Devils Down Bears, 4-2

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

The Binghamton Devils beat the Hershey Bears 4-2 Saturday night at the Giant Center in Hershey. The Bears wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard, as Matt Moulson potted a power play goal just 1:44 into the contest. The score would hold for the remainder of the first frame. The Devils would tie the game with a tally just 1:11 into the middle frame, and add a go-ahead goal at 6:36 for a 2-1 lead. The Bears would tie the game with a goal from Phil Maillet midway through the middle frame for a 2-2 tie at the second intermission. The Devils would score the go-ahead goal late in the final frame to make it 3-and add an empty net goal for the 4-2 final. The loss drops the Bears record to 31-16-3-3 (68 points) on the season.

STARTERS
Vitek Vanecek (14-9-1-1, 2.41 GAA, .910 sv%) started between the pipes for the Bears. Gilles Senn (11-7-2-1, 2.75 GAA, .899 sv%) got the start in goal for the visiting Devils. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:

Lineup for 2/15/2020 vs. Binghamton ⬇️ #HBH pic.twitter.com/jGckPDYuye

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) February 15, 2020

Scratches: Mike Sgarbossa (lower-body injury, day-to-day), Steve Whitney (upper body injury, week-to-week), Lucas Johansen and Connor Hobbs (shoulder surgery last week, out indefinitely) were the injury scratches. Kale Kessy, Tommy Hughes, Alex Alexeyev and Riley Sutter were the healthy scratches.

Martin Fehervary was reassigned to the Bears on Tuesday. As a result, Eddy Whittchow was re-assigned to South Carolina.

FIRST PERIOD
The Bears would strike quick with a power play goal from Matt Mouslon at 1:44 into the contest. Christian Djoos (26) and Phil Maillet (24) had the helpers.

Matt Moulson sneaks in on the left side for a quick snipe and PPG. Bears lead 1-0. pic.twitter.com/WOHSjUg8Dc

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) February 16, 2020

Eric Burgdoerfer was called for a five-minute match penalty for a check to the head at 12:55 of the first. Less than a minute later Bobby Nardella was called for delay-of-game after passing the puck over the galss, giving the Devils a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes. But the Bears were able to successfully kill the 5-on-3, and kill the remaining two-minutes on the Burgdoerfer major.

The first period would conclude with the Bears holding on to the 1-0 lead. The Deils led in shots 13-11 for the period. Hershey was 1 for 2 and Binghamton 0 for 4 on the power play in the first 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD
The Devils would tie the game with a goal from Jesper Boqvist (4) at 1:11 of the middle frame.

The Devils would take their first lead of the game with a tally from Kyle Cumiskey at 6:36 of the middle frame.

The Bears would tie the game with a goal from Phil Maillet (13) at 11:31 of the middle frame. Matt Moulson (16) had the lone assist.

Phil Maillet scores his 13th of the season, ties the game 2-2. pic.twitter.com/yLL9YFLZNe

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) February 16, 2020

The second period would conclude with the game tied 2-2. The Devils led in shots 13-11 for the frame, and 26-22 after two periods. Binghamton was o for 5 and the Bears 1 for 5 on the pow play after two periods.

THIRD PERIOD
The Devils would take the lead late in the final frame with a goal from Mikhail Maltsev at 14:30 of the third period.

The Devils would add an empty net goal for the 4-2 final.

SHAVINGS

- AHL box score
- Attendance: 10,503 (Sellout)
- Last time a New Jersey affiliate won in Hershey was Dec. 29, 2012. Albany beat Hershey, 3-2 as Kinkaid outdueled Holtby. Bears 8-0 vs. Albany/Binghamton since then at Giant Center. (Zach Fisch)