Bears tie up Bruins after 2-1 win

HERSHEY, Pa – The Hershey Bears bounced back on home ice with a 2-1 victory in Game 2 to tie their series with the Providence Bruins at one game apiece in the AHL’s Eastern Conference finals.

Unlike Game 1, the first period played to a slow crawl. Neither team established any kind of offensive rhythm, but the Bruins were able to dictate the tempo. Providence had a 5-0 shots advantage through the first 15 minutes, but Hershey finally woke up and started to change the momentum. The Bruins ended the period with a 6-5 shots advantage through one. Neither team scored in the second period, but this time it was the Bears who dictated play by coming out of the gate with their best period of the series outshooting the Bruins 21-10. Tuukka Rask was stellar for the Bruins as Hershey threw the proverbial kitchen sink at the Bruins net but time and again Rask was there to make the save. Hershey broke the ice in the third period when Andrew Joudrey took a pass at the left point and shot the puck towards the Bruins net. The puck appeared to have deflected off of a Bruins defender in the high slot area and changed direction enough to fool Rask for a 1-0 Bears lead at 3:21. The Bears extended their lead to 2-0 on the power play when Alexandre Giroux went down the left wing boards on a two-on-one and tried to pass the puck over to his open teammate. But the puck never got to his teammate as the puck deflected off of a Bruins stick and past Rask for the goal. It looked as though Michal Neuvirth would get his league-leading fourth shutout of the playoffs, but Providence’s Brad Marchand went top shelf, right corner, to get the Bruins within one on the power play. Marchand skated in on a three-on-two and made no mistake on the shot with just 35.2 seconds left in the game. The Bruins tried to tie the game late and almost did with five seconds left when Marchand, who was to the left of the right face-off circle, was all alone to in front of Neuvirth. However the Bruins rookie shot the puck wide right, just barely missing the net. With the victory Neuvirth now leads the AHL with nine playoff wins. Hershey outshot the Bruins 39-26 for the game and 34-20 over the past two periods of the game. Games 3, 4 and 5 will be in Providence beginning on Friday, April 22.
 
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