Photo: Providence Bruins

The Providence Bruins beat the Hershey Bears 6-3 Sunday afternoon at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The loss drops the Bears record to 8-8-2-2 (20 points) on the season. The Bears are back in action this Wednesday when they host the same Providence Bruins at Giant Center. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM.

STARTERS
Vitek Vanecek (4-2-1-0, 2.65 GAA, .894 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Hershey Bears. Sean Bonar (0-0-0-0, 0.00 GAA, .000 sv%) started between the pipes for the Providence Bruins. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:

Lineup for 11/24/2019 at Providence ⬇️ #HBH pic.twitter.com/95ntZxDkDU

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 24, 2019

Kody Clark made his AHL debut.

Scratches: Lucas Johansen (lower body injury, day-to-day), Bobby Nardella (upper body injury, week-to-week), Steve Whitney (upper body injury) were the injury scratches. Brett Leason, Colby Williams, Kale Kessy, and Matt Weiss were the healthy scratches.

Mike Sgarbossa, Beck Malenstyn, Christian Djoos and Ilya Samsonov were recalled by the Capitals on Wednesday, November 20th. Kody Clark was loaned to Hershey after coming off of the “season opening injured reserve” list on Friday. Mike Sgarbossa was returned to Hershey on Sunday.

FIRST PERIOD
The Bruins would open the scoring at 4:32 of the first period with a goal from Ryan Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was left wide open in the slot for the point-blank blast.

Former Bear and Capital Paul Carey would make it 2-0 just before the end of the first period. Carey would get dumped to the ice, get up, move to the slot and fire a one timer for the goal.

The second period would conclude with the Bruins lead 2-0. Providence outshot Hershey 16-8 for the first frame.

SECOND PERIOD
The Bears would go to the power play early in the middle frame, but were unable to convert. The Bears power play continues to struggle, currently under 10% efficiency so far this season.

The Bruins would extend their lead to 3-0 with a goal from Urho Vaakanainen at 3:38 of the middle frame.

The Bruins would stretch their lead to 4-0 with Urho Vaakanainen’s second tally of the middle frame.

The Bears would finally get on the scoreboard with a tally from Joe Snively, his second goal in as manay games. Alex Alexeyev made a nice pass from the point, off the boards, that was finished with a backhander from Snively.

The second period would conclude with the Bears trailing 4-1. Hershey outshot Providence 11-10 for the middle frame. The Bruins led 26-19 after two periods.Hershey was 0 for 1 on the power play.

THIRD PERIOD
The Bears would halve the Bruins lead with a shorthanded goal from Shane Gersich at 2:13 of the final frame. Liam O’Brien pressed the play and recovered the puck, firing a shot that bounced off of the pipe to Gersich.

The goal was the second of the season for Gersich, both short handed. The goal was the fifth shorthanded goal of the season for the Bears. They had three shorthanded goals all of last season.

But the Bruins would answer with their own shorthanded goal from Jack Studnicka at 11:05 of the final frame, making it 5-2.

The Bears would cut the lead to two goals with a score from Garett Pilon at 13:19 of the third period. It was Pilon’s second goal of the season.

The Bruins would add an empty net goal for the 6-3 win.

SHAVINGS

• Attendance: 6,697
• The AHL box score is here.
• Bruins led in shots on goal 33-28.
• Philippe Maillet led the Bears in shots with 4.
• Hershey was 0 for 2 and the Bruins 0 for 1 on the power play.
• Kody Clark made his AHL debut.
• Bears scored their 5th short handed goal of the season. They had three all of last season.

SCENES FROM THE DUNK

SUNDAY AFTERNOON F̶O̶O̶T̶B̶A̶L̶L̶ HOCKEY! #HBH pic.twitter.com/eh1I66rEr7

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 24, 2019

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A post shared by Eric Dales (@eric_dales) on Nov 24, 2019 at 12:33pm PST