Power play prowess sends Sound Tigers by Bears in double overtime

By: John Sparenberg
jsheynow@gmail.com

Entering the opening game of their Calder Cup Playoffs series against the Bridgeport Sounds Tigers at Webster Bank Arena last night, you could say that the deck was slightly stacked in the favor of the Tigers.

With Riley Barber and Garrett Pilon returning to the lineup, Liam O'Brien sitting out the final game of his suspension, and the late call-up to the Washington Capitals, head coach Hershey head coach Spencer Carbery shuffled the deck and iced the best lineup he could come up with.  This lineup included four players, Chris McCarthy, Joe Snively, Dylan Steman, and Joey Leach on defense, all of whom were not even on the roster a month ago.

When the puck dropped for the opening faceoff, and it became immediately evident that the Bears would be facing long odds and would need to pull out an ace in hole to have any chance of overcoming the odds.  That ace turned out to be Ilya Samsonov, who was making his North American playoff debut in the Bears net.

Samsonov, stellar throughout the night, was spectacular in the first period, stopping every salvo the Sound Tigers launched. Samsonov finished the frame with 15 saves, with several of them being of the spectacular variety, as the teams headed into the second stanza locked in a scoreless tie.

Steve Whitney won a board battle against a much bigger opponent behind the Bridgeport goal line, and then fired a centering pass that was gathered in by McCarthy, who then cruised into the slot undetected before launching a "rocket wrister" by goaltender Christopher Gibson to strike for the first goal of the series.

The Bears made it 2-0 less than five minutes later when Jayson Megna motored by defenseman Sebastian Aho after spotting him a half-zone head start, and then outraced him to a loose puck between the circles before going top shelf on Gibson with the Bears shorthanded.

Unfortunately, the Sound Tigers finally found a way to beat Samsonov before the end of the second period, with Kieffer Bellows potting a rebound while the Sound Tigers were on their fifth power of the night.

Aaron Ness Hershey's power play quarterback, alternate captain, and defensive leader, suffered a scary injury 8:58 into the period after being belted from behind in the goal area by Travis St. Denis. After the impact, Ness slid into the end boards head first, and he did not move on his own the entire time he laid on the ice face down. After a long delay caused by the attending medical crew understandably being extremely cautious in moving Ness, the former Sound Tigers captain was stretchered off the ice and to the hospital for observation.

Both clubs and their coaching staffs watch as
Ness laid on the ice after the hit. 

St. Denis’ penalty was ruled a major penalty, and the Bears then went on what could have been a five minute power play, but, like the Bears' only previous power play, it was interrupted by a Nathan Walker minor penalty. The major resumed after Walker's sentence, but the Bears failed to capitalize on it.

The Bears would then get into penalty trouble late in the game when Tyler Lewington committed an infraction when during the kill, a Bears player lost his stick. Megna guided it back to his teammate, which resulted in a 5-on-3 power play for the home club. Technically what Megna did was illegal, but the teammate was with an arm’s length of him, and normally in a playoff game, things of that nature are either overlooked or a lot of leeway is given, especially with the team involved in the stick shuffling already shorthanded. But that wasn’t the case during this game, and veteran Steve Bernier burned the Bears by tying the goal with his two-man advantage goal at 17:52.

Neither team was able to score in the first overtime, but the fatigue was obvious in the Bears, particularly their defense, which was taxed heavily due to Ness' absence.

In the second overtime, Mike Sgarbossa tripped a Tiger in their defensive zone, giving them their 8th power play of the night, and Bellows was once again able to strike to give the Sound Tigers a 3-2 double overtime win which spoiled Samsonov's stellar 49-save effort.

The Bears finished the game 0-for-3 on the power play, while the Sound Tigers, who were awarded the final four power plays of the game, finished 3-for-8.

Notes- The Bears lineup consisted of a combined 287 games of North American playoff experience, while Sound Tigers' lineup had a combined 349 games, with former Bears, the Bourque brothers, Chris and Ryan, possessing over 50% of that total (180 games).