Injured Bears stay strong to defeat Checkers 2-1 (SO)

Captains Bryan Rodney and Andrew Joudrey take a ceremonial face-off before the game. Photo by Checkers SmugMug

The team dressed to play against the Charlotte Checkers tonight only sort of resembled the Hershey Bears. Missing big players because of injuries, suspension, a call-up, we watching the bare bones of the Bears. More on that later.

Charlotte made an interesting choice off the bat by choosing Justin Pogge to start instead of Mike Murphy. Murphy, this season, has all but had Hershey’s number. The only game Hershey had won against the Checkers was the game Pogge started and then subsequently was pulled during. The first period had the appearance of history repeating itself. At first, Pogge was shaky, juggling the puck and giving up big rebounds. On Hershey’s first shot of the game, Andrew Gordon potted his 16th goal of the season, breaking his brief scoring “slump.”

Despite Hershey leading the shots 17 to 5 at the end of the first period, it was a tie game. The Charlotte goal came after Braden Holtby made a great poke check save. Unfortunately, Jerome Samson was there to cash in on the rebound while Holtby was sprawled on the ice.

Even with the Checkers stepping their game up in the waning minutes, the second and third periods saw no scoring change. This was only the third time that the Bears had gone to overtime and only the second time they’d gone to the shootout.

Pogge deserves all the credit he can get for tonight’s game. Hershey threw 49 shots at him and he stopped all but one. Holtby got the win tonight though, stopping all four shots he saw in the shootout. After Holtby stoned Chris Terry in the shootout and clinched the victory, he skated furiously out of his crease and proceeded to celebrate as if he scored a goal. Kinda like this. Should we count this as another Holtbyism? Sure, why not!

In an interesting twist by that genius, Mark French, Lawrence Nycholat scored the game-winning goal. Yes, you read that correctly. Brian Willsie also scored in the shootout to help secure the 2-1 win. I don’t think people were expecting the broken down Bears to put up almost 50 shots in one game. If they keep up this kind of effort, the team is bound to start seeing more success, especially with a healthy line-up.

Tonight’s Notes:

• Tonight was Teddy Bear Toss Night for the Charlotte Checkers. It was Samson’s goal that unleashed the teddy bears. Not as impressive as Hershey’s toss but still a great collection in the name of charity.
• Brian Fahey was called up to the Capitals due to an attack of the flu bug in Washington.
• Kyle Greentree was announced as a scratch due to a lower body injury. He is listed as day-to-day.
• Speaking of injuries, Phil Oreskovic went for a big open ice hit and ended up hurting himself. He attempted to go back on the ice later, but eventually had to be helped to the dressing room. He returned to the bench for the third period. Hopefully, it’s not a major injury.
• During the third period, Zach Miskovic also appeared to get injured. He was in pain on the bench but did return to the ice. It was hard to tell if the two defensemen were playing through injury purely to avoid being down to four defensemen.
• Nikita Kashirsky was called up from South Carolina on Friday and then Grant McNeill followed him with a call-up today. The call-up was so sudden that McNeill wasn’t even there in time for warm-ups. Thankfully, he was dressed and ready to go by puck drop.
• Steve Pinizzotto did not play tonight due to suspension. The league announced it was supplementary discipline for his shenanigans against Albany on Wednesday. With all the injuries going around, it will be a good thing to have him back in time for Sunday’s game.
• Have I finished discussing all the line-up changes yet? Alright, here are your lines and pairings:

Lines and Pairings:

Bouchard – Willsie – Gordon
Lacroix – Beagle – Rome
Kane – Joudrey – Kugryshev
McNeill – Bruess – Kashirsky

Collins – Nycholat
Souray – Miskovic
Wellar – Oreskovic

Actual three stars of the game:

1. Justin Pogge (CHA)
2. Andrew Gordon (HER)
3. Braden Holtby (HER)

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

1. Gordon: scored on the first shot of the game
2. Holtby: stopped 28 of 29 shots
3. Nycholat: game-winning goal