The Hershey Bears came back from a 2-0 deficit on Thursday night to the Hartford Wolf Pack to defeat them in overtime in Game 1 of the best of five Atlantic Division Finals sending the Giant Center fans home happy. Henrik Borgstrom was the overtime hero.
Lauri Pajuniemi opened the scoring at 6:55 into the game with a power play goal for the Wolf Pack. He banged in a Zac Jones rebound past Bears goaltender Hunter Shepard.
After one the Wolf Pack led 1-0 despite the Bears outshooting them 17-3 in the first 20.
At 2:39 in the first period the game was delayed with Hartford player Anton Blidh getting medical attention for an upper body injury. He got taken out for cautionary reasons. He returned to the game.
The Wolf Pack went up two zip on the power play at 2:33 of the second period with a rebound from the left circle by Jonny Brodzinski. It looked like the Bears had finally gotten on the board at 11:43 thanks to Connor McMichael but a video review overturned the call. It was still 2-0.
Logan Day got the Bears on the board with a power play strike at 2:52 with a one timer off a pass from Aliaksei Protas. It was his first goal as a member of the Bears.
Shepard got pulled for an extra attacker late in the game and the Bears executed by tying it as McMichael got his goal back deflecting in a shot from Jake Massie from the left point. It was McMichael’s third of the playoffs and it came at 17:51.
Borgstrom won the game for the Bears at 4:41 of overtime as he took a Garrett Pilon pass and raced up with Joe Snively on the two on one before finishing it off. It was his first goal in his first game ever in the Calder Cup Playoffs.