The Washington Capitals' AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, clinched a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs. They did so on Wednesday with a dominant 5-1 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ilya Protas and Clay Stevenson all returned after being called up by the Capitals. He helped Hershey clinch a playoff berth for the sixth consecutive season and first under head coach Derek King.
Miroshnichenko recorded his 13th goal of the season on the power play with one assist, while Protas finished with two assists. Protas has 64 points in 67 games, which leads all AHL rookies and is sixth in the league. Meanwhile, Miroshnichenko now has 100 career AHL points.
Stevenson started in net a day after stopping 27 of 28 shots to help the Capitals defeat Columbus. He played even better with 32 saves on 33 shots in the Bears' win.
Corey Schueneman and Matt Strome, Dylan's younger brother, also contributed goals for Hershey. Then, in the third period, Alexander Suzdalev and Sam Bitton both recorded empty-netters to seal the victory.
Unfortunately, Bogdan Trineyev suffered an upper body injury in the second period and did not return. It's bad enough that the Bears were already missing some key players in the lineup.
With the win, Hershey improved to 31–30–6–3 and is currently in fifth place in the Atlantic Division. They have two games left to decide who their first round opponent will be.
