HARTFORD, Conn. – Despite a different week and a different venue, it was more of the same frustration for Hershey Bears fans on Friday in Hartford as the team’s issues came to a head and led to the latest loss for the league’s most tenured franchise in a 4-2 loss to the Wolf Pack. The Bears dropped their third straight contest with a lot of their familiar issues coming to the forefront, as turnovers plagued the team and played a large part in their demise in this game. Louis Domingue earned the win with 19 saves while Zach Fucale suffered the loss with 23 saves in total.
The issues continued to mount for the Bears, with issues plaguing the team from top to bottom. The team surrendered the first goal for the first time this season when Gustav Rydahl jammed a puck through Fucale three and a half minutes into the opening stanza.
Hartford doubled their lead on a turnover that’s become all too commonplace for the Bears, as a failed pass didn’t clear the zone, and the Wolf Pack capitalized on a point shot from Brandon Scanlin that was deflected into the net by Tim Gettinger for his first of the season. The mistake has been a common one for the Bears in their recent skid, and it continued to burn them in this game.
Hartford’s third goal ultimately put the game out of reach when Jonny Brodzinski scored on the power play with a shot reminiscent of NHL superstar Alex Ovechkin from the left-wing circle.
The Bears would attempt to battle back with Ethen Frank’s second of the season, set up nicely from Henrik Borgstrom for a quick shot that beat Domingue.
With the Bears pressing, their second kind of ugly play happened with a turnover at the offensive blue line with the last man back turning the puck over. The Wolf Pack quickly took it the other way where Bobby Trivigno would score and eliminate any chance of a Hershey comeback.
The Bears would get a nice last goal from Lucas Johansen, tallying in his 200th AHL game as a nice reward for his first of the season.
In his 200th AHL game, Lucas Johansen beats the goaltender for his first of the season! #HERvsHFD pic.twitter.com/2d9Ut9ElEv
— Bears Hockey Nation (@HBHNationBlog) October 29, 2022
However, with the issues continuing to mount for the Bears, the pressure is on the team to quickly turn around and get back in the win column on Saturday. All three of Hershey’s losses have come on the road, and being back in the friendly confines of the Giant Center should hopefully go a long way towards getting the team back on track. It’s a puzzling difference between the first two games of the season and these last two losses, which have seen them give up three or more goals after previously limiting their opposition to one goal in each of their first two contests. Not helping is the fact that the Bears are averaging very few shots on goal, barely hitting 20 shots for this one.
Hershey will face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the first of 12 meetings this season on Saturday night.
