Hershey Rebounds with 3-0 Shutout against Bingo


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.

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Chocolate Fix 11/9/2011

Francois Bouchard. Photo by Kyle Mace.

Okay… so let’s get the big news out of the way. Francois Bouchard was traded for Tomas Kundratek. [SHoE, PennLive, Bears, DFZ, PA Puck, C&W, hockeyfights.com]

The Old Barn Hockey Show [OBHS]

  • Part 1 – Bears, AHL schedule and the league in general with Frank, Scott, Parks, and Brock (who gets muted and abused).
  • Part 2 – Caps, Flyers, NHL, Bears fans being muted by security and more Brock abuse.
  • Part 3 – Dan ‘Beaker’ Stuck joins via phone with Joel Rechlicz.  Gregg Mace then joins to talk about PSU… and Brock takes more abuse.

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Hershey Fights for a Cure While Defeating Bingo, 3-2


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.

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Let the games begin!


Photo via Hershey Bears Facebook Page

There is a fall chill in the Central PA air.  It’s now October.  The Bears have had training camp and the preseason games are over.  Now comes the anticipation as we await the start of the regular season.  For the team it starts tomorrow, but we won’t see them until October 15th.  Currently, there is a large RV show that has taken over the parking lots of the Giant Center and Hersheypark.  This happens every year and it yet another signal of hockey’s impending return.

The final cuts have been made, and the opening roster is set. But this is the AHL.  The roster won’t be the same for long.  When the Caps lose a player to injury, he is temporarily gone.  Those positions are filled in from the Bears.  As an AHL fan, we know that our guys are different.  Instead of being temporarily gone, they are temporarily here.  There are no long term contracts. We hope for the best for them and that their dreams of making it to the NHL come true.  I kind of equate it to parenting.  We want the best for our boys, but while they are under our roof we demand the best from them.  This is Hershey.  When you look up the rafters in Giant Center you will see the names of the greats and 11 Calder Cup banners.  Division and Conference championship banners are not hung.  The Reese’s advertising in section 211 says it all.  “It’s all about the cup!”.  This is Hershey and you will be held to a higher standard.  With that in mind, let’s take a look at who we will be seeing in Hershey to start the season.

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Bears Top Albany Devils 7-4 in a Long Game

Keith Aucoin puts a backhand wraparound into the goal. Photo by Kyle Mace

Hershey came out and tried to quickly take control of the game.  For the most part, they did just that.  They were able to gain and maintain the offensive zone for long periods of time.  They were cycling the puck and making great efforts to keep the puck in the zone.  Unfortunately, the Devils were able to get on the board first.  Keith Aucoin answered at 12:27 to tie the game at one.  Only a few minutes later, Andrew Gordon was able to convert an Aucoin pass into a goal to take the lead going into the second.

Early in the second period, Gordon attempted a shot from the faceoff circle.  He broke his stick on the shot from the circle, but he almost put the blade of the sitck in the net.  He got a good chuckle out of it as he came off the ice to get a new stick.  Albany once again struck first (and second) in this period.  Just before the end of the period, Dmitry Orlov scored the only Bears goal of the period to take it back to a tie.

In the third period things went from hockey to weird in about 2.2 seconds.  There was a small delay in the start of the period due to Devils goaltender, Jeff Frazee, complaining about the condition of the ice in his crease.  Interesting that it was suddenly bad after 2 full periods of hockey.  Once that was fixed, play started for the period.  The game went back and forth as did scoring initially.  Hershey went ahead on a Brian Willsie goal.  After the Willsie goal, an Albany player went over to the celebration and  had some words with the Bears players.  Some pushing and shoving followed.  Another Albany player came crashing into the pile and that started everything.  This was the first ‘line brawl’ that I had seen in a several years.  Albany tied the score once again only a few minutes later.  Not quite half way through the period, Boyd Kane would score what would eventually the game winner.  It was after that goal that Frazee decided that he still didn’t like the ice in his crease.  A lengthly delay ensued of about 45 minutes.  Eventually play would resume, but it wasn’t good news for Albany.  Kane would put the Bears back on top and Maxime Lacroix scored the insurance goal.  That was followed by an empty-netter by Kane.

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Bears win Nail-biter Against Norfolk Admirals, 3-2

Brian Willsie with the shot of the game against the Norfolk Admirals. Photo by Kyle Mace

After a crushing defeat on Wednesday, the same two teams faced off tonight. Armed with Nolan Schaefer in goal, the Bears were hoping for a much different outcome against a tough Norfolk Admirals team.

Perreault and Willsie celebrate the GWG

The first period was one of the best twenty minutes of hockey the Bears have put together this season. They were completely in control. Schaefer, in his first start as a Bear, made this phenomenal diving save during an Admirals power play. It fired up the crowd and the players. During the same penalty, Brian Willsie chased the puck down ice and Dustin Tokarski came out to clear the puck. His mishandled it and Willsie took off with it. To say that it was a sharp angle shot for Willsie is an understatement. Nevertheless, he someone managed to put Hershey up with an unassisted shorthanded goal.

Speaking of Willsie, the guy was having a fantastic period. He got his second goal of the night in the same period when he capitalized on a rebound shot.

Unfortunately, the second period didn’t go quite as well. The Admirals picked up their game and managed to tie it up. The game-tying goal came in the final 20 seconds of the second period. And then mayhem ensued.

The major problem was not that the Admirals had tied it up. It was a funny bounce but there’s no doubt that it was good goal. The problem came during the discussion afterwards when the refs were talking about the goal. Boyd Kane got a ten minute misconduct for abuse of officials. Meanwhile, Tokarski took offense to something and threw a water bottle towards the Hershey bench. Lucky for him, Joel Rechlicz was on the bench because Recker was mad. Eventually, they were able to wrap up the final 14 seconds of the period but the players weren’t finished. There was still some pushing and shoving and one official had to hold Sheldon Souray back while he mouthed off at Tokarski.

First period went to the Bears, second period went to the Admirals and it all came down to the third.

Tonight was a two referee game. In this case, two is not better than one. Keith Aucoin was high-sticked and neither ref was looking. As Aucoin skated towards the bench, covering his face, it looked like he was a blindsided by a hit of an Admiral’s shoulder. Yet again, no call. Aucoin went down the tunnel and didn’t return for the rest of the game. We’ll keep you updated on our Twitter with any information about his condition.

Just when it seemed like we might be going to overtime, the man of the hour, Willsie, set up Mathieu Perreault for a beautiful shot to give Hershey the game-winning goal. It was tense final few minutes but the Bears hung on and got an intense win against their rivals. Bears win 3-2.

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