While looking to regain control of the series over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after their disappointing overtime loss on Wednesday night, the Hershey Bears hit a rough patch of road, yielding three unanswered goals in the first period, eventually falling to their neighbors to the north, 6-3.
“You just can’t make mistakes,” commented Hershey’s head coach, Bob Woods. “A missed assignment, a missed communication on the second one, and a power play goal. It’s one of those things where you can’t make those mistakes early in the game because they feed off them.”
The Penguins’ Luca Caputi stretched his team’s lead to 4-0 at before Grant McNeill finally got the Bears on the board with his first playoff goal at 18:56 of the second period.
“I’m a pretty simple-minded guy when it comes to offense,” chuckled McNeill. “You’re not going to see too many dangles here. I pretty much get the puck to the net and drive. That’s what our line does and that’s what has been successful for us.”
Not only was the goal McNeill’s first playoff goal, it was also the first taste of AHL playoff action for the 6th year pro.
“It’s what I expected,” said McNeill of the intensity level of the game. “It’s the second best league in North America and everybody brings their best game to the playoffs. I’ve been waiting to get in all playoff season, and I was glad to have the opportunity and I’ll hopefully get in a lot of games to help the boys out.”
Steve Pinizzotto’s goal at 4:47, and a power play opportunity just past the midway point through the third period gave a glimmer of hope to Bears’ fans. However, Hershey failed to generate any further momentum on the chance, with Mark Letestu scoring for the baby Pens soon after the expiration of the penalty to essentially seal the game.
Keith Aucoin’s power play goal and Janne Pesonen’s empty net goal finished out the scoring for the evening, giving the Penguins the victory, and knotting the series at two.
Even though the loss was a hard one for the Bears to take, McNeill stated that the size of the loss is inconsequential heading into tomorrow’s pivotal matchup.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a one, two, or three goal loss; we have to focus, starting now, analyze our game from tonight, and learn from our mistakes. It’s a new game tomorrow.”