The Hershey Bears defeated the Bridgeport Islanders 2-0 in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round series, and can now eliminate the Isles at Giant Center on Thursday.
The low-event game, which was ugly for long stretches and featured many icings, finally broke open late in the third period when defenseman David Gucciardi scored one of the biggest goals of his professional career.
David Gucciardi game-winning goal
“I just think both teams were waiting for somebody to make a mistake,” Bears head coach Derek King said. “Both teams played hard, they were good on the forecheck, they put some pressure on us at times, and we then tilted the ice, and it was waiting for one mistake.”
Little did they know, but Hershey’s goal actually came off a misplay of their own.
Noticing some open rare open space in the neutral zone, Gucciardi aggressively skated the puck hard down the left side before sending a leading pass up the middle to Rybinski. The play sprung the players on a two-on-one break. Rybinski then held onto the puck and teased a shot on his forehand before sending a cross-crease pass at the last second to Gucciardi for the layup.
The goal, which came 52 minutes and 31 seconds into Game 1, would stand up as the game-winning goal.
“I had some space, so I took some ice, which is what our coaches preach, and just took the ice when it was there,” Gucciardi said.
While the pass to Rybinski up the middle seemed by design, Gucciardi admitted postgame that it was actually a mistake, potentially due to bad ice at Total Mortgage Arena after the circus was in town in the days prior.
“It rolled off my stick a little bit,” Gucciardi said. “Ryby (Henrik Rybinski) was in a great spot for support, and he took it hard to the net and gave me a tap-in.”
“I didn’t see what happened there – I was too busy yelling at Gucciardi for not putting it deep – and then he ends up scoring, so yeah,” King said. “It was a game of checkers or chess, whatever you want to call it, but we found a way to get it done.”
The Bears played strong team defense for much of the night and had a good showing from their PK, killing off three different Islanders power plays in the first period. The Bears only surrendered one shot on goal after Bogdan Trineyev took a four-minute double minor for hooking 42 seconds into the game. The Bears played especially stingy in the second period, limiting Bridgeport to three shots on goal.
Their dedication to keeping things simple and along the boards helped Clay Stevenson register the first postseason shutout of his AHL career. Mud came up big several times in the first period — including six consecutive stops late in the frame — and went on to make 18 saves total during the victory.
“Honestly we played a really, really tight-checking game,” Stevenson said. “We were exiting clean, our penalty kill was excellent. It’s helping out, guys were tracking back in those moments of breakdowns. I was able to make some good saves… Overall, a great game, and a great feeling for our team.”
“He was unbelievable,” added Gucciardi. “It wasn’t perfect on our end; he was there numerous times. Great game by him, and we’re lucky to have him back there.”
Ilya Protas, Hershey’s leading goal-scorer and point-getter in the regular season, then added an empty-net goal with two seconds remaining, to seal the Bears’ 2-0 victory.
“I liked our compete and Clay was outstanding, and we got the empty-net (goal),” King said. “So it was a nice win to get.”
