Bears Pounded 7-1 by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins


Photo by AFC Media Photography.

It’s easy to make excuses when two very depleted teams meet up. Both the Hershey Bears and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins entered this game with a line-up missing some big names. Due to call-ups and injuries, they were very different teams than the ones that met earlier this season.

The Penguins were the better tonight, plain and simple. I don’t mean to downplay Hershey’s effort because the score is misleading. They may not have been outstanding, but they put up a good effort at first. The Penguins defense was fantastic and did not allow the Bears any opportunity to ease the pain of being severely outscored.

Tonight’s game will serve as a very brief learning experience. But, it’s probably in the team’s best interests to put it behind them and carry on. This game does not change anything about the season. It could admittedly have been a significant two points gained on the Penguins in the standings but there will be more chances. The injury bug is just not something you can prepare for.

I could recap every single goal but it would start getting a little too depressing. For Todd Ford, it was a night he hopes to forget. He allowed four goals on nine shots before he was yanked in favor of Jared DeMichiel.

It wasn’t completely a dark night though. In the third period, Brian Willsie finally broke Brad Thiessen’s shutout on a rebound shot. But that wouldn’t even be close to enough to provide a comeback. Penguins win 7-1.

And so, we power through. The Norfolk Admirals are up next on the schedule and provide another chance to show that Hershey is more than what they put up today.

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Officiating Called Into Question Again as Bears Lose to the B-Sens 4-3.

Jean Hebert set the tone early with a hooking call on Andre Benoit (BNG) at 1:13 of the first period.  Kyle Greentree got the next two hooking calls but the Bears penalty killers were able to keep the game scoreless.  Shortly after Greentree’s second penalty, the Sens were able to capitalize on a botched play by Todd Ford.  Ford played the puck behind the net, but he was indecisive.  Miscommunication with Sean Collins led to a turnover behind the Bears net.  The puck came out to an undefended Colin Greening in the high slot and  he made Ford pay.  A short time later Dylan Yeo brought the game back to even with a shot through traffic from the point.

The second period saw things start to come apart for the Bears.  Turnovers happened frequently and they left players from the Sens uncovered in scoring positions.  The second period also brought more questionable calls from Hebert.  For most of the period, the Bears PK units were outstanding.  In fact, during the first Steve Pinizzotto penalty, the shorthanded Bears had more chances than the Sens.  In the end, the Sens were able to come up with a PP goal and one other in the period to give them a 3-1 lead headed into the third period.

Nineteen seconds after the start of the third period, the Sens were able to put the puck in the net again.  The goal, however, was waived off due to goaltender interference.  Derek Smith essentially jumped on top of Ford.  The officiating trend continued with seven more penalties called in the period.  This, of course, brought out the colorful chants from the Giant Center crowd.  In the end a road weary, injury depleted Bears team was unable to overcome all the adversity and lost to the Sens.

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Bears Hold Off Bruins, DeMichiel gets 4-3 Win

First thing’s first: huge congratulations to Jared DeMichiel for earning his first AHL start and win tonight as the Bears battled the Providence Bruins! DeMichiel was fantastic, having to face a lot of shots early and then continuously seeing more shots than his opponent on the other side, Nolan Schaefer, did. By the end, DeMichiel stopped 28 of 31 shots!

But the Bears gave DeMichiel an early lead to work with. Boyd Kane, continuing his recent point streak, led the offensive attack and scored the first goal of the night. A couple of minutes later, Kyle Greentree reached the twenty goal mark and beat Schaefer.

A very scary moment came midway through the first period. At first it seemed harmless enough when Trevor Bruess and Antoine Roussel dropped the gloves. They both threw some punches and fell to the ice. And then Bruess did not get back up. Very quickly, trainer Dan Stuck ran to his side and the medical staff of the Providence arena came to help.

It was hard to tell what was hurt but Bruess did not move a lot. Eventually, they stabilized him on a stretcher and took him off the ice. The only good news was that Bruess did manage to give the crowd a little wave as they rolled him off. John Walton announced that the news is that Bruess has a “fairly significant lower body injury.” We wish all the best to Trevor and hope that he can be back on the ice soon.

