Depleted Hershey line-up loses 5-3 to Charlotte


Patrick Wellar pushes Jacob Micflikier to the ice. Photo by Checkers SmugMug.

After Friday’s game against the Charlotte Checkers, we were happy for the win but still hoping to see some players return to bolster the line-up. Instead, we lost Phil Oreskovic and, more importantly, leading scorer Andrew Gordon. Oreskovic didn’t play after getting injured in the last game. Gordon was called up to Washington before the game and joined the Capitals in New York for their game aginst the Rangers tonight. Returning from his one game suspension, Steve Pinizzotto took over Gordon’s spot on the top line.

The Charlotte Checkers put the Bears in an early hole today. Three quick goals within the first nine minutes made it 3-0 in favor of the Checkers before you could blink. The only shining moment of the first period was Jay Beagle‘s short-handed goal that finally put Hershey on the board. That goal was Beagle’s fourth short-handed goal of the season. I can’t talk about this enough. He now has more short-handed goals than even strength goals.

During the second period, the Bears were able to cut Charlotte’s lead down to one on the power play. Sheldon Souray scored his first ever goal as a Bear on a blistering one-timer. I’m sure you’d expect nothing less from Souray.

Mark French decided to stick with Braden Holtby in goal. After letting in three goals on six shots, Holtby was able to steady himself and shut the door for…almost the rest of the game. It started to really go downhill when the Checkers scored on a 5-on-3 during the third period. They got another goal when Holtby decided to play with the puck outside of his crease with a lot of traffic around him. One of the reasons we love Holtby is his aggressive style and his puck handling. But today he was making a lot of questionable decisions outside of his crease and eventually it caught up with him. He went to play the puck and turned it over to the Checkers who scored on the practically empty net.

That was pretty much the dagger for the Bears. The game did end on a high note though as Lawrence Nycholat scored his fourth goal of season in the final minutes of the game. But Hershey seemed to accept their 5-3 loss to the Charlotte Checkers. Hey, Keith Aucoin, how is your knee feeling?

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Injured Bears stay strong to defeat Checkers 2-1 (SO)


Captains Bryan Rodney and Andrew Joudrey take a ceremonial face-off before the game. Photo by Checkers SmugMug

The team dressed to play against the Charlotte Checkers tonight only sort of resembled the Hershey Bears. Missing big players because of injuries, suspension, a call-up, we watching the bare bones of the Bears. More on that later.

Charlotte made an interesting choice off the bat by choosing Justin Pogge to start instead of Mike Murphy. Murphy, this season, has all but had Hershey’s number. The only game Hershey had won against the Checkers was the game Pogge started and then subsequently was pulled during. The first period had the appearance of history repeating itself. At first, Pogge was shaky, juggling the puck and giving up big rebounds. On Hershey’s first shot of the game, Andrew Gordon potted his 16th goal of the season, breaking his brief scoring “slump.”

Despite Hershey leading the shots 17 to 5 at the end of the first period, it was a tie game. The Charlotte goal came after Braden Holtby made a great poke check save. Unfortunately, Jerome Samson was there to cash in on the rebound while Holtby was sprawled on the ice.

Even with the Checkers stepping their game up in the waning minutes, the second and third periods saw no scoring change. This was only the third time that the Bears had gone to overtime and only the second time they’d gone to the shootout.

Pogge deserves all the credit he can get for tonight’s game. Hershey threw 49 shots at him and he stopped all but one. Holtby got the win tonight though, stopping all four shots he saw in the shootout. After Holtby stoned Chris Terry in the shootout and clinched the victory, he skated furiously out of his crease and proceeded to celebrate as if he scored a goal. Kinda like this. Should we count this as another Holtbyism? Sure, why not!

In an interesting twist by that genius, Mark French, Lawrence Nycholat scored the game-winning goal. Yes, you read that correctly. Brian Willsie also scored in the shootout to help secure the 2-1 win. I don’t think people were expecting the broken down Bears to put up almost 50 shots in one game. If they keep up this kind of effort, the team is bound to start seeing more success, especially with a healthy line-up.

