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AHL Hershey Bears

Bears Complete Late Comeback for 2-1 OT Win Against Crunch

December 13, 2024 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


Syracuse, NY - The Hershey Bears (18-6-3-0) trailed 1-0 late in regulation, but Ethen Frank scored the tying goal, Clay Stevenson made a critical breakaway save in overtime, and Bogdan Trineyev completed the comeback with the game-winner in a 2-1 victory over the Syracuse Crunch (9-8-4-3) on Friday night at Upstate Medical University Arena, as the club continued its 2024-25 season, presented by Penn State Health.

NOTABLES:

Ethen Frank's league-leading 19th goal came at 18:20 of the third period with Clay Stevenson pulled for an extra attacker. Mike Sgarbossa and Brad Hunt assisted on the goal, with Sgarbossa picking up his 20th assist of the season to remain tied for the league lead in helpers.

Stevenson made 24 saves to pick up his fourth victory of the season, including a breakaway stop on Syracuse's Conor Sheary 1:16 into the overtime period.

Bogdan Trineyev netted his first career game-winning goal on the ensuing shift, as Vincent Iorio sent an outlet pass up the left side to Henrik Rybinski, who wheeled into the offensive zone and found a streaking Trineyev for the clincher at 1:35.

Bears head coach Todd Nelson earned his 424th career AHL head coaching victory, moving into a tie with John Anderson for sixth on the league's head-coaching wins list. Nelson worked as an assistant coach on Anderson's staff with the Chicago Wolves, winning the Calder Cup in 2008, and continued as an assistant coach under Anderson in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers from 2008-10.

Hershey is 2-0-0-0 against Syracuse this season.

The Bears improved their road record to a league-best 11-1-2-0 on the season.

Hershey has gone 4-3 in the overtime period this season and its four overtime wins are tied for the second-most in the league; the club has earned 15 total points through games played in overtime and/or the shootout, tied for the most in the league.

Jesse Ylonen scored Syracuse's lone goal at 3:20 of the first period.

SHOTS: HER 25, SYR 25

GOALTENDING: HER - Clay Stevenson, 24-for-25; SYR - Matt Tomkins, 23-for-25

POWER PLAY: HER - 0-for-4; SYR - 0-for-4

THEY SAID IT:

Bears head coach Todd Nelson on the team's play, the tying score by Ethen Frank and the game-winner by Bogdan Trineyev:

"We didn't get off to a good start, but we got better as the game went on and we found a way to finally score a goal with two minutes left to put us into overtime. First off, Mike Sgarbossa had that big face-off win to give us control, and we were patient while we played at 6-on-5. Sgarbs then made an excellent pass to Franky finding the seam, and Franky just hit the net; a good all-around play. And with the overtime goal, this great finish by Bogdan off a great play by [Iorio] and [Rybinski]. So what I liked about it is that we got stronger as the game went on and we did not panic, we just played our game.

Nelson on the play of Clay Stevenson:

"Excellent. He had to make some really big saves, and the goal that was scored on him was he was screened, didn't have a chance on it, but he made a lot of key saves the rest of the way. The glove save on the breakaway, you know, it was in a key moment of the game, obviously prevented a goal. Great save. And then the next face-off, all of a sudden we score. So Clay played a really good game."

Ethen Frank on his tying goal:

"It seemed like as we were getting down to the nitty-gritty the last couple minutes there, it seemed to be going in our favor. We had them kind of hemmed in a few times. They were just trying to live to fight another day and throwing pucks out and we just kept on them with good pressure, and Sgarbs made a great play, showed a lot of deception towards the shot to fool their guys on the ice, a great pass and I was fortunate enough to score."

Clay Stevenson on his approach to his breakaway save on Conor Sheary 1:16 into overtime:

"It's a pretty clean view from the far blue line, so, you know, honestly I've just been working on presenting bigger to the shooter on breakaways - like working with guys in practice - and closing in on him as he is getting closer to me and not thinking too much about it, just make a clean save and just battle for my guys. That's all I was thinking about."

Stevenson on how he's battled through a slow start to showing improvement over his last three outings:

Honestly, there's no secret behind it. I honestly believe in my foundation as a goalie and who I am as a person...maybe a couple games at the start, six goals against, five goals against, obviously those aren't what you want at the start of the year, but I trusted my foundation, I trusted my game, and with that I can find a way to be successful stopping those pucks more often than not. So honestly from then to now, not too much has changed. Just a different kind of different mentality into it, not thinking too much about the game. Perhaps that was probably a problem early on in the season, just thinking too much out there, but you know, you play free and that's it."

Bogdan Trineyev on what led to his game-winner:

"Before we scored, Mud made that great save, it gave us power heading into the next shift. Then great passing from Vinny and Ryby - without them I can't just score. They made it simple for me."

NEXT GAME:

The Bears continue the 2024-25 regular season, presented by Penn State Health, when they return home to host the Charlotte Checkers on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. at GIANT Center for Members 1st Bobblehead Night. All fans in attendance will receive a bobblehead of Bears captain Aaron Ness, presented by Members 1st Credit Union. Purchase tickets for the game.

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