Bears Rally To Beat Crunch 4-2; Chris Bourque Notches a Pair

Photo: AHL

The Hershey Bears (7-7-0-2) rallied to beat the Syracuse Crunch 4-2 Wednesday night at the Giant Center in Hershey. The Bears are back in action Friday night in Rhode Island when they visit the Bruins in Providence. Puck drop is 7:00pm.

Pheonix Copley got the start in goal for the Bears. Connor Ingram (1-3-1, 3.66 GAA, .860 sv%) got the start for Syracuse. The Bears forward lines and defensive pairs:

Bourque-Boyd-Simpson
Bau-Graovac-Barber
O’Brien-Langlois-Gazley
Mitchell-Sill-Mitchell
Siegenthaler-Williams
Johansen-Lewington
Labrie-Bindulis

Bears Scratches – Connor Hobbs (injury), John Albert (injury), Anthony Peluso, Hampus Gustafsson and Paul Geiger. Attendance: 9,069.

FIRST PERIOD
A fairly tame start to this one, with the Bears leading in shots on goal 3-1 after the first six minutes of play, and 7-3 with 7:30 reaming in the opening frame.

The Bears would be awarded the game’s first three penalties, but were unable to capitalize on any of the man-advantage opportunities.

The period would end in a scoreless tie. The Bears outshot the Crunch 11-4 for the opening frame.

SECOND PERIOD
The Crunch would strike quickly in the second period with a power play goal by Anthony Cirelli just 43 seconds into the middle frame.

The Bears would let two more power play opportunities get away without a score by the midway point of the middle frame. The Bears were 0 for 5 and the Crunch 1 for 1 on the man-advantage at the midway point of the game.

Garrett Mitchell received a Crunch hit and Mason Mitchell jumped in and dropped the gloves with Reid McNeill. This was Mitchell’s first pro fight.

Mason Mitchell and Reid McNeill drop the gloves pic.twitter.com/74z9x7KPGM

— Michael Marzzacco (@Marswaggo) November 16, 2017

The period would conclude with Syracuse hanging on to a 1-0 lead. Shots on goal for the second period were tied 10-10. Hershey led 24-10 after two periods of play. The Bears were 0 for 6 and Syracuse 1 for 2 on the power play after two periods of play.

THIRD PERIOD
The Bears would tie the game just 27 seconds into the final frame. Jeremy Langlois would knock one home off of a Crunch player for the tying tally.

Hershey ties it on a goal by Jeremy Langlois pic.twitter.com/yfpImeQrlf

— Michael Marzzacco (@Marswaggo) November 16, 2017

The Bears would take the lead moments later on a goal by Chris Bourque at 4:05 of the final frame.

Chris Bourque gives Hershey the lead in the 3rd! pic.twitter.com/Fvf2S2lWCF

— Michael Marzzacco (@Marswaggo) November 16, 2017

Unfortunately the Crunch would tie the game 2-2 moments later on a goal by Alexander Volkov at the 6:57 mark of the final frame.

Chris Bourque would grab the lead back for the Bears, giving the Bears a 3-2 lead at the 12:55 mark.

Hey, @cbourque17… Why are you so dang GOOD?!? This goal by Chris Bourque gave Hershey a 3-2 lead with 7:05 to play in regulation #HBH #DefendTheDen pic.twitter.com/R1OqCTSpJF

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 16, 2017

Lucas Johansen would add an empty netter from center ice to give the Bears a 4-2 victory.

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