Recap: Bears 5, Islanders 4
Feb 1, 2025Isaiah George scored once and added an assist in his return to the American Hockey League on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough as the Bridgeport Islanders (10-30-2-2), American Hockey League affiliate of the New York Islanders, suffered a 5-4 loss to the Hershey Bears (28-12-5-0) for the second straight night at Giant Center.
Ten different Islanders recorded a point, including goals from George, Sam Bolduc, Chris Terry and Eetu Liukas. Hunter Miska (0-4-0) made 25 saves.
Bridgeport enters the 2025 All-Star break on a four-game slide.
The Islanders stormed out to an early 3-0 lead with even-strength goals from George, Bolduc and Terry in the first period. The first two came from the blue line, including George’s second AHL goal in his return from the New York Islanders. The 20-year-old defenseman pulled up at the right point and lifted a long shot towards the crease, which filtered through a screen and past goaltender Clay Stevenson (19-9-5) just 2:11 in. Tyce Thompson and Cole Bardreau received the assists.
In a similar looking play, Bolduc launched a distant shot from the left point at the 10:06 mark for his fourth point of the weekend (1g, 3a) and a 2-0 Bridgeport lead. Terry muscled Aidan Fulp’s right-wing centering pass under Stevenson’s pads for his 14th goal of the season to make it 3-0 at 14:24. Terry extended his point streak to five games and tied Jeff Hamilton for fourth place on the team’s all-time goals list (71). He also tied Otto Koivula for second all-time in points (179).
Terry enters the All-Star break with a team-leading 40 points (14g, 26a), tied for fourth among all AHL players.
Hershey responded with five of the next six goals to stun the Islanders in the 5-4 final. Bogdan Trineyev found an opening on Miska with 1:09 to play in the first, pushing home Ivan Miroshnichenko’s pass from the left side to cut the Bears’ deficit to 3-1.
Terry was accessed a four-minute penalty for high sticking just 40 seconds into the second period and Hershey scored on both ends of the double minor to tie the game. Miroshnichenko made it 3-2 at the 2:33 mark before Spencer Smallman recorded his seventh goal of the season 16 seconds later. The Bears finished the night 2-for-4 on the power play.
Liukas answered at 15:36 of the second, powering his way around defenseman Nicky Leivermann and darting straight at Stevenson for his third goal of the year. George had the only assist. Hershey retaliated 27 seconds later when Pierrick Dube connected a diagonal, back-door pass to Alex Limoges for a tap-in goal at 16:03.
Ethan Bear beat Miska’s glove with a snap shot from the right circle to give Hershey its only lead of the night 6:39 into the third period.
The Islanders fell to 1-4-0-0 against the Bears this season.