The Hershey Bears defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack 4-2 on Saturday night. The victory marked the 2023-24 team’s 30th win just 39 games into the season, making them the fastest team in franchise history to 30 wins.
The previous quickest record to 30 wins was 41 games, held by a 2009-10 Bears team that included current Capitals’ defenseman John Carlson and Capitals Stanley Cup champions Jay Beagle and Braden Holtby.
History has been made — the fastest 30 wins in team history! https://t.co/1m3GQTIv3H pic.twitter.com/hg01UGSjiR
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) January 20, 2024
The Bears’ record on the season is 30-7-0-2 (62 points) and they hold a 12-point lead over the second-place team in the AHL, the Cleveland Monsters.
Against Hartford, Joe Snively was awarded First Star of the Game honors after assisting on two of the Bears’ goals to help them get the win. The Bears’ power play unit showed out strong against Hartford, scoring on two out of three chances on the man advantage. Hunter Shepard started in net tonight for the Bears, making 23 saves in the victory.
The Wolf Pack got on the board first, putting the puck past Shepard 4:34 into the first period.
Pierrick Dube and the Bears retaliated with a goal of their own while on their first power play opportunity of the night. Mike Sgarbossa at the right circle passed to Dube in front of the net, where he fired the puck past Hartford netminder Louis Domingue.
The Bears found the net again on the power play 16:20 into the second period. Snively snapped a shot towards the net, and Mike Vecchione redirected the shot past the goaltender to put the Bears up 2-1.
Aaron Ness’ second goal of the season helped the Bears pad in their lead during the third period. Captain Dylan McIlrath passed to Ness at the blue line, where he fired the puck towards the net. The puck managed to get through the traffic and past Domingue in net.
Ethen Frank gave the Bears an extra goal for comfort, scoring an empty netter to give the Bears what should have been a 4-1 victory. However, Hartford managed to get the puck past Shepard with a single second left on the clock, making the final game score 4-2 Bears for the team’s 30th victory.
Here were the lines:
Tonight's projected lineup against the Wolf Pack 📝
Mike Sgarbossa has 14 points in 18 career games against Hartford!
Catch tonight's broadcast:
🖥️ https://t.co/HaxQBmLCRZ
📻@FroggyValley, @foxsports1460am, @WOYK1350 (joined in-progress), @CapitalsRadio pic.twitter.com/wmvDUEcMXM— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) January 19, 2024
Garrett Roe was a late scratch forcing Ivan Miroshnichenko to play center in parts of the game. Defenseman Dmitry Osipov dressed in his place.
Below is the Bears’ official press release:
BEARS CLOSE OUT ROAD TRIP WITH 4-2 WIN OVER WOLF PACK
Hershey reaches 30th win in franchise-record 39th game
(Hartford, CT – Jan. 19, 2024) – Mike Vecchione broke a 1-1 tie in the second period, while Mike Sgarbossa and Joe Snively dished out a pair of assists, and the Hershey Bears (30-7-0-2) became the first team in the American Hockey League to reach the 30-win plateau this season in a 4-2 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack (19-10-5-0) on Friday night at XL Center.
In claiming a victory in its 39th game of the season, Hershey established a new franchise mark for the fastest 30 wins from the start of the season, eclipsing the previous record of 41 games set by the 2009-10 Bears squad (30-9-0-2).
The Bears leveled their season series with the Wolf Pack, bringing their record to 1-1-0-0 against Hartford. Hershey closed out its three-game road trip with a 1-0-0-2 record and is now 4-0-0-2 in its last six road games.
Hartford took a 1-0 lead at 4:34 of the first period when Jake Leschyshyn deflected a shot from the right circle off the rush that beat Hunter Shepard.
The Bears answered with a power-play goal when Pierrick Dubé one-timed a Sgarbossa pass in the slot past Louis Domingue at 10:38 for his 20th goal of the season. Snively picked up a secondary assist on the goal.
Hershey converted again with the man advantage to take its first lead of the night at 16:10 of the second period when Vecchione deflected Snively’s shot for his 10th of the season; Sgarbossa earned the secondary helper.
Aaron Ness added a critical goal with a wrist shot from the right point that beat Domingue upstairs for the defenseman’s second of the season at 10:54 of the third period. Dylan McIlrath and Ivan Miroshnichenko picked up assists.
Ethen Frank sealed the game with an unassisted empty-net goal at 17:11 for his 16th tally of the season.
With Hartford on a late power play, the Wolf Pack got a buzzer-beater from Nikolas Brouillard at 19:59 to close out the scoring.
Shots finished even at 25 apiece. Shepard put up a 23-for-25 effort to earn his 15th victory of the season for Hershey; Domingue took the loss for Hartford with a 21-for-24 effort. Hershey went 2-for-3 on the power play; the Wolf Pack went 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
