\u00a0In order to avoid their first three game losing streak of the season, the Hershey Bears relied on the goal scoring exploits of a trio of college guys to figure out how to stop the slide, as Graham Mink, Kyle Wilson, and Andrew Gordon scored to propel the team to a 4-2 victory over the Lowell Devils tonight at Giant Center.<\/p>\n
The action started early, only 11 seconds into the game, when Graham Mink finished off an odd man rush with Keith Aucoin to stake Hershey to an early 1-0 lead. Mink, while surprised to find himself open that early in the game, knows how important it is to always be ready to be the recipient of a pass when playing with his talented linemates.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou play with guys like Aucoin and Bourque and they’re so good at moving the puck. I just go to the net and I’m always ready, especially with Aucoin,\u201d said Mink, who played his college hockey at the University of Vermont. \u201cIt was a wide open net…but they’re not always that easy! I missed one, too (later in the game), though, so they’re not all gimmes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Moments after Hershey goaltender, Daren Machesney denied Devils’ forward Jon DiSalvatore on a short-handed breakaway, the Bears’ Kyle Wilson’s back hander from the bottom of the left face off circle eluded Lowell’s netminder, Dave Caruso, giving Hershey a 2-0 lead to take them to the end of the first period.<\/p>\n
Similar to the first period, Hershey wasted little time tacking another goal to their lead when Andrew Gordon, who played his college hockey at St. Cloud State, tallied to give the Bears a 3-0 cushion at 1:34. Gordon,chalked up his Saturday night success to chemistry and communication with his linemate, Quintin Laing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was calling for it on the back door. He knew right away I was gonna be back there. It was a good heads-up play by him, listening and playing off his senses,\u201d said Gordon, who broke a ten game scoreless streak.<\/p>\n
Tonight, defenseman, Bryan Helmer, who also assisted on the Gordon goal, played his 872nd<\/sup> AHL game, surpassing former Bear, Dennis Bonvie, to move into 16th<\/sup> place in all time games played in the league.<\/p>\n When asked what the achievement meant to him, Helmer joked, \u201cIt means that I’ve been in this league a long time.\u201d Then turning serious, he continued, \u201dIt means I’ve had a really good career and I’ve been lucky to not have gone through many injuries. To pass a guy like Dennis Bonvie, who’s a legend in this league, is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n DiSalvatore, atoning for his first period stoning by Machesney, came out of the penalty box on a breakaway at 12:20, and cut the Bears’ lead to 3-1.<\/p>\n Approximately midway through the 3rd<\/sup> period, the Hershey fans were reminded of the leadership that defenseman, Dean Arsene brings to the table. After a hearty hit by Lowell’s Brad Mills plastered Matthieu Perreault into the glass at center ice, Arsene responded in kind by lighting up Mills with a thunderous check in the neutral zone.<\/p>\n \u201cI was going to grab him right away, but I saw Perreault get up, and we turned the puck over,\u201d said Arsene, who returned to the Hershey lineup after missing the past 19 games due to injury. \u201cI saw him (Mills) sliding down the wall and it was kind of a perfect opportunity to get back at him.\u201d<\/p>\n Barry Tallackson made the game a little more interesting when he scored for the Devils at 16:22, cutting the Bears’ lead to a single goal, but Kyle Wilson, a graduate of Colgate University, answered back less than three minutes later with his second goal of the night, an empty-netter, to finish the game with a 4-2 victory for the Chocolate and White.<\/p>\n