Bears Fall 4-3 in Overtime in Providence

March 9, 2019

he Hershey Bears gained another critical standings point, but dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Providence Bruins on Saturday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center. Riley Barber tallied twice for his 16th multi-point game and fifth multi-goal game of the season.

Unlike the previous night between the Bears and Bruins, Providence had the advantage and dictated the pace in the first period. The P-Bruins jumped out to a 12-4 shot advantage in the opening frame, and grabbed a 1-0 lead on a fluke goal. At 9:51, Trent Frederic fired a shot from outside the slot on Ilya Samsonov that popped in the air, bounced in the blue paint and rolled into the net.

Hershey showed life early in the second period, and Barber scored his first of two goals only 1:30 into the new frame. With the extra attacker on the ice for the Bears on a delayed penalty, Barber potted a rebound from the doorstep past Bruins goaltender Dan Vladar to even the score. Providence answered on a power play later in the second period, and again cashed in on Hershey's unfortunate puck luck. At the 14:58 mark, Urho Vaakanainen sent a cross-ice pass which banked off Jonas Siegenthaler's skate and through Samsonov's pads.

Less than two minutes later, Barber again responded for the Bears with his 29th goal of the season. On a head-man pass along the left wing from Aaron Ness, Barber powered to the net on a breakaway and tucked a low shot past Vladar to even the score. Shots after 40 minutes were 24-15 Bruins with the score knotted at 2-2.

Into the third period, Jayson Megna gave Hershey their first lead of the night on a center point drive at 9:05. Shortly after jumping in front, penalty trouble for the Chocolate and White gave Providence new life. The Bears successfully killed a Shane Gersich delay of game minor at 9:47, but were less fortunate after Beck Malenstyn was boxed for tripping at 12:28. Only 25 seconds into the ensuing power play, Paul Carey buried a shot past Samsonov shortly after the offensive zone entry.

For the second straight night, both teams were even at the end of 60 minutes. Carey scored the overtime winner for the Bruins 12 seconds into the sudden-death after snapping a quick shot from the right wing to the top shelf along Samsonov's blocker side. In the overtime loss, Hershey concludes their back-to-back stretch against the Bruins with two out of four possible standings points. Hershey's record slides to 32-22-2-4 on the season, and improve to 70 points in the Atlantic Division standings.

The Hershey Bears return to action tomorrow afternoon, Mar. 10 for a 3 p.m. road tilt against the Hartford Wolf Pack. Voice of the Bears Zack Fisch will have the call on the Bears Radio Network.