It only took Connor McMichael five games with the Hershey Bears to register his first professional hat trick, scoring all of the Bears’ goals on Saturday afternoon to lead Hershey to a 3-1 victory over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The 19-year-old has impressed in his first four-game games with the Bears, but number five was special. McMichael got on the board first, cleaning up a rebound in front of Wilkes-Barre’s goalie Max Lagace on the power play to tie the game a 1-1.

“I felt pretty good tonight, and then obviously scoring in the first period it helps you out a lot,” said McMichael. “You just feel a lot more comfortable throughout the game, and you just build off that. My line and our defense that I was out there with played really well, and [Fucale] had a great game as well. It’s great to build up the first one and get a couple more.”

His second goal of the afternoon came on a breakaway, going glove side on Lagace to give the Bears the lead at 2-1. “I saw that there was a little opening on the glove side, and it took advantage of it.”

McMichael almost had the hat trick before the end of the second period, scoring on a delayed penalty but having the play called dead by a whistle before the puck crossed the line. But he made up for it, with a 120-foot empty-net goal to seal the victory for Hershey and his first professional hat trick.

“The puck follows him around,” said head coach Spencer Carbery after the game. “Somehow, someway, he’s just in the right place, right time, and he sees the game that way. And that’s something as a coach – you can’t teach that.

“The thing I think we’re going to learn to appreciate about Connor is he is a very intelligent player. He is adapting on the fly to pro hockey and learning things. I’ve already had a couple conversations with him about small, little things he has to start to do at the pro level he could get away with in the OHL and now are going to be essential to being successful not only in the NHL but in pro hockey in general.”

“I talk to Carbs basically every single day,” said McMichael. “It’s just little things like in the D zone, being more aggressive, some faceoff work. The coaching staff and the guys have been great with me so far.”

WATCH: “C-Money, Connor Mac!”

Connor McMichael scores to tie the game for Hershey at 1-1 in the first pic.twitter.com/dGFlxJcHyn

— Chocolate Hockey (@ChocHockey) February 20, 2021

WATCH: THAT’S TWO. You’re gonna want to see ALL the replays of this Connor McMichael goal pic.twitter.com/vLj211AF49

— Chocolate Hockey (@ChocHockey) February 20, 2021

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“Probably the best five goals against I’ve ever seen as a coach in 11 years.” That’s how Hershey Bears head coach Spencer Carbery described Ilya Samsonov’s Valentine’s Day afternoon performance against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

It was the first time in nearly a month the 23-year-old netminder suited up for a hockey game after being sidelined with COVID-19.

When Samsonov was diagnosed with COVID-19 last month, he became ill. So ill, he said he struggled to even walk. “When I got sick, it felt a little bit hard (to) breathe and really really tired. You do just seven steps and you feel so bad. Right now, I don’t have any symptoms. I do hard work. Everything is good right now.”

Getting back on the ice for the first time since the diagnosis was a big step in Samsonov’s recovery, but his first period back between the pipes was not easy.

“I thought that first period was the worst 20 minutes I’ve seen over the two years and a month I’ve been here,” said head coach Spencer Carbery postgame. “I felt terrible, and I’ll probably apologize to him later, for Sammy having not played in a month and to be thrown into a situation where he’s facing 15 Grade-A chances.

“I’m surprised he’s not hurt, to be honest with you. I know that sounds a little bit trying to be funny, but he had to make post to post (saves). I’m surprised his groins are alright getting out of that first period.”

Samsonov made 12 saves on 14 shots in the first period, challenging him with an onslaught of chances right out of the gate. “First period a little bit hard, but after I feel much better,” said Samsonov. “Everything is good, but bad result. We will keep working.”

After allowing three goals in the first 23 minutes, the Bears settled down, scoring two goals of their own to tie the game at 3-3. Following third-period goals for both Hershey and Lehigh Valley, the game went to overtime, where a scramble in-front of Samsonov and loose puck allowed the Phantoms’ David Kase to beat the Russian netminder near post for the winner.

“I cannot remember five goals being given up and him making I’m going to guess 20 Grade A saves in the game,” said Carbery.

“I know that doesn’t give him any solace or make him feel any better, and I’m not trying to overstate that, probably the best five goals against goaltender performance I’ve been around as a coach for 11 years and probably as a player.”

Samsonov said he felt ready to go and return to the NHL, but he will first have to discuss the situation with current Washington and former Hershey goaltender coach, Scott Murray. “I am good. I am ready. I feel good today—no breathing (problems). Heart rate is pretty good. I feel normal.”

It’s been a decade since the Hershey Bears miraculous come back in the 2010 Calder Cup Finals, and fans will have the chance to relive those memories. The Hershey Bears have announced they will be re-broadcasting Game Three through Six on their social media pages to commemorate the tenth anniversary of their Calder Cup victory. 

Starting on Sunday, June 7, at 7 PM, fans will be able to watch abc27’s broadcasts of the 2010 Calder Cup Finals on the Bears Facebook and YouTube Channels. 

