It seems only fitting that on Halloween night, a guy named Jason wearing a hockey mask would have a starring role in the Hershey Bears’ 4-1 win over the Albany River Rats at Giant Center.

Jason Bacashihua, the Bears’ unbeaten goaltender, made 23 saves, including a huge one on Pat Dwyer 23 seconds into the game, and improved his perfect record to 4-0.

According to Hershey’s head coach, Mark French, even though the save occurred very early in the contest, the significance of it was monumental.

“…He makes a very acrobatic stop that is probably the turning point of the game. (If) they score there we are behind the eight ball. Even though we got down 1-0 later, (that) might have been a little more backbreaking with the time.”

Dwyer managed to solve Bacashihua later in the period while his team was shorthanded, when he roofed a wrist shot past the glove hand of the Bears’ netminder after converting a turnover by Hershey defenseman, John Carlson.

Just before the intermission, Francois Bouchard tied the game at one with his 5^th goal of the season from close range, after Carlson kept the play alive with an excellent keep-in at the blue line.

“Everything is going good right now,” said Bouchard who was coming off a four point outing in the previous evening in Hartford. “I’m just putting the puck on net and it’s going in. It was a great play by Carlson at the blue line and Perry gave me a nice pass right on the tape, and I put in.”

After Andrew Gordon gave the Bears a 2-1 lead earlier in the second period, they struck again for another late period goal when Oskar Osala lit the lamp on a feed from Bouchard.

“It wasn’t a designed play. I try to stay in front of the net as much as possible, and let Bouchard and Perreault do their thing,” said Osala. “I was on my way there, but Bouchard made a nice pass to me.” 

Hershey’s two-goal lead was in serious jeopardy in the fifth minute of the period when Bouchard took a high sticking penalty, which was quickly followed by a bench minor penalty to the Bears, giving the River Rats a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:33.

“I knew it was a big kill for us. Our guys did a great job keeping everything to the outside and not giving them much,” said Bacashihua, who made a stellar glove save on Jerome Samson during the penalty kill. “When they did get something, the defense was there to tie up the rebounds or put the puck in the corner.”

Boyd Kane’s empty-netter at 19:45 closed the cage on the Rats and sent them scurrying home with their fifth loss of the season.

The veteran Bacashihua, who has not allowed more than two goals in any of his outings this season, knows that, while the going is good now, there are still many upcoming challenges to face.

“I feel good right now and things are going the right way for me. I just have to keep working hard in practice and working out in the gym and make myself better. You can only go down from the top, and the hardest thing to do is stay up on top.”