IceCaps Conquer Bears, 6-1 in First Ever Meeting

A picture says a thousand words.

Yesterday, the Bears took to the skies and landed in Newfoundland. Tonight they faced the St. John’s IceCaps for the first time ever. It was sure to be a tough game with all the recent injuries to the Hershey squad that came just in time to play one of the top teams in the conference.

The IceCaps took the lead about halfway through the first period when Patrice Cormier scored on a breakaway. Braden Holtby couldn’t stop the puck from sneaking through. The Bears tied it up with a power play goal a few minutes later. Ryan Potulny had a great pass to Kyle Greentree, who scored on a backdoor play.

The IceCaps took over the game in the second period. The Bears killed off two early penalties but that didn’t slow St. John’s down. Jason Jaffray outraced the Hershey defense and scored with no one between him and Holtby. Another goal came when Holtby was down on the ice and couldn’t recover in time to make the save.

After letting in three goals on 16 shots, Holtby was sent to the bench and Dany Sabourin took over the goaltending. That wouldn’t last long as Sabourin let in a goal and Holtby came back to the ice. In twenty minutes, it went from a tie game to a three-goal lead for the IceCaps.

Patrice Cormier scored at the start of the third period to increase the lead and give himself the hat trick. The IceCaps didn’t let up and scored their sixth goal late in the third period. And I’m sure you saw this coming: Bears lose, 6-1. We’ll try again tomorrow.

Tonight’s Notes:

• Bad news to start: Both Graham Mink and Chris Bourque missed the trip after getting injured this week. As a result, the Bears played seven defensemen tonight.
• Good and bad news: Jacob Micflikier was back in the line-up after missing three games with an upper body injury. However, after taking a big in the game, he went to the locker room and did not return.
• In attempts to energize his team, Andrew Carroll dropped the gloves with Raymond Sawada. It was a decent fight for Carroll considering his jersey was over his head for most of it. They were followed by another fight between Garrett Mitchell and Zach Redmond.
• Not too many penalties tonight but the special teams did a good job tonight. No power play goals in two attempts for the IceCaps. Bears were 1-for-3 with the man advantage.

Three stars of the game:

1. Patrice Cormier (STJ)
2. Kevin Clark (STJ)
3. John Albert (STJ)