The Hershey Bears opened their season series against the Providence Bruins with a 6-2 defeat at the Dunkin' Donuts Center on Saturday night. The Bruins rattled off five unanswered goals to turn a 2-1 Hershey lead into the 6-2 final.
The Bears successfully out shot the Bruins, 9-8, in the opening stanza, but Providence scored the period's only goal. Jordan Szwarz finished a crisp passing play on the back door after a spin-a-round feed from Ryan Fitzgerald at 7:09. Into the second period, the Chocolate and White scored back-to-back goals to take a 2-1 lead, before the Bruins countered with two goals of their own.
At 2:07, Ryan Sproul scored his first goal as a member of the Bears with a drive from the left-point past Bruins goaltender Zane McIntyre. The goal came on the power play after a 4-on-4 turned into an abbreviated man-advantage. Only 5:13 later, Hershey grabbed their first lead of the night. Nathan Walker sent a perfect shot towards the net that was successfully redirected by Mike Sgarbossa for his 12th goal of the season.
Providence evened the score at 11:58 on another passing sequence perfected by Szwarz, and assisted by Fitzgerald. On an offensive zone rush, Szwarz bolted to the net on the right wing and angled a perfect, cross-ice feed from Fitzgerald past Ilya Samsonov. The Bruins gained a 3-2 advantage at 18:59 on a center-point drive that fluttered through a screened Samsonov and into the cage. Shots after 40 minutes remained were 18-15 Providence.
Hershey was unable to win puck battles in the third period, and as a result, struggled to possess in the offensive zone. The Bruins took advantage and scored a key insurance tally at 4:05 on a power play goal by Cameron Hughes, following a two minute minor assessed to Colby Williams. Later, Anton Blidh hit the empty net at 18:13 to extend the Bruins' lead to three. Only 15 seconds later, Tanner Pond rounded out the scoring with his first AHL goal after cleaning up a lively rebound on Samsonov.
Final shots on goal were 24-21 in favor of Providence. Hershey's special teams finished 1-for-5 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill. The Bears look to avoid a three-game road losing streak tomorrow with a 3:05 p.m. tilt against the Springfield Thunderbirds. Voice of the Bears Zack Fisch will have the call on the Bears Radio Network.