HERSHEY – Pressure comes in many forms.
For the Hershey Bears, there was pressure all season from being the defending Calder Cup champion. But even while being everyone’s target, Hershey posted the best record in the AHL’s regular season and won their first two playoff series relatively easily.
Then there was the pressure of playing an opponent with all the momentum, like in the Eastern Conference Finals, when the Cleveland Monsters won three games in a row to force a Game 7. But then the Bears responded again, winning in overtime.
The pressure on Sunday evening was different. Entering Game 2 of the best-of-7 Calder Cup Finals down 1-0, the Bears were, for the first time since last year’s championship series, playing from behind. And the Coachella Valley Firebirds were putting physical pressure on the Bears all over the ice.
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Again, the Bears found a way to respond. Hershey never trailed during a 5-2 victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Giant Center, evening the series at one game apiece.
But even though the Bears are on even terms with the Firebirds, that doesn't mean the pressure is off as the series goes to Coachella Valley for the next three games.
“It was a big game to win, but I think we got away with one,” Hershey head coach Todd Nelson said. “They are a great team at home. We know what we’ve gotten ourselves into.”
The Bears went ahead for good just as the game seemed to be getting out of their control. Late in the second period Hershey had gone 12 minutes without a shot on goal and were stuck in a 1-1 tie with the Firebirds. But after the puck was sent behind the Coachella Valley net, Alex Limoges stole it from Firebird goalie Chris Driedger, and played it into the slot to Jimmy Huntington. Huntington slapped it into the net before Driedger could get back to the crease.
That made it 2-1 with 6:59 left in the second period. The Bears did not have to wait nearly as long for the insurance goal.
Huntingon and Pierrick Dube perfectly executed a 2-on-1 break, with Huntington passing to the right post where Dube pushed the puck in for a 3-1 lead with 3:18 left in the second. Limoges had the other assist.
That insurance goal looked valuable when the Firebirds scored just 17 seconds into the third period, courtesy of a quick shot by Marian Studenic. That play in particular irritated Nelson.
“We’re making mental errors,” Nelson said. “Maybe it’s their pressure. They’re a quick team. But we’re making mistakes in the defensive zone.”
That tally overlapped with another prolonged shotless drought for the Bears, who did not get their first third-period shot until more than nine minutes into the session. But they made what shots they did get count. With 10:15 left in regulation, Mike Vecchione won an offensive zone faceoff directly to Hardy Haman Aktell, who converted a slap shot for a 4-2 lead.
Aktell also provided an empty net goal from the defensive end for the final tally with 10 seconds left in the game.
The Bears won despite being outshot 34-21, which meant goalie Hunter Shepard was kept busy all evening. He finished with 32 saves, some of the most impressive of which came early in the game.
“If Shep doesn’t play well, we don’t win that game,” Nelson said.
For instance, when the Bears went on their first power play, the Firebirds generated the first great scoring chance of the game when Studenic had a breakaway chance. Shepard stoned him to keep the game scoreless in the early minutes.
Hershey went up 1-0 on Ivan Miroshnichenko’s seventh goal of the playoffs, assisted by Mike Vecchione, 5:51 into the game. Shepard preserved that lead when he had his momentum going to the right but came up with a left glove save on a Shane Wright wrister.
That one-goal lead held up through the first period, but Coachella Valley’s Luke Henman scored the equalizer 2:42 into the second period. Though the Bears did not get a shot on goal until more than 10 minutes later, that next shot was Huntington’s go-ahead goal above.
Driedger made 16 saves.
Game 3 will be at Coachella Valley on Tuesday, and Game 4 will be there on Wednesday. Both games will start at 10 p.m. Game 5 will also be on the Firebirds’ home ice, at 9 p.m. Saturday.
