Bears hang on to beat Sound Tigers 3-2

In honor of Bridgeport’s 10th anniversary, Rick DiPietro (along with Trent Hunter and Jeremy Colliton) drops the puck for the ceremonial face-off.

Tonight was the final game of February for the Hershey Bears. They took to the road last night after their win against Albany to make it in time to play the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in Connecticut.

There was no score after twenty minutes, which isn’t surprising when you see that Bridgeport led the shots on goal six to three. After the second period, the Bears still only had nine shots on goal but they had started making efficient use of them.

It took a power play in the early in the second period to put the Bears on the board. Keith Aucoin set up Kyle Greentree right in between the face-off circles.

Dmitri Orlov continues to impress everyone. When you watch him play, it’s really hard to believe that he hasn’t been with the team all season. The second period was probably his best so far. He gave a nice primary assist to Dmitri Kugryshev, who scored his sixth goal of the season. Orlov also showed off his physicality, got some penalty kill time, and almost scored a goal himself. The coaches and his teammates are showing confidence in him and deservedly so.

The Sound Tigers finally broke the shutout late in the second period with a power play goal from Rhett Rakhshani. Later in the third period, the Bears were whistled for two penalties and the Sound Tigers had a little over a minute and a half to tie it up…which they did.

Thankfully, the Bears regained their lead on a play where David de Kastrozza deserves a lot of credit. It started with him breaking up a pass in the Bears’ zone. He streaked down the ice where he got at least two shots off on goaltender Joel Martin. Eventually the puck bounced out to Maxime Lacroix who was to the side and had an open net to shoot at.

Despite some last minute penalties and great offensive rushes from Bridgeport, the Bears hung on and won 3-2.

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Boyd Kane Leads Bears to 4-3 Win Over Devils

Joel Rechlicz has another impressive fight against LeBlond. Photo by Kyle Mace

We said earlier that the organization was one goalie injury away from having a serious problem on our hands. In front of a sold out crowd tonight against the Albany Devils, Jared DeMichiel showed that don’t need to completely panic. He was a little shaky at first and gave up a goal when he couldn’t get control of the puck. But after that, he settled down and stood up for some great saves, including a jaw-dropping one on Darcy Zajac in the third period. By the end, he stopped 27 of 30 shots.

After allowing the Devils the early lead, Boyd Kane countered with a goal of his own, bouncing the puck past Mike McKenna. Later on the 5-on-3 power play, the Bears took their first lead of the night on a goal from Francois Bouchard.

Steve Pinizzotto scored to start the second period, also on the power play. The Devils didn’t respond until the waning moments of the second period but they still stood a goal behind.

Kane scored again in the third period. His second goal would prove to be the game-winner as the Devils scored with 18.4 seconds left. Can we talk about Boyd Kane for a second? We all know that Kane is a clutch player, but as of late he has really stepped his game up even more. He’s been racking up the points and some confidence.

The story of the night for many people was the AHL debut of Dmitri Orlov. I think all around, people were impressed. Troy Mann did a great job coaching Orlov. He was doing a great job of keeping up with his teammates and definitely didn’t look like he was new to the team. He even recorded his first AHL point tonight with a secondary assist on Pinizzotto’s power play goal. He was on ice for both of Hershey’s power play goals and none of Albany’s goals. He also finished the game with three shots on goal. I think it’s safe to say that Hershey fans are happy to add this Russian to the team.

The other story of the night is Joel Rechlicz. I said it on Twitter during the game but I need to repeat it: it’s absolutely mind-blowing how long Rechlicz can fight before he tires out. I’ve never seen a player consistently have fights that last over a minute all while throwing some great punches. Tonight, he was speared in the ribs by Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (yes, him again) and they fought, of cour se. All while using only his left arm, Rechlicz took down Leblond and was even yelling at him for more. What a champ.

And that wraps up yet another exciting game against the Devils. Bears win 4-3. Goalie carousel be damned.

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Bears Win High-Scoring Showdown Against Tigers


Boyd Kane leads the Hershey Bears to victory! Photos by Kyle Mace

If you were looking for goals, this was the game for you!

Two guys returned to the line-up tonight. The first was Braden Holtby, who held down the crease for the game. The second was Patrick McNeill, fresh off his call-up to Washington but returning without playing a game. He scored the first goal of the game just over one minute in. You think he wants to show the Caps what they’re missing?

Bridgeport briefly tied it up on the power play. Holtby tried to clear the puck up the middle but it was intercepted and he couldn’t recover in time. Thankfully, Steve Pinizzotto was there to give the Bears some breathing room. It was a strange goal. He was hit into the Bridgeport goalie but managed to backhand the puck in without even looking as he was falling. Money.

Soon it became 3-1 Bears as Joel Rechlicz (yes, Joel Rechlicz) scored his first goal of the season. Not only his first goal, but his first ever AHL goal and his first goal since his 2007-2008 IHL season (s/t to Tim Leone for that fact). Right after, Rechlicz dropped the gloves with Brett Gallant. It was a brilliant fight, both guys got in some huge punches and the fight lasted for at least a minute. That’s the kind of fight people will be talking about the next day. Before the end of the period, the Sound Tigers got one goal back.

