As we enter the final leg of the regular season in The American Hockey League, you could expect a game like Friday night's bizarre game between the Hershey Bears and Toronto Marlies at Giant Center that ended with the Marlies prevailing in overtime, That is, you could expect it if it were the third game of a 3-in-3 or Friday the 13th, but it was neither.
The visitors controlled the play in the first period by a wide margin, and they also doubled up the home club on the shot board, 13-6, with Hershey's sixth shot launched 190 feet from the Toronto goal by Aaron Ness. However, that missed it's intended target Riley Barber but found it's way on Toronto netminder Michael Hutchinson. Hutchinson's counterpart in the Hershey crease, Vitek Vanacek was razor sharp in the frame, quickly shifting for left-to-right to deny a partial 2-on-1 bid by Sam Jardine only 1:33 into the contest, and later brilliantly blocking away a shot by Chris Mueller.
The Bears quickly countered and tied it just over a minute later when outstanding defense led to offensive pay dirt. Defenseman Tyler Lewington and Aaron Ness started the sequence in their own zone when they combined to thwart Nicholas Baptiste's breakaway attempt. Lewington then gathered in the puck and hit Garrett Pilon in the neutral zone. Pilon then proceeded to cross the blueline and totally undress Vincent LoVerde with some fancy before dishing off to Jayson Megna, whose one-time fade away shot from the left faceoff circled eluded Hutchinson, despite a desperate lunging attempt to stop the blast.
Jeremy Bracco, with another power play strike, gave the Marlies another lead, but the Bears countered to tie the game again when Nathan Walker lit the lamp. Walker started the play by connection with a long outlet pass to Devante Pelly-Smith that originated from his own zone,. Smith then banked a pass to Megna who centered to Walker who redirected it home while fighting off a defender in the slot.
A turnover by Ryan Sproul, who played junior hockey for Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe, a former Bears player, resulted in a goal by Michael Carcone, and the Marlies followed that one up less than a minute later with a 4-on-4 goal by Jordan Subban. His shot was from the doorstep beat Vanacek, although he got a piece of it with his skate on what would have been a spectacular stop.
Early in third period, the Marlies looked like they were about to put the nail in the Bears' coffin when Pierre Engvall had a golden opportunity from close range, but Vanacek, in razor-like fashion kicked it out with his right pad. While the save undoubtedly was a dandy, it seemed like it might turn out to be inconsequential as the Bears still faced a two-goal deficit midway through the period.
Later though, Engvall's hooking infraction would factor mightily into the Bears' comeback. The Chocolate and White failed to convert on the power play and squandered away the opportunity without registering a shot on net. However, just as the power play was expiring, Walker slapped the puck in the direction of the net from the wing in what appeared to be more out of frustration than anything else, but Pilon was able to redirect it by Hutchinson.
Ninety-one seconds after Pilon's potting, the Bears tied the game at 4-4 when LoVerde had what could be politely called a "bad" shift. After fumbling the puck in the neutral zone, LoVerde was sent on his backside by a body check courtesy of Walker. After eventually retreating into his own zone, LoVerde controlled the puck and looked like he would safely exit the Marlies defensive zone. Not so fast though. An ill-advised pass to a teammate was intercepted by Smith-Pelly, who fired a shot on net that a diving Loverde deflected, right into his own net.
Megna had the game on his stick when he gathered in a turnover from a Toronto defense who was guess who, that's right, LoVerde but he sailed the disc wide left of an open target to send the game to overtime, where Mueller mercifully ended the game on a power play tally.
"Our 5-on-5 play left a lot to be desired. A lot of people were out of our lineup, particularly on defense. Lately, we've been doing good things and just over time our team wears down and makes some big mistakes at bad times. I think fatigue is a factor due to our depth and a lot of special teams play. I didn't hate our third period. We gave up a power play goal and then had an unlucky bounce. Then of course we got lucky on the open net that they missed. It's just way things are right now for our team right now. Until we get our team back, it's gonna look ugly," said Keefe in a classic understatement summing up this encounter.
No comments:
Post a Comment