year.

The Bears were outshot 33-23, and went 0-for-4 on the power play, as well as 5-for-6 on the penalty kill. The loss drops Hershey's record to 1-4-0-1 through the first six games of the season. The IceHogs improve to 5-1-0-0.

Hershey returns to action on Friday for a contest on the road versus the rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The puck drops at 7:05 p.m. at the Moeghan Sun Area. Zack Fisch has the call and the game may be heard on the Bears Radio Network.