Lake Erie celebrates their 5-4 win over Hershey Saturday night (All photos by Kyle Mace)
How do you start a recap after a game like this? After 76 penalty minutes, 9 goals, many mini line brawls, and a goal that you could argue should not have counted, the Lake Erie Monsters came out on top, 5-4, over the Hershey Bears.
Holtby gets the win tonight in Wilkes-Barre. Photo by Anthony Fabrikant/AFC Media.
The Bears broke their losing skid just in time to face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on the road. With a nice day off to feast, it was back to business for Hershey tonight.
Ryan Potulny, in just his second game back from injury, scored on the power play to give the Bears the first lead. Julien Brouillette started the play by crashing through the defense and getting a shot on goal. Potulny closed in on the rebound to pot his first goal of the season. This goal was followed by two fights and you knew it would be another crazy night.
Tenacity and determination lifted the Bears past Providence. Photo by Kyle Mace.
With each game, the Bears’ losing streak gets more and more disheartening. Tonight was a chance to turn things around and play a full game against the Providence Bruins.
The Bears tend to have strong starts and tonight was no exception. Just 18 seconds after puck drop, the first line combined for the first goal of the night. Chris Bourque scored his tenth goal of the season from the right face-off circle past Anton Khudobin.
The Bruins tied it up halfway through the period. David Warsofsky beat Dany Sabourin, who appeared pretty frustrated with letting that one in. The Bears answered with a goal of their own. Brett Flemming scored with a quick goal off the face-off.
Tim Sestito scores on Braden Holtby in the Bears 6-5 loss. (All photos by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears lost their fourth straight game on Saturday night. Sort of. In the hockey world of losses, there are also overtime losses and shootout losses. Those losses aren’t as bad as a regulation loss. Saturday night’s 6-5 shootout loss to the Albany Devils gave Hershey a point in the tight AHL Eastern division. It was Hershey’s fourth straight defeat, but only one of those losses was a regulation loss.
Boyd Kane (seen here last season) scored against Syracuse. Photo by Lauren Long / The Post-Standard.
It is the start of a new weekend and a chance for the Bears to begin turning their luck around. After losing three of the last four games, the Bears were looking for a strong game from start to finish. Playing on the road, the Bears got that strong start against the Syracuse Crunch.
It only took 24 seconds to get started. Boyd Kane scored on the first shot of the game against Iiro Tarkki. A few minutes later, the Crunch scored on the power play to tie it up. Then, Jacob Micflikier earned a goal when he and his linemates continued to poke at a loose puck in the goal crease.
Tomas Kundratek joins the Bears. Photo from hersheybears.com
The Old Barn Hockey Show is back with a new edition. [OBHS]
The Maryland Sports Blog came up to Hershey and takes a look at the Caps prospects. [TMSB]
The Bears (including D.J King #15) celebrate a goal against Bingo. Photo by Kyle Mace.
In a rare midweek game, the Hershey Bears took to the ice to battle the Binghamton Senators and hopefully make up for being shut out last Friday. It also marked D.J. King‘s first game as a Hershey Bear.
The Bears scored ten seconds into their first power play of night. Keith Aucoin dished to Graham Mink who scored from his office in front of the net. Later, Mattias Sjogren would show off his ability to pressure opponents into turnovers. His shot then hit the skate of a Senator and Garrett Mitchell scored on the rebound. All in all, the first period brought a well-rounded effort from the Bears.
Photo by AFCMedia Photography.
It was the battle of the in-state rivals’ third jerseys tonight. The Bears wore their white skating bear sweaters while the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins wore dark jerseys with more tan than their usual uniforms. But it was more than a story about fashion.
Just 33 seconds in, Patrick Wellar laid out a nice check at the blue line. It was a clean hit but, as often happens in hockey these days, he was immediately jumped. He and Ryan Schnell exchanged some rough stuff but the Bears ended up with a power play.
Unfortunately, the Penguins killed off the penalty and then took the first lead of the game. An innocent pass by Wilkes-Barre in front of Dany Sabourin became a goal when the puck bounced off of an unlucky Patrick McNeill. Before the end of the period, the Penguins scored again on a stuff attempt.
The Hershey Bears celebrate in their breast cancer awareness jerseys. Photo by Kyle Mace.
The weekend had a rough start for the Bears after they dropped two games on the road. Today was their chance to salvage it with another game against the defending Calder Cup Champs, the Binghamton Senators. They donned special pink and white jerseys that were auctioned off post-game for breast cancer awareness.
Thanks to Graham Mink and the power play unit, the Bears were off to a good start. It was an early penalty against the Senators as Francis Lessard was whistled for hooking. Keith Aucoin dished out a crisp pass right to Mink in his office in front of Mike McKenna.
That was the only goal in the first period but it wasn’t the only excitement. I think we all knew this was coming but old fight buddies, Francis Lessard and Joel Rechlicz, dropped the gloves. As is expected from these guys, the bout was long and a fairly even battle. When the officials finally separated them, Rechlicz ripped off Lessard’s helmet, which had stayed on the entire time. Rechlicz was yelling for more as they were escorted to the penalty boxes. You may remember (as I’m sure Rechlicz does) what Lessard did to Rechlicz’s face last season.
Andrew Joudrey (seen here during Springfield’s preseason) faced his former team tonight.
The Bears began another 3-in-3 tonight, once again on the road. They started the weekend with a game against the Springfield Falcons, the new team of former captain, Andrew Joudrey.
The first period moved along quickly as the teams battled away. The Bears were playing well and had several big scoring opportunities. One of those opportunities came when Cody Eakin was robbed with a glove save about halfway through the period. But the first goal of the game wasn’t far off. Boyd Kane wrestled the puck away in the neutral zone and got it to Eakin. Eakin set up Jacob Micflikier on a 2-on-1 opportunity and the Bears took the first lead of the game!
Shortly after that, Garrett Mitchell earned his first career AHL goal and it was a nice one! The Bears were playing with an extra man due to a delayed penalty call against the Falcons. Mitchell was near the net and backhanded a rebound past goaltender Danny Taylor.