Hershey’s Home Stand is Perfect, beat Falcons 4-3

Sheldon Souray celebrates another win with Dany Sabourin. Photo by Kyle Mace

Before I dive into this game recap, I want to congratulate John Walton on calling his 1,000th game. Fans of any team should appreciate Walton and all that he has done for Hershey. It wouldn’t be half as interesting to listen without you, John. It would be an understatement to say that I hope he’s around for 1,000 more.

And now about the game. After getting snowed in last time and having to push the game to tonight, the two teams were going pretty strong right from the start.

The Springfield Falcons had a some notable names in the starting line-up. Mike Commodore was in, playing his first game for the Springfield Falcons. But the bigger name for Hershey fans was the return of Kyle Wilson. The Reeses Cup mascot dropped the puck in a ceremonial face-off and Andrew Gordon and Wilson took it together. It was nice to see two former teammates together again, even if they were wearing different jerseys.

Speaking of Gordon, he was the first Bear to find the back of the net. With a nice pass from Keith Aucoin, Gordon scored short side on David LeNeveu. Sean Collins, who is having a pretty good season, made it a two goal lead with a missile from center point.

The Falcons cut Hershey’s lead in half when they scored ten seconds into their first power play of the night. The second period was fairly quiet but Brian Willsie added some insurance with a power play goal of his own.

The Falcons looked like they were on the cusp of a comeback during the third period when John Moore got Springfield within one goal of tying. Steve Pinizzotto didn’t take too kindly to this and just moments later scored a sweet goal where he danced around the Falcons goaltender.

Kyle Wilson wasn’t willing to accept defeat and scored a goal with 17.8 seconds left in the game after a botched clearing attempt by Sabourin. The Bears were able to stave off any last chances from Springfield and won 4-3.

Hershey took advantage of this four game home stand and gained eight points in the standings. These four wins are crucial ones and have shown just what this time is capable of. Dany Sabourin played great, winning all four games. He has proven that we can rely on him even when we don’t have Braden Holtby with us.

Tonight’s Notes:

• Lawrence Nycholat returned to the line-up but disappeared in the middle of the first period. He never returned to play and it’s easy to speculate that he re-injured his upper body injury. After the game, Mark French announced that “he’ll be evaluated” to see how bad the damage is.
• As I said on Sweetest Hockey’s twitter, I’m not sure why players are still diving in front of Sheldon Souray‘s shots. After injury Stefan Legein during Sunday’s game against the Adirondack Phantoms, Souray’s shot temporarily took Springfield’s Matt Calvert out of the equation. That thing is vicious!
• Before the game, the Caps announced that they sent Jay Beagle, Mathieu Perreault, and Holtby back down to Hershey. Holtby did not dress for the game but was in Hershey to prepare for the AHL All-Star weekend. As Tim Leone said, Beagle and Perreault are just “paper transactions” and have gone home to rest during the All-Star break.
• Not surprising to anyone, but Aucoin is on a six-game point streak right now. In the past six games, he has two goals and eight assists.

Video Highlights:

Lines and Pairings:

Kane – Aucoin – Gordon
Greentree – Willsie – Pinizzotto
Bouchard – Rome- Kugryshev
Lacroix – Bruess – Rome

Souray – Wellar
Nycholat – Sloan
McNeill – Collins

Actual three stars of the game:

1. Andrew Gordon (HER)
2. Sean Collins (HER)
3. Brian Willsie (HER)

Sweetest Hockey On Earth’s three stars of the game:

1. Gordon: first goal of the night and assist
2. Willsie: goal and assist
3. Pinizzotto: game-winning goal

More Photos from Kyle Mace

Willsie gets the puck past LeNeveu during a second period power play.

Pinizzotto gets some love from his teammates after scoring the eventual game-winning goal.