HERSHEY, PA – Americans’ Evan Rankin celebrates Marcus Foligno’s goal in the third period (Kyle Mace – Sweetest Hockey on Earth)
Saturday night at Giant Center the Hershey Bears squared off with the second oldest franchise in the American Hockey League, the Rochester Americans. It wasn’t just a hockey game, but a celebration among Hershey Bears fans, players and staff members. Saturday the Bears celebrated 75 years of hockey.
Photo credit: Kyle Mace
Hershey Bears forward Garrett Mitchell has started off his second professional season strong. He scored a goal in his second game of the year in the Bears 3-2 win over Binghamton. And tonight, Mitchell had a Gordie Howe hat trick, registering a goal, an assist, and a fight in the Bears’ home opener. Well, should we call it a Gordie Howe hat trick plus with him registering a game misconduct too?
Kyle Mace’s exceptional photos of each event are below.
With the Hershey Bears season coming to a close, most Bears fans will be putting all of their focus on the NHL playoffs. One of those teams left in the NHL playoffs are the Washington Capitals, the Bears affiliate. Monday night the Capitals will face off against the New York Rangers in game two of their series, but you could see some recalls before that. Those recalls are called “Black Aces,” named after holding the “Dead Man’s Hand” (two black aces) in a game of poker. So who could some of those “Black Aces” be?
Mark French argues with the officials. All photos by Kyle Mace.
Down one game, the Bears had a chance to tie up the series before returning home.
…unfortunately it didn’t go quite as planned. I won’t upset you with the details, but the Bears left the first period down four goals. Between deflections, rebounds, and just plain getting out-worked, the Penguins owned Dany Sabourin and the first period and set the tone for the rest of the game.
Tuesday night at the Harrisburg Senators game, Bears players Julien Brouillette, Andrew Carroll, Tomas Kundratek, and Garrett Mitchell participated in a dizzy bat race. If you have never seen a dizzy bat race, it is where you set a bat on the ground, spin around it 10 times, and then run to a finish line.
Many guys were at the Senators game, including Chris Bourque, who threw out the first pitch to teammate Boyd Kane.
Photos from the guy’s Twitter’s below the jump
The penultimate game of the regular season: Hershey Bears on the road versus Manchester Monarchs.
There were four goals to talk about during the first period; unfortunately only one of them belonged to the Bears. Richard Clune started off the night by deflecting the puck off of his foot. Ryan Potulny tied it up with yet another power play goal from him. He’s pretty good at those. But Monarchs scored two more times on Daren Machesney. A shorthanded goal and a five-hole goal made it 3-1 Monarchs after twenty minutes.
The outcome of Mark French’s frustration (All photos by Kyle Mace)
Dany Sabourin has been living by the motto “No Rest” these past couple of weeks. Out of the last 13 Bears game Sabourin has started 12 of them. The one he didn’t start, he was backing up Braden Holtby in Washington. After all of the games and travel for Mr. Sabourin, he might need some rest after tonight’s game. It wasn’t a busy game, but one that felt like it was going to go on forever. Connecticut only had 26 shots on the night, but one got through. The one that got through would be the only puck that saw the back of the net as Hershey would lose, 1-0.
Jean-Francois Jacques scores in the shootout to give the Crunch the extra point in the standing (Photo by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears are supposed to feed players to the parent club Washington Capitals, but on Saturday night it was the Bears fans who got to taste the “Cheese” again. Former Bears goaltender Daren Machesney returned to Hershey from South Carolina, playing his first game as a Bear since the 08-9 season. Dany Sabourin was called up to Washington, to back up the other Bears goaltender Braden Holtby, as the Caps finished the regular season against the Rangers. Machesney played well, but the Bears only picked up one point against Syracuse in a 3-2 shootout loss.
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.
The Bears celebrate Boyd Kane’s shorthanded goal. All photos by Kyle Mace.
When the Bears played the St. John’s IceCaps for the first time, they left with only one point out of four. Tonight they got a chance to earn some more in front of the Hershey faithful.
The Bears are known for their strong starts and they did not disappoint tonight. Mike Carman scored first off of a Garrett Mitchell feed from behind the goal. With a few minutes left in the first period, Boyd Kane scored a shorthanded breakaway goal to give the Bears a two goal lead at the break.
