AHL: Zajicek and P-Bruins Dominate Hershey

The Providence Bruins face the Hershey Bears for the second time in three days tonight. Providence beat Hershey 3-1 on Wednesday as they kicked off their Pennsylvania road trip. Simon Zajicek got the start for Providence, bringing in an 8-1-0 record, a 2.09 goals-against average, and a .926 save percentage. Clay Stevenson got the start for the Bears. He started Wednesday’s game stopping 31 of the 34 shots he faced. He entered the game 7-5-0 with a 2.59 goals-against average, and a .912 save percentage.

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Providence Bruins vs. Hershey Bears

First Period 

The two teams got the chaos started just over six minutes in as Joey Abate and Sam Bitten dropped the gloves. Providence then jumped out to a 1-0 lead as Georgii Merkulov scored his eighth of the season. Just over two minutes later Dans Locmelis scored his eighth of the season to make it 2-0. Providence outshot Hershey 10-7. 

Second Period 

Each team got power-play goals in the middle period. Hershey got on the board with a goal from Brett Leason. It was his fifth of the season. Providence’s power-play goals came from Matthew Poitras. It was Poitras’ fourth goal of the season. Providence would outshoot 13-12.

Third Period 

In the final period, Providence added to its lead as Ty Gallagher scored his first of the season. That would be all Providence would need as they outshot the Bears 12-11. 

Wrap Up 

Zajicek stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced. Stevenson stopped 31 of the 35 shots he faced. Frederic Brunet finished as the first star with two assists. Bruins captain Patrick Brown was the second star with three assists. Merkulov was the third star with a goal and an assist.

Next Up

Providence wraps up its trip tomorrow night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins with puck drop set for 6:05 PM EST. The Bears face the Charlotte Checkers tomorrow night at home with puck drop set for 7:00 PM EST.