Photo from @thehersheybears twitter account The picture above is from last week. That's right folks, there is ice in the Giant Center. By now, the ice is probably painted as well. According to a video interview a couple years ago,…
The Hershey Bears in conjunction with the Washington Capitals announced yesterday that defenseman Zach Miskovic has been signed to a one year contract. Here's the official announcement: 05/18/2011 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 18, 2011 CONTACT: John Walton-HERSHEY BEARS –…
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…
The difference between tonight’s first period and last night’s first period could not be any bigger. Just about the only similarity was that they were still on the road and playing the Norfolk Admirals .
It started off fine. Dustin Tokarski went to chase a puck down from behind the net. Instead, the puck bounced off the back boards and out to Kyle Greentree who scored on the completely empty net.
From there, it went downhill. Norfolk didn’t allow this fluke goal to mess up their game. They responded with a 4-on-4 goal (Brian Fahey was in the box for cross-checking and Blair Jones joined him for diving). After that, Andrew Gordon was whistled for tripping and the Admirals only took eleven seconds on the power play to score.
With Sheldon Souray in the box, Norfolk scored a second power play that seemed to especially tick off Braden Holtby. After the goal, he turned and shoved the net towards the back wall. It’s hard to tell if it was just general frustration but some fans in attendance said that the net was already off it’s pegs. Holtby knew it and was angry that the goal counted. It took a while to get the net fixed but there Bears were still down two goals.
Before you could blink, the Admirals then scored an even strength goal with less than a minute left in the first period. The Bears were sent to the locker room with a lot of goals to discuss.
As rough as the first period was, the second period made up for just about all of it. Francois Bouchard continues to show the coaching staff that he doesn’t belong on the fourth line. He scored his second goal this weekend. Just about 30 seconds after that, Greentree got his second goal of the night on a gorgeous pass from Keith Aucoin. They both came roaring towards the net and Aucoin placed his pass perfectly so that Greentree could flip it past Tokarski.
With all the momentum in their favor, the Bears actually tied the game up before the second period was even half over. It was Patrick McNeill who got the goal when he skated just past the blue line and got a big shot past the Norfolk goaltender. Amazingly, it was a 4-4 game.
Norfolk really took a blow when Tokarski got injured. Gordon was in front of the net and accidentally hit Tokarski with his stick. Tokarski immediately fell to the ice and the skated to the bench during a stoppage in play. Jaroslav Janus took over.
Janus gave up his first goal towards the end of the second period. For Hershey fans, I can just describe as your typical “Andrew Gordon” goal. Another great play by Aucoin to Gordon who was in Janus’ face. After being down 4-1, suddenly the Bears were up 5-4.
Neither side scored during the third period, although there were some close calls. During the final moments when Norfolk had pulled Janus, they came very close to tying the game but Hershey escaped with another big win. Bears win 5-4.
It was a big night for the Hershey Bears as they traveled up north to play the Springfield Falcons.
It was a great start to the game if you were wearing chocolate and white. The same cannot be said for Springfield goaltender, Gustaf Wesslau. In just about four and a half minutes of play, Wesslau saw two shots. They both became goals.
The first goal was Andrew Kozek, who tipped a Brian Fahey one-timer shot. The second goal belonged to Brian Willsie. Willsie was assisted by Andrew Gordon, who made his triumphant return to the line-up for the first time since he was injured on February 5th.
And that was the end of Wesslau’s night. He was quickly pulled in favor of David LeNeveu. Before the end of the period, the Falcons brought it back within one with a back door shot from Maksim Mayorov.
The second period had sort of a deja vu feeling. It took a few shots, but Kozek finally beat LeNeveu to score his second goal of the night. With two defenders closing in on him, he scored thanks to a long pass from his defenders. Not to be outdone, Willsie scored his second goal of the game as well when he capitalized on a Falcons turnover. And that’s how Hershey found themselves with a cushy lead going into the third period.
It was a pretty quiet third through. Springfield all but rolled and over and gave up. Kyle Greentree put the final nail in the coffin with a 4-on-4 goal. Bears win 5-1.
Nolan Schaefer had a rough night against the Penguins. Photo by Kyle Mace
It’s that time again: the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins came to town. While this game did not go the way we wanted it to go, it’s easy to imagine how fun a game would be with both teams at full strength.
I’ll admit that I began fearing the worst after the Penguins scored early in the first period. It took a little while for either team to get their first shot on goal, but the Penguins made their first shots efficient. They were able to get in Nolan Schaefer‘s face and covert a rebound shot.
