Bears Beat Wolf Pack, 2-1, But Shooting Woes Continue; Henrik Rybinski Scores Shorthanded Tally

Photo: Hartford Wolf Pack

The Hershey Bears downed the Hartford Wolf Pack, 2-1, Saturday night at the Giant Center in Hershey, PA. Mike Sgarbossa scored his 16th of the season, Henrik Rybinski scored a shorthanded tally late in the first period and Hunter Shepard stopped 33 of 34 shots faced in the victory. Hershey’s record improves to 30-12-4-1 (65 points) on the season.

LINEUP

Hunter Shepard (12-3-3-1, 2.16 GAA, .916 sv%) got the start between the pipes for the visiting Bears. Dylan Garand (8-9-3-2, 3.28 GAA, .887 sv%) got the start in goal for the Wolf Pack. The forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:

Mason Morelli –Mike Sgarbossa – Mike Vecchione
Joe Snively – Connor McMichael – Henrik Borgstrom
Shane Gersich – Hendrix Lapierre – Garrett Pilon
Beck Malenstyn – Riley Sutter – Henrik Rybinski

Aaron Ness – Bobby Nardella
Gabriel Carlsson – Dylan McIlrath
Lucas Johansen – Vinny Iorio

Scratches: Ethen Frank (illness), Sam Anas (abdominal surgery, out indefinitely), Kale Kessy (upper body injury), Jake Massie, Julian Napravnik, Logan Day and Matthew Strome.

Recalls and Reassignments: Aliaksei Protas was recalled by the Capitals from Hershey on Friday.


FIRST PERIOD

Connor McMichael would leave the game midway through the first frame after receiving a hit up high prom a Wolf Pack player.

The Bears opened the scoring with a gritty goal from Mike Sgarbossa (16) at 12:13 of the opening stanza. Mike Vecchione (22) had the lone helper.

The Bears made it 2-0 with a shorthanded tally from Henrik Rybinski (3) at 15:08. Shane Gersich (8) made a beautiful outlet pass to spring Rybinski for the score.

The period concluded with the Bears leading 2-0. The Wolf Pack outshot the Bears 15-5 in the first 20 minutes. Hartford was 0 for 1 and Hershey 0 for 2 on the power play in the first period.


SECOND PERIOD

Connor McMichael would return for the start of the second period.

The Wolf Pack cut the Bears lead midway through the middle frame. Will Cuylle (15) notched the Pack’s first score at 10:56. Tanner Fritz (22) and Brandon Scanlin (8) had the helpers.

Hartford’s goal sparked a bit of scrum in the moments following the tally. Dylan McIlrath would find himself quickly throwing uppercuts in the middle of the disturbance.

The Wolf Pack were awarded a four-minute power play late in the period after Hendrix Lapierre caught a Hartford player with a high stick to the face.

The Wolf Pack were unable to score before the end of the period, with 1:12 carrying over to the final frame.

Hartford led in shots 12-7 in the second period and 27-12 after 40 minutes of play. Hartford was 0 for 4 and Hershey 0 for 3 on the power play after two periods.


THIRD PERIOD

The Bears and Wolf Pack skated to a scoreless draw in the final frame.

The Bears are back in action on Wednesday when they visit the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Wilkes-Barre. Puck drop is set for 7PM.


SHAVINGS

  • AHL box score
  • Attendance: 10,254
  • Hartford led in shots 34-20.
  • The Bears have recorded 20 and 19 shots in the last two games.
  • Stars of the game: 1) Hunter Shepard, 2) Henrik Rybinski and 3) Mike Sgarbossa
  • Hunter Shepard stopped 33 of 34 shots for a .970 save percentage.
  • Mike Sgarbossa played in his 200th game for the Bears

About Jon Sorensen

Jon has been a Caps fan since day one, attending his first game at the Capital Centre in 1974. His interest in the Caps has grown over the decades and included time as a season ticket holder. He has been a journalist covering the team for 10+ years, primarily focusing on analysis, analytics and prospect development.
This entry was posted in News and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Bears Beat Wolf Pack, 2-1, But Shooting Woes Continue; Henrik Rybinski Scores Shorthanded Tally

  1. Diane Doyle says:

    Glad Hershey won but both the Caps and Hershey don’t have much offense these days.

  2. novafyre says:

    Seems to me that Bear Hughes is getting frustrated. Since the break, his goals and assists are down but I believe his penalties are up. Announcer mentioned that he was playing with more emotion. Well, his trip to the sin bin in the first period resulted in an opposing goal. He sinned again in the second and the Ghost Pirates scored their second goal. So each time that’s a double bad – not scoring himself but helping the other team score.

    His ice time doesn’t appear to be down and he is in the thick of things, but I think he needs to calm down and the production will come back. What’s the expression? He’s holding his stick too tightly?

    Clay was in net tonight. Another good performance. Ghost Pirates outshot the Stingrays but Clay stopped 36 of 40 shots he faced. Rays dominated the first half, let GP catch up the second half, won it on then last second in OT. Rays 5-4.

    Bear had 0 goals, 0 assists, 1 sog and the aforementioned 2 penalties. Maass had 0 goals, 0 assists, 1 sog, and 0 penalties. Has had 0 goals, 0 assists, 2 sog, and 0 penalties. Too many zeros where I’d like to see higher numbers.

  3. Anonymous says:

    The low shot count by the Bears as of late has been puzzling

Leave a Reply to Jon SorensenCancel reply