“Pittsburgh Hangover” Crunch beat Bears 4-2

The Crunch celebrate a goal against Dany Sabourin. Photo by Kyle M.

Fresh off their statement win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Pittsburgh, the Bears traveled back to Hershey to take on a struggling Syracuse Crunch team.

It seemed like a lot of Syracuse’s goals and scoring chances came when there was a turnover by a Hershey defenseman. The Crunch did a good job of keeping the pressure up and making Hershey pay for mistakes like that. They got their first goal when John Mitchell beat out Johann Kroll and took the puck from him right in front of the goal. Trevor Smith was left alone and converted on a bounce from the back wall to give Syracuse another goal.

Kyle Greentree scored Hershey’s first goal of the night when Syracuse was already up 2-0. He had a nice shot on the power play to cut the lead in half. Unfortunately, Syracuse repaid the favor the next period by scoring on a power play of their own. Add on another Syracuse goal towards the end of second period and suddenly Hershey was down 4-1.

Dany Sabourin has an iffy record in front of the home crowd. It’s nights like this that it’s almost become expected of him when he starts in Hershey. After Syracuse scored their fourth goal, he was pulled. Braden Holtby was able to shut the door the rest of the way.

Keith Aucoin gave the Bears a bigger chance at a comeback when he scored in the third period. His deflection of a Sean Collins shot was able to elude the Syracause goaltender. Sadly, it wouldn’t be enough to power the comeback. Mark French even opted to play with four forwards and one defenseman in the final few minutes of the game, hoping for some last minute offensive magic.

Overall, the Bears threw 47 shots at Timo Pielmeier. Read that again: 47 shots. And only two went in. It should come as no surprise when I tell you that Pielmeier was awarded the number one star of the game.

Call it a hot goalie, call it fatigue, whatever you’d like but the four-game winning streak had to end there. The Bears wrap up 2010 with a loss. The start of the new year means it is time a strong second half to push Hershey to playoffs and help defend the championship. Happy New Year!

Tonight’s Notes:

• Jay Beagle and Mathieu Perreault look to be in the line-up tomorrow when the Capitals play in the infamous Winter Classic. That has to be an amazing feeling for them.
• The only line-up change today was the replacement of Trevor Bruess with Nikita Kashirsky.
• Sabourin is now 2-5-0-0 when starting a game at Giant Center. He is 6-4-0-0 when starting on the road.

Video Highlights:

Lines and Pairings:

Gordon – Aucoin – Pinizzotto
Greentree – Willsie – Bouchard
Kane – Joudrey – Kugryshev
Lacroix – Kashirsky – Rome

P. McNeill – Fahey
Collins – Wellar
Kroll – Miskovic

Actual three stars of the game:

1. Timo Pielmeier (SYR)
2. Josh Green (SYR)
3. Keith Aucoin (HER)

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

1. Aucoin: goal and assist
2. Gordon: two assists
3. Greentree: goal