Photo: Caroline O’Connor/Great Save Productions/Hershey Bears

The Providence Bruins beat the Hershey Bears 7-6 in a shootout Wednesday night at Giant Center. The loss drops the Bears record to 8-8-2-3 (21 points) on the season. The Bears are back in action this Saturday when they host the Belleville Senators at Giant Center. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM.

STARTERS
Pheonix Copley (4-5-3-1, 2.46 GAA, .904 sv%) got the start in goal for the Hershey Bears. Matt Legace (8-2-2-4, 2.17 GAA, .930 sv%) started between the pipes for the visiting Providence Bruins. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:

Lineup for 11/27/19 vs. Providence ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/cKzHOxKTwx

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) November 27, 2019

Scratches: Lucas Johansen (lower body injury, day-to-day), Bobby Nardella (upper body injury, week-to-week), Steve Whitney (upper body injury) and Colby Williams (upper body injury, week-to-week) were the injury scratches. Riley Sutter was out due to illness. Kale Kessy, Ed Whittchow and Chris McCarthy were the healthy scratches.

Mike Sgarbossa, Beck Malenstyn, Christian Djoos and Ilya Samsonov were recalled by the Capitals last Wednesday, November 20th. Mike Sgarbossa was returned to Hershey on Sunday, November 24. Kody Clark was loaned to Hershey after coming off of the “season opening injured reserve” list on Friday.

FIRST PERIOD
The Bears would be the benefactors of the game’s first power play 1:50 into the contest. Connor Hobbs levied a clean hit and the Bruins did not approve, forcing Hobbs to drop the gloves. However, the Bears, with the AHL’s worst power play conversion rate, were unable to convert.

The Bears would return to the power play, and this time they would break through. Mike Sgarbossa would knock home a rebound at 11:45 of the first frame, to give the Bears an early 1-0 lead. Matt Moulson (8) and Garrett Pilon (5) had the helpers.

Brian Pinho would be awarded a penalty shot after being tackled on a short-handed breakaway, but he would be unable to convert, nailing the post with his wrister.

The first period would end with the Bears leading 1-0. Shots on goal were tied 8-8. Hershey was 1 for 2 and Providence 0 for 1 on the power play in the first period.

SECOND PERIOD
The Bears struck with two quick goals in the middle frame. First, Brian Pinho would score on a breakaway at 0:52 of the second period. Shane Gersich (5) had the lone helper.

Just 7 seconds later Joe Snively would score his third goal in the last three games at 0:59. Garrett Pilon (8) and Alex Alexeyev (9) had the assists.

But the Bruins would answer with two quick goals or their own to cut the Bears lead to 3-2. Brendan Woods would score an unassisted tally at 5:13

Freddy ➡️ Woodsy ➡️ 🚨 pic.twitter.com/8VQfsCZDkg

— Providence Bruins (@AHLBruins) November 28, 2019

and Joona Koppanen would score less than a minute later at 6:06 of the middle frame for a 3-2 game.

Joona Koppanen has three points in his last two games! pic.twitter.com/PnCA240KgN

— Providence Bruins (@AHLBruins) November 28, 2019

The Bears would answer with a goal from Erik Burgdoerfer at 7:21 of the second period, making it 4-2. Philippe Maillet (3) had the lone assist.

But the Bruins would answer once again. This time Urho Vaakanainen would pot a power play tally at 10:36 of the middle frame, making it 4-3.

Last three games for Vaaks:
Three goals, three assists, six points 🤩 pic.twitter.com/H4dKBwyDPz

— Providence Bruins (@AHLBruins) November 28, 2019

The Bears would strike back. Philippe Maillet would score his third goal of the season at 12:33 of the middle frame, making it 5-3. Liam O’Brien (3) and Tyler Lewington (1) had the helpers.

The second period would end with the Bears leading 5-3. Providence outshot Hershey 10-8 for the middle frame, and led 18-16 after two periods. Hershey was 1 for 3 and Providence was 1 for 2 on the power play after two periods.

THIRD PERIOD
The Bruins would cut the Bears lead to one with a goal from former Bear and Capital Paul Carey at 2:41 of the final frame, making it 5-4.

The Bruins would tie the game 5-5 with a goal from Jakub Lauko at 10:34 of the final frame.

The Bruins would quickly take their first lead less than a minute later with a goal from Oskar Steen at 10:57 of the final frame, making it 6-5, Bruins.

But the Bears would answer. Joe Snively would score his second of the game on the end of a beautiful tic-tac-goal play at 16:08 of the final frame. Mike Sgarbossa (10) and Garret Pilon (7) had the assists.

The game would head to overtime.

OVERTIME/OVERTIME
The extra frame would go scoreless, sending the game to a shootout.

1. Bears: Snively: No good. Bruins: Lantosi: Good
2. Bears: Sgarbossa: Good. Bruins: Fitzgerald: No good
3. Bears: Pinho: No good. Bruins: Lauko: Good.

Bruins win in the shootout.

SHAVINGS

• Game notes
• AHL box score
• Attendance: 7,827
• The Bears led after the first period for only the first time this season.
• The Bears scored the game’s first goal for the 8th time this season.
• Providence outshot the Bears 28-23 for the game.
• Brian Pinho led all Bears in shots with 4.
• Pheonix Copley stopped 21 of 27 shots faced for a .777 game save percentage.
• Garret Pilon had three assists.
• Providence was 1 for 2 and the Bears were 1 for 4 on the power play.
• The Bears scored two goals in a 7 second span and the Bruins scored two goals in less than a minute in the second period.
• Philippe Maillet would score a goal and an assist in the second period, registering his 100th career point.
• The game marked the 6,000th regular season game for the Hershey Bears.

SCENES FROM CHOCOLATE TOWN

Pretty awesome move by @TheHersheyBears tonight.

Seat 12 reserved in honor of our friend Gregg Mace.#HBH #ForGregg pic.twitter.com/EK09lqv02x

— Allie Berube (@allieberube) November 28, 2019

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