The Hershey Bears hosted the Hartford Wolf Pack at the Giant Center on Sunday, March 17th. Hershey secured a 4-0 victory, shutting out the Wolf Pack and Hunter Shepard made a total of 26 saves. It was Shepard’s third shutout of the season, as well as his 50th career win. This shutout was the Bears’ 10th overall, earned by a goaltender this season and it tied a team record.
Hershey Bears lineup:
Snively – Vecchione – Frank
Dube – Huntington – Phillips
Limoges – Rybinski – Trineyev
Hofer – Sutter – Strome
Ness – McIlrath
Johansen – Iorio
Haman Aktell – Priskie
Shepard
Stevenson
The Bears struck early at 18:41 of the first period when Ethen Frank buried his 22nd goal of the season. Alex Limoges sent the puck to Frank, who fixed the loose puck at the left circle before putting it past Dylan Garand on the power play. Matthew Phillips had been credited with the secondary assist.
Frank’s goal was the only one scored throughout the opening 20 minutes, heading into the second with a 1-0 lead.
Alex Limoges struck late in the middle frame for his second point of the night and recorded his 19th goal of the season for the 2-0 lead. Limoges jammed the puck in with 15 seconds remaining after Henrik Rybinski drove his way up the right side and put a shot on Dylan Garand, then the rebound bounced to Limoges.
Scoring his fourth in the past three games and his ninth of the season, Riley Sutter slashed the puck into an open net at 8:43 of the final frame. Dylan Garand tried to play it on a dump-in from behind the net. Ryan Hoffer hunted down his fourth of the season for the 4-0 final with 5:48 left to play, smacking in a shot through Garand’s legs.
Notes:
– Alex Limoges has 42 points this season (19 goals, 23 assists), Henrik Rybinski has 11 points (three goals, eight assists)
– Hardy Haman Aktell recorded his eighth assist when he assisted Alex Limoges’ goal… Matthew Phillips recorded his second assist of the season. Both Lucas Johansen (seven assists) and Vincent Iorio (nine assists) recorded an assist, so did Matt Strome (13 assists) and Riley Sutter (11 assists).
– Shots were in favor of the Bears, 27-26… Dylan Garand took the loss with a 23-for-27 effort.
– Hunter Shepard is tied with Darren Jensen and Don Edwards for 18th on the franchise wins list.
– The last game, against the Syracuse Crunch, was Matthew Phillips’ 300th professional game for the Hershey Bears. During this same game, Riley Sutter recorded his first-multi goal game in his 211-game AHL career… Vincent Iorio also ended his 24-game drought.
– Jimmy Huntington has five points during his past three games, and Garrett Roe has assists in two straight outings for the Bears.
UP NEXT:
The Bears will be playing against the Cleveland Monsters on March 22nd and March 23rd, then they’ll be playing the Providence Bruins before heading out to the XL Center to take on the Hartford Wolf Pack. After those few games, they’ll play the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at home before playing against Iowa Wild for two games at the Wells Fargo Arena on April 5th-6th.
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