The Hershey Bears, coming off their first three game losing streak of the season and feeling the heat of Bridgeport Sound Tigers who had roared within five points, responded to the challenge at the Arena at Harbor Yard, taming the Tigers, 5-3.
Oskar Osala, in a sign of things to come, gave the Bears an early 1-0 lead at 2:24, beating Bridgeport goaltender, Nathan Lawson. Osala’s power play goal, his 19th of the season, marked the league-leading 7th time he scored the first goal of the game.
After Bridgeport’s Mike Iggulden and Ben Walter each tallied within a nine minute span to give their club the 2-0 lead, it only took 45 seconds for Matthieu Perreault to even the score when he lit the lamp at 16:28.
Hershey’s Alexandre Giroux extended his goal scoring streak to 13 consecutive games at 15:54 of the second. Giroux is within one game of the current AHL record for consecutive goals scored. The 5-on-3 power play goal marked the 2nd time in three games that the Bears have converted while having the two man advantage.
Anxious not to prolong his 30 goal status, Giroux added another power play goal at 7:34, marking his 31st goal of the year and his 6th multi-goal effort.
Not wanting to be outdone by Giroux, Sound Tiger’s Walter added his second power play goal of the game at 8:50, making the score 4-3 in favor of the Bears.
Francois Bouchard’s insurance goal at 11:20 of the third period completed the rookie line hat trick to give the Bears another two goal cushion at 5-3.
Bears’ net minder, Daren Machesney made 36 saves to record his 11th victory of the season, and first since December 20th.