Bears Bruise Bruins

The Hershey Bears traveled north on Friday night to battle the Providence Bruins and escaped the Dunkin’ Donuts Center with a 3-1 victory. With the triumph, head coach Troy Mann’s 140^th as the Bears’ bench boss, the Bears moved their record north of the .500 mark for the first time this season (8-7-0-2).

The Bears wasted little time finding the scoreboard, beating Providence netminder Zane McIntyre for the first time only 2:22 into the affair, when Riley Barber, potting his 4th goal of the season, struck on the power play. Liam O’Brien and Chris Bourque, the former P-Bruin, assisted on the strike.

Barber was back on the scoresheet a few minutes later, collecting the secondary assist on Mathias Bau’s 4^th goal at 5:57, giving the Bears a 2-0 lead. Tyler Graovac, in his 2^nd game with the Bears on a long term conditioning assignment picked up the primary assist on the goal.

A little over halfway through the 2^nd period, Bau was back in the goal scoring column again. Benefiting from an outstanding individual effort by Anthony Peluso, who controlled the puck along the boards, before dishing a pretty pass to Bau, who then cruised down the slot unimpeded before ripping a wrist shot by McIntyre at 12:19. Mason Mitchell picked up the secondary assist on the goal, collecting his first professional point.

The Bears and their capable keeper Pheonix Copley, carried a 3-0 shutout lead into the third period, but for the 16^th time in 17 games, they allowed a goal in the final frame, this one to Justin Hickman.

However, Hickman’s goal was the only one that Copley would allow, as the North Pole, Alaska native finished the night with 31 saves, raising his record on the season to 5-0-0-1.

Tyler Graovac’s empty-net goal at 19:54, the Bears’ third empty-netter of the season, assisted by Dustin Gazley and Bau, finished out the scoring.