On Friday night in Norfolk, the Bears erupted for six straight goals and turned a 4-1 deficit into a 7-4 win.

On Sunday night, Hershey trailed 3-1 and managed to knot the score at 3-3.

This time, however, Hershey couldn't build on the momentum of the comeback and lost to the Admirals, 4-3.

Norfolk's Matt Keith slid a puck past Hershey goaltender Kirk Daubenspeck from close range five minutes into the third period and the goal stood up to give the Ads the victory at the Giant Center.

Norfolk has beaten the Bears five times in the last six games of their season series.

"The third period was fairly even,'' said Hershey coach Bruce Boudreau. "But when they got their goal ... it's an awful lot easier to play strong defense and not have to create anything offensively than it is to have to create something. It's a lot easier to play with the lead and just dump the puck out rather than having the pressure of having to make a play and score a goal.''

The Bears managed to create goal-scoring chances Friday while trailing but the Admirals' defense was tougher on Sunday night.

"You bear down defensively and you concentrate more (on defensive responsibilities) because if you give them the lead, it's really hard to come back,'' said Norfolk forward Mark Cullen, who scored two goals in the game. "You concentrate more on your end of the ice and then let the offense take care of itself.''

Boudreau started Daubenspeck in goal despite the fact that he was pulled after giving up three goals on eight shots Friday in Norfolk.

"If he doesn't think the coach has any faith in him, he loses confidence,'' Boudreau said.

In Daubenspeck's defense, three of the four goals Norfolk scored were "good'' goals. In other words, difficult to stop.

Cullen opened the scoring by re-directing Carl Corazzini's cross-crease pass for a power play goal midway through the first period. Cullen then squeezed the puck through a screen and into the top left corner for a 2-0 Norfolk lead.

The Bears halved the lead when Graham Mink popped the puck over Norfolk goalie Mike McKenna's shoulder as Hershey jammed at the puck on the doorstep.

Norfolk was fortunate in grabbing a 3-1 lead early in the second period. James Wisniewski's wrist shot deflected to Daubenspeck's right and caromed into the net off Milan Bartovic's shinpad.

Jonas Johansson, a healthy scratch for the past two games, got the Bears' comeback going when he wheeled in front of McKenna with a rebound and scored to make it 3-2. After another Johansson goal was waved off due to goaltender interference, Boyd Kane tied the score with a short-handed goal.

Boyd skated down the right wing side and beat McKenna with a wrist shot.

"We were down 3-1 and we had to do something to get us going,'' Kane said. "A goal always helps to get the momentum and get the emotion back in the game for us. The guys picked it up.''

Cullen and his mates were starting to feel a little deja vu.

"We just tried to keep cool,'' Cullen said. "For a while there, we were kind of running around letting our emotions get the best of us. Coach (Mike Haviland) settled us down and we just focused on doing the right things and playing hard.''

Five minutes into the third period, Keith got position inside the Hershey defense and took a pass from behind the net from Colin Fraser and slipped it past Daubenspeck. The Bears came away from a couple of power plays fruitless and had a couple of flurries in the game's final minute but couldn't re-tie the game.

For the game, the Bears were 1-for-11 with the man advantage. Some of those power plays were short in duration.

Notes: Hershey F Colin Forbes, after scoring a pair of goals in Norfolk Friday and another against Binghamton Saturday, was recalled to Washington after Saturday night's win over the Senators. ... The AHL takes a break for the All-Star Classic, which will be held this week in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The skills competition will be held Tuesday and the game will be played Wednesday. The skills will be televised by Comcast Sportsnet (Phila.) on tape delay at 11 p.m. Tuesday. The game will be broadcast live by Comcast at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Hershey's Lawrence Nycholat and Eric Fehr will play for the Canadian team. ... The Bears are back in action Friday in Philadelphia before hosting the Phantoms Saturday at 7 p.m. ... LW Tomas Fleischmann (thigh) and C Joey Tenute (shoulder) are expected to return to the lineup Friday after nursing injuries. Deryk Engelland, Cam McCaffrey and Mike Kompon were returned to their ECHL teams after Sunday's game. blog comments powered by Disqus