Once the game started up again, the Bruins finally managed to get a puck past DeMichiel. Maxime Sauve was left all by himself right in front of the goal and he went low and cut Hershey’s lead in half.

During the second period, Kane regained the two-goal lead on his second goal of the night. The goal came from an absolutely perfect passing sequence from Keith Aucoin to Francois Bouchard to Kane. Just beautiful. The Bruins fought back to get the game within one goal again. I’m willing to bet no one had Brian McGrattan down as their guess for the goal scorer.

At the very end of the period, the Bears were on the penalty kill and Providence worked their way up ice for one last attempt for time ran out. In the neutral zone, the Bears fought for the puck and Aucoin got away with it with no Bruin to fight him. He sped down the ice and sniped it right past Schaefer to give the Bears a 4-2 lead.

There was only one scoring change in the third period when the Bruins scored on the power play. Things got interesting in the last two minutes when Providence pulled their goaltender and Greentree was whistled for a delay of game. Thankfully, the Bears and DeMichiel stopped any last shots and the Bears won 4-3!

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Ford leads Bears to 2-1 SO Victory Against Monarchs

The Hershey Bears traveled to Manchester to play the Monarchs for a rare mid-week game. Coincidentally, the goalie match-up was the exact same as when the teams played in Hershey back on Halloween. Todd Ford had his first start and win of the season and Jeff Zatkoff was pulled after allowing four goals on five shots.

I can only think of one word to describe this game: calm. Not too many penalties, not too many goals, not too many scrums. Last time the two teams met, Hershey blew Manchester out of the water with an 8-3 win. This time it was much closer.

By the start of the third period, the teams were even at 1-1. Hershey scored first. Keith Aucoin, falling down, passed to Boyd Kane. Kane’s shot rebounded to Patrick McNeill who slid it past Zatkoff. The second period saw the Monarchs tie it up on a rebound shot of their own.

The third period saw no end result and so we pushed on to overtime.

It got a little scary when Bud Holloway, who had already scored once, had a shot in between the face-off circles when he was hooked by Kane. But the Bears killed that off and it came down to the shootout.

Through four rounds, neither team was able to score and it was looking like we might have another extended shootout. But Kane, back against the wall, came up big and scored in the bottom of the fifth round. Bears win, 2-1!

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Bears Come Out On Top, Beating Moose 5-1


The Bears celebrate a solid win against their rivals from the North. Photo by Kyle Mace

There wasn’t a whole lot of offense for the entire first period between the Hershey Bears and the Manitoba Moose. In fact, it took just under 13 minutes for the Moose to even register their first shot on goal. Maybe the teams were feeling a bit lethargic after a seven-round shootout the night before. Even the stands were a little quieter than usual due to the empty seats for those preparing for that big football game tonight.

Hershey got their first power play of the night right at the start of the second period. Brian Willsie had a beautiful wrister from the face-off circle during the man advantage to finally get a number up on that scoreboard. The Bears had just killed off a Joel Rechlicz penalty when a shot from Bill Sweatt beat Todd Ford. Tie game after two periods.

I have to wonder what was said in the Hershey locker room during the second intermission. In previous games against Manitoba, the Moose were able to keep up with any offense the Bears threw at them. But this time the Bears kicked it up for the third period.

Boyd Kane led the effort with a goal from the bottom of the face-off circle. Props to Ashton Rome for that perfect pass from the behind the goal to set Kane up. A few minutes later, Zach Miskovic had a blast from the point that eluded goaltender Tyler Weiman. Miskovic now has a career high in goals for the season and it’s just over the halfway mark!

The real dagger for Manitoba occurred when Hershey scored two goals in twenty seconds. Kyle Greentree had the first goal with a nice shot short side of the power play. The second game from Rome when he banged home a rebound off of Sean Collins‘ shot.

