Bears Emerge From Holiday Hibernation with 3-2 OT Win

December 28, 2024

Ethen Frank scored in sudden death as the Hershey Bears (19-9-3-0) returned from their holiday break with a 3-2 overtime win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (17-8-2-0) on Saturday night at GIANT Center, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

The win enabled the Bears to level their season series with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at 2-2-0-0; the win marked the first time this season that the home team had achieved victory.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Frank netted the game-winner for Hershey at 1:15 of the overtime period on a breakaway against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Joel Blomqvist for his league-leading 20th goal of the season. Frank becomes the first Bear to record three consecutive 20+ goal seasons since Andrew Gordon from 2008-09 - 2010-11. Frank's goal marked his fifth game-winner of the season - tying him for the league lead with Bakersfield's Matvey Petrov - and the 19th game-winner of his career, moving him into 20th in franchise history for game-winning goals; the tally also marked his first career overtime-winner.
• Mike Sgarbossa returned to the lineup for Hershey after missing the previous three games with an upper-body injury and opened the scoring with his third of the season at 17:46 of the first period to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
• Pierrick Dube also returned to the lineup for the Bears after missing the previous four games with a lower-body injury, and netted his sixth of the season at 2:34 of the third period to give Hershey a 2-1 edge.
• Matt Strome appeared in his 200th AHL contest. Strome has appeared in 109 games with Hershey and 91 games with Lehigh Valley.
• Hunter Shepard made his 100th career AHL appearance, passing Marc Denis and Dominic Roussel for sole possession of 19th on the franchise list for games played by a goaltender, and gave him his 69th career win as a Bear to pass Claude Dufour for sole possession of 11th in franchise history for wins by a goaltender.
• Chase Priskie assisted on both of Hershey's first two goals; his first helper of the night marked his 100th career professional assist.
• Ethan Bear also assisted on Sgarbossa's goal and Frank's game-winner.
• Bears head coach Todd Nelson earned his 425th career AHL head coaching victory, passing John Anderson for sole possession of sixth on the league's list for wins by a head coach. Nelson worked as an assistant coach on Anderson's staff with the Chicago Wolves, winning the Calder Cup in 2008, and continued as an assistant coach under Anderson in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers from 2008-10. Nelson's win also marked his 116th at the helm of the Bears, moving into a tie with Murray Henderson (1952-56, 262 games coached; 116-128-18) for ninth on the club's list for wins by a head coach.

SHOTS: HER 31, WBS 25

GOALTENDING: HER - Hunter Shepard, 23-for-25; WBS - Joel Blomqvist, 28-for-31

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-2; WBS - 0-for-3

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Todd Nelson describing tonight's game between Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after the two teams squared off prior to the break:
"I just thought that both teams played really safe tonight. It was kind of like that last game as well - that was a 1-0 game. Both teams were above the puck pretty much the whole night. There wasn't a whole lot of sustained O-zone possession time for both teams. It's kind of a playoff-style game - nobody wanted to make mistakes out there. And then when whatever team made the mistake, the goaltenders were there to bail them out. So it's a playoff-style game. They have a good hockey team; they have a lot of skill over there, but they play a stingy style of hockey."

Nelson on the team's confidence after coming out of the holiday break:
"It wasn't a perfect game by any stretch, but we found a way to get it done in overtime and we really needed this one - our last five games, I think we won just one game, right? And so we were kind of in a bit of a slide. And so that's a big win for our confidence too, because you could tell that we were getting a bit fragile. Goals aren't coming like they normally do."

Nelson on passing John Anderson for sixth all-time in AHL head coaching wins:
"It means a lot because I respect Johnny a lot. I worked with him for four years, we won a championship together. It means quite a bit. Tremendous coach; if you look at his pedigree, he's a winner. And that's a pretty big milestone for me just because Johnny taught me a lot, taught me about the creativity of the game as a forward. I was a defenseman [as a player], but he gave me a lot of insight on how creative to be and also flexible with my coaching style. Before I met Johnny, I was pretty rigid with my coaching style. I didn't really make many adjustments. That's one of the biggest things that he taught me: you can't be afraid to adjust on the fly. And, and yeah. So it's an honor to jump by Johnny and I'm sure I'll probably let him know."

Mike Sgarbossa on how his game has evolved during his tenure in Hershey:
"I think I've just become more [pass-first] the past two years, but I've got to shoot more. I think I've just been passing up a lot of shots setting up Franky - he's a great goal-scorer - and a lot of guys on the team. I'm just trying to make the play that's available and a lot of the time, if that means being a distributor, that that's gonna help the team win, then that's kind of what I've been trying to do. But I think that shot felt nice. I've been snake-bit, a little bit; I've had some chances to score that haven't gone in, so I think I've just got to get back to shooting some more pucks and I think that will help my confidence a little bit."

Ethen Frank on getting the win:
"We knew that they played last night [against Lehigh Valley], so they were probably a little more into the game style than we were and we knew it was going to be a tough game. It always is with those guys and Lehigh Valley, especially playing them as many times as we do. And so it was nice to get a win at home, especially with the way we've been playing."

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they host the Charlotte Checkers on Sunday, Dec. 29 at 3 p.m. at GIANT Center for Kids Night, featuring the Belco Kids Lunch Box giveaway, available for the first 3,000 children 12-and-under in attendance. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.