Connecticut Whale Drown Hershey Bears, 4-2

Patrick McNeill and the Bears traveled to Hartford, Connecticut. Photo by Chris Rutsch.

In an unusual Tuesday night game, the Bears traveled up North to face off against the Connecticut Whale. For Francois Bouchard and Tomas Kundratek, it was the first time they would play their former team.

The Bears had a 5-on-3 power play during the first period. The Whale killed off one penalty but Chris Bourque scored shortly afterwards. It was widely advertised that this game would pit the Bourque Brothers against each other with their family in attendance. As Graham Mink called it, it was Bourque Bowl 2011.

Unfortunately, the Whale didn’t take long to tie it up. A 2-on-1 play broke out and Mats Zuccarello beat Braden Holtby. Tie game after twenty minutes.

The game moved along quickly (as many Jeff Smith-officiated games do). But the Whale finally took the lead late in the second period. Aaron Voros took a Hershey turnover scored unassisted.

During the third period, Holtby was flattened by a breaking Scott Tanski. Holtby seems to be okay and the Bears got a power play out of it. They couldn’t score during the power play but did tie it up moments afterwards with a shot from Graham Mink.

In a frustrating turn of events, the Whale regained the lead with about four minutes left in the third period. This was followed by an empty net goal. The Bears couldn’t counter and that was the game. Hershey loses 4-2.

Tonight’s Notes:

• Mattias Sjogren was absent from the line-up tonight. Scott Stuccio announced before the game that Sjogren is debating returning to Sweden for the season. During the game, Sjogren’s agent tweeted that he has officially decided to return home. Best of luck to him.
• Another player who didn’t make the trip was Boyd Kane. Kane was the veteran scratch tonight. It’s possible that this may be a form of punishment too, as the Captain earned 53 penalty minutes this weekend, including two game misconducts.
• Final roster news for the night: Matt Pope was recalled and signed to a new PTO,  not too long after he was released from the first PTO.
• You usually don’t get many power play chances with Jeff Smith as the referee. But the the Bears had four chances tonight and only converted on one. They also stopped both of Connecticut’s power play.

Lines and Pairings:

Bourque – Aucoin – Ford
Micflikier – Potulny – Mink
Hanson – Carroll – Pope
Lacroix – Mitchell – Rechlicz

Richmond – McNeill
Brouillette – Flemming
Wellar – Kundratek

Three stars of the game:

1. Pavel Valentenko (CT)
2. Chris Bourque (HER)
3. Mats Zuccarello (CT)