Hershey Finishes the Season with a Win Over Adirondack

HERSHEY, PA – Bears players salute the crowd at the end of their final game of the season (Matt Trust / Sweetest Hockey on Earth)

It was a perfect cap to the end of a season. With a crowd of 10,964 in attendance and the Chocolate and White out of the playoffs, Hershey would go on to beat Adirondack by a score of 2-1 in the season finale of the 2013-14 season.

The game started off in the best way possible: Joel Rechlicz would score his first goal in 853 days. “It’s always good to get a goal like that,” said Rechlicz after the game. “It was a great team win. I thought the guys did really well and responded tonight.”

The game was not filled with much action, but Jeff Taffe added his team leading 21st of the year 16:43 into the second. Taffe also finished the season leading the team in points with 47.

Former Bear Derek Whitmore would close the book on the season, scoring for Hershey in the first game of the season against Adirondack, and scoring for Adirondack in the last game of the season for Hershey.

The game was more of a big “thank you” to Bears fans from the players and vice versa for the players from the fans than anything else. With the Bears missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004-05, it’s a weird feeling for all heading to the off season this early. “I don’t think it’s really hit me yet,” said head coach Mike Haviland after the game. “I know this is only my first year here, but even for me I’m not used to being out this early. I don’t think it will really hit me until probably a week or so.

“Today was just surreal. Trying to get though the meetings and trying to pump them up as much as we could to get them to preform tonight.” Haviland also acknowledged the fans and their support despite the disappointing end to this season. “You got to give a lot of credit. They came out tonight and supported us like they have all the time. We wanted to go out with a win for sure.”

“It’s tough,” said Jeff Taffe. “We owe it to ourselves and owe it to the fans here. They paid their hard earned dollar to come watch games. It’s been great support all year and from that standpoint, we need to show up. We were hoping it would mean a little more. It’s one of those things where we were a very confident team going into Norfolk, but it was the way the puck bounced and the way we played the last few games that it wasn’t meant to be and it’s frustrating.”

The Bears finish the season with record of 39-27-5-5 and 88 points, two behind eighth place Norfolk.

More photos from the game. All photos by Matt Trust

Tony Capobianco makes a save early in the first period

Derek Whitmore snipes one past David Leggio