Hershey Bears Win Again in Overtime Against Portland

Photo Credit: Tori Hartman

For the second consecutive night, the Hershey Bears defeated the Portland Pirates in overtime. The weekend double header was the last time these two teams will meet in the regular season. With tonight’s victory, the Hershey Bears finished 3-1-0-0 against Portland this season. The Portland Pirates started the game off with a goal, but they would spend the rest of the night trying to tie the game with the Hershey Bears. In a game of back and forth, the Hershey Bears finished it off in overtime to win 4-3.

More from Hershey Bears

The first period exchanged equal chances for both the Portland Pirates and the Hershey Bears. Copley and McKenna had to remain sharp in net with a few ringing off the crossbar for each team. The Bears got called for some more penalties this period. The Pirates would finally cash in on the power play even though the Hershey penalty kill has been tremendous and hasn’t allowed a power play goal in the last five games. Jordan Martinook and Dylan Reese would set up Brendan Shinnimin on the power play. Shinnimin‘s goal would be the only goal scored in the first period, and the Pirates would lead the game and lead in shots 16-8.

Early in the second period, the Hershey Bears scored one their power play goal to make the score 1-1. Chris Brown would tie the game with assists from Jim O’Brien and Casey Wellman. The Hershey Bears poured on the pressure for the rest of the second. The fourth line of L. O’Brien–Stephenson–Mitchell put up a good shift, and Wellman and Burakovky had a 2×1, but McKenna stopped their opportunity. The Hershey Bears finished the period outshooting the Pirates 27-24 and put up 19 shots in the second period compared to Portland’s eight shots. The second period finished with a tie game of 1-1.

The fourth line’s hard work in the second period finally paid off in the third when Chandler Stephenson and Garrett Mitchell set up Liam O’Brien to put the Hershey Bears up 2-1. The game kept a steady pace until 8:45 when Brendan Shinnimin picked up his second of the game and the second for the Pirates to tie the game back up. The game wouldn’t stay tied for very long when Andre Burakovsky scored on back-to-back nights against the Portland Pirates. Jim O’Brien picked up his second assist of the game on the goal that put Hershey up 3-2. Anyone want to guess what happened next? You guessed it. Portland scored on a Bears too many men penalty, and it was former a Hershey Bear, Patrick McNeill, who made the game 3-3. The scoring would end there in the third period and for the second night in a row these two teams were headed to overtime.

Casey Wellman thought he had the overtime goal, but play continued and his goal was reviewed at the next whistle. After an extensive review, the referees ruled no goal, and Casey Wellman was not happy and ended up earning a misconduct penalty. Play continued on, and the action dropped to 3 on 3 which opened up a lot of great odd man rushes for each team. Ultimately, the Hershey Bears would get the best chance. TIM KENNEDY brought home the six points on the weekend for the Hershey Bears. Kennedy extended his personal point streak to six points. Keep it up, TK!

Also, all I can say is LIKE A PHEONIX! Copley was tremendous tonight. He stopped the most shots in his professional career making 42 SAVES on 45 shots. What a kid! Who doesn’t love the Hershey Bears goalies right now? Jim O’Brien assisted on two of the Hershey Bears goal tonight. Since Jim O’Brien’s return to the lineup on Wednesday the Hershey Bears have won all of their games. I don’t know what this guys does to the team, but the Hershey Bears seem to win when he is playing. The penalty kill wasn’t that great tonight going 1/3 on the evening. Regardless, the Hershey Bears got the win. The Bears are finally back home at Giant Center of Friday and Saturday as they face the Eastern Conference leading Manchester Monarchs. Go Bears!

Gamesheet

Three Stars of the Game:

1. Brendan Shinnimin (2G)

2. Tim Kennedy (OT Gamewinner)

3. Andre Burakovsky (1G)

Lines:

Conner–Kennedy–Galiev

Burakovsky–J. O’Brien–Wellman

Gazley–Newbury–Brown

L.O’Brien–Stephenson–Mitchell

Schilling–Oleksy

Moore–Burgdoerfer