Photo: Tori Hartman

The Hershey Bears fell to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 4-1 Saturday night at Giant Center in Hershey. The loss drops the Bears record to 32-22-1-3 (68 points) on the season. The Bears return to the ice on Friday for the first game of a back-to-back set with the Bruins in Providence. Puck drop is set for 7:05 PM.

SUMMARY
The Sound Tiger’s lit the lamp just 1:58 into the first frame and added a late tally at the end of the opening frame for a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. Garrett Pilon would get the Bears on the scoreboard with a tally early in the middle frame, but the Sound Tigers would respond late in the middle frame for a 3-1 lead at the second intermission. The Sound Tigers would add an empty net goal late in the final frame for the 4-1 win.

STARTERS
Ilya Samsonov (15-11-1-2, 2.77 GAA, .895 sv%) got the start in goal for the Bears. Christopher Gibson (17-9-4-1, 2.96 GAA, .897 sv%) started between the pipes for the visiting Bears. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:

Walker – Sgarbossa – Barber
O’Brien– Megna – Smith-Pelly
Gersich – Pilon – Malenstyn
Whitney – Pinho – Ikonen

Ness – Lewington
Johansen – Sproul
Siegenthaler – Williams

Changes: Bears’ head coach Spencer Carbery dropped Shane Gersich from the top line to the third line, and moved Nathan Walker up from the RW on the third line to LW on the top line. Beck Malenstyn moved from the LW to RW position on the third line.

Scratches: Kris Bindulis (upper body) and Joey Leach (wrist injury – long-term) were the injury scratches. Connor Hobbs, Tobias Geisser, Hampus Gustufsson, Max Kammerer and Mason Mitchell were the healthy scratches.

Devante Smith-Pelly made his first appearance at Giant Center as a member of the Hershey Bears:

Devante Smith-Pelly set to make his first appearance as a Bear in Chocolate Town. pic.twitter.com/zyU4ztASPa

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) March 2, 2019

FIRST PERIOD
The Sound Tigers opened the scoring with a goal on their first shot of the game. Michael Dal Colle would lift one over Ilya Samsonov’s should for the games first tally at 1:58 of the first period.

The Sound Tiger’s would get the game’s first power play with 4:56 remaining in the first period, but were unable to capitalize on the man advantage. Just after the power play expired, Steve Bernier would clean-up loose change in front of the net, making it 2-0 at 17:04 of the first frame.

The first period would conclude with the Bears trailing 2-0. The Sound Tigers outshot the Bears 10-7 for the first 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD
The Bears would get on the board with a goal from Garrett Pilon at 1:50 of the second period. Jonas Siegenthaler (3) and Shane Gersich (13) were credited with the helpers.

The Bears continued to turn up the heat, particularly the bottom six, as the period progressed, but could not dent the twine.

The Sound Tigers would eventually restore their two goal lead with a power play tally from Travis St. Denis at 13:17 of the second period.

The Bears would go to their second power play of the game at 14:39 of the second period, but would be unable to capitalize.

The second period ended with the Sound Tigers leading 3-1. Hershey outshot Bridgeport 15-6 for the middle frame, and led 22-16 after two periods of play. The Sound Tigers were 1 for 2 and the Bears 0 for 2 on the power play after 40 minutes.

THIRD PERIOD
The Bears would go to the power play at 6:29 of the final frame, but were unable to dent the twine. The Bears would return to the power play with 9:33 left in the game, but once again, came up empty-handed.

The Bears pulled Samsonov with 3:00 remaining in the final frame. The Sound Tigers would add an empty net goal with 48 seconds left in the game.

SHAVINGS

• The loss ended the Bears nine game home winning streak.
• The Bears outshot the Sound Tigers 38-18.
• Bridgeport was 1 for 3 and Hershey 0 for 4 on the power play.
• Attendance: 9,584
• The AHL box score is here.

HIGHLIGHTS

SCENES FROM HERSHEY

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With our favorite Bear! #Coco #DefendTheDen #HBH

A post shared by Kristal Aeppli (@ksaeppli) on Mar 2, 2019 at 3:33pm PST

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuhwHlYnr_e/

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Tonight we recognize and thank Penn State Health for being apart of tonight's game. We're proud to have JuJu from Lebanon for tonight's Penn State Health ceremonial puck drop #HBH

A post shared by Hershey Bears (@thehersheybears) on Mar 2, 2019 at 4:40pm PST