Rapid Reaction: Roarin' Twenties Line Lifts Bears to Weekend Sweep of Stars

Just call them the Roarin’ Twenties.

The line of Andrew Cristall (20), Josh Dunne (21), and Jonny Brodzinski (22) put together their finest offensive performance of the season – combining for two goals and four assists – to help key the Hershey Bears to a 6-1 thumping of the Texas Stars on Sunday afternoon.

Brodzinski picked up his first two goals as a Bear, Cristall had a season-high three assists, and Dunne dished out a helper and scrapped with Stars captain Curtis McKenzie. Save for the second game of the season, when Lynden Lakovic was swapped in for Cristall on Hershey’s top line, the trio has been gathering momentum as a unit.

“I think it took a little bit of time, and I think that first game, maybe halfway through, I think we kind of found something,” Brodzinski said of his linemates. “But these last two games, it just felt like something clicked. Just a lot of give-and-gos, a lot of small-area plays that we’re just kind of realizing the tendencies of each other, where we like to play on the ice, and [it] makes things a little bit easier once you stick together for a little bit.”

Cristall’s three helpers matched his career high. The season is only two weeks old, but he’s made his way onto the scoresheet in every game, and is tied for the league lead with eight assists. A big credit can go to his linemates.

“It's been great. They’ve got a lot of experience, and they’re definitely willing to share and help me learn, as I’m only in my second year, I’m still learning and still adjusting,” Cristall said following Saturday night’s 2-1 victory.

Brodzinski has been impressed with what he’s seen out of the 21-year-old.

“It’s really nice playing with a guy that can get open in small areas, and also somebody that – like that last play in the third period – where I know that as soon as he gave me the puck, that he’s going to look for it right back.” Brodzinski said of Cristall. “It’s always nice playing with a guy that wants the puck. But working off his man right away, just finding him in that small area, he almost had another goal at the end. He’s looking for that first one right now, zero goals, eight assists, something like that, so pretty good start”

It is still early in the season – only four games, far too early before the threat of injuries and call-ups could potentially force the coaching staff’s hands – but Bears head coach Derek King attributes the addition of experienced players such as Brodzinski and Dunne for improving the dynamic of the locker room and alleviating the weight of responsibility that fell on younger players in the room last season.

“We put a lot of pressure on our young guys [last year],” King said. “They were great, they did a great job, they welcomed it, and they took it and ran with it, but this is how your team should look when you have a young team – and we do have a young team again – but our veteran group is solid.”

The growth and maturation of Cristall, a heralded prospect within the Washington Capitals organization who appears to be blooming before our eyes, is noticed by his coach.

“He was fighting the puck a little bit the first two games, but now he’s kind of getting back into his little groove,” King said. “He’s realized, ‘Okay, I’m here, I might as well make the best of it.’

“Players like him, they think the game a little different. Sometimes it’s a coach’s nightmare to watch, but sometimes you’ve just got to turn your head. But he reads the ice. It’s almost like he knows the next play before it even happens. And he’s good at it.”

Written by Bears media specialist Jesse Liebman