Hunter Shepard made 31 saves and the Hershey Bears took back home-ice advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals with a 4-2 win over the Rochester Americans in Game 3 on Saturday night.
The Bears will take a 2-1 series lead into Game 4 on Monday evening.
Logan Day and Sam Anas notched a goal and an assist each to stake Hershey to a 2-0 lead before Zach Metsa, a national champion at Quinnipiac University this season, scored his first professional goal to put the Amerks on the board 7:57 into the second period.
Connor McMichael restored the Bears’ two-goal advantage two and a half minutes later, and Hershey took a 3-1 lead into intermission after scoring twice on four shots in the middle period.
Sean Malone pulled Rochester back to within 3-2 at 7:36 of the third, but Aliaksei Protas sealed the win with an empty-netter.
Malcolm Subban stopped 21 of 24 shots in the loss.
Attendance was 10,746, the largest for an Amerks game at Blue Cross Arena since Dec. 30, 2005.
(Hershey leads series, 2-1)
Game 1 – Tue., May 23 – Rochester 5, HERSHEY 1 | Recap/Highlights
Game 2 – Thu., May 25 – HERSHEY 2, Rochester 0 | Recap/Highlights
Game 3 – Sat., May 27 – Hershey 4, ROCHESTER 2
Game 4 – Mon., May 29 – Hershey at Rochester, 6:05
Game 5 – Wed., May 31 – Rochester at Hershey, 7:00
*Game 6 – Fri., June 2 – Hershey at Rochester, 7:05
*Game 7 – Mon., June 5 – Rochester at Hershey, 7:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern