The Hershey Bears, AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, had their season come to a bitter end in a similar way to their parent club. They fell to the affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes.
In the end the Charlotte Checkers, who ended the regular season with the most points in the AHL, were too much to handle for the Hershey Bears. This one came in a sweep in the second round. The Washington Capitals, as we all know, fell to the Hurricanes in Game 7 and that club also swept their opponent in the second round just like their AHL team.
The latest victim of that storm surge? Barry Trotz’s New York Islanders. Anyway back to the AHL action.
First the Checkers took command by scoring the first four goals of the game. These goals came from the likes of Aleksi Saarela twice, Julien Gauthier and Tomas Jurco.
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Saarela opened the scoring at 14:25 of the first period and would also go on to complete a hat trick with an empty net goal late in the game to seal the victory. The shots in the first 20 minutes were 6-5 in favor of Charlotte.
The Checkers added two more goals in the second period to go up 3-0 from Gauthier 57 seconds in as well as Saarela’s second at 14:22. The Checkers outshot the Bears 13-5 in the second.
In the third Jurco made it 4-0 at 3:01. Then the Bears came roaring back and at the very least pulled within two. They got on the board at 5:38. Leading scorer Jason Megna struck on the power play with a great angle shot to finish off a perfect passing display from Garrett Pilon to Riley Barber. Megna finished the postseason leading the Bears in scoring with eight points (four goals, four assists).
At 14:44 Shane Gersich scored his first goal of the playoffs with a rebound right in front of the net. Pilon got his second assist of the night while Aaron Ness was credited for an assist as well.
Hershey scored twice in the third period, but Charlotte earned the 5-2 victory to earn the sweep and end the Bears season. Here are the S&T Bank highlights. #HBH pic.twitter.com/feCTU2g0fS
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) May 9, 2019
That would be as close as the Bears would get though. Saarela completed the hat trick with an empty net goal. 5-2 would be the final score. The Checkers move on to the third round while the Bears head into the offseason.
Ilya Samsonov got the start in goal for the Bears and made 18 saves on 22 shots. It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds with the Capitals goaltending.
Now the Bears, like the Capitals, head into an interesting offseason.