BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HERSHEY, PA – Axel Jonsson-Fjallby’s hat trick for the Hershey Bears paced a 5-0 shutout win over the Hartford Wolf Pack in one of the most lopsided hockey games of the season.
Hershey (19-11-3-2, 43 points) holds first place in the Atlantic Division. Hartford (17-2-3-2, 39 points) slips to fourth place, .20 percentage points ahead of the Charlotte Checkers, .591 to .571.
Joe Snively, an ex-Yale Bulldog, had a goal and two assists in the winning effort.
Adam Huska started the third period in the net for Keith Kinkaid, who appeared injured, and it wasn’t pretty as the Bears scored often and early.
The first shot Huska faced from Snively saw him come out and around the net, and his shot evaded the Pack netminder at 23 seconds.
It went downhill quickly for the Wolf Pack, who were outshot by games end 36-22, and it didn’t seem that close.
The Wolf Pack broke down and allowed Hershey to flood the offensive zone. Snively fed Garrett Pilon, who was stopped. The rebound of the Pilon shot went to Tobias Geisser, who was also denied on his backhand attempt. Finally, Jonsson-Fjallby had an easy tap-in at the right side of the net for his 12th goal of the season at 3:11.
Jonsson-Fjallby completed his hat trick when Pilon sent him off on a breakaway. With Taylor trailing him, he went high to the blocker side for the finish, and the 10,514 attending on Saturday night in Hershey went wild.
SECOND PERIOD
In the scoreless second period, Hershey held the Pack to three shots on goal through two-thirds of the period.
Hershey scored their first goal at 6:13 on the power play.
Jonsson-Fjallby’s first goal unleashed a record-breaking tsunami of 52,341 teddy bears.
There was a 40-minute delay to clear the bears’ ice, re-surface the ice, and resume the game.
Shane Gersich was in the right-wing corner, sent the puck to Jonsson-Fjallby, who fired a wrist shot from the top of the right-wing circle past Kincaid, who was screened by his teammates, Tanner Fritz and Anthony Bitetto.
The Bears made it 2-0 when Shane Pinho’s first shot went off DiGiacinto’s skate and returned to him. He put his second goal past Kinkaid at 18:04, assisted by Pilon.
Kinkaid appeared to have an injury because he was resting on one knee during stoppages and winching in discomfort.
LINES:
Fritz-Pajuniemi-Ronning
Rueschoff-Richards-Luchuk
Whelan-O’Leary-Khordorenko
Elmer-DiGiacinto
Bitetto-Skinner
Giuttari-Robertson
Taylor-Lundkvist
Kinkaid
Huska
NOTES:
The team lost Anthony Greco and Tarmo Reunanen before game time to the taxi squad.
