The opportunity to avenge an embarrassing performance and the chance to leap back into first place were motivation enough for the Hershey Bears Saturday night.

With a near-dominating performance defensively and the ability to take advantage of their power play, the Bears defeated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 4-1 in front of 7,660 at Giant Center.

The victory — Hershey's fifth straight — vaulted the Bears over Bridgeport into first place in the American Hockey League's East Division.

The Bears hit the season's quarter pole with a 14-5-1 record, among the best in the league.

"We weren't happy with our effort in Bridgeport," said Hershey center Keith Aucoin, who had a goal and and assist in the game. Aucoin was referring to the Sound Tigers' 4-1 win over the Bears on Nov. 9.

"We wanted to play one of our best games of the year and I thought we did."

The game was tied at 1-1 entering the third period. Bridgeport goalie Yann Danis was most responsible for that, stopping 28 of 29 Hershey shots.

The Bears then scored two goals on two shots in the span of 1:23 to break the game open.

Sami Lepisto scored Hershey's second power-play goal (the Bears were 2-for-8 with the man advantage), squeezing a wrist shot through Danis' pads.

Oskar Osala followed that goal with his 13th of the season, whipping the puck past Danis from close range. Osala is second in the league in goals and leads all rookies.

Hershey's Graham Mink finished the scoring later in the third, surprising Danis with a backhand after taking a carom off the back boards.

"That third period was probably one of our best of the season," said Hershey coach Bob Woods. "We did a lot of good things, like short shifts, changing at the right time and getting pucks deep. We grinded it away and got some pucks to go in."

Hershey spent more time in the offensive zone than Bridgeport early in the game but the Sound Tigers struck first, scoring on their third shot on goal.

Jesse Joensuu beat Hershey goalie Daren Machesney (17 saves) with a wrist shot from the left circle, converting Pascal Morency's feed from behind the Hershey net.

The Bears, however, thanks to being afforded four first-period power plays, tied the score at 12:08 when Aucoin beat Danis with a wraparound. Danis, though, prevented Hershey from taking a lead, stopping 18 first-period shots, including 12 that came while the Bears were on the power play.

Hershey's defensive effort was particularly good when they were forced to kill a penalty. That might have been a worry for the Bears, who entered the game 27th in the league in penalty-killing while the Sound Tigers were fifth in the league on the power play.

But Bridgeport had only three power plays and managed only three shots while up a man.

The Bears got an all around strong defensive effort but the play of defenseman Greg Amadio stood out due to his ability to block shots.

He fears no shot and blocked two straight midway through the third period.

"Obviously, I'm not the most offensive defenseman," said Amadio, who has two assists in 15 games. "I concentrate on being physical and being good in my own zone and blocking shots is part of that."

Woods called Amadio's play an inspiration to the team.

"Guys are sacrificing and paying the price and you can't have enough guys like that," he said.

Hershey's five-game winning streak comes on the heels of a stretch in which the Bears lost five of seven games.

There's a feeling, now, that team has righted the ship.

"The slump was a wakeup call for us," said Aucoin, who leads the league in scoring. "We had had it too easy (at the beginning of the season) and thought it was going to be easy. We've moved on and hopefully it won't happen again but we have to learn from it."

Notes: Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of former Hershey coach Bruce Boudreau's elevation to head coach of the Washington Capitals. His NHL coaching record is 48-22-10, including an 11-5-3 mark this season. The Caps are 12 points ahead of where they were at this point last season. ... On the injury front, C Jay Beagle (concussion), D Sean Collins (shoulder), D Dean Arsene (sports hernia) RW Darren Reid (lower body) and D Grant McNeill (wrist) remain out of the Hershey lineup. ... Bears are back at the Giant Center Wednesday to host Binghamton.

E-mail: kfreeman@lnpnews.com