Sound Tigers Fall To Bears, Season Over

Bridgeport's Josh Ho-Sang advances the puck past the blue line. The
Sound Tigers gave it all they had but came up short and were defeated
by Hershey, 3-2 in OT, and were bounced from the Calder Cup playoffs.

By Bob Phillips

Photos by Bill Harper

BRIDGEPORT—All good things must come to an end, and so it was last night for the 5,253 fans who attended the fifth and deciding game of the AHL Atlantic Division Semifinal series between the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Hershey Bears at the Webster Bank Arena on Saturday night.

The short story: the Sound Tigers dropped a 3-2 decision in overtime to the Hershey Bears in Game 5 of the Atlantic Division Semifinals on Saturday, which ended their 2018-19 season. Brian Pinho scored the series-winner at 10:27 of the extra frame on a partial breakaway for his first playoff goal.

But the long story is that this series will be remembered as a classic, played between two teams as evenly matched as conceivable. Bridgeport, which ended the regular season one point ahead of Hershey, lived to see the light of day for Game 5 when they staved off elimination with a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 4 at the Giant Center in Hershey on Thursday night.

However, the Sound Tigers had history working against them, even playing a Game 5 of a best-three-of-five series on their home ice: Bridgeport entered the game just 1-6 in Game 5s in the 18-year history of the franchise.

The Bears had scored first in each of the first four games of the series, but Bridgeport’s Matt Lorito reversed that trend with his second straight goal—Lorito scored the game-winner in overtime in Game 4. After Sebastian Aho took control of a loose puck in front of the Hershey goal and fed Lorito between the circles, he wristed a shot past Hershey netminder Ilya Samsonov’s glove for his second goal of the postseason.

The Sound Tigers had an excellent chance to double their lead with just over seven minutes remaining in the oprninh period when Chris Bourque set Steve Bernier up beautifully in front of Hershey net, but Bernier’s attempted wrister was stuffed by Samsonov

Steve Whitney (11) scores Hershey's first goal of the contest. The Sound
Tigers gave it their all, but fell just short and were eliminated from the
Calder Cup Playoffs by the Bears who will now play Charlotte.

The Bears knotted the game at 1-1 when Steve Whitney converted a 2-on-1 rush at the 6:43 mark, beating Sound Tigers’ goalie Christopher Gibson for his first goal of the playoffs. The Sound Tigers out-shot Hershey in the first period, 13-7. Bridgeport was 0-for-1 on the power play. STs did not commit a penalty in the first period.

Oliver Wahlstrom put the Sound Tigers back on top at 12:07 of the middle frame. Kieffer Bellows skated across the high slot and cut to the right circle and dropped the puck for Wahlstrom who fired a missile into the bottom right corner of the net. 

Hershey scored its only power-play goal of the series less than four minutes later to knot the contest at 2-2. After Mitch Vande Sompel was whistled for cross-checking. the Bears cashed in when Jayson Megna sent a centering pass to Riley Barber, who fired a one-timer past Gibson from the slot.

Both goaltenders were lights out in a fast-paced, high-stakes third period. Chris Bourque nearly put one in midway through the frame, but drew iron on a slap shot that had Samsonov fooled. Gibson also made a gorgeous stretched-out pad save in the final three minutes as regulation ended with the teams tied at two.

In the extra period, Garrett Pilon guided a stretch pass to Pinho, who inched ahead on a partial breakaway and scored just inside the right post. That goal not only won the series for Hershey, it also marked the first time that the Bears had scored three goals in the series.

The Sound Tigers finished the game 0-for-1 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill. Samsonov (2-1) had 29 saves for the Bears, while Hershey out-shot the Sound Tigers by a 34-31 margin.

So the Bears now advance to the Atlantic Division finals where they will challenge the Charlotte Checkers while the Sound Tigers, who have not advanced to the second round since 2003, have the rest of the spring and a long, hot summer to ponder “What if?” before starting it up again in October.

THE SKINNY

—with staff reports

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