Thankfully, the Bears were able to prevent a further deficit but they still never really got their offense going until very late in the first period. The Bears didn’t even register their first shot on goal until they had a power play halfway through the period.
The game finally started getting exciting during the second period. The Bears tied it up on the power play when Boyd Kane deflected a Brian Fahey shot. Immediately afterwards, the Bears were whistled for two penalties close together and had to kill off a 5-on-3 for almost a full two minutes. Led by Kane, Andrew Joudrey, and Sean Collins, the penalty kill unit did a fine job keeping it a tie game.
But Wilkes-Barre wouldn’t let Hershey take over and they regained the lead a few minutes later. Once again, they got in close to Schaefer and Geoff Walker scored on a nice assist from his teammate behind the net.
Even though they were behind, Hershey was definitely still in it. And they cranked it up for the third period. In the first half especially, they were getting some good shots off in attempts to tie it up.
Sadly, the game got away from them. Schaefer was screened and Joey Mormina scored to give the Penguins the insurance they need to control the game again. The Bears pulled the goalie for the final minute and a half but were unable to convert. To make things worse, the Penguins scored on the empty net. The Bears need to manage more than 16 shots on goal if they want to defeat these stronger teams. Bears lose 4-1.
An unhappy Todd Ford takes his spot on the bench after getting pulled.
The Bears were in control of this game for approximately five minutes before the Lake Erie Monsters took over.
It started with a strange penalty against Maxime Lacroix (my personal favorite penalty: “closing hand on puck”). The Bears were running their usual penalty kill when the Monsters got through them and scored the first goal. And then a second goal 18 seconds later. And then a third goal 22 seconds after that. Three goals before Hershey had time to even get one shot on goal.
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that Todd Ford was pulled after allowing three goals on seven shots. It was up to Jared DeMichel, who had just arrived in town after being called up this morning. During the shootout last night, Braden Holtby tweaked something. He finished that game but is now listed as week-to-week. It’s like we’ve gone back in time.
The first period was completely bleak. Boyd Kane, in the clutch way that only Kane can, refused to go down without a fight and scored on former bear, Jason Bacashihua.
During the second period, the Bears were able to mostly hold the Monsters back, but unfortunately Lake Erie did find the score sheet once again. The game might as well have been only two periods long. The third was the epitome of quiet. No scoring, no penalties, no fun. Some flashes of offense, a hit or two, but really nothing to write home about. We really only needed the first period to decide this one. Bears lose 4-1.
It was good showing for DeMichiel though. He was ready to step up for a game that he wasn’t meant to play. Without him, the Bears may not have been able to close the floodgates and keep Lake Erie from running away with this game.
In a rare Wednesday night game, the Bears traveled to Canada to play the Toronto Marlies. Hershey had the overwhelming obstacle of defeating Jonas Gustavsson who is with the Marlies on a conditioning stint. He is definitely an NHL-caliber goaltender and did very well in his first two conditioning games. To beat him, you need to shoot often.
…which is the opposite of what the Bears did at first. However, Hershey did manage to get one past Gustavsson thanks to Andrew Joudrey who was playing in his first game since being out with an upper body injury. Welcome back, Captain! However, the Marlies, not exactly known for their power play skills, tied it up while Patrick McNeill (not O’Neill, as the Ricoh Coliseum guy announced) was in the box. Continuing their onslaught of shots, it was only a matter of time before they found the back of the net again right off an late period offensive zone face-off. By the end of the first period, the Marlies were out-shooting them 15 to 5.
I imagine there were some strong words delivered by the coaches during the first intermission because they Bears came out aggressive for the second period. Braden Holtby continued to be a rock in net, holding back the Marlies from obtaining an even bigger lead. Late in the period, the Bears got their first power play which then turned into a 5-on-3. Boyd Kane had a shot on goal that rebounded back out. A Marlie attempted to interrupt the pass but ended up deflected it right to Kyle Greentree who shot it back door.
It was a tie game doing into a big third period. Penalties were exchanged and the Marlies regained some power, outshooting the Bears by a wide margin once again. But there was no change in the score and so the teams traveled on to overtime. Despite beginning and ending overtime on the power play, the Bears were unable to convert and a shootout was needed to end this game.
When it come down to the shootout, Holtby showed them who was boss. He stopped all five Toronto shooters. Steve Pinizzotto, who had a great game in his home town with friends and family watching, was the only Hershey skater to beat Gustavsson. It was all Hershey needed, however. Bears win 3-2 (SO).
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…
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.