The Hershey Bears, coming off a 2-0 victory on Wednesday afternoon that kicked off a five game road swing, were glazed by the Providence Bruins on Friday night at Dunkin Donuts Center, 7-2.
Bears rookie net minder, Michal Neuvirth, making his third AHL start, had another rocky outing, surrendering first period goals to the P-Bruins Zach Hamill, Martins Karsums, and Wacey Rabbit to put Hershey in a 3-0 hole after twenty minutes of play.
Peter Schaefer (power play) and Jeremy Reich (penalty shot) struck for Providence in the second period before Hershey’s Francois Bouchard finally solved the mystery of P-Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask at 16:12 to cut the Bears’ deficit to 5-1. Brad Marchand’s goal with under a minute to play in the period gave Providence a 6-1 after forty minutes of action.
Only a minute and one second into the third period, a goal by Matt Marquardt gave Providence a 7-1 lead. Bouchard’s second goal of the game, his first multi-goal game of his career, finished out the scoring at 15:13, making it a 7-2 game.
Neuvirth, who stopped 29 shots in the losing cause, fell to 2-1 on the season. Rask, who stopped 28 shots, notched his 15th win of the season for the victorious Bruins.