Reading Royals coach, Larry Courville, speaks to the media (Photo by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears will have a much easier time getting players from their ECHL affiliate this coming season. The Washington Capitals have agreed to an affiliation with the ECHL Reading Royals. After eight seasons with the South Carolina Stingrays, the Caps will shift their ECHL affilation to an arena and team just an hour from Hershey.
With the Hershey Bears season coming to a close, most Bears fans will be putting all of their focus on the NHL playoffs. One of those teams left in the NHL playoffs are the Washington Capitals, the Bears affiliate. Monday night the Capitals will face off against the New York Rangers in game two of their series, but you could see some recalls before that. Those recalls are called “Black Aces,” named after holding the “Dead Man’s Hand” (two black aces) in a game of poker. So who could some of those “Black Aces” be?
Robert Bortuzzo jumps into the celebration pile after the Penguin’s second goal (All photos by Kyle Mace)
After a rough start to the series, the Hershey Bears came back and won back to back game to send the series back to Wilkes-Barre. After a good first period, the Bears gave up two goals in seven seconds to the Baby Pens to drop the series in five game, losing by a score of 2-1.
Bears Graham Mink (left) and Zach Miskovic (right) celebrate with Cameron Schilling after Schilling’s goal during Friday’s game (Photo by Kyle Mace)
There was a confidence among the Hershey Bears that we hadn’t seen in quite a while, on Friday night. It was a resolve to show their fans and themselves that this team wasn’t about to let the season end, as easily as it looked to be ending after the first two games of the series. The Bears beat the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins on Friday night 4-1 to even the best of five series at two games each.
Ryan Potulny (left) celebrates his GWOTG with teammates Graham Mink (center) and Boyd Kane (Photo by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears came into tonight’s game one loss from elimination and having their 2012 Calder Cup hopes come to a crashing ending. A loss would also be the first time in 46 years the Bears have been swept in a three game, first round series with the last happening in 1966. But after tonight’s game, we will have to wait until year 47 to see if that happens.
The Bears came out to a quick start, scoring 2 goals, but having Wilkes-Barre go toe-to-toe with them and tie it up ever time Hershey would take the lead, but when you go to overtime, you cannot come back and tie it up. And that is exactly what happened tonight. After 60 minutes of play, all Hershey would need is another 2:57 to cut Wilkes-Barre’s two game lead in half and stay alive in the Calder Cup playoffs, after a 4-3 win over the Baby Pens.
Tuesday night at the Harrisburg Senators game, Bears players Julien Brouillette, Andrew Carroll, Tomas Kundratek, and Garrett Mitchell participated in a dizzy bat race. If you have never seen a dizzy bat race, it is where you set a bat on the ground, spin around it 10 times, and then run to a finish line.
Many guys were at the Senators game, including Chris Bourque, who threw out the first pitch to teammate Boyd Kane.
Photos from the guy’s Twitter’s below the jump
Every year the Bears have their annual awards ceremony before the final game of the season. Nine awards in total were given. The list of winners is as follows:
The outcome of Mark French’s frustration (All photos by Kyle Mace)
Dany Sabourin has been living by the motto “No Rest” these past couple of weeks. Out of the last 13 Bears game Sabourin has started 12 of them. The one he didn’t start, he was backing up Braden Holtby in Washington. After all of the games and travel for Mr. Sabourin, he might need some rest after tonight’s game. It wasn’t a busy game, but one that felt like it was going to go on forever. Connecticut only had 26 shots on the night, but one got through. The one that got through would be the only puck that saw the back of the net as Hershey would lose, 1-0.
Jean-Francois Jacques scores in the shootout to give the Crunch the extra point in the standing (Photo by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears are supposed to feed players to the parent club Washington Capitals, but on Saturday night it was the Bears fans who got to taste the “Cheese” again. Former Bears goaltender Daren Machesney returned to Hershey from South Carolina, playing his first game as a Bear since the 08-9 season. Dany Sabourin was called up to Washington, to back up the other Bears goaltender Braden Holtby, as the Caps finished the regular season against the Rangers. Machesney played well, but the Bears only picked up one point against Syracuse in a 3-2 shootout loss.
After a two week hiatus due to the planing of our first ever Hershey Bears viewing party, Snapshots is back! This time we give you a special edition.
An annual tradition continued at the last home stand. The Hershey Bears players participated in an autograph session after their shootout win over the Charlotte Checkers. But enough of me talking, let’s get on with the show!!