Home / News / Behind the scenes of Garrett Pilon’s Game Five OTGWG: Day’s keep, Morelli’s screen, and Hershey’s epic celebration

Behind the scenes of Garrett Pilon’s Game Five OTGWG: Day’s keep, Morelli’s screen, and Hershey’s epic celebration

By Ian Oland

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June 19, 2023 2:42 am

HERSHEY, PA — Capitals draft pick Garrett Pilon scored one of the biggest goals in Hershey Bears’ history at Giant Center on Saturday, putting the Chocolate and White on the precipice of their twelfth Calder Cup championship.

After both the Bears and Coachella Valley Firebirds could not score a goal in regulation of Game Five, Pilon let a shot fly from just outside the circles in overtime that beat goaltender Joey Daccord, sending Bears’ players and a sold-out Giant Center into jubilation. The goal was Pilon’s fourth of the postseason, marking tenth point in 16 playoff games.

The play, which gave the Bears a three games to two lead in the Calder Cup Finals, was a confluence of several heads up plays by unheralded members of the team. Meanwhile, the celebration afterward was a mess of excited feels that also, according to Dylan McIlrath, got a little physical.

Logan Day’s keep

Pilon’s goal would not have happened without an incredible play at the blue line by Logan Day, a 26-year-old defenseman who is playing for his third different AHL team.

Day was the only defenseman on the ice for the Bears as their second power play in overtime was about to expire. After a Bears’ shot was blocked in front of the net, Firebirds’ center Ville Petman tried to lob the puck out of the zone as teammate Gustav Olofsson was about to leave the penalty box. The safe play for Day was to give up the zone and skate back to retrieve Petman’s clear. Instead, Day bent down and caught the puck at skate level — a difficult thing to do — as a Firebirds’ defender was bearing down on him.

GIF via Hershey Bears/YouTube

Day showed more poise after that. He dropped the puck onto the ice, kept it in the zone on his backhand, and used good body position to protect the biscuit away from a Carsen Twarynski poke-check, which could have led to a shorthanded breakaway going the other way.

“Logan Day, this guy has ice in his veins. He sits back in a rocking chair and makes plays that a lot of guys are afraid to make,” Bears’ head coach Todd Nelson said in amazement postgame. “Made a heck of a play on the goal just keeping the puck in and keeping it alive. That’s the type of player he is.”

Twarynski continued to tenaciously battle Day for the puck — the Bears’ rearguard continued to keep possession — until he was tripped to the ice. Mason Morelli, noticing the puck battle, skated over from his bumper position and picked up the loose biscuit, keeping possession for the Bears.

“I think we had good pressure right there and [Twarynski] was a couple steps slow there so I figured I could corral it and make a play,” Day said when I asked about what he saw. “He got out fast on me but I was able to keep it in and keep the play alive.”

Morelli would skate the puck over to the boards where he’d exchange with Pilon. Peels then skated the biscuit to the point where he unleashed the game-winning shot.

“Those are the little things that maybe you don’t notice but are going to be the difference maker in a game like that,” Pilon said. “When those things happen and a guy keeps a puck with two guys around him it’s a huge thing and it seems to always lead to something. So, it’s a great play by him and he’s been playing great hockey for us all playoffs. Our whole team right now has been kind of a solid unit and that’s something that we want in the playoffs, especially in the Finals.”

Day would get the secondary assist on the goal — his 13th point (3g, 10a) of the postseason in 17 games — eclipsing his entire total during the regular season by one (0g, 12a) in 36 games.

Mason Morelli’s screen

Photo: Ian Oland/RMNB

Mason Morelli is an undrafted, 27-year-old forward in his third season with the Bears after spending his first two years with the AHL’s Stockton Heat. Morelli is a product of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, the same system that produced Penguins’ 2017 Stanley Cup champion Jake Guentzel and over a dozen other NHL players. Morelli captained the team his senior year (2018-19), leading the team in goals (19) and tying for the team-lead in points (34). Two of his college teammates that season are currently signed to NHL contracts, Fredrik Olofsson and Taylor Ward.

On Pilon’s goal, Morelli kept possession of the puck at the blue line and got it to the two-way forward. He also would cycle down to the front of the net and set the screen that would prevent Daccord from seeing Pilon’s shot. Daccord went down to the butterfly as the puck went past him far side to the top corner of the net.

GIF via Hershey Bears/YouTube

“I looked up at the net and saw Morelli there and he had a good screen,” Day said. “Peels made a good shot and after that it’s just bedlam.”

The Minot, North Dakota native earned the primary assist on the play.

Morelli’s emerged for the Bears in the 2023 postseason as a member of the team’s dominant fourth line that also features Beck Malenstyn and Riley Sutter. Morelli also plugged in for a spell on the team’s first line after Ethen Frank was healthy-scratched several games due to a goal slump. He’s also been a regular member of the team’s power play unit.

Morelli’s screen is just the latest huge play he’s made for the Bears in the postseason as he’s been one of the team’s most dependable, versatile, and valuable players. Morelli has 12 points in 18 games, including five goals. But it’s the hard work plays he makes that sets him apart.

The Bears’ goal celebration

The Hershey Bears were shut out in Games One and Two in Coachella Valley, outscored by the Firebirds 9-0. Saturday’s Game Five sudden death victory marked three straight home victories for Hershey — two came in overtime and all three were one-goal games — and completely reversed the Calder Cup Finals in their favor. The victory and the stakes, especially after going 70 minutes without scoring, caused the Bears to unleash a memorable celebration.

In the seconds after he scored, the 25-year-old Pilon bent down to one knee and jumped as high and as hard as he could into the glass, doing his best early years Alex Ovechkin imitation.

Photos: Ian Oland/RMNB

Super excited Bears’ players immediately jumped off the bench and made a beeline toward their teammate who was already engulfed by Sam Anas and Logan Day.

Photos: Tori Hartman/Hershey Bears

And then the rest of the calvary arrived.

Photos: Ian Oland/RMNB

“I couldn’t catch my breath for a little bit,” Pilon said. “I got swarmed by all the guys.”

“I pounded you,” Dylan McIlrath joked.

“It was a great feeling,” Pilon said. “It was great, it was crazy. The fans were nuts. It was really surreal. I probably blacked out for a little bit. It was great. Our team is real close and I think to have that and win a 1-0 game we’re all bunkered down and playing our best hockey and playing hard it’s super rewarding that we were able to pull this one off.

“Everyone was definitely really excited and adrenaline is rushing,” Pilon added. “I think when everyone is dogpiling you’re just stuck in that moment for a little bit. Definitely took a while to catch my breath. Probably took a couple hits for sure.”

Not everyone first celebrated with Pilon though. Morelli went in a perpendicular direction, skating past everyone else to hug goaltender Hunter Shepard. Shepard earned his third shutout of the 2023 playoffs with the victory. Defenseman Lucas Johansen and backup goaltender Zach Fucale eventually joined that mini hug from the bench.

Upstairs, the Hershey Bears’ Zack Fisch had the play-by-play call of his life. Fox 43’s Todd Sadowski could be seen pumping his fists. A minute later, John Walton burst into the booth and began celebrating with the TV crew.

After the game, Pilon was named Game Five’s First Star. He tossed a signed stick into the crowd.

Photos: Tori Hartman/Hershey Bears

Then he put a claw sticker on the team’s victory board, marking the team’s 13th win of the 2023 playoffs.

Photo: Tori Hartman/Hershey Bears

One more win to go to immortality.

Headline photo: Tori Hartman/Hershey Bears

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