2024 Calder Cup Playoffs: Game 2, Hartford - 2 at Hershey - 4 (5/18/24)

HERSHEY, Pa. - The Hershey Bears continued their strong play in the postseason Saturday night, taking care of business in a 4-2 win in Game 2 to put the Hartford Wolf Pack on the brink of elimination.

The Bears jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind a strong night from Ivan Miroschnichenko (two goals), Hendrix Lapierre (one goal, one assist) and Ethen Frank while getting timely saves from Hunter Shepard (22 saves) to extend their lead to 2-0 in the best-of-five Atlantic Division Finals series.

It was a much-improved effort from Hartford Saturday in Game 2, but they simply appear to be a team that is out-gunned.

Jake Leschyshyn and Anton Blidh tallied goals in the final 2:58 of the contest, but that was as close as they'd get in a loss that puts them one more defeat away from the conclusion of their playoff run.

GAME STORY

Hartford was in the midst of an early-game push to begin Game 2, but an offensive zone interference penalty on Tyler Pitlick allowed Hershey the game's opening power play just 1:16 into the contest - preventing Hartford from getting any momentum.

The Bears converted on their power play opportunity with a bit of controversy, as after making a pass to Jimmy Huntington defender Chase Priskie appeared to tie up Hartford penalty killer Alex Belzile atop the right-wing circle - allowing Huntington to skate to the center point and feed the puck to the left-wing circle for Miroschnichenko, who picked a corner on Garand to the short side for his fourth tally of the postseason.

Belzile, the Wolf Pack's assistant captain, was furious at the no-call and its impact in leading to a goal against - motioning to both officials while the Bears were celebrating Miroschnichenko's goal, but to no avail as the goal stood and provided the Bears an early 1-0 lead.

From there, Hartford turned up the pressure - going on to out shoot Hershey 11-6 in the opening 15 minutes of the game.

Every time the Wolf Pack generated dangerous scoring chances in the first frame, Shepard was in position to make the necessary saves - coming up especially huge during an extended five-on-three Bears' penalty kill as well as a difficult glove save with just under eight minutes left before the first intermission allowing the Bears to maintain their 1-0 lead.

The missed opportunity on the extended 5-on-3 power play for the Wolf Pack loomed large as the Bears were able to take that 1-0 lead to the middle frame.

The two teams settled in for the middle frame, and while Hartford may have entered the period with some momentum after out-shooting the Bears in the first Hershey got to their game and controlled large portions of a mostly penalty free second stanza.

It wasn't a particularly bad performance by the Wolf Pack in the second period, it just looked like a team that was simply outgunned by their opponent.

The Bears extended their lead to 2-0 with 6:28 left before the second intermission after an impressive sequence from Miroschnichenko resulted in his second goal of the game.

Garrett Roe got a puck to Miroschnichenko in the neutral zone, and the speedy and skilled Russian forward did the rest - weaving his way into the offensive zone and lifting a backhander past an out-stretched Garand to give the Bears some breathing room heading to the third.

Hershey kept their foot on the pedal in the third, getting goals from Frank and Lapierre in the opening 8:30 of the final frame to push their lead to 4-0 - effectively deflating the Wolf Pack's hopes of a comeback in Game 2.

Hartford didn't pack it in from there.

In fact, they broke Shepard's shutout bid with 2:58 left and scored an extra attacker goal in the final minute. But ultimately, it was too little too late for the Wolf Pack as they drop Game 2 and head back to Hartford facing elimination when the puck drops for Game 3 on Wednesday night.

Hartford Wolf Pack Lineup Notes

Dylan Garand was returned from the New York Rangers to make the start in net for Hartford in Game 2. Olof Lindbom, who left Thursday's Game 1 after sustaining an apparent lower body injury in the third period, was healthy enough to serve as Garand's backup.

Only one change for the Wolf Pack in their Game 2 lineup, with Blade Jenkins slotting in on the fourth line and Bobby Trivigno scratched to make room.

Scratches: Hugo Ollas, Talyn Boyko, Kalle Vaisanen, Bryan Yoon, Ben Harpur (injured), Case McCarthy, Connor Mackey (injured), Riley Nash (injured), Karl Henriksson (injured), Sahil Panwar and Harrison Rees

Lines/Pairings

Nic Petan - Alex Belzile - Tyler Pitlick Adam Sykora - Jake Leschyshyn - Anton Blidh Brett Berard - Ryder Korczak - Brennan Othmann Blade Jenkins - Bryce McConnell-Barker - Jaroslav Chmelar

Brandon Scanlin - Victor Mancini Matthew Robertson - Nikolas Brouillard Blake Hillman - Mac Hollowell

Dylan Garand (Backup: Olof Lindbom)

Hershey Bears Lineup Notes

Hunter Shepard got the start in net for the Bears in Game 2, with Clay Stevenson serving as the team's backup goaltender.

No changes to the Bears' lineup coming off a dominant 6-1 win in Game 1.

Riley Sutter appears to be close to returning to the lineup, while defenseman Logan Day's injury he sustained in Game 3 last weekend against Lehigh Valley doesn't appear to anything serious and it's possible he's available in the not so distant future as well.

Bears Scratches: Garin Bjorklund, Mitch Gibson, Jake Massie, Nicky Leivermann, Vincent Iorio (injured), Matthew Phillips (injured), Tyson Empey, Riley Sutter (injured), Ryan Hofer, Logan Day (injured), Dmitry Osipov, Andrew Cristall, Kevin O'Neil, Jon McDonald and Garrett Roe

Lines/Pairings:

Joe Snively - Hendrix Lapierre - Ethen Frank Alex Limoges - Jimmy Huntington - Pierrick Dube Ivan Miroschnichenko - Garrett Roe - Mike Vecchione Matthew Strome - Henrik Rybinski - Bogdan Trineyev

Aaron Ness - Dylan McIlrath Lucas Johansen - Chase Priskie Hardy Haman Aktell - Jake Massie

Hunter Shepard (Backup: Clay Stevenson)

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:16: HFD - (PP) Pitlick, minor (interference) 2:50: HER - PPG Miroschnichenko (4) - Huntington, Priskie 7:24: HER - (PP) Priskie, minor (tripping) 7:30: HER - (PP) McIlrath, minor (high-sticking) 15:16: HFD - (PP) Mancini, minor (cross-checking) 19:42: HFD - (PP) Petan, minor (high-sticking)

2nd Period

13:32: HER - Miroschnichenko (5) - Roe 14:46: HER - (PP) Snively, minor (hooking) 14:49: HFD - (PP) Othmann, minor (high-sticking)

3rd Period

4:25: HER - Frank (5) - Johansen, Lapierre 10:08: HFD - (PP) Hollowell, minor (roughing) 10:08: HFD - Belzile, ten-minute misconduct (continuing altercation) 17:02: HFD - Leschyshyn (5) - Mancini, Berard 19:11: HFD - Blidh (2) - Brouillard, Sykora

BOXSCORE

Hartford  0 - 0 - 2 = 2 Hershey  1 - 1 - 2 = 4

Shots

Hartford  11 - 4 - 9 = 24 Hershey  9 - 13 - 5 = 27

Goalies

HFD: Dylan Garand (23 saves - 27 shots) HER: Hunter Shepard (22 saves - 24 shots)

Power Play

HFD: 0-for-3 HER: 1-for-5

Penalty Kill

HFD: 3-for-3 HER: 4-for-5

Post-Game EXTRA!

Video interviews with Hershey head coach Todd Nelson!