“If you talk to anyone in our fan base, what always gets brought up in recent memory is the 2019-10 team and the back to back cups,” said Zack Fisch, current voice of the Bears. “Working closely with Bryan Helmer, Patrick Wellar, and John Walton, I’ve gotten to hear the stories of the magical run to Texas. It was a four-game stretch for the record books.

“Now that it’s the tenth anniversary, what better time to show them again and relive arguably the greatest team in the American Hockey League history.” 

All three games in Texas were broadcasted by abc27, with a viewing party hosted at Giant Center for Game Five and Alexandre Giroux’s magical overtime goal. The schedule of the re-broadcasts will follow the same date as the games ten years ago on the Bears YouTube and Facebook pages.  

BROADCAST SCHEDULE:

Calling the games were the former voice of the Bears and current voice of the Capitals, John Walton, and the late abc27 sports director, Gregg Mace. 

The Bears have been broadcasting classic games on their Facebook and YouTube pages since the suspension and later cancelation of the 2019-20 season, allowing fans to relive favorite memories.

“With these classic games, we are showing as many as we can, but currently don’t have access to all our archives in Giant Center,” said Fisch. “We partially have an archive for games pre-Giant Center, but some might not exist. When we get back to Giant Center, we’ll be able to share more favorite games for our fans.” 

But rest be assured, more favorite Bears games are coming soon. “The most requested game is certainly the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 against Portland. The AHL requested to show that so stay tuned. We look forward to sharing more information when that will be re-broadcasted.”

Watch the rebroadcast on Facebook or YouTube

The American Hockey League announced Monday that the remainder of the 2019-20 season has been canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Friday, May 8th, the league’s board of governor’s held a vote to cancel the season. The announcement comes exactly two months to the day of the announcement of the postponement of the season. This is the first time in the American Hockey League’s history that the season will not be completed. 

The Hershey Bears finish the season a 37-18-3-4 record with 81 points in 62 games, good for second in the Atlantic Division at the time of the cancelation. 

“After a lengthy review process, the American Hockey League has determined that the resumption and completion of the 2019-20 season is not feasible in light of current conditions,” said AHL President Dave Andrews in a statement.

“We are very grateful to the National Hockey League and its teams for their support and leadership in navigating through the challenges faced over the past two months.”

“The AHL continues to place paramount importance on the health and safety of our players, officials, staff and fans and all of their families, and we all look forward to returning to our arenas in 2020-21.”

“The safety and health of our players, coaches, staff, fans, and community has always been of the utmost importance, so we understand and support the difficult decision made by the American Hockey League to end the season due to this global health pandemic,” said Hershey Bears Vice President of Hockey Operations Bryan Helmer in a statement.

“We firmly believe we had a great chance of bringing a championship to Chocolatetown this year. We are very disappointed that we will not get to see that goal achieved for our team and, most importantly, for our tremendous fans. However, during this difficult time, the health and safety of our community needs to be the number one priority.” 

For any questions you might have regarding tickets, refunds, season tickets, etc. – the Hershey Bears have a Frequently Asked Questions page for you to visit and address those questions.

The American Hockey League announced Thursday that the 2019-20 season will be suspended indefinitely, effective immediately. The announcement comes following the suspension of the NBA season on Wednesday night and the positive test of NBA player Rudy Gobert for COVID-19, or coronavirus.

The AHL’s Board of Governors held a conference call on Thursday afternoon to make the decision just hours after the NHL announced their decision to pause their season beginning on Thursday night.

In the NHL’s decision to pause the season, league and team officials decided to stop all travel, practices, and team meetings. The AHL has not made it clear whether or not the same will be done for their league at this time.

“With the health and safety of our players, officials, staff and fans of primary importance, the American Hockey League has announced the suspension of play until further notice, effective immediately, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic,” the AHL said in a statement.

“The AHL will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the 2019-20 season at the appropriate time.”

The Hershey Bears were set to play on Friday night against the Toronto Marlies. That game, along with all others has been postponed.

Daniel Sprong found out right at Monday’s trade deadline he would be heading across the country from San Diego to Hershey in a trade that brought him to the Washington Capitals organization. 

“I was really excited,” said Sprong after Thursday’s practice. “It’s a winning culture here in Washington and Hershey. I remember playing here with Wilkes. I love playing in this rink, and now being on the home side is really cool.”

The former Penguin has plenty of experience scoring in Giant Center, putting up 16 points against Hershey in ten games during the 2017-18 season. But even as an opponent, Sprong admired Hershey’s puck-possession style of hockey.

“I’m an offensive guy. Over the last year and a half being in Anaheim and the NHL last year and San Diego this year, I was working on my two-way game. The eight games I was up this year I thought I played really well both sides of the puck. I’m just trying to keep working on that.”  

While Hershey is looking to continue their success at the top of the Atlantic Division, head coach Spencer Carbery’s goal is to help get Sprong back to the NHL. 

