Ivan Miroshnichenko has goals in consecutive games after finding the back of the net against the Bridgeport Islanders, Wednesday.
Three days after notching his milestone first AHL hat trick at Giant Center, the 20-year-old forward was the difference maker in Hershey’s late third-period comeback.
With the Bears down 2-1, Miroshnichenko (no. 10 in chocolate) helped author the game-tying goal despite not getting an assist on the resulting tally. Skating with the puck across the ice over to the boards, Miro got two Islanders’ penalty killers to chase him and found Alex Limoges wide open with a backhanded pass. Limoges then found Brad Hunt who sent a pass to Mike Sgarbossa down low for the goal at 8:56 of the the third.
One minute and five seconds later, Miro gave Hershey the lead for good, taking a slick pass from close friend Bogdan Trineyev and firing a powerful wrist shot past Islanders’ goaltender Marcus Hogberg. The goal put the Bears up 3-2.
“I thought Miro made a nice entry, kind of slowed it down, made a nice pass over to [Alex Limoges], and then [Brad Hunt] found me back-door, which was a great play,” Sgarbossa said. “The third period was great – we just were able to kind of change momentum and get pucks behind them, and that really started to change things.”
At five-on-five, Miroshnichenko skated on the third line with Henrik Rybinski and Trineyev. Trineyev scored Hershey’s first goal of the game at even strength.
“I think [Trineyev] is just playing with more confidence, using his shot more,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said. “That line played well tonightn. It’s a young line, but they got us the win tonight.”
Miro finished the game tied with Trineyv and Pierrick Dubé for the team-lead in shots with three and a plus-minus of plus-two.
The tally gave Miroshnichenko four goals in his last two games and he now leads the Bears in tallies, leap-frogging over Ethen Frank (3).
Hershey returns home this weekend for a back-to-back against the Chicago Wolves on Saturday and Sunday.
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