Rolling Through the Preseason
During the first weekend of October, while many of you were busy at Caps Convention or watching one of Washington’s preseason games, the Hershey Bears were also playing through their preseason. Here is a quick recap of their three games in three days (a typical occurrence in the AHL). Pictures are by our very own, Kyle Mace
GAME 1: Friday October 1, 2010. BEARS 3 PENGUINS 4 (SO)
On Friday, the Bears hit the ice for their preseason premiere against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Wilkes-Barre, PA. As expected, the line-up was a bit of a mish-mash of players expected to be on in Hershey for the regular season and players expected to be on the South Carolina Stingrays regular season roster.
Todd Ford took the first half and stopped 17 of 19 shots, while Jared DeMichiel finished the game. Despite losing in the shootout, DeMichiel made 8 saves on 9 shots and Coach Mark French seemed convinced that he was screened on the one goal he allowed in regulation. The top line of Brian Willsie, Kyle Greentree, and Dmitry Kugryshev cliqued nicely, creating the first two goals from Willsie and Greentree, respectively. Zach Miskovic pushed the game to overtime with his unassisted, shorthanded goal in the third period.
GAME 2: Saturday, October 2, 2010. PENGUINS 1 BEARS 5
The next night, the same teams met for a second game, only this time in Hershey territory. Armed with Braden Holtby in goal and in front of their home crowd, the Bears looked to find revenge from the previous night. And The Bears got a resounding victory, reminding the Penguins that this season will be just another year in the rivalry.
With 5 goals from 5 different players, it kind of reminded you of the offensive power that was last year’s squad. Josh Godfrey continued to impress the coaching staff when he scored the first goal of the night. More goals followed from Dylan Yeo, Dmitry Kugryshev, and Nikita Kashirsky. The 5th goal was scored by Wes O’Neill, who was in Hershey on a try-out basis and has since been released. Dustin Stevenson got in his first professional fight. I guess those lessons from D.J. King are being put to work.
GAME 3: Sunday, October 3, 2010. SOUND TIGERS 2 HERSHEY 3
Miskovic appears to have bounced back just fine from the knee injury he suffered mid-summer (Thanks, Joe Finley). He potted two goals and generally appeared to feel confident again in his playing abilities. Ford had a solid game, making 16 saves on 18 shots. Ashton Rome scored the game-winner to push the Bears to victory.
Hershey was leading 3-0 in the third period but almost allowed a Bridgeport comeback when the Sound Tigers scored two quick goals in the last four minutes. The Bears managed to hold them off and record their second win in three games, both of which came in front of the Giant Center crowd.
So, you may be asking yourself, what does it matter? Of course preseason holds no power over the regular season standings whatsoever. However, we can still find things to get excited about. Like how Miskovic appears to be healthy again and right on time. He also looks ready to start playing a full season after being in and out of the line-up last year. Greentree and Willsie are seeing some pretty nice results when paired together on the top line. And, of course, the team went 2-0-0-1 without some big name players like Mathieu Perreault and Andrew Gordon. And I bet that makes them seem a bit more intimidating.
Since the final game, Hershey made several cuts such as Jared DeMichiel, Jake Hauswirth, Anton Gustafsson, and Nikita Kashirsky. A few players have also returned from Washington, like Steve Pinizzotto, Brian Fahey, and Jay Beagle. For now, Dany Sabourin remains in D.C., assumingly to replace an injured Semyon Varlamov. At last, we can start getting a feel for what our opening night roster will look like.