Come second period, Pinizzotto got his second goal of the night on his own rebound. You give him that shot from between the face-off circles twice and he’s not going to miss twice. Mikko Koskinen was yanked in favor of Joel Martin, a smart move since Koskinen was looking shaky all night. The Sound Tigers responded with a goal (imagine that). But Boyd Kane scored a nice goal to cap off the period. Francois Bouchard had just gotten out of the penalty box when he took the puck right up to the goal. He had a shot but Martin stopped it and Kane got the second shot off.

In the third period, the Sound Tigers responded with another power play goal. But Kane was able to get his second goal of the game to make sure the Sound Tigers couldn’t come back and take over the game. Bears win 6-4.

It might have been a fun game for fans with all the offense, but it was not a good showing for the team. Holtby can be forgiven for knocking off some rust tonight but our defense really needs to step it up and help out our goalies. Maybe Dmitri Orlov will bring some help?

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Bears Bounce Back With 2-1 Win Against Norfolk

Now that’s more like it!

The Bears did not have a lot of time to think about their loss to the Penguins on Sunday because they had to hit the road and take on the Norfolk Admirals tonight.

From the start, the Bears looked much more comfortable than they did on Sunday. They were moving their feet and getting shots in. Most importantly, Todd Ford was solid and confident in the crease. He stopped 29 of 30 shots in a fantastic outing. Good to see him bounce back after getting pulled on Sunday.

It was Sean Collins who gave Hershey the early lead. Dylan Yeo had the first shot of the play but the rebound came out to Collins who buried it past goaltender Mike Smith.

During the second period, the Admirals managed to tie it up. Mike Angelidis was right between the face-off circles when he sniped it in the top left corner past Ford. But with just 18 seconds left in the period, Keith Aucoin countered with a missile of his own. Beautiful goal that ended up being the game-winner. The third period saw no scoring change and the Bears won 2-1.

The best part of this? They did it with only five defensemen instead of the usual six. Josh Godfrey was called up before the game but his flight did not arrive in time to make the line-up. Instead, Joel Rechlicz got a spot as a thirteenth forward. Tonight’s win will serve as a much better game to reflect on during their next few days off. The line-up keeps changing, but the Bears will keep winning.

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Bears Hold Off Bruins, DeMichiel gets 4-3 Win

First thing’s first: huge congratulations to Jared DeMichiel for earning his first AHL start and win tonight as the Bears battled the Providence Bruins! DeMichiel was fantastic, having to face a lot of shots early and then continuously seeing more shots than his opponent on the other side, Nolan Schaefer, did. By the end, DeMichiel stopped 28 of 31 shots!

But the Bears gave DeMichiel an early lead to work with. Boyd Kane, continuing his recent point streak, led the offensive attack and scored the first goal of the night. A couple of minutes later, Kyle Greentree reached the twenty goal mark and beat Schaefer.

A very scary moment came midway through the first period. At first it seemed harmless enough when Trevor Bruess and Antoine Roussel dropped the gloves. They both threw some punches and fell to the ice. And then Bruess did not get back up. Very quickly, trainer Dan Stuck ran to his side and the medical staff of the Providence arena came to help.

It was hard to tell what was hurt but Bruess did not move a lot. Eventually, they stabilized him on a stretcher and took him off the ice. The only good news was that Bruess did manage to give the crowd a little wave as they rolled him off. John Walton announced that the news is that Bruess has a “fairly significant lower body injury.” We wish all the best to Trevor and hope that he can be back on the ice soon.

Once the game started up again, the Bruins finally managed to get a puck past DeMichiel. Maxime Sauve was left all by himself right in front of the goal and he went low and cut Hershey’s lead in half.

During the second period, Kane regained the two-goal lead on his second goal of the night. The goal came from an absolutely perfect passing sequence from Keith Aucoin to Francois Bouchard to Kane. Just beautiful. The Bruins fought back to get the game within one goal again. I’m willing to bet no one had Brian McGrattan down as their guess for the goal scorer.

At the very end of the period, the Bears were on the penalty kill and Providence worked their way up ice for one last attempt for time ran out. In the neutral zone, the Bears fought for the puck and Aucoin got away with it with no Bruin to fight him. He sped down the ice and sniped it right past Schaefer to give the Bears a 4-2 lead.

There was only one scoring change in the third period when the Bruins scored on the power play. Things got interesting in the last two minutes when Providence pulled their goaltender and Greentree was whistled for a delay of game. Thankfully, the Bears and DeMichiel stopped any last shots and the Bears won 4-3!

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Bears Top Devils 5-3 in Atlantic City Showdown

Okay, first off: nobody panic. Just because Braden Holtby and Dany Sabourin are out with knee injuries does not mean we need to panic (more on that to come).

Tonight’s game against the Albany Devils was already circled on our calendars. Instead of being played in Albany, the game took place in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall, home of the now-defunct Boardwalk Bullies. But with the added obstacle of being backstopped by two ECHL goalies, this game got a whole lot more interesting.

