HERSHEY, PA — The Hershey Bears were in a dire position coming into Tuesday’s Game Three.
They had been shut out in two straight games by goaltender Joey Daccord and outscored by the Coachella Valley Firebirds 9-0. Facing a 2-0 deficit in the 2023 Calder Cup Finals, a third-straight Bears’ loss would likely prove too difficult of a hole to come back from.
The team had every reason to be nervous. Offense has been difficult to come by in the postseason. Coming into that night’s game, Hershey had averaged 2.66 goals per game through their first 15 contests of the playoffs, relying on good team defense, surprise offense from the team’s fourth line, and stellar goaltender Hunter Shepard to get them this far. The team’s lethal first line in the regular season, which combined for 74 goals and 162 points in the regular season, had scored only three goals in the playoffs and was split up due to injury and a lack of production.
Rookie winger Ethen Frank bear’d most of the weight of that disappointment, going his first 11 postseason games without scoring. To put that in perspective, Frank’s longest goalless drought in the regular season was four games, which he did only twice.
Frank was looking like a shell of his former self as he scuffled to score, but that figurative dam finally broke 13:24 into the first period of Game Three. Frank beat Daccord with a shot from the left circle on the Bears’ first power play of the night, causing a sold out Giant Center to erupt with cheers.
First of the night and first of the #CalderCup Playoffs for Ethen Frank‼️@TheHersheyBears | #CVvsHER pic.twitter.com/Lvb6txXA3I
— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) June 13, 2023
The goal garnered a huge celebration from Frank, who was an AHL All-Star and scored 30 goals during the regular season. He bent down and screamed as loud as he could as his giddy Bears teammates skated over to hug him.
Photo: Tori Hartman/Hershey Bears
Frank’s goal ended a scoreless drought of 160:44 for Hershey, dating back to Shane Gersich’s series-winning goal against the Rochester Americans.
After that moment, the Bears resembled the Bears team that had dominated opponents in the regular season, tying their postseason-high of five goals as Joe Snively, Sam Anas, Garrett Pilon, and Riley Sutter all added individual tallies of their own. The Bears went on to win 5-4 in overtime.
“I think just getting that first goal, and from who it was from, Ethen Frank, that hasn’t scored in a long time, was huge for us and gave us confidence,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said in the media room.
“It was our best game of the series so far. They came out stronger at the start, [we] weathered their storm. We’ve provided some offense tonight, which I liked. I liked our physicality. That team we’re playing against is good. But we won.”
Frank ended the night with three shots and tallied his first career multi-point game in the postseason, also assisting on Anas’ second period strike on the power play. Frank used his speed and was dangerous all night, helping buoy the team’s new first line of Henrik Borgstrom (in for Michael Sgarbossa due to a longterm injury) and Mike Vecchione.
Frank’s big game came after Nelson healthy-scratched him four different times, including Game One of the Calder Cup Finals. The move was made by Nelson to take pressure off and reset his star player while also allowing him to lean on the team’s tremendous roster depth. Behind the scenes, Nelson revealed there was a dialogue to help Frank get past what was proving to be a lot of frustration.
“Well, it’s constant conversation,” Nelson said. “We’ve been having this conversation all throughout the playoffs. I just told him after the game, ‘Good job.’ He was just, ‘thanks for sticking with me.’ For a guy that’s a goal-scorer, we all know that if goal-scorers go into a drought, it’s tough on them mentally. And he was dealing with that, but I think it was just a huge weight off his back when he scored that goal tonight.”
While sitting between goaltender Hunter Shepard and OT hero Riley Sutter, Frank admitted how difficult the drought had been for him, saying that the experience helped him learn a lot about himself and being a goal-scorer when the stakes rise.
“It feels good,” Frank said. “Obviously, it’s not all about scoring goals, but it’s part of my job to produce. And so, that little rut I was in, it obviously wasn’t very fun, but it feels good to get the win tonight.
“Everybody kind of goes through it sooner and later in their career and so just finding that even ground and not being too low or getting too high is big,” he added. “The support that I had in the locker room was big for that.”
Nelson’s main message to Frank was “Don’t worry about anything but playing hard and playing Bears hockey. Everything else will follow through.”
“It finally worked, so it feels good,” Frank said.
The goal was not only a happy moment for Frank but also his Bears teammates, who saw him struggling behind the scenes.
“It’s awesome,” Joe Snively said. “He’s such a great goal scorer, so I think he was feeling it for a little bit in these playoffs, but it’s just great to see him score, get that monkey up (sic) his back, and I think he’s going to continue to [score] goals in the series.”
“Yeah, I think it’s always difficult seeing a guy who’s used to putting the puck in the back of the net not, and obviously seeing it weigh on him a little bit,” Garrett Pilon said. He then joked, “I think it was a great thing to get that monkey up his back for sure.”
Wherever that figurative monkey is – either on or off Frank – one thing is for sure: if he can continue to get his game going, this series is far from over.
Looking to even the score.
Game 4 tonight.
7 PM. pic.twitter.com/xa4jIKJChN— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) June 15, 2023
Healdine photo: Ian Oland/RMNB
