Lakovic 1st Pro Goal, Bears Defeat P-Bruins 5-3

 

The Hershey Bears kept their win streak alive Saturday, taking on the Providence Bruins to secure their fourth straight win. Lynden Lakovic scored his first pro goal, and Cam Allen, with his three-point night (1 goal, 2 assists), helped lead the Bears to victory. For Providence, Henri Jokiharju scored twice, and Michael Eyssimont scored his fourth goal in his first three games with the P-Bruins. On Sunday, the Bears play Providence again, looking to grab a fifth straight win, while the Bruins aim to break their two-game losing streak.

Providence Bruins Lineup:

Eyssimont - Locmelis - Halonen

Bongiovanni - Gauce - Steeves

Biasca - Ivan - Hanas

Reichel - Schmaltz - Duran

Johansson - Sweezey

Gallagher - Jokiharju

Harris - Guenette

Zajicek

Patera

Hershey Bears Lineup:

Cristall - Dunne - Anderson

Suzdalev - Sikora - Trineyev

Lakovic - Niederbach - Smallman

Bitten - Cruikshank - Mateiko

MacDonald - Chesley

Muggli - Belpedio

McDonald - Allen

Petersen

Gibson

Lynden Lakovic got the party started in Hershey at 14:48 of the first period, scoring his first pro goal off a pass from Spencer Smallman. After Louie Belpedio passed the puck to Smallman from the left face-off circle, Smallman handed it over to Lakovic in the right circle, who one-timed a shot for a power-play goal past a diving Simon Zajicek to make it 1-0. With 12 seconds on the clock, Eriks Mateiko stuffed in his second of the season. Cam Allen took a pass from Grant Cruikshank before firing, and Mateiko put in the rebound sitting in the crease, giving Hershey a 2-0 lead.

Cutting the lead to 2-1, Michael Eyssimont put a wrister past Cal Petersen at 13:25 in the middle frame. Dans Locmelis took a cross-ice pass from Riley Duran before driving into Hershey's end, dropping the puck in the right circle for Eyssimont to pick up. Henri Jokiharju knotted it up 2-2 just 17 seconds later, recording his first goal of the season when Lukas Reichel fed the puck to him in the neutral zone, going on to cut down towards the right circle, firing a wrist shot from a sharp angle that snuck under Petersen's pads. Ty Gallagher picked up the secondary assist. At 12:01 of the second period, Allen answered, putting the Bears back in front 3-2, beating Zajicek on the blocker side with a wrist shot from the high slot for his first of the season. Josh Dunne extended Hershey's lead to 4-2, chipping in the rebound of Bogdan Trineyev's shot from above the left circle with 2:17 to go in the second. Allen picked up the secondary assist.

Cruikshank went on a 2-on-1 rush with Joey Anderson, took Anderson's pass, and from the left circle, he put it home inside the left post to make it 5-2 at 11:06. With 6:14 to go in the third period, Jokiharju scored his second of the game, hammering a slap shot into the upper-right corner of the net for the 5-3 final.

Notes:

- Cal Petersen made 31 saves for Hershey, and Simon Zajicek made 23 saves for Providence.

- With his assist on the 5th Bears' tally, Joey Anderson earned his 200th AHL career point.

- In his first three games for the P-Bruins, Michael Eyssimont has four goals and one assist.

- The power play went 1-for-4 for the Bears and 0-for-4 for the P-Bruins.