“The organization brought in a really good young prospect that’s played in the National Hockey League,” said Carbery. “What my job and his job coming into this organization is: where are you at in your career, what’s keeping you out of the NHL, and how can we help get you there. It’s more ‘What do we need to do to help Daniel Sprong?’ Then we’ll integrate him into the lineup and into spots to set him up to have success and ultimately help our team win hockey games.”

Sprong’s first game with Hershey will be against his former team Wilkes-Barre on Saturday at Giant Center. “Both teams have a winning culture,” commented Sprong. “Both pride themselves in the NHL and American League on winning. I still have a couple of buddies that I’ve played with in Wilkes that are still there now…they texted me and I texted them ‘I’ll see ya Saturday and we’ll catch up.’

“I’m ready to get things going. It’s been a good week of practice, and I can’t wait to play.”

Hershey Bears head coach Spencer Carbery did some self-reflecting after the scary events of Tuesday night’s game between Hershey and the Charlotte Checkers.

Following Tuesday’s game in which Kale Kessy was knocked out in a fight with Derek Sheppard, Carbery visited Kessy in the hospital at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

“Hearing not only the medical prognosis but hearing him speak and talk,” said Carbery after practice on Thursday, “And he assured us and said he was okay and felt fine – hearing that was a relief.”

Carbery also praised the medical staff for how well they were able to handle the circumstance. “That was incredible,” Carbery remarked. “Their response to that situation and how quickly and prepared everybody was for that in the unlikely event that happens, probably rarely happens in a season, but you’re ready for it. I was so so impressed and so proud of our medical staff.”

Kessy was released from the hospital on Wednesday morning and Carbery mentioned that the 27-year-old forward came to the rink. Many people around the rink on Thursday said that Kessy was in good spirits.

Since videos of the fight have spread across the internet, the debate about fighting in hockey has been a hot topic.

Carbery knows just as well as anybody the dangers of fighting. In three professional seasons, Carbery had 56 fights, including 22 bouts in 29 games during the 2008-09 season.

“I did a lot of soul searching on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning,” Carbery commented. “I played the role. So I know what it’s like to not be able to sleep before a game. I know what it’s like to want to engage physically because you want to stay in the lineup. You want to help your teammates and maybe change momentum in a game; do anything you can to have a positive impact in the game.

“Then you reflect on that and go – gosh, us as coaches, us as hockey society – are we enabling that? Then you don’t want to take away someone’s livelihood because I wanted to do that job, I choose to do that. Kess is a physical player and chooses to do that. But at the same time – I’ve had some serious self-reflection. Am I enabling, are we enabling by letting it go on? I don’t expect Kale or anybody every to fight. It’s a really good question, but I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that.”

Fighting is dying in hockey. During the 2008-09 season, the Hershey Bears as a team had 95 fights in 80 games. Since then, fighting has decreased by almost 80%, with the Bears only recording 15 fights in 57 games during the 2019-20 season, a rate of 0.26 fights per game versus 1.19 fights per game a decade ago.

Kessy and Sheppard also removed their helmets before the fight, a two-minute minor penalty under AHL rules. The rule was implemented prior to the 2013-14 season.

“To be honest, I guess I’m kinda old school where it doesn’t really phase me when I see [helmets being taken off,]” said Bears VP of Hockey Operations Bryan Helmer. “You don’t want to hurt the other guy’s hands. That’s just respect. When I played that’s the way guys did it.”

Players also remarked that the visors on helmets cut hands up during fights. Some players wore their visors at a higher angle before leagues began cracking down on visor angles in 2017. This lead to more players taking off their helmets before fights. Four of Kessy’s six fights this season began with helmets being removed.

“Maybe something will change,” said Helmer. “I know when the incident happened in warm-ups in Springfield, they made it a policy that everyone had to wear helmets. They do have a rule in there to try to deter that. But those two guys are old school tough guys. It’s just unfortunate.”

Hershey Bears forward Kale Kessy has been released from the hospital, according to the team.

Kessy was injured Tuesday night in a fight against Charlotte defenseman Derek Sheppard.

The 27-year-old was transported to Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and kept overnight for observation before being released Wednesday morning.

“I would like to send my heartfelt thank you to Hershey Bears fans for their thoughts, prayers, and support following my injury last night,” Kessy released in a statement on the Bears social media accounts. “Additionally, I’d like to thank our trainers, doctors, EMTs, Bob Goodman, and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for providing me immediate and exceptional care. I am feeling better today, and I look forward to rejoining my Hershey Bears teammates soon.”

Bears players had an optional skate Wednesday, with most players taking the day off. The Bears next game is Saturday night against Wilkes-Barre.

The Washington Capitals have traded defenseman Christian Djoos to Anaheim in exchange for forward Daniel Sprong.

Djoos has spent the five seasons with Washington’s organization, winning a Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018.

The 25-year-old defenseman has played in 42 games for Hershey this season, with 32 points for the Chocolate and White, best for Bears blueliners.

Daniel Sprong is a 22-year-old forward who was drafted in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft by Pittsburgh.

Sprong was traded last season by the Penguins to Anaheim, playing 47 games for the Ducks in 2018-19.

This season, Sprong has 27 points in 39 games with the San Diego Gulls.