The Hershey Bears fashioned out a hard fought 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phantoms on Wednesday night at Giant Center, taking a commanding 3-0 series lead in the process.<\/p>\n
Hershey\u2019s power play, which was in deep hibernation against their opponents from the City of Brotherly Love throughout most of the regular season series, struck for the fifth time in the series at 8:27 of the first period, with defenseman Staffan Kronwall lighting the lamp.<\/p>\n
The other side of Hershey\u2019s special teams coin, the penalty killing unit, ranked last in the AHL during the regular season, and continued it\u2019s flawless performance in the playoffs, snuffing out a 29 second 5-on-3 disadvantage midway through the period. During the 5-on-3 situation, Hershey netminder, Michal Neuvirth, contributed mightily to his team\u2019s successful venture on the penalty kill, making a sparkling save on David Laliberte to maintain the 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Crime paid for the home team late in the period at 19:33, when rookie, Matthieu Perreault, sprung by a Keith Aucoin pass, and managed to get a shot over the outstretched glove of Philly backstopper, Scott Munroe, only seven seconds after his penalty for interfering with Munroe had expired.<\/p>\n
The Phantoms were finally able to dent the scoreboard into the latter stages of the stanza, when Jonathan Kalinski dented the twine at 15:54, with former Bear, Boyd Kane, collecting an assist on the strike. Kalinski, after scoring the goal, cut Kronwall with his stick while raising his arms in celebratory fashion, but was not penalized by referee, Francois Charron, which perhaps influenced another controversial Charron call later in the affair.<\/p>\n
Early in the third period, with Kane in the penalty box for roughing and the Bears in the midst of their third power play of the encounter, the unit surged for their second strike of the game, with Alexandre Giroux generating the goal at 1:20. <\/p>\n
Less than four minutes after the Giroux goal, the Bears had a chance to put the Phantoms in a deeper hole when defenseman, Michael Ratchuk was penalized for hooking, putting the home team on another power play. However, rookie forward, Francois Bouchard, manning the point during the power play, made a tactical error when he dove and failed to keep the puck in the Phantoms\u2019 zone. Bouchard\u2019s futile efforts resulted in an odd-man shorthanded Philly rush that culminated with a goal by defenseman Lasse Kukkonen at 6:19, cutting the Bears\u2019 lead to 3-2. <\/p>\n
Unlike his non-call in the Kalinski incident, which did nothing to advance the Bears\u2019 cause, Charron\u2019s second controversial call of the affair benefited the Chocolate And White immensely. <\/p>\n
Just as Philly forward, James van Riemsdyk had seemingly tied the game at 17:14, rifling a wrist shot past Neuvirth, Charron waved the goal off, and sent Nate Raduns, who was entangled with Hershey defenseman Greg Amadio to the left of Neuvirth, to the penalty box for a holding call.<\/p>\n
The Phantoms, who never recovered from Charron\u2019s non-goal call, failed to mount a serious threat to Hershey\u2019s lead, even after pulling Munroe off of the ice in favor of an extra attacker in the last 10 seconds of regulation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"