Ford wasn’t pressured too much and received a lot of help from the Hershey defenders. They were blocking shots all over the place and ensuring that the Moose never got the chance to get back into the game. Bears win 5-1.

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Despite Early Lead, Bears Lose to Moose 5-4 (SO)


Kevin Connauton ends the shootout in the seventh round. Photo by Kyle Mace

It’s always an interesting game with the Manitoba Moose and the Hershey Bears meet.

Dmitry Kugryshev took control of the game early by blasting the puck past a moving goaltender. He sprawled to make the save, but Kugryshev was one step ahead of him. There was some pushing and shoving but the first period ended without scandal.

The second period held the majority of the action for this game. Kyle Greentree added a brief insurance goal after Hershey broke up a Manitoba play in their own zone and took off. The Moose briefly cut Hershey’s lead in half but Keith Aucoin got a shot in close on goaltender Eddie Lack to regain the two-goal lead.

After going through a scoring drought for most of December and January, Francois Bouchard seems to have his touch back. He had perfect placement to bang home a rebound less than a minute after Aucoin scored.

By the end of the period though, it was 4-3 Hershey when Manitoba fought back. They even scored with just 3.3 seconds left in the period to send the Bears to the locker room shaking their heads.

Things started getting chippy in the third period. Both Greentree and Andrew Gordon ended up on the wrong side of some hits in the corner. Each continued to play but they definitely looked rattled for a little bit. The Hershey crowd was already fuming after neither hit was penalized and it didn’t help that the Moose then tied it up after Aucoin was called for mouthing off to the referee.

The game went to overtime but the score didn’t change. It took seven rounds in the shoot out before either team could score. The coaches cycled through their players but the goalies stopped every one. That is until Kevin Connauton finally beat Todd Ford in the bottom of the seventh round. Moose win 5-4.

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Bears Top Devils 5-3 in Atlantic City Showdown

Okay, first off: nobody panic. Just because Braden Holtby and Dany Sabourin are out with knee injuries does not mean we need to panic (more on that to come).

Tonight’s game against the Albany Devils was already circled on our calendars. Instead of being played in Albany, the game took place in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall, home of the now-defunct Boardwalk Bullies. But with the added obstacle of being backstopped by two ECHL goalies, this game got a whole lot more interesting.

The Bears stumbled a bit right out the gate when Albany took the early lead. However, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond was called for a roughing penalty late in the period and Andrew Gordon made him pay. He tied it up right off the draw for the ensuing power play. Tie game after one.

Continuing to exchange back-and-forth goals, the Devils regained their lead when they scored on a rebound shot. Thankfully, Hershey’s power play was there to tie it up once again, this time with a shot from Francois Bouchard. It would be Brian Willsie‘s 20th goal of the season that gave the Bears their first lead of the game going into the final period.

Just like the first period, the Devils got the early goal in third. But Willsie didn’t take too kindly to this and countered with his second goal of the night on the (you guessed it) power play! Able to hold down their lead, the Bears wrapped it up with an empty net goal courtesy of Boyd Kane. Bears win 5-3.

Todd Ford wasn’t called on to make too many saves but he was pretty solid, especially against some monster shots, including a breakaway attempt. Thanks in part to him, the Bears extend their winning streak to seven straight games. Like I said, don’t panic.

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2011 All-Star Classic Game Recap

Thanks, Tux! Photo by Brian Mills

All Star games tend to remind me more of a Sunday morning pick-up game.  This one was no different.  I’m sure there were fans in the stands expecting to see the sort of hockey that we are accustom to here in Hershey, but anyone who has been around hockey for more than a couple years knew that wasn’t going to be the case.  All Star games are typically high scoring affairs with little defense.  This was the case this evening as well.

Hometown favorite and Eastern Conference All Star Andrew Gordon opened up the scoring just 16 seconds into the game.  By the way, that is a record for the quickest goal in an AHL All Star Game.  The West answered back with four goals of their own, but the East ended up tying the game up before the end of the First.

