Bears fall to Crunch 4-1 in final regular season game.


The team salutes the fans. Photo by Kyle Mace

Being the last game of the season this was team awards night (photo post to follow) and fan appreciation night.  Unfortunately, that was about the high point of the evening.  The Bears had quite a few healthy scratches since there was nothing to gain from this game.  It was also, therefore, a chance to take a look at some of the newer guys like newcomer Garrett Mitchell.

Despite the large number of scratches, the Bears offense was able to control the puck for a lot of the first period.  Unfortunately that didn’t translate to many shots or scoring chances.  Hershey had a total of 6 shots in the first period, but most of those came in the second half of the period.  That included three power plays in the period as well.

The second period was an improvement.  The Bears were still able to control the puck, but generated some more scoring opportunities.  This frame provided the only goal for the home team when Andrew Gordon banged home a rebound off a Steve Pinizzotto shot.

With the final stanza, the Bears played a lot like they did in the first.  Lots of puck control, but little in true offense.

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Bears Top Albany Devils 7-4 in a Long Game

Keith Aucoin puts a backhand wraparound into the goal. Photo by Kyle Mace

Hershey came out and tried to quickly take control of the game.  For the most part, they did just that.  They were able to gain and maintain the offensive zone for long periods of time.  They were cycling the puck and making great efforts to keep the puck in the zone.  Unfortunately, the Devils were able to get on the board first.  Keith Aucoin answered at 12:27 to tie the game at one.  Only a few minutes later, Andrew Gordon was able to convert an Aucoin pass into a goal to take the lead going into the second.

Early in the second period, Gordon attempted a shot from the faceoff circle.  He broke his stick on the shot from the circle, but he almost put the blade of the sitck in the net.  He got a good chuckle out of it as he came off the ice to get a new stick.  Albany once again struck first (and second) in this period.  Just before the end of the period, Dmitry Orlov scored the only Bears goal of the period to take it back to a tie.

In the third period things went from hockey to weird in about 2.2 seconds.  There was a small delay in the start of the period due to Devils goaltender, Jeff Frazee, complaining about the condition of the ice in his crease.  Interesting that it was suddenly bad after 2 full periods of hockey.  Once that was fixed, play started for the period.  The game went back and forth as did scoring initially.  Hershey went ahead on a Brian Willsie goal.  After the Willsie goal, an Albany player went over to the celebration and  had some words with the Bears players.  Some pushing and shoving followed.  Another Albany player came crashing into the pile and that started everything.  This was the first ‘line brawl’ that I had seen in a several years.  Albany tied the score once again only a few minutes later.  Not quite half way through the period, Boyd Kane would score what would eventually the game winner.  It was after that goal that Frazee decided that he still didn’t like the ice in his crease.  A lengthly delay ensued of about 45 minutes.  Eventually play would resume, but it wasn’t good news for Albany.  Kane would put the Bears back on top and Maxime Lacroix scored the insurance goal.  That was followed by an empty-netter by Kane.

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