Seven years ago Sunday, Alexandre Giroux scored arguably the greatest goal in Hershey Bears history putting the Bears one away from winning their second straight Calder Cup.
Until now, the game that was viewed by over two thousand at a viewing party at Giant Center only aired once on television. But now you can watch the full game via our YouTube channel (which you also should subscribe to while you’re over there.) Enjoy!
Only twelve people in 78 seasons have accomplished such a feat. Saturday night Chris Bourque joined the ranks of Willie Marshall, Mitch Lamoureux, and Ralph Keller as he scored his 400th point as a Hershey Bear with an assist on Paul Carey’s goal in the third period.
Chris Bourque celebrates with Ryan Potulny after #22 scored the game winner for Hershey in overtime (All photos by Kyle Mace)
22. Ryan Potulny’s number. Also the number of seconds into over time he scored his 22nd goal of the season. That was also the game winning goal, giving Hershey a 2-1 win over the Springfield Falcons.
Photo credit: Mitchell Layton (and hijacked from our sister blog RMNB)
I’d rather not talk about this past weekend, but there were 3 games. Here are recaps from Friday, Saturday and Sunday all resulting in no points. The only good things to come out of this past week was an announcement that the All-Star Classic would be on TV and the Bears continued their tradition of reading in schools.
Keith Aucoin voted a starter at this year’s All-Star Game. [The AHL]
This isn’t the kind of season Zach Miskovic hoped he would have, but he is still making the best of it. [PennLive]
The Old Barn hockey show had Jim Jones, John Walton and Doug Yingst join them this week. [OBHS]
Tomas Kundratek has been a nomad this season. [CSNWash]
Speaking of Kundratek, he’s back in Hershey. [Caps]
And playing in the NHL was a dream come true. [PennLive]
Over the last few years, Hershey Bears fans have seen plenty of free agent moves. But none of the previous years had the emotional impact of the moves that have been made in the last 48 hours.
Mike Murphy and Braden Holtby shake hands after Game 6. Photo by Kyle Mace
With the Bears facing possible elimination tonight, everyone was nervous.
They only got more nervous when the Charlotte Checkers scored just 35 seconds into the first period. The Bears failed to clear the zone and the Checkers took advantage. Braden Holtby stopped the first shot but a rebound bounced past him. But the Bears held off the Checkers for the rest of period and did a good job of not letting that early goal rattle them.
The Bears also escaped the second period without letting the Checkers score any more goals. I say escape because they were playing Russian roulette with how many penalties they were taking. The penalty kill unit stood up Charlotte and the game moved on with no scoring change.
The good news was that Hershey only needed one goal to tie it up. The bad news? It was time for the third period, which is (as we learned in Game 5 on Friday) notoriously an all Charlotte period.
Time was the enemy and just when things started looking grim, the Bears finally broke the shutout and tied the game! Keith Aucoin won the face-off and Brian Fahey took a shot from the top of the right face-off circle to bring the crowd to its feet.
The final few minutes of regulation ticked away and the already nerve-wracking game became more nerve-wracking by moving on to sudden death overtime for the first time this series.
Checkers celebrate moving on. Photo by Kyle
It wasn’t Hershey’s year this year. As sad as it is, Hershey fans have been spoiled by their team. Eleven Calder Cup Championships will help the organization hold its head high even though we will not be watching Bears hockey in May for once. We have some of the best fans in the world, a fact proven by the round of applause the crowded Giant Center gave their team even after losing.
Until next season…
Andrew Kozek photo courtesy of chicagowolves.com Now that the Clear Day rosters have been released, tell us what you think. You can see the full list of teams and their rosters on the AHL's website. The Bears have submitted the…
This was a busy week/weekend for Hershey. The Bears hosted this little thing called the AHL All-Star Classic. From a fan perspective it was a great weekend. Hopefully the staff of the Bears would agree. I'll start this week's Chocolate…
Photo by Brian Mills
The 2011 AHL All-Star Classic was the news of the day in Hershey. A large crowd gathered to witness the best players in the AHL show off their skills in an assortment of events. Unlike recent years, the format this year is an East versus West match up. One player from the Western All Stars received a loud round of applause. That player was former Bear, Alexandre Giroux. Of course current Bears Brian Fahey, Andrew Gordon and Braden Holtby also received large show of support.
The First event was the “Sher-Wood Puck Control Relay.” The East took two out of three heats to get an early lead. Up next was the “Reebok Fastest Skater.” The RBC Future Stars gave the West a point, while the East got points for the fastest individual and fastest team average. The “RBC Rapid Fire” competition was next on the agenda. The goalies from the East came up big. Martin Jones and John Curry had to split duties because Holtby sat out the events with a sore knee. The East got another point thanks to fabulous goal tending. The East picked up two more points in the “Reebok Hardest Shot.” The East had the highest team average and Fahey led all contestants with a shot of 96.9 mph. In the “Reese’s Accuracy Shooting” the East yet again prevailed gaining two more points. The “Reese’s Pass and Score” also belonged to the East when they won 4-2. The last event was the “Panasonic Breakaway Relay.” Again, the goaltending from the East was the dominant factor. The offence from the East also produced 4 goals. After all events were done, the East outscored the West by a score of 19-7
For a full score sheet from the competition, check out the results on the AHL’s official website. After the jump, make sure to check out our extensive photos from the day.
Hershey started off incredibly strong. They absolutely punished the Manitoba Moose in the first two minutes alone. Brian Fahey got the first goal of the night 43 seconds into the game. His shot came from the blue line and may have deflected off a Moose player before entering the goal. A little over a minute later, Nikita Kashirsky recorded his second goal of the season. Two shots for Hershey, two goals for Hershey.
Manitoba then took a time out to regain their composure. They rebounded and were able to keep calm despite their early deficit. In the last minutes of the period, they got their first goal of the night. It kind of looked like Patrick Wellar screened Dany Sabourin on that shot.
During the second period, the Bears relaxed a little. They stopped firing shots at Manitoba goaltender Eddie Lack. As a result, Manchester kicked it up and tied the game. It was a good cross ice pass for Manitoba but Sabourin didn’t handle it well. Instead of using lateral movement to slide across the crease, he panicked and dove.
Hershey regained the lead before the end of the second period. Stop me if you’ve heard this before but Andrew Gordon scored on the power play with a shot right on the door step of the Manitoba goal. Shocking, I know.
During the third period, the first half was mostly uneventful. It didn’t get interesting until Manitoba tied it up again with a goal that beat Sabourin short side. I’m going to guess he wants that one back.
But have no fear! Andrew Gordon, power play player extraordinaire, is here to save the day! Once again, parking out in front of the net paid off. Lawrence Nycholat‘s shot from the blue line came towards the net and Gordon got his stick on it with less than thirty seconds left in the game. The Bears were able to stave off any last minute chances from the Moose and won 4-3 in exciting fashion.