The American Hockey League announced Thursday that the league will have a new divisional alignment for the 2017-18 season. The Charlotte Checkers will move from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Divison. Hershey last faced Charlotte in the 2011 Calder Cup playoffs, when Charlotte defeated the Bears in the first round of the playoffs.
HERSHEY, PA – Mike Haviland walks down the hallway after being ejected by David Banfield during Hershey’s loss to Charlotte Sunday night. (Kyle Mace / Sweetest Hockey on Earth)
With a snow storm approaching the central PA area Sunday night, it couldn’t have been a better time for Hershey’s first 4pm start time to a Sunday Giant Center tilt.
The Hershey Bears closed out their season series with the Charlotte Checkers Sunday in front of 9,942 fans at Giant Center.
On a night where the first 3,000 fans received a baseball cap promotion sponsored by Capital BlueCross, Charlotte’s Zach Boychuk notched a hat-trick in a 6-3 win over Hershey.
Casey Wellman, seen here earlier in the season, had four goals and five points in the two game stretch in Charlotte (Kyle Mace / Sweetest Hockey on Earth)
The last five games may not have all been pretty, but the Hershey Bears have now tallied points in each of them, including wins in three. The Bears traveled south to battle the Charlotte Checkers of the Western Conference for back-to-back weekday tilts on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Chocolate and White exploded for a combined 13 goals in the two day span, including eight on Thursday en route to two straight wins in Charlotte.
Ryan Potulny and Tomas Kundratek celebrate Potulny’s 26th goal of the season (All photos by Kyle Mace)
After pulling off a third period come back last night, the Bears did it again tonight, but this time needed extra time to do it. Garrett Mitchell was the hero of the game, scoring in the shootout to give Hershey a 3-2 win.
Cody Eakin, Boyd Kane, and Chris Bourque celebrate Eakin’s game-tying goal (All photos by Kyle Mace)
It was a hard hitting comeback in more ways than one. The last time the Charlotte Checkers visited Giant Center, they eliminated the Bears from the playoffs. This time the Bears played the third period, like their playoff lives depended on it, scoring two goals and getting the victory over the Charlotte, 2-1.
Photo Courtesy GoCheckers.com
Hershey was heading into their final regular season game in Charlotte after getting almost “No Rest” after their 12 round shootout win last night against the Checkers. The Bears had some struggles at the start, but came back with the help of Keith Aucoin and three assists from him, leading Hershey to a 4-3 win.
The Bears faced the team that eliminated them. Photo from the Checkers Website.
For the first time this season, the Hershey Bears took to the ice to play the team that eliminated in the first round of last year’s playoffs.
It was a quiet first period. The Bears stifled two Charlotte power plays but the Checkers still ended up with the first goal of the game. Zach Boychuk’s shot floated past Dany Sabourin last in the first stanza.
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…
Patrick McNeill tries to hold off Nicolas Blanchard. Photo by Checkers SmugMug.
The story of this series against the Charlotte Checkers has been offense. Both teams are incredibly offensively talented and the score usually shows that. Tonight was no exception.
It was all Hershey for the first two periods. Steve Pinizzotto scored the first goal of the game after Boyd Kane took a Charlotte turnover and dished it to Pinizzotto. Pinizzotto won’t miss that shot often. 1-0 Hershey. The Bears kept frustrating the Checkers by maintaining constant control of the puck and not allowing Charlotte to garner any momentum.
Mathieu Perreault scored quickly at the start of the second period to give Hershey some breathing room. After Braden Holtby made a great save on the Checkers, the Bears moved the puck the other direction. Brian Willsie got the first shot off and Perreault came crashing towards the net to capitalize on the rebound.
I’ve been a fan of Andrew Carroll since we picked him up from the Reading Royals. Tonight, he had one of the best games I’ve seen from him. All of his hard work paid off when he scored his first AHL career playoff goal. With his back to Murphy, he backhanded the puck into the goal as he was losing balance. It’s the kind of gritty goal you would expect from him.
A few minutes later, the Checkers dumped the puck and Braden Holtby went to play the puck behind the goal. Unfortunately, the puck hit the boards and bounced back out to the front of the goal. Brett Sutter crashed the net and made sure the puck went in, giving Charlotte their first goal of the game.
A two goal lead going into the third period is nice. But as Tim Leone warned us on Twitter, the Checkers have outscored the Bears 5-2 in the third period during this series. They proved this point when Charlotte scored on the power play just one minute into the third.
To make things worse, the Checkers tied it up a few minutes later. Oskar Osala had a 1-on-none breakaway. Holtby stopped the first shot but Osala converted his own rebound to get the game-tying goal.
The tables had completely turned. The Checkers now kept control of the puck and the inevitable finally happened: Nick Dodge scored after rushing to the net to give Charlotte the first lead of the night. There was a brief conversation about whether it was kicked in or not but it was eventually determined to be a good goal. Once they had the lead, the Checkers were content to play it safe. Even when the Bears pulled Holtby, they still couldn’t get anything done. The Checkers scored an empty net goal and the Bears lost 5-3. Charlotte now leads the series 3-2.
Braden Holtby stands a Charlotte Checker up. Photo by Checkers SmugMug.
Tonight’s game against the Charlotte Checkers was the first chance for the Bears to really take control of this series but we all knew that it would be a battle.
The first period was pretty uneventful in terms of offense. The Bears made sure that they were in control of this game, keeping possession of the puck for most of the periods. During the first period, the Checkers only managed four official shots on goal versus Hershey’s ten shots on goal.
Unfortunately, all that effort didn’t matter when Zach Miskovic was whistled for tripping at the beginning of the second period. Charlotte scored on the power play with a shot from the face-off circle. It looked like Braden Holtby was screened by both a Checker and a Bear.
Just over halfway through the period, Mathieu Perreault tied the game up with an interesting goal. Perreault was right on the goal line when he took a shot. It somehow managed to squeak past Mike Murphy who was flush against the goalpost. It may have even bounced off of Murphy.
Charlotte’s power play proved to be deadly again in the third period as former Bear Oskar Osala scored during the man advantage. It was originally awarded to Dalpe, who was right on top of Holtby. But it was changed to Osala after it was decided that Dalpe didn’t touch it before it crossed the line.
With the game winding down, the Checkers ensured that they would finish the game with a win. Nick Dodge, who scored a goal last night, gave Charlotte a two-goal lead. But Perreault responded with his second goal of the night. He was able to bang home a rebound and bring it back within one goal.
But the Bears couldn’t complete the comeback with such little time left in the game. With Mike Murphy looking his best at the other end of the ice, Hershey lost 3-2.