The Hershey Bears went down to five defensemen with under 14 minutes remaining in the third period on Saturday night.
Hershey lost Lucas Johansen late in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals after he took a hard hit from Cleveland Monsters forward Luca Del Bel Belluz and fell awkwardly along the boards. Johansen stayed down on the ice and needed help making his way to the Bears locker room.
The 26-year-old blueliner could not put much weight on his left leg as he made his way down the tunnel.
UPDATE: Bears defenseman Lucas Johansen sustained an injury in the third period.
He is out for the remainder of tonight’s game.
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) June 2, 2024
“He’s getting evaluated right now,” head coach Todd Nelson said postgame. “We’ll wait and see what happens.
“The only impact it [had] with our defense is just one less guy,” Nelson said. “We had to worry about fatigue especially going into overtime. I thought [assitant coach Patrick Wellar] did a good job balancing it out. I think that’s the only thing. Obviously, [Johansen] is a very good defenseman, good puck mover so we just had to simplify.”
Thanks to an overtime goal from Pierrick Dubé, the Bears took a 2-0 series lead in the series. Despite seeing their defensive depth tested numerous times throughout, the Bears have won 8 of 9 games in this year’s postseason. Vincent Iorio, Logan Day, Hardy Häman Aktell, and now Johansen have all missed time.
The Bears will now head to Cleveland for three games but have a few days off before Game 3’s puck drop. Nelson previously said Day was “close” to a return so he could potentially fill in for Johansen if the latter is deemed unavailable.
In reserve, the Bears also have Dmitry Osipov, Jon McDonald, and Nicky Leivermann on their roster. Osipov would likely be the next man up after getting into 17 games during the regular season.