The second period was a little bit of a snore fest.  Half speed skating was the name of the game.  The East outscored the West 4-2 in the second bringing the game total to 8-6 in favor of the East.

Shortly into the third period controversy erupted.  Gordon scored again, but the tally was initially given to the West on the score board.  Former Bear and Captain of the East had some word with the officiating crew and all was put right in the world of scoring.  There was also a quick whistle at one point that cost the West a goal.  Oh, David Banfield! You silly ref, you!  When the third period came to an end, the East ended up on top by a score of 11-8.  Andrew Gordon had 2 points (2G) as did Brian Fahey (2A).  Braden Holtby remained sidelined for the game due to a minor left knee injury.

Bobby Butler of the Binghamton Senator was named MVP of the game.  He had one goal and three assists.

No stars of the game were named, however that won’t stop me from naming mine.

#3 Star of the game goes to Andrew Gordon for setting a record for the quickest goal in an AHL All Star game.

#2 Star of the game goes to Bobby Butler.  Hey, the kid was the MVP.  How can I argue with that?

And finally…..

#1 Star of the game goes to David Banfield.  Yes, Referee Banfield.  He managed to call a game without his arm in the air for half the time.  That counts for something!

Last, but not least enjoy some pictures from the game.

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Bears add another win by beating the Checkers 1-0

Sheldon Souray scores the only goal of the game. (Photo credit: Kyle Mace)

It seemed like the Bears played a man down for most of the game. Despite that, they were able to prevail. A late power play goal from Sheldon Souray lifted the Bears over the Checkers.

The first period was a little slow. Each team registered only 5 shots on goal for the entire period.  Both teams were missing some passes and seemed to be playing not to lose rather than to win.  This makes sense since they both needed points from the game.

The second period started the same way that the first ended.  At the begining of the period Braden Holtby had to come up big.  Charlotte picked up the puck behind the Bears net.  Holtby had to make a save stretching from post to post.  He then came up with another big save on the rebound.  The reminder of the period saw a few more chances (and a few more penalties) than the first, but the result was the same.  At the end of two periods it was locked at 0-0.

The third period started out with a high sticking double minor on Keith Aucoin at 1:24.  This was followed by a Sheldon Souray cross checking penalty at 2:49.  The Checkers had a full two minutes of 5 on 3 power play.  The Bears penalty killers came up HUGE!  They killed off both penalties and turned the momentum squarely in their favor.  At 9:50 in the third period, the Checkers took a penalty giving the Bears their first full two minutes of power play time in the game.  Unlike the 20-30 second power plays that they had before, they made this one count.  Aucoin sent the puck across the point to a waiting Souray.  Souray fired away and found the back of the net.  That was the only goal of the game, and the Bears held on to that lead to get another win.

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Bears Extend Winning Streak With 3-2 Victory in Bingo

Giving Dany Sabourin a well-deserved rest, Braden Holtby led the Bears onto the ice against the Binghamton Senators tonight.

Boyd Kane scored the first goal of the game. He sniped the shot up high and gave Hershey the early lead. Before the end of the period, the Senators tied it up on the power play when Bobby Butler slammed home the rebound.

In the second period, the teams exchanged goals again. Bingo got their first lead of the game when they got the puck close up on the goal crease and beat Holtby. Hershey countered with a power play goal of their own. Brian Willsie gets all the credit on this one as he danced through the defense and placed a perfect backhand shot.

It looked like there was a game-changing penalty when Jim O’Brien of Binghamton was questionably penalized for a hit on Tyler Sloan. O’Brien recieved an elbowing major as well as a game misconduct. But the Senators came up big and killed off the penalty.

Just when it seemed as if not scoring on that power play was going to be their biggest regret, the Bears upped their offense and got moving. Kyle Greentree got the puck right between the face-off circles and scored five-hole on Mike Brodeur with about two and half minutes left in the game.

The Senators couldn’t muster up enough to tie the game again and the Bears won 3-2. They have now won five games in a row, their longest streak of the season!

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