Special Teams Continue Struggle, B-Sens Outlast Bears 4-1

Nicolas Deschamps, seen here during the 2012-13 season, had Hershey’s loan goal Thursday night (Kyle Mace / Sweetest Hockey on Earth)

Fresh off the Christmas holiday, the Hershey Bears returned to work against the Binghamton Senators on what is traditionally known as “Boxing Day” to our neighboring country to the north. The Senators entered eyeing their 20th home ice win against Hershey in team history and looked to pull into a first place East Division tie with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

David Leggio once again received the starting nod for the Chocolate and White in net. It was Leggio’s 11th start in the last 12 Bears games this season dating back to November 27.

It was a tale of two athletic goaltenders between Leggio for Hershey and Nathan Lawson for Binghamton. Lawson’s miraculous second period after a strong Hershey push lead to the tables turning towards a 4-1 Senators win.

The only real bright spot of the night for the Chocolate and White was Nicolas Deschamps extending his point streak to six consecutive games, and goal scoring streak to four. On Hershey’s second power play chance of the night, Deschamps snapped a shot into the net at the 16:12 mark of the opening period for his club’s lone goal of the night.

The Bears entered with a record of 9-2-0-1 when leading after the first period, but soon surrendered their third regulation loss.

Stephane Da Costa and Cole Schneider both tallied a goal in the second and third stanzas leading to a four spot on the scoreboard. Schneider was credited with the game winning goal with 1:58 to play in the middle period, and later added a meaningless empty net goal with only a tenth of a single second remaining in the hockey game.

Hershey’s special teams continued to disappoint aside from Deschamps’ goal. The power play unit entered Thursday ranked 25th in the American Hockey League with a success rate of 14.3 percent. Mathematically, a 1-for-6 night on the man advantage raises the percentage ever so slightly.

The Bears’ penalty kill unit was only in action twice the entire evening. In their first penalty kill attempt of the night in the second period, Da Costa scored his first goal to tie the hockey game. They finished the game 1-for-2 when a man down.

The Chocolate and White return to action the next night for a Friday night home game at Giant Center against the Syracuse Crunch.