Bears break serve, take opener in Bridgeport

David Gucciardi broke a scoreless tie with 7:29 left in regulation and despatched the Hershey Bears on to a 2-0 win over Bridgeport in Recreation 1 of their Atlantic Division first-round sequence on Tuesday night.

The Bears take a 1-0 lead within the best-of-three sequence again residence, the place they are going to host Recreation 2 on Thursday.

Gucciardi, a rookie defenseman who scored three targets in 52 video games in the course of the regular-season, took a cross-crease move from Henrik Rybinski and beat Islanders goaltender Marcus Högberg to finish the stalemate.

Ilya Protas added an empty-net aim with 1.1 seconds remaining.

Clay Stevenson made 18 saves for Hershey for his first shutout of the season and the primary of his Calder Cup Playoff profession. Högberg stopped 21 of twenty-two photographs for the Islanders, who had received 10 consecutive residence video games to finish the common season.

In AHL historical past, groups that win the opener of a best-of-three have gone on to win the sequence 75 of 89 instances (84.3 %).

(Hershey leads sequence, 1-0)Recreation 1 – Tue., Apr. 21 – Hershey 2, BRIDGEPORT 0Game 2 – Thu., Apr. 23 – Bridgeport at Hershey, 7:00*Recreation 3 – Sat., Apr. 25 – Hershey at Bridgeport, 3:00*if obligatory… All instances Japanese