Chris Bourque celebrates with Ryan Potulny after #22 scored the game winner for Hershey in overtime (All photos by Kyle Mace)
22. Ryan Potulny’s number. Also the number of seconds into over time he scored his 22nd goal of the season. That was also the game winning goal, giving Hershey a 2-1 win over the Springfield Falcons.
Over the past few weeks, Hershey’s Giant Center has been the epicenter of many PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) District III playoff basketball games. Saturday afternoon, the Chambersburg Trojans and the Harrisburg Cougars faced-off for the AAAA District III Championship at 1pm. That same day however, the Hershey Bears and the Binghamton Senators would compete for two points in the AHL standings.
Kyle Greentree celebrates his goal tonight with his teammates (All photos by Kyle Mace)
The Bears have gone 1-6 in their last seven games, which is not good. Not good at all. But the Bears got that first win in five games with a big win with a 3-0 shutout over the Binghamton Senators.
Braden Holtby faced the Norfolk Admirals tonight. Photo by John Wright.
As we get closer to the end of the season, games against big teams like the Norfolk Admirals become even more important.
The Bears owned the first period. They out-shot the Admirals, stopped a Norfolk power play, and maintained the majority of puck possession. They did everything right except they couldn’t find the back of the net.
Braden Holtby looks back at one of Norfolk four goals from tonight’s game. (All photos by Kyle Mace)
Have you ever played the game Battleship? It felt like the Bears and Admirals were playing it tonight with both teams going back and forth all night long. But Norfolk was the winner of this game, hitting B1, 2, 3, and 4 and sinking S.S. Bears, 4-3.
Dany Sabourin watches a loose puck roll into the goal.
In the final game of this road stretch, the Bears had to take on the Lake Erie Monsters. After the excitement of their last meeting, it was easy to get excited for this game.
For the third game in a row, the Bears were the first team on the board. Julien Brouillette passed to Ryan Potulny, who one-timed the puck past Cedrick Desjardins. The Monsters weren’t too happy about this goal because Andrew Carroll fell into Desjardins during the play. But the goal counted and remained the only goal of the period.
In a match-up of the league’s most storied teams, the Bears were looking for a solid win on the road after experience some issues in this stretch.
Sadly, it didn’t turn out like they hoped. It started off just like we wanted it to. A gritty play resulted in Matt Pope chipping at puck at David Leggio. It took a nice bounce and hopped into the goal. But the Amerks scored on the power play and then during the final minute of the period to take the lead.
Welcome to the second week of Snapshots! This week I headed up to New England to check out the Bears face-off against the Providence Bruins and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Below the jump, I have photos from warm-ups and the game from the Providence game and warm-up photos from the Bridgeport game. And wait until the end for a two bonus photos!
Braden Holtby did his best to keep the Bears in it. All Photos by Kyle Mace.
Just about halfway through their five-game road stretch, the Bears shipped off to face the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
In a pretty calm first period, neither team found the back of the net. Braden Holtby and Anders Nilsson weren’t called on to make too many saves for their respective teams but there were some good chances. It was a close game from the start.
Ryan Potulny acknowledges his #1 Star honors.
Fresh off of being on the wrong side of a shutout, the Bears seemed determined that tonight’s game against the Manchester Monarchs would not suffer the same fate.
Unfortunately, the Monarchs did take the lead just over a minute into the game. Justin Azevedo chipped a shot over Braden Holtby‘s glove hand on the first shot of the game.