In the three years that current Worcester Sharks coach, Roy Sommer, led the Kentucky Thoroughblades in their heated rivalry against the Hershey Bears, he and his team faced Christian Matte, Mitch Lamoureux and Serge Aubin, none of whom had trouble finding the back of the net. However, not one of them accomplished what Alexandre Giroux did on Sunday night at Giant Center when the Bears survived the Sharks’ attack, escaping with a 3-2 shootout win.
Giroux, who had never scored a goal in more than five consecutive games in his seven prior professional seasons, set a new AHL record by scoring in his 15th consecutive game, eclipsing the previous mark set by Brett Hull.
Worcester, coming off of a pair of comeback wins in Norfolk, struck first in this encounter when Jamie McGinn scored during a 5-on-3 power play advantage with Keith Aucoin and Greg Amadio in the penalty box.
With Amadio serving the remainder of his sentence, the Sharks, scenting blood in the water, powered another goal behind Michal Neuvirth just 44 seconds after the first one, this one coming from Steven Zalewski, giving Worcester a 2-0 lead.
Less than a minute after the Zalewski goal, Hershey’s high scoring trio of Giroux, Aucoin, and Graham Mink had a golden opportunity to shrink the Sharks’ lead, but failed to finalize a 3-on-2 rush that culminated with Mink being denied on the doorstep of Worcester netminder, Thomas Greiss.
The second stanza was rather uneventful, with Hershey holding the slim 9-7 shot advantage, which set the stage for an eventful third period.
With a pair of consecutive face off wins by rookie, Matthieu Perreault, leading to an eventual power play, an energized Hershey team sliced into the Worcester lead with Sami Lepisto blazing a low laser behind Greiss at 3:48. The second year Finnish defenseman seemed relieved to have a turn of events go his way.
“I’ve been going through a rough time lately. I’ve been trying, but things just haven’t been going my way,” said Lepisto. “Mentally, it’s been a tough season so far, but I got the goal and the team got the win and Giroux got the record, so it was a good game.”
With less than seven minutes left in regulation, Giroux hammered home his historical goal when he gathered in his own rebound, beating Greiss at 13:33 to tie the game. Giroux’s goal, which was followed by an on-ice presentation by Bears general manager, Doug Yingst, delayed the game for approximately five minutes.
“I was pretty excited. You don’t realize it until you really do it,” said Giroux, describing his emotions during the festivities. “Last night was pretty special (when he tied the record) and today when I broke it, I couldn’t believe it. It was a lot of emotion.”
Giroux’s history-generating goal was assisted by Chris Bourque and Sami Lepisto, who were quick to celebrate their teammate’s accomplishment.
“I didn’t even realize I got an assist. I was just so happy that he got the goal,” Lepisto said.
When play resumed after Giroux’s recognition, the Bears outshot the Sharks 4-0 throughout the remainder of regulation, with Greiss denying shots by Dean Arsene and Giroux in the final 70 seconds to send the game into overtime.
The shots were 4-1 in Hershey’s advantage in overtime, with a shot from Giroux that rang off the post being the best chance of the bunch.
“It would’ve been nice to get the overtime winner, but the team went on to win so it was pretty good,” said Giroux.
In the shootout, Greiss and Neuvirth combined to stop nine of ten attempts during the sideshow, with Hershey’s Kyle Wilson being the only successful contestant.
“I tried to get some speed going,” said Wilson, a physics major from Colgate University. “He backed up a little bit on me, and I tried to make him think I was going the other way. He guessed wrong, and it worked out pretty well.”
As the saying goes, “All’s well that ends well”, and on this evening for Giroux and the Bears, it was a storybook ending.