Bears Open Trip with 2-1 Win Over Bruins

October 25, 2024

The Hershey Bears (4-1-1-0) opened up a stretch of three games in three nights with a 2-1 win over the Providence Bruins (2-3-0-0) on Friday night at Amica Mutual Pavilion, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Ethen Frank tied the game just 25 seconds into the middle frame with a shot from the left circle, assisted by Mike Sgarbossa and Mike Vecchione. The tally was his team-leading sixth of the season.
• Henrik Rybinski scored his first of the season at 5:24 from Ethan Bear and Vecchione.
• Vecchione's two assists marked his first multi-point game of the season; Vecchione was playing in his 200th game as a Bear.
• Hunter Shepard earned his fourth victory, making a season-high 38 saves.
• Brennan Saulnier and Providence's Billy Sweezey fought at 6:52 of the first period, marking Saulnier's second fighting major of the season.
• The match was the first time in the 2024-25 campaign that Hershey was held off the board with the man advantage, after going 8-for-23 (34.8%) over its previous five games.

SHOTS: HER 28, PRO 39

GOALTENDING: HER - Hunter Shepard, 38-for-39; PRO - Michael DiPietro, 26-for-28

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-4; PRO - 0-for-4

THEY SAID IT:

"When you look at the second period, [Frank] got us on the board, it was the first shift for the second. And we just talked about hanging on to pucks more in the offensive zone. I thought we were trying to force too many plays in the first period and that resulted in [Providence] coming at us off the rush. So it was a great job by our guys hanging onto pucks, forcing them to play defense. And then from there we just gained some traction and we had a really good second and third period. They came at us hard and I thought both goaltenders played well, but [Shepard] held us in there." - Todd Nelson on the team battling back after trailing 1-0.

"We just grinded it out. [Providence is] a really good team and I think we just focused on winning battles, and I thought we did a really good job of doing that. Shep was unreal, but we were just really committed to the game plan and keeping it simple by winning battles." - Henrik Rybinski on the team's performance against a frequently tough opponent.

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they visit the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 7:05 p.m. at MassMutual Center. Hershey is back on home ice when it hosts the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for College Night. The first 500 college students in attendance will receive a t-shirt, courtesy of Enck's Trophies and Screen Printing. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.