Bears Rally for 3-2 Win Over Thunderbirds

November 9, 2024

The Hershey Bears (8-3-1-0) scored three straight goals to rally from a 2-0 deficit on their way to a 3-2 win over the Springfield Thunderbirds (4-8-0-0) on Saturday night at GIANT Center, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

The win marked the second time this season that the Bears had overcome a 2-0 deficit to Springfield, and the victory was Hershey's 12th straight home win against the Thunderbirds dating back to the 2018-19 season.

BOX SCORE

NOTABLES:

• Brennan Saulnier scored his first of the Bear at 4:17 of the second period to get Hershey on the board and cut Springfield's initial two-goal lead in half.
• Henrik Rybinski knotted the score minutes later with his third of the season at 7:30.
• Defenseman Ethan Bear netted the game-winning tally at 16:33 of the third period when he skated behind the Springfield net and banked the puck in off the skate of Vadim Zherenko for his second of the season. Bear was suiting up in his 100th AHL game; the veteran blueliner has 275 games of NHL experience under his belt as well.
• Ivan Miroshnichenko collected a pair of assists.
• Hunter Shepard made his 88th career appearance with Hershey, moving into a tie with Dany Sabourin for 23rd in franchise history.
• Clay Stevenson returned to the lineup as Shepard's backup after being unavailable for the previous six games due to an upper-body injury.
• Bears head coach Todd Nelson (currently away from the team for family reasons) has been credited with his 105th career victory with Hershey, moving past Spencer Carbery and Gary Inness for sole possession of 10th on the franchise coaching wins list.

SHOTS: HER 30, SPR 25

GOALTENDING: HER - Hunter Shepard, 23-for-25; SPR - Vadim Zherenko, 27-for-30

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-2; SPR - 0-for-2

THEY SAID IT:

"I thought, to be honest, the first period was a pretty good period for us. Obviously they scored on one of their three chances that we gave up, and that's obviously tough, but a really resilient response [after] going down 2-0 there. It could have gone sideways for us, but we had some big moments and two really big goals from our depth players, which is what we need. And I just thought it was a great all-around effort. It wasn't a full 60 minutes that we were searching for, but pretty close." - Assistant coach Patrick Wellar on the team's performance tonight

"I thought the energy they brought, the speed, the pace at which they played, and their details were exceptional. We didn't have all four lines rolling tonight, and I thought that they kind of brought us back into the fight a little bit. Obviously get, not only just with producing with that goal, but just, just the way that they played." - Wellar on the play of Hershey's fourth line of Brennan Saulnier, Riley Sutter, and Matt Strome

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they host the Springfield Thunderbirds on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. at GIANT Center for Hometown Heroes Night. Purchase tickets for the game by CLICKING HERE.