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Andrew Gordon talks about social media, his favorite Holtbyism, & playing dryer hockey with Crosby

Andrew Gordon

On November 20th, I went up to Hershey to celebrate my 26th Birthday in style, hoping to break my own personal curse and finally see a Bears victory in person (0-4). Despite Andrew Gordon’s heroic two goals and Semyon Varlamov in net, the Bears couldn’t garner enough offensive power to overcome the dreaded Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Undeterred, after the game, I caught up with the current AHL goals (15) and points (30) leader for an exclusive one-on-one interview to ask for his thoughts on a wide range of topics. This includes life in the AHL, the Bears new Captain, goalies, Holtbyisms, and his experience playing dryer hockey with one Sidney Crosby.

In the weeks to come – if my first-ever video interview with an athlete does not result in me being kicked out of the Bears locker room forever – we’ll continue to do these Q/A’s. So make sure to check out for more profiles on your favorite Hershey players and let us know what you think in the comments below. Okay! Let’s do this.

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Holtby shuts out Phantoms 4-0 in return to Hershey


Dmitri Kugryshev is all smiles after he scores his first career AHL goal! Photo by Kyle M.

The Adirondack Phantoms came into tonight’s game with just three wins in the season. But, for the first few minutes, they were standing strong against Hershey. The last thing the Bears needed was a loss to the last place team to kill their swagger.

Boyd Kane drew first blood late in the first period. Andrew Gordon later scored on the power play when he deflected a Kyle Greentree shot. Gordon leads the league in goals (with 15) and in points (with 29). After Gordon’s goal, Phantoms goaltender Johan Backlund was helped to the bench with seemingly a lower body injury. Nic Riopel replaced him in goal and there was no looking back.

Big congratulations to Dmitry Kugryshev who scored Hershey’s third goal of the game and his first career AHL goal! It’s been a long time coming for Kugryshev. Every game he seems to be getting more and more playing time and deservedly so. Mark French even tried mixing the lines up a little and playing Kugryshev on the top line with Gordon and Mathieu Perreault. Kugryshev’s confidence was through the roof for the rest of game. He’s a talented guy and is bound to be a serious threat once he fully adjusts to AHL life.

Hershey helped maintain their lead by scoring 32 seconds into the third period. It was Kane’s second goal of the night. Kane just loves playing against the Phantoms. He always seems to love harassing his former team.

The story of the night though is Braden Holtby‘s triumphant return to Hershey. After a fairly long call-up in Washington, he came back and took his rightful spot as the #1 goalie for the Bears. He stopped 28 of 28 shots and some of them were doozies. He seemed as comfortable as ever as Bears defeat Phantoms 4-0.

Hershey remains undefeated since the closed door meeting on Wednesday night. Like I said in the last recap, hopefully this is the start of a better, more consistent season.

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Bears dominate Crunch with a 5-1 victory

After Wednesday’s loss to the Worcester Sharks, Mark French was mad. The coaches held a closed door meeting that had us a little afraid for the players. We obviously don’t know what was said but it made tonight’s game against the Syracuse Crunch all that more important. Hershey needed to make a statement.

The first period was pretty even. Syracuse would draw first blood when Patrick Maroon scored his first goal as a member of the Crunch. It would be their only goal of the night. Andrew Gordon tied the game during a 5-on-3 power play before the end of the period.

The second period was key for the Bears. Hershey spent the majority of the period dominating the offensive zone, so much so that Syracuse opted for a goaltender change. This switch was most likely an attempt to wake up the rest of the team and not so much a reflection of Timo Pielmeier’s performance. Before the switch, Mathieu Perreault found the back of the net thanks to an assist from Gordon. Andrew Joudrey added a one-timer from Steve Pinizzotto that eluded Pielmeier.

For the rest of the game, the Bears tried to minimize Syracuse’s scoring chances as much as possible. Gordon scored his second goal of the night and 14th goal of the season. After killing off a penalty, Hershey regrouped and Kyle Greentree scored Hershey’s fifth and final goal of the night.

