HERSHEY, PA — Coming into the final two games of their season, the Hershey Bears desperately needed standings points this weekend to improve their seeding headed into the playoffs. Saturday, against the Bridgeport Islanders, the Bears fell 2-1, getting no goals or points from their Russian-speaking first line of Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ilya Protas, and Bogdan Trinevey. This came despite the Islanders resting three of their top five scorers on the team: Matt Luff, Liam Foudy, and Matthew Highmore.
After the loss, Bears head coach Derek King absolutely ripped into the Hershey trio — two of whom, Protas and Miroshnichenko, recently returned from exciting stints with the Washington Capitals.
“If that has a playoff style, the feel, then our top line isn’t good enough to play in the playoffs,” King said. “Terrible. They should be embarrassed, that performance. There are guys on the ice working their butts off, not as skilled as those, not as talented as them, and trying to win a hockey game. That would have been a big point for us. And we know where we sat. And our top three guys were junk.
“I’m going to have to address that. I’m going to have to have a chat with them tomorrow because that’s unacceptable. You want to play at the next level. If somebody was watching that, they would be like, ‘That kid can’t play.’ Hopefully, they wake up after I have a little chat with them.”
Nearly 24 hours later, the Bears responded and, in particular, those three, defeating the Rochester Americans 5-4 in overtime and persevering despite losing two different leads.
Miroshnichenko scored in overtime after Henrik Rybinski fanned on his shot during a two-on-one break. He then regathered the puck, did a 180, and sent a no-look, backhanded pass to Miro at the far post, who fired the biscuit immediately past Americans goaltender Devon Levi for the sudden-death victory.
Not only did Miroshniehcnko score, but so too did Bogdan Trineyev, who scored Hershey’s first goal of the game on the power play.
Protas, who was awarded four different trophies pregame for his sensational rookie season, then dented the twine on the Bears’ next power play in the second period, after Trineyev tried to jam home the puck down low and the rebound popped out to him at the other side.
Combined, the players King criticized the night before posted 6 points combined (3g, 3a) while Trineyev had a team-high three points (1g, 2a).
After the victory, King seemed remorseful for his comments, giving credit to the players for responding.
“I thought about it after I left the room,” he said. “I was pretty emotional. Maybe, probably should have chosen different words, but sometimes it just comes out that way. And, you know, if you can’t handle me at this level, then you’re going to have some trouble with the NHL guys.
“But hats off to them, you know, whether they watch the media or not. But I knew when I walked out of there, maybe I should have toned it down a bit. But so now I’m thinking of picking another line and going after them for a little bit and see what they do. No, good for them and a hell of a goal by Miro at the end. And we have goals from our top guys. And that’s what we need. That’s how you’re going to win playoff games. Your top guys got to be your best players.”
The victory was huge as it gave the Bears the fifth seed in the Atlantic Division, guaranteeing them one home playoff game in their best-of-three series against the Bridgeport Islanders. If they had lost, Hershey would have played the Charlotte Checkers — a team 17 points better than Bridgeport — and all three games, if necessary, would have been at Bojangles Coliseum due to an obscure AHL playoffs travel rule.
While all seemed well inside the locker room, Bears fans seemed less forgiving of King’s comments, starting a “Fire King” chant in the second period as the team had been doubled up in shots at that point and had just surrendered their 2-1 lead.
“I don’t think we played all that bad [on Saturday], to be honest,” Bears goaltender Clay Stevenson said after making 40 saves in Sunday’s victory. “But the message was clear. These two games leading up to playoffs here, he really emphasized on playing the right way. It’s somewhat of a trial getting into the playoffs here. I thought, top down, our team stepped up. I thought they played great throughout the whole way — even in like the first (period) when it seemed maybe pretty bad, but all in all, I thought we were doing pretty well to weather the storm, honestly. We battled back. We never wavered throughout the entirety of the 60 to play our game and have belief and have faith.”
