The Hershey Bears authored an impressive comeback victory on their third Washington Capitals’ night of the season.
Wearing their tan Screaming Bear jerseys, Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall registered the first three-point game of his career, while Bears captain Aaron Ness scored the game-winning goal with 11:50 remaining in the third period to give the Bears a 5-4 victory over the Rockford IceHogs.
Aaron Ness game-winning goal
The game got off to an electric start as Henrik Rybinski scored a shorthanded goal 2:20 into the first period. After the IceHogs made an errant pass, Ness and Bogdan Trineyev got the puck to center ice, where Rybinski poked it into open space, springing himself on a breakaway. The two-way centerman then shot the puck across his body, beating IceHogs goaltender Drew Commesso to the far side.
Henrik Rybinski goal
The IceHogs responded 2:24 later though, tying the game with a Dominic Toninato even-strength tally. They’d add two more goals to start the second period, with Jamie Engelbert scoring 19 seconds into the frame and Dmitry Kuzmin finding the back of the net at 6:50.
Facing a 3-1 hole, Cristall combined with the team’s leading scorer, Ilya Protas, to score on a Bears’ power play. Cristall sent a shot off Commesso’s pads that found Protas waiting just outside the crease. The tally marked Protas’s 13th goal of the season and Cristall’s first apple of the night.
Ilya Protas goal
Rockford restored their two-goal lead with 3:38 remaining in the second as Brett Seney scored on a power play.
Brett Leason responded with 1:09 remaining, redirecting a Rybinski shot from the point and halving the IceHogs lead going into intermission.
Brett Leason goal
Hershey tied the game 1:20 into the third period, with Caps defense prospect Cam Allen scoring on a power play for his second professional goal. Cristall registered his second assist on the night, curling at the bottom of the right circle where he hit Spencer Smallman at the point with a pass. Smallman then dished to Allen for on the one-time score.
Cam Allen goal
Allen’s goal then set up Ness’s heroics 9:10 into the third. The Bears captain wound up for a huge slap shot from the left circle, beating Commesso clean. Cristall completed his hat trick of assists, earning a secondary apple on the play.
“You know, I like how we stuck with it,” head coach Derek King said per the Bears. “It wasn’t pretty, and we talked about that before the game and the players talked about it. We’re going to need a greasy win somehow and we did. We got that today. […] We needed it. We’ve been playing well enough. Just not getting over the hump, not getting the goals when we needed them. And tonight we got the goals when we needed them and we got the goaltending too.”
Hershey got contributions up and down the lineup as 10 of 18 Bears skaters registered points on the night. Mitch Gibson also made 23 saves for his fourth win in five starts.
