Bruins Best Bears in Shootout

By: John Sparenberg

It was anything but the "Battle of the Century on Friday night in Providence as the Hershey Bears and Providence Bruins battled at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, but it id turn out to be quite an interesting battle, one that saw the Bears and their all-star netminder, Vitek Vanacek, who reached the century mark by appearing in his 100th AHL game, fall to the Bruins in a shootout by a 3-2 score.

The Bears started the game firing on all cylinders and had numerous scoring chances thwarted by the Bruins' outstanding netminder Zane McIntyre. However the Bears eventually found pay dirt late in the frame when Riley Barber dented the twine. Barber's goal elevated his total for the season to 27 and eclipsing his previous career high of 26 set in the 2015-2016 season, which was his first in the American Hockey League.

Barber's goal was not a solo effort, but a true team one that took the collective effort of the entire on-ice unit, and actually started in the defensive zone where Tyler Lewington won a battle behind his own net before the puck eventually found it's way to the Bears goal crease where Lewington emerged from a scramble to lug it into the Providence zone, leading an odd man rush. That rush was stalled along the boards, but Lewington won another board battle, this one against former Bears teammate Paul Carey. From there, Barber found defenseman Aaron Ness at the point, and Ness circumvented the Bruins defense, finding his way behind their net before dishing a nifty backhand pass to Barber. Not to be overlooked on the play was Hershey forward Mike Sgarbossa, who never touched the puck in the sequence, but played a pivotal role by covering the point for Lewington, allowing him to continue his mission.

After failing on two power plays in the first frame, the third time proved to be the charm for the hometown Bruins, when their captain Jordan Szwarz seized a rebound, and from a prone position, pushed the disc into the cage to tie the game at 1-1 with Connor Hobbs watching helplessly from the penalty box serving a very questionable interference infraction.

Later in the stanza, a miscalculation by Bears defenseman Ryan Sproul, who inadvertently shot the puck into the Bears bench area, where it struck the skates of his partner Lucas Johansen gave the Bruins another power play and they capitalized on the gift with another extra man strike, with Carey lighting the lamp to give them a 2-1 lead at 17:17.

Seconds before his goal, Carey himself did the Bears a favor, inadvertently clearing the zone himself sending an errant pass out of the zone. However, defenseman Connor Clifton corralled it and led the charge into the Bears zone. Upon gaining the zone, Clifton dance around Lewington, and put a shot on net that was stopped, and Lewington gathered the puck and attempted to backhand it out of the zone, but it was intercepted Karson Kuhlman, who quickly passed to Clifton, who then feathered a pass through the five hole of Lewington and right onto the stick of Carey who stashed it home.

"Our first period was excellent, one of the best periods we've played in the last little bit", said Bears bench boss, Spencer Carbery. "The second was different though. We got away from that and started getting a little careless with pucks, and the momentum changed, and then obviously they got those two power play goals. But we kept pressing in the third and found the equalizer to get the game into overtime. Certainly we would have liked the extra point, but we'll take it and move on to tomorrow."

The Bruins maintained their lead until the 15th minute of the third period, when Johansen brewed up the game-tying goal by backhanding a shot from the left faceoff circle and right on the Dunkin' Donuts logo.

Vanacek finished the evening with 29 saves, and also stopped the first five shootout attempts he faced before Anton Blidh beat him to the blocker side for the decisive goal.

"Our special teams are in a bad spot right now, both the PK and the power play, and we just gotta get it sorted out", said Carbery. "Sometimes, you go through these stretches where nothing will go right on the PK, and the power play, maybe a little bit of urgency is lacking at times and maybe we are a bit too casual, but we have to get those right. You look at the gamesheet tonight, they get two on the power play and we get zero and it's a 2-2 game, that's why the game went to overtime."