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Hershey Bears’ nine-game winning streak ends at nine after 5-3 loss to Hartford Wolfpack

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The Hershey Bears suffered a 5-3 loss against the Hartford Wolf Pack on a snowy Halfway To Summer night. The Bears were on a nine-game win streak, tying their run in November for the longest win streak of the AHL season so far. The Bears are now 28-7-0 and remain first in the league.

Highlights from tonight’s game include Henrik Rybinski scoring a stunning breakaway goal in the second period. Rybinski found himself alone in front of the net and made a series of dekes before chipping the puck over the blocker and into the right corner of the net. The 22-year-old forward, who was an off-and-on healthy scratch last season, now has goals in back-to-back games.

Hartford found the net first while on the power play, giving the Wolf Pack a 1-0 lead 11:30 into the game.

The Bears got a goal of their own at the end of the first. Aaron Ness fired the puck from the blue line, which was redirected by Ivan Miroshnichenko then tipped into the net by Roe.

After ending the first tied 1-1, the Bears went into the second period hot, scoring two goals in under a minute. On a Bears power play, Hartford goaltender Louis Domingue made a stick save stopping Mike Vecchione on the right side. The puck rebounded to Jimmy Huntington in front of the net, who put it past Domingue.

Rybinski scored just 46 seconds later on his beautiful breakaway goal. It was his second goal of the season and gave the Bears a 3-1 lead early in the second.

After a strong start to the period for the Bears, Hartford dominated the rest of second period play, retaliating with two goals of their own. The teams went into the third tied 3-3.

The Wolf Pack scored just 23 seconds into the third period to officially steal the Bears lead. The period continued downhill, as Miroshnichenko left the game with a lower body injury after being boarded by a Hartford player.

The Bears found themselves on the power play towards the end of the third, where they pulled Stevenson for an extra attacker to create a 6-on-4. Hartford managed to get the puck past the wall of Bears players and scored a shorthanded empty-netter, making the score 5-3.

The Bears received one last lucky opportunity when a Hartford forward committed a boarding penalty in the last minute of the game. This gave the Bears 28 seconds of power play time to help them score twice, but they were unfortunately unable to complete the challenging task.

Here are the lines from the game:

Here are the full highlights:

Below is the full recap via press release:

NINE-GAME WIN STREAK SNAPPED FOR BEARS IN 5-3 LOSS TO WOLF PACK

Roe picks up two points for Hershey

(Hershey, PA – Jan. 6, 2024) – The Hershey Bears (28-7-0-0) saw their second season-high nine-game win streak snapped in a 5-3 loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack (18-15-5-0) on Saturday night at GIANT Center. The defeat also ended Hershey’s season-high six-game win streak on home ice.

BOX SCORE

Hartford took a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 11:30 of the first period as Jake Leschyshyn knocked home a loose puck at the left of Bears goaltender Clay Stevenson. The goal marked the first time Hershey had surrendered a power-play goal since Dec. 13 vs. Providence, ending an eight-game stretch for the Bears.

Late in the period, Aaron Ness negated a Hartford breakout at the left point of the Wolf Pack blue line. His shot was redirected by Ivan Miroshnichenko and Garrett Roe past Louis Domingue at 17:58 to tie the game with Roe’s fourth tally of the season.

The Bears took their first lead of the night at 1:37 of the second period, when Hershey’s power-play unit skated into the offensive zone and Jimmy Huntington put home his seventh of the season at 1:37 from Mike Vecchione and Roe.

Henrik Rybinski gave the Bears a two-goal cushion with his second goal in as many games at 2:16, as Alex Limoges passed the puck to Riley Sutter, who threaded the puck through two Hartford skaters to Rybinski in the neutral zone for a breakaway. Rybinski head-faked as he skated in on Domingue to draw the netminder to the left, then lofted a backhand shot past the blocker of a sliding Domingue into the top-right corner of the net for his second of the season.

Hartford battled back before the frame was up, however, as Matthew Robertson scored at 12:33 and Connor Mackey drew the visitors level at 16:57 to make it a 3-3 score.

The Wolf Pack regained a 4-3 lead 23 seconds into the third period when Hershey found itself hemmed within its own zone, and an opportunistic Brett Berard smacked the puck through Stevenson.

A late penalty to Hartford put the Bears on the man advantage with under two minutes remaining in regulation, and Hershey pulled Stevenson in a gamble to try and tie the game, but Leschyshyn scored his second of the night, a shorthanded empty-netter, at 18:17.

Shots finished 29-25 in favor of the Wolf Pack. Stevenson put up a 24-for-28 effort in the loss for Hershey; Domingue earned the victory for Hartford with a 22-for-25 effort. Hershey went 1-for-5 on the power play; the Wolf Pack went 1-for-2 with the man advantage.

Headline Photo: Hershey Bears / Tori Hartman

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