Bears Continue to Struggle, Lose Fifth Straight

HERHSEY, PA – Zach Boychuck beats Phillip Grubauer in the first period during Charlotte’s win over Hershey Saturday night (Kyle Mace / Sweetest Hockey on Earth)

Everything seemed to be going so well. The Hershey Bears had won 12 straight at home and 5 straight overall. They were vaulting toward first place. And now in a five game span, the Bears have hit their worst slump of the season. The latest loss was a 4-1 defeat Saturday night at the hands of a team that’s also been struggling, the Charlotte Checkers.

The Bears found themselves down 1-0 in the first three minutes on a goal by Zach Boychuck. Ryan Stoa fired a shot just over six minutes into the second period that turned out to be the Bears only tally of the game. The Checkers scored three straight goals, all of which went nearly uncontested by the Bears defense. Brody Sutter scored followed by the Checkers third goal, scored by his cousin Brett Sutter. Victor Rask scored on nearly the same type of move and shot, spelling the end of the evening for Bears goaltender Philipp Grubauer who was pulled with a little less than two minutes left in the game.

“We had a ton of chances, with the 5 on 3 along with some point blank chances and (Checkers goalie Justin Peters) made the saves he needed to make,” said coach Mike Haviland after the game. “I think at one point we were out shooting them 16-4.”

The Bears did have opportunities that could have easily been goals. Instead, Hershey was frustrated by either missing the shot or being stopped by Peters. “If we had some of those shots in January or February we would have had three goals,” added Haviland.

“Right now we’re not getting those goals. It seems like if we make a mistake, it wound up in the back of our net.”
Haviland feels his team is playing “loose” with the puck, turning the puck over like they did at the beginning of the season. “There’s no time to feel sorry for yourself. It’s a race to the finals here. Everyone goes through this, but we’ve got to stay in the mix.”

The loss sends the Bears back into the 9th spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race, with the top eight teams making the post season. But with 20 games left, Hershey is only five points behind first place Binghamton.

The Bears play Charlotte again on Sunday, with game time at 4:00pm as Hershey experiments with an early Sunday start time.