Ivan Miroshnichenko had another huge night for the Hershey Bears.
The Washington Capitals’ 2022 first-round pick notched three points in the Hershey Bears’ 6-2 victory over the Cleveland Monsters, earning First Star of the Game honors.
The Bears’ win in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals gives Hershey a 3-0 lead in the seven-game series and the opportunity to close things out at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Thursday night.
The three points marked the most Miro has scored in a playoff game in his AHL career.
Miroshnichenko’s biggest play of the night was his second-period goal where he showed incredible patience to score.
After a huge shot by Chase Priskie from the point hit him in the leg, Mike Vecchione grabbed the puck and sent a slightly off-target pass to a wide-open Miroshnichenko at the bottom of the left circle. The left winger stopped the biscuit with his skate, kicked it to his stick, and then made some Miro Magic, making a quick deke to open up Jet Greaves’ legs and shooting five-hole.
The tally put the Bears up 4-2 with 1:37 in the second period.
The goal marked Miroshnichenko’s sixth in 10 games during the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs. Miro had only nine in 46 regular-season games.
Miroshnichenko also earned a secondary assist on the Bears’ first goal of the night by Chase Priskie on the power play.
Miro was credited with the primary assist on Alex Limgoes’ second-period goal, the game-winner, after chopping the puck on his backhand at the point. Limoges skated in and beat Greaves clean to put the Bears’ up 3-2.
Limoges’ dart started a three-goals in 2:18 explosion for Hershey at the end of the second period that ultimately put the game out of reach for the Monsters. They scored four times overall in the second stanza.
“That was huge because they were pressing there, we weren’t doing a very good job defensively in our own end,” Bears’ head coach Todd Nelson said. “We were flirting with fire there, huge goal for us and from there the power play took over.”
Hershey needs only one more win to return to the Calder Cup Finals for a second-straight year.
