Lake Erie was in Hershey on Sunday to play their third game in as many days, and fourth in five days.  Sunday's game against the Bears ended the same way Wednesday's did against Toronto and Friday's did against Rochester: in a shootout loss.  The Monsters fell 3-2 to the Bears, despite two points from Kyle Cumiskey and a stellar performance from netminder Jason Bacashihua, who had a whopping 42 saves on the night.

The Monsters got the scoring started quickly against the top-ranked Bears, in the first meeting of the year between the teams.  Jesse Boulerice took a pass from Tom Fritsche and shot it right down the middle and past Hershey goaltender Simeon Varlamov at 3:50 of the opening period to put Lake Erie on the board first.  Kyle Cumiskey produced the second assist on the play.

Although the Bears came out with guns blazing, they were unable to score in the first period, as Bacashihua turned away all 17 Hershey shots on goal.  The 17 saves is one shy of a Lake Erie season high for saves in a period.  The Monsters went into the first intermission with the 1-0 lead.

Hershey wouldn't stay down long, as Quintin Laing scored just 37 seconds into the second frame.  He was assisted by Kyle Wilson and Greg Amadio.

Despite the Monsters only getting off five shots in the second period, Cumiskey made one of them count, putting Lake Erie up 2-1 with his goal at 14:53.  Phil Dupuis was given the assist.  Cumiskey has scored six points (2G, 4A) in the last four games, while Dupuis has recorded four assists in that time frame. 

It would only take a few minutes before the Bears would even the score again. Wilson took matters into his own hands, scoring on a power play at the 18:31 mark of the second. Mathieu Perreault and Bryan Helmer assisted on the goal.

The third period would come and go with neither team finding the the advantage - or the back of the net. Regulation ended with a 2-2 tie, and the five minute overtime period did not change that. 

Hershey began the shootout, and Chris Bourque gave his team the advantage by converting the first shot.  Fritsche could not equal that, but on Lake Erie's second attempt, Chris Durno evened the count up at 1-1 with his shot.  Hershey's second, third and fourth shooters all missed, as did Lake Erie's third and fourth.  Andrew Gordon made the fifth and last Bears attempt, and with Cumiskey's miss on Lake Erie's last chance, the Bears took the 3-2 win.

Bacashihua made 42 saves on 45 shots in goal for Lake Erie, the most by a Monsters goalie this season.  Varlamov finished with 23 saves on 25 shots.

The Monsters will take a break for the holiday, and will return to action on Friday at home against Toronto.