It’s easy to assume that Dany Sabourin was chosen to start in tonight’s game due to his previous success in Syracuse. Sabourin recorded his first win of the season in this building. He also shutout the Crunch in the last meeting between these two teams. After tonight’s game, he remains undefeated in Syracuse as Hershey wins 4-1.

There you go. A full 60 minute effort proves what Hershey is capable of. Let’s hope that meeting was the kick the Bears needed to turn this season around for good.

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Worcester takes Thanksgiving Eve 3-2 victory


Brian Willsie has to be held back after Alex Stalock leaves the crease to give him a good shove after the whistle. Photo by Kyle M.

We were all hoping to cut into our turkeys tomorrow and be thankful for a Bears victory to start the holiday. Unfortunately, we’ll just have to be thankful that it’s only the beginning of the season.

The first period started off a little awkward. The Worcester Sharks opened scoring with a rebound goal that beat Dany Sabourin. Just over a minute later, Tommy Wingels scored Worcester’s second goal on a breakaway that left Zach Miskovic and Sheldon Souray in the dust on the blue line. By the end of period, Hershey seemed to finally develop a sense of control and tempo that unfortunately did not foreshadow a comeback, but instead a good attempt at a comeback.

The second period continued the offensive flow that the Bears found in the first period. Mathieu Perreault broke the shutout to put Hershey on the board. Unfortunately, Worcester counted with another goal to make it 3-1 by the end of the second period.

Starting the third period on the power play, the Bears needed to use this man advantage. Souray had a huge missile of a shot (though when doesn’t he?) that Jay Beagle was able to convert on to bring Hershey back within a one goal difference. Even with a couple of power plays in the third, Hershey couldn’t convert to tie the game. Sharks take this one 3-2.

Hershey outshot Worcester for most, if not all, of the game. The final shot count was 21-43 in favor of Hershey. Those shots tell the story of Hershey’s fierce attempt at evening the score and also the story of goaltender Alex Stalock’s skills.

We’ll wrap this recap up on a positive note: To all our American readers, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. To those of you who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving…Happy Fourth Thursday of November.

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Power play can’t save Bears from 4-3 Penguins win


Semyon Varlamov lets in a Penguins goal. Photo by Kyle M.

You know, considering the injury bug has attacked this team, this game was not that bad.

Actually, it was pretty bad for Semyon Varlamov. For a guy who carried his NHL team through two postseasons, you expect him to do better than stopping 19 of 23 shots. Period.

Andrew Gordon had a good night, scoring two of Hershey’s three goals. Lawrence Nycholat recorded the other tally, Hershey’s first goal of the night. Despite Gordon’s late goal, the Bears couldn’t overcome Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s lead and the Penguins won the game 4-3.

The crowd was full of energy and in playoff form. Games against the Penguins always bring out of the emotions. A perfect example of the emotions came after Mathieu Perreault was jumped in the corner by Chris Collins, who only got a interference penalty (see the pictures below). Thankfully, he was alright and didn’t miss a shift.

Hershey is 0-for-2 so far this weekend. Let’s hope tomorrow salvages this stretch.

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Senators record rare win against Bears, 4-2

Before the game, Andrew Gordon called it:

When the Binghamton Senators scored the first two goals of the game, it was the first time the Senators held a lead against the Bears this season. Boyd Kane got his seventh goal of the season to cut Binghamton’s lead in half. Andrew Joudrey tied the game at two goals a piece with a goal late in the second period. It all came down to the third period.

Unfortunately, it was Binghamton that was ready to finish the game. Try as he might, Jay Beagle just could not get a goal. He had a lot of good chances but none were going his way. Hershey had a good push in the waning minutes of the game, but Barry Brust stood strong and even got the secondary assist on the empty net goal to make it 4-2 Senators over Bears.

Yes, Brust put on a much better performance than on Sunday. He stopped 42 shots tonight, giving himself a .954 save percentage. That’s a pretty good way to make up for a .771 save percentage from the last game.

