Game Story: Hartford - 1 at Hershey - 6 (11/19/22)

HERSHEY, Pa. - The Hershey Bears went back to work Saturday night and were rewarded for their efforts with a big 6-1 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Six different Bears - Mason Morelli, Henrik Borgstrom, Garrett Pilon, Sam Anas, Mike Vecchione and Hendrix Lapierre - scored for the home team while Hunter Shepard stopped all but one of the 19 shots he faced in the win.

Andy Welinski tallied the lone Wolf Pack goal in the loss. Dylan Garand (20 saves - 23 shots) came on in relief of Louis Domingue (6 saves - 9 shots) after the first period.

The two teams are set to rematch Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET

After a pretty even opening half of the first frame, the Bears took control - tallying three goals in the final 9:10 to take a commanding 3-0 lead into the middle frame thanks to the Morelli-Borgstrom-Pilon trio.

First, Pilon fired a shot toward Louis Domingue and although the Wolf Pack goaltender was able to make the initial save both Borgstrom and Morelli crashed the net looking for the rebound with Morelli pushing the puck across the goal line as the net became dislodged.

Domingue immediately darted out to the referees to voice his displeasure but after a quick conference and review the referees pointed to center ice and the goal counted.

Momentum seemed to shift toward the Bears from there.

Aaron Ness picked off a Hartford clearing attempt with under four minutes left in the period and fed Borgstrom between the top of the circles for an uncontested shot that beat Domingue to extend the Bears' lead to 2-0 with 3:10 left.

Then, the back breaker for Hartford.

Pilon fired a bad angle shot from below the left-wing circle that appeared to bounce off of Domingue's right shoulder and in just before time expired in the first period. They put 1.3 seconds on the clock, officially, for the final face-off of the period.

Dylan Garand entered in net for Hartford for the middle frame, but Hershey didn't let off the gas - getting two more goals to stretch their lead into a 5-0 blowout.

Anas scored his 100th career AHL goal from Vincent Iorio and Gabriel Carlsson 5:50 into the middle frame, while Vecchione finished off a Sgarbossa feed just prior to the midway mark of the period to make it a five-goal lead.

Welinski got Hartford on the board with 3:37 left before the intermission to end Shepard's shutout bid, but Lapierre restored the Bears' five-goal lead with his fourth of the season in what was another final-seconds goal with 12.9 left on the second period clock.

Hartford Wolf Pack Lineup Notes

Louis Domingue got the start in net for the Wolf Pack Saturday night in Hershey. Dylan Garand served as the team's backup goaltender.

Wolf Pack Scratches: Tanner Fritz, Patrick Khodorenko, Blake Hillman and Cristiano DiGiacinto

Lines/Pairings:

Will Cuylle - Jonny Brodzinski - Alex Whelan C.J. Smith - Austin Rueschhoff - Turner Elson Tim Gettinger - Gustav Rydahl - Lauri Pajuniemi Bobby Trivigno - Karl Henriksson - Matt Rempe

Matthew Robertson - Zach Giuttari Ben Harpur - Ty Emberson Brandon Scanlin - Andy Welinski

Louis Domingue - Dylan Garand

Hershey Bears Lineup Notes

Hunter Shepard got the start in net for the Bears Saturday night. Zach Fucale, who got the start for Hershey Friday night in Wilkes-Barre, served as the team's backup goaltender.

Bears Scratches: Jake Massie, Lucas Johansen, Julian Napravnik and Ethen Frank

Lines/Pairings:

Mike Vecchione - Mike Sgarbossa - Sam Anas Mason Morelli - Henrik Borgstrom - Garrett Pilon Shane Gerisch - Hendrix Lapierre - Henrik Rybinski Matt Strome - Riley Sutter - Kale Kessy

Aaron Ness - Logan Day Bobby Nardella - Dylan McIlrath Gabriel Carlsson - Vincent Iorio

Hunter Shepard - Zach Fucale

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

9:50: HER - Morelli (2) - Pilon, Borgstrom 16:50: HER - Borgstrom (3) - Ness, Nardella 19:58: HER - Pilon (2) - Morelli, Day

2nd Period

3:20: HFD - (PP) Rempe, minor (tripping) 5:50: HER - Anas (4) - Iorio, Carlsson 8:21: HFD - (PP) Cuylle, minor (high-sticking 9:10: HER - PPG Vecchione (4) - Sgarbossa, Anas 16:23: HFD - Welinski (2) - Whelan, Scanlin 19:46: HER - Lapierre (4) - McIlrath, Gersich

3rd Period

20:00: HER - (PP) Kessy, minor (unsportsmanlike)

BOXSCORE

Hartford     0 - 1 - 0 = 1 Hershey Bears  3 - 3 - 0 = 6

Shots

Hartford     4 - 6 - 9 = 19 Hershey Bears  9 - 16 - 7 = 32

Goalies

HFD: Louis Domingue (6 saves - 9 shots in 20:00) and Dylan Garand (20 saves - 23 shots in 40:00) HER: Hunter Shepard (18 saves - 19 shots)

Power Play

HFD: 0-for-0 HER: 1-for-2

Penalty Kill

HFD: 1-for-2 HER: 0-for-0