Bears lose to St John's Saturday - abc27 WHTM

Bears lose to St John's Saturday

ICECAPS SNEAK BY BEARS

HERSHEY, Pa. – Derek Meech's second period power-play goal was enough for the St. John's IceCaps to skate past the HERSHEY BEARS on Saturday night, a 2-1 final score at GIANT Center.

 The two teams battled through a scoreless first period, but the BEARS had the first scoring chance not long after the opening faceoff.  Barry Almeida raced into the right circle to steal a puck, he cut toward the slot and got a snap shot away that IceCaps goaltender Mark Dekanich turned aside.  Each team earned a power play opportunity in the first period but were unable to cash in.

 St. John's cashed in first at 5:19 of the second period, when Eric O'Dell was able to lift the rebound of a shot from Carl Klingberg over Dany Sabourin for the 1-0 lead.

 The lead held up until less than two minutes was left to play in the period.  Almeida would not be denied on a chance at the top of Dekanich's crease at 18:46, as he slipped a shot into the vacant left side of the net after Jeff Taffe snuck the puck his way from the right corner.

 The BEARS were then sent to a lengthy penalty kill early in the third period when Matt Pope's stick caught Klingberg up high.  After relentless penalty killing, the IceCaps managed to get a shot by Sabourin when Meech's slap shot from the center point banked off of a BEARS player in into the net at 6:56.

 The IceCaps forced the BEARS to take three consecutive icings late in the game, and prevented the hosts to get a chance to tie the game.

 Sabourin took the tough loss with 25 saves on 27 shots, and fell to 2-3-0.  Dekanich improved to 4-1-0 with 18 saves.  The BEARS finished the night 0-for-2 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill.

 The BEARS conclude their stretch of three games in three nights with a 5:00 PM faceoff tomorrow, November 11 against the Portland Pirates