WINNIPEG, MAN. – Late game heroics have been the norm for the Hershey Bears during the current Calder Cup playoff season. Saturday night, they may have taken it to a new level.
Alexandre Giroux scored his third goal of the game on a power play 13:33 into overtime to cap an incredible comeback as the Bears defeated the Manitoba Moose 5-4 to take Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. Game 2 is scheduled for Tuesday night in Winnipeg. Giroux’s hat trick raised his combined regular season and post season goal total to 72, making him the first AHL player ever to reach that plateau.
The winning goal came as a direct result of Manitoba’s Nolan Baumgartner taking a high sticking penalty. As the man advantage unfolded, Keith Aucoin worked the puck to Graham Mink who sent a shot on Moose goalie Cory Schneider . Schneider made the save but the rebound came out to Giroux who stuffed it home to end the game.
“Obviously, we’re pretty happy with the win,” Giroux told Manitoba radio. “We did it tonight but it’s already behind us. We have to focus tomorrow and come back the same way on Tuesday.”
It didn’t take long for the energy to amp up. Just 34 seconds into the game, Manitoba’s Mario Bliznak got in for a testing shot on Hershey goalie Michal Neuvirth and drew a penalty on the Bears’ Chris Bourque at the same time. Down the other end, Moose Schneider faced his first testing shot off the stick of Bears’ John Carlson who blasted a one-timer.
Hershey got itself into to penalty trouble a few minutes later and paid the price. Bourque took his second penalty of the game at 5:44 and was followed into the box by Kyle Wilson at 7:13. Manitoba had 32 seconds of a five-on-three advantage and used it to score the game’s opening goal when Jason Krog fed a pass to Mark Cullen who slammed it past Neuvirth from the base of the circle at 7:35.
The lead didn’t last long. Still killing the call against Wilson, Bears’ forward Keith Aucoin forced Krog to cough up the puck in the Manitoba zone. Aucoin grabbed the puck and sent it to Giroux who wasted no time in beating Schneider for the short-handed goal at 8:31 to tie the score. It stayed tied past the midway point of the period, thanks in part to Schneider who showed a quick glove to deny Tyler Sloan on a shot.
Manitoba’s team speed went back on display just past the 13 minute mark of the stanza and it lead to another score. Cody Hodgson sent the puck up the left wing boards to Michael Grabner . Grabner turned on the jets, turning Hershey defenseman Patrick O’Neill before firing a backhander home to push the Moose back in front. It would stay that way into the first intermission.
The second period was mostly defensive as neither team was able to muster much pressure in the early minutes. The one time that Hershey tried to press the issue, they got burned as Manitoba’s Dusty Collins sent teammate Grabner away on a break-in. He made a couple of moves and beat Neuvirth for his second of the game to give his team a two goal lead.
That lead could have easily been more. At the 14:14 mark of the stanza, Staffan Kronwall dove to try to poke the puck away from a breaking Matt Pope. Instead of hitting the disc, he dumped Pope, causing referee Kyle Rehman to award Pope a penalty shot. Pope’s opportunity was shut off by Neuvirth who refused to bite on any of Pope’s moves. After two periods, the Moose had what looked like a solid 3-1 lead.
Hershey came out of the locker room at the start of the third with a renewed vigor and it paid dividends. The Bears’ fourth line brought them to within one when Oskar Osala converted the rebound of Andrew Gordon’s shot at 2:34. It was just the beginning of what would turn out to be a wild period.
The Bears turned the territorial advantage completely around, pinning the Moose in their zone for long stretches. Midway through the period, Manitoba’s Mark Fistric took a cross-checking penalty, giving Hershey an opening. Twenty-one seconds into the advantage, Giroux was back at the point and let loose with a drive. The puck hit Baumgartner in front, changing directions and found its way past Schneider to tie the score at three with just under nine minutes left.
With the momentum squarely on the side of the visitors, Hershey completed what was at the time the improbable comeback at 15:24 when Osala got hold of the puck in the Manitoba zone and banked a shot off of Schneider’s skate to put the Bears in front.
“We got away from what we were doing about getting pucks deep and making them play in their end of the rink. We kind of self-inflicted a little bit of our own pain,” Manitoba coach Scott Arniel said. “In the third period, we were kind of on our heels. Give them credit. Their record in the regular season and in the playoffs (says) they’re one of the best teams in the third period for scoring goals.”
Hershey was feeling good about taking the lead but it didn’t last. Sloan took a double minor for high sticking at 16:53, meaning that the Bears would be short-handed through the rest of regulation. The situation got much worse when Kronwall was called for delay of game for closing his hand on the puck, giving Manitoba a full two minutes of five-on-three advantage time. With nine seconds left on the first half of Sloan’s infraction, Krog found Maxime Fortunus who scored to tie the game with 1:16 left in regulation.
Manitoba started the overtime with almost a minute of power play time but only mustered one shot on net. From there, the rink almost seemed to tilt in the other direction as Hershey took over. The game almost ended when Schneider got out of position and Andrew Joudrey came within an inch of depositing a wrap-around into the open net before a Moose defender’s stick knocked it away. The Bears were surging when Baumgartner hit Mathieu Perreault with his stick a bit too high, drawing the penalty that led to Giroux’s winner.
“We came into this trip here wanting to win at least one. Now we’ve got that one in the bank. Now we’re changing our goal – we want to get both,” Hershey coach Bob Woods said. “I know Manitoba’s going to be a better hockey team on Tuesday. Hopefully we play a little bit smarter than we did tonight. Again, it should be another great hockey game.”
Game notes…The game Saturday night was the first meeting between Hershey and Manitoba in almost two seasons…The Moose are trying to win the city of Winnipeg’s first championship since 1979 when the Winnipeg Jets won the AVCO Cup as WHA champions…Coming into the finals, Manitoba was averaging 8,919 fans coming through the turnstiles with Hershey second with a 7,329 average attendance. Game one at the MTS Centre was a sellout at 15,003 fans, the seventh largest crowd to watch a Calder Cup playoff game…Giroux now has 14 points in his last eight games…Manitoba came into the game a perfect 9-0 when scoring first so far in the playoffs. They had also won seven straight games at the MTS Centre before Saturday’s loss…The series has some special meaning for members of the Hershey franchise. The late Frank Mathers , a long-time part of the Bears’ organization as a player-coach, coach and executive, grew up in Winnipeg. Mathers was directly part of six of Hershey’s Calder Cup championships and an “unofficial helper” in a seventh. He passed away in 2005…Manitoba assistant coach Jay Wells is a former Bears’ assistant…Saturday’s win means that with the 2-3-2 playoff format , Hershey could win the Cup on home ice for the first time since defeating New Brunswick in 1980.
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