So, close…but no cigar. The Bears need to rest up because they’ve got a big game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins tomorrow. What better way to redeem themselves? Oh, and please send a ‘Get Well Soon’ card to our many injured players.

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Perreault and the Bears send Senators packing, 8-3


Mathieu Perreault leads the Bears to victory on a night Barry Brust and the Binghamton Senators do not want to look back on. Photo by Kyle M.

How to even begin writing about this game…

It was all Andrew Gordon at first. He opened scoring only 70 seconds into the game. Seven minutes later, he added another goal to become the first Bear to reach double digits in goals this season. Brian Willsie scored his first goal a 25 seconds later and Steve Pinizzotto added to the tally a minute after that. Kyle Greentree scored before another Willsie goal to wrap up the first period. That’s right, 6-0 after the first period.

Binghamton managed to regain some of their dignity and come back with three goals during the rest of the game. Lawrence Nycholat had the final say with the last goal of the game to make it 8-3 Bears.

But let’s talk about Mathieu Perreault. He fell one assist short of tying the Hershey record for most assists in one game. Per Tim Leone, the current record is seven assists, set by Mitch Lamoureux on November 21, 1987 against Baltimore. the AHL Twitter announced that Perreault’s six assist night was the first since Rochester’s Chris Taylor on Oct 21, 2005.

The Bears were definitely playing well but it’s important to remember that the Binghamton Senators are having some serious goalie issues at the moment. Both Robin Lehner and Mike Brodeur are injured. A lot of people were questioning why the coaches weren’t pulling Barry Brust after goal four and on. Zane Kalembra was sitting on the bench and they probably weren’t in a hurry to put him in the game. He has never played an AHL game and only played one ECHL in his career. He was signed that morning as an emergency back-up. However, Brust actually did a good job after the first period. Maybe he realized that he was going to be in this game for the long run.

I know you’re all dying to hear how Semyon Varlamov did. When he was sent to Hershey, I’m thinking they were hoping to see him challenged more than he was tonight. He didn’t really have to deal with a lot of shots until the second period when Binghamton had a couple power plays, including a 5-on-3. He let in three goals, two while Hershey was on the penalty kill. He was pretty solid but probably wants at least one of those goals back. It’s understandable since he’s shaking off a lot of rust. He looked great when he stopped a shorthanded breakaway shot during the third period. Overall, he made 21 for 24 saves.

Hershey will rest for a few days. Their next game is Friday against the Senators again, but this time in Binghamton. The Senators are probably hoping they have more healthy goaltenders by then.

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Sabourin rebounds, shuts out Crunch, 3-0


Brian Willsie skates away with the puck. Photo by Lauren Long / The Post-Standard.

Clearly Syracuse is Dany Sabourin‘s favorite city.

At the end of October, Sabourin recorded his first win of the season in an overtime victory against the Syracuse Crunch. And tonight, he gets the first shutout for any Hershey goaltender this season. He wasn’t really challenged for the first two periods, seeing only 13 shots after 40 minutes. By the third period, Syracuse realized they were in trouble and starting firing more. He was even able to stop a brief 5-on-3 penalty kill near the end of the game. Kind of funny how yesterday we were calling him out for throwing the game away and today he proves how good he can be.

Speaking of back and forth playing…the Bears have won every other game for the past seven games. Coincidence or are the Bears just good at rebounding from losses?

The game was scoreless after the first period. Ashton Rome finally broke the scoring drought with his fourth goal of the season. He had a fantastic assist from Dmitri Kugryshev. Andrew Gordon now leads the team with eight goals after he scored on the power play. Brian Willsie added on another insurance goal during the third period, assists going to Mathieu Perreault and Gordon.

Semyon Varlamov is scheduled to start in goal tomorrow, giving Sabourin time to rest and bask in his shutout glory. Let’s hope for a little consistency from the Bears and hope that they record back-to-back wins for the first time since October 29th.

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