Who would have thunk it?

The Hershey Bears, losers of seven games in 10 against the Norfolk Admirals during the regular season, figured to have a tough time with the Ads, despite the fact that Hershey had accumulated more points in the standings.

But there were the Bears, skating through playoff hockey's traditional series-ending handshake line after only four games of this best-of-seven Calder Cup opening-round series.

The Bears got a game-winning goal from Graham Mink midway through the second period, got an insurance tally from Eric Fehr in the third and then scored a pair of shorthanded, empty-net goals late in the third to defeat the Admirals, 5-1.

The playoff series sweep was Hershey's first since it dispatched Kentucky in a best-of-five series in 2001. The Bears' last sweep in a best-of-seven dates back to 1994 when they swept Rochester.

The Bears now await the winner of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton-Bridgeport series. WB/S knotted the series at 2-2 with a 1-0 victory Tuesday night.

In completing the sweep, the Bears continued a theme they started in Game One. That theme may have surprised the Admirals, who simply couldn't adjust. Hershey wanted and succeeded in playing a physical game, particularly up front where their bigger forwards could wear down the Norfolk defense.

"I think Norfolk thought we were going to try and play soft hockey and score a lot of goals,'' said Fehr. "But we came runnin' and gunnin' and trying to hit everything. We wanted to knock them off their game and off stride and I think we accomplished that in the first couple of games.''

A byproduct of Hershey's forecheck and cycling down low efforts were that Norfolk took penalties in trying to stop them. The Bears scored only once in six power-play chances, but the cumulative effect of Norfolk having to kill those penalties helped the Bears.

"When the other team is killing 14 or 16 minutes of penalties, it's hard to come back and win,'' said Hershey coach Bruce Boudreau.

Norfolk afforded the Bears three power-play opportunities in the first period and although they didn't score on them, they got an even-strength goal by Boyd Gordon just 2:42 into the game.

The Admirals, however, tied the game in the last 10 seconds of the period with former Bear Carl Corazzini beating Hershey goalie Frederic Cassivi through the 5-hole.

That goal was the only blemish on an otherwise strong performance by Cassivi, who made 30 saves. Cassivi entered the game with a .922 save percentage.

"That's what you'd expect from Freddy,'' said Hershey defenseman Mark Wotton.

Cassivi snuffed a shot by Mark Cullen early in the second and foiled Corazzini late in the second. By that time, the Bears had taken a 2-1 lead on Mink's goal, his team-leading fourth of the playoffs. Getting an on-the-tape cross-ice pass from Tomas Fleischman, Mink easily snapped the puck past out-of-position Norfolk goalie Adam Munro.

Cassivi then protected the one-goal advantage with an early third-period save on Mark Keith.

"I thought (tonight) was Freddy's best game,'' Boudreau said. "He was challenged with a lot more scoring chances. When the score was 2-1 and 3-1, he made some really big saves, particularly in the third, when we're going, "uh-oh,'' and watching the clock.

"When he needed to make the save, he made it. You need that in the playoffs and we got that from him.''

Fehr's goal to make it 3-1 came on the power play with Fehr circling behind the net and scoring on the wraparound.

Despite the luxury of a 3-0 lead in the series and the next three games scheduled for Giant Center ice, the Bears didn't play as if they could afford a loss, even if, maybe, they could.

"It was important to win tonight to get a break,'' Mink said. "We've got some guys who are a little sore and a little banged-up. But we also wanted to continue to play the game we've been playing. We don't want to lose focus and lose track of what's made us successful.''

Notes: Hershey's sweep removed a serious monkey from Boudreau's back. The teams he's coached, including the last four straight with Manchester, were sent packing after the first round of the playoffs. "I'm glad to get that over with,'' he said. ... Dave Steckel and Kris Beech scored Hershey's shorthanded, empty-net goals. ... Fleischmann's assist on Mink's goal gives him a team-leading seven in the playoffs. blog comments powered by Disqus