The Bears stumbled a bit right out the gate when Albany took the early lead. However, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond was called for a roughing penalty late in the period and Andrew Gordon made him pay. He tied it up right off the draw for the ensuing power play. Tie game after one.

Continuing to exchange back-and-forth goals, the Devils regained their lead when they scored on a rebound shot. Thankfully, Hershey’s power play was there to tie it up once again, this time with a shot from Francois Bouchard. It would be Brian Willsie‘s 20th goal of the season that gave the Bears their first lead of the game going into the final period.

Just like the first period, the Devils got the early goal in third. But Willsie didn’t take too kindly to this and countered with his second goal of the night on the (you guessed it) power play! Able to hold down their lead, the Bears wrapped it up with an empty net goal courtesy of Boyd Kane. Bears win 5-3.

Todd Ford wasn’t called on to make too many saves but he was pretty solid, especially against some monster shots, including a breakaway attempt. Thanks in part to him, the Bears extend their winning streak to seven straight games. Like I said, don’t panic.

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Hershey’s Weak Finish Results in SO Loss to Lake Erie


Braden Holtby looks in disbelief at the replay. Photo by Kyle M.

A sold-out crowd gathered in Giant Center tonight to watch the Bears take on the Lake Erie Monsters. It was the only time we will see the Monsters in Hershey this season.

The game started off perfectly. Hershey scored the first goal early in the first period, as they often do. Lake Erie had two men in the box and Hershey had a 5-on-3 power play for thirty seconds. After getting roughed up, Keith Aucoin made the Monsters pay by scoring on the man advantage.

A few minutes into the second period, Ashton Rome recorded his sixth goal of the season. Tyler Sloan had a nice role in the play, joining the rush as a winger. Along with Maxime Lacroix, they got the puck to the goal. John Grahame made the initial save but Rome buried the rebound.

Perhaps getting a little too comfortable, the scoring ended there for Hershey. Meanwhile, Lake Erie started to kick it in gear. They cut Hershey’s lead in half before the end of the second period. Holtby couldn’t see the rebound and Lake Erie got their first goal of the night. With about a minute to go in the game, Lake Erie pulled their goalie. With an extra man, the Monsters got a lot of traffic in front of the Hershey goal and tied it up with just 40 seconds left in the game.

Overtime didn’t solve anything and so it went to the shootout. Unfortunately, the Monsters scored twice and Hershey could only score once.

Despite the loss, Braden Holtby was fantastic in net. It would have been a whole different game without him. He was there to make all the huge saves that the Bears needed him to make. I’m sure a shootout was not how the Bears wanted to end this game, especially with an early game in Binghamton tomorrow. Nevertheless, the Bears watch the game slip through their fingers and lose 3-2.

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Penalties Help Moose Get Retribution Against Bears

When the coaching staff opted to play tonight’s game against the Manitoba Moose with seven defensemen and eleven forwards, I don’t think they realized what a good decision that was.

Through two periods, the Bears were not able to get any kind of offensive momentum going. This was mostly a result of the ten power plays awarded to Manitoba. Some of them were obvious ones like delay of game and playing with a broken stick. Others, like a tripping call against Francois Bouchard, were questionable.

Nonetheless, the Bears penalty kill unit deserves a lot of credit tonight. Even though the Moose scored three power play goals (including the game winner), the Bears special teams held the Moose off during the nine other power plays. Still missing Andrew Joudrey and Boyd Kane, the Bears tempted fate with so many penalties. The players were getting frustrated but, for the most part, they were able to hold back and not take dumb penalties due to anger.

Dmitri Kugryshev kicked off the scoring with an unassisted beauty. It’s awesome to see Kugryshev coming into his own because he’s going to be a dangerous offensive player soon. During the second period, Lawrence Nycholat salvaged any chance Hershey had at winning this game with a shot that beat the Manitoba goaltender’s five hole.

As if you needed any more evidence of what a clutch player Steve Pinizzotto is, he scored the game-tying goal during the third period. He was in the perfect spot for a rebound shot and made sure he didn’t miss on the second try. Thanks to him, Hershey got a point out of this and the game went to overtime.

The game ended in the most fitting way possible. Sean Collins was whistled for a tripping call with 40.5 seconds left in overtime. The Moose didn’t hesitate. They scored on the power play and sent Hershey packing. Moose win 4-3.

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Bears Finally Defeat Penguins with 1-0 Shutout Win

The Bears were looking for their first win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and boy, did they get a big one.

When this game started, I’m sure everyone involved was anticipating an exciting, action-packed game. After all, the game was being played at Consol Energy Center, where the Pittsburgh Penguins normally play.They sort of got that. I’ll be honest, I thought the first two periods were kind of boring. There were a couple big hits made and both goalies made some stellar saves. But, overall, it didn’t have all the goals and excitement that people expected to see from these rivals.

The first truly exciting moment came when the Bears were on the power play at the very end of the second period. The puck was shot towards the net and it was deflected past Brad Thiessen. The goal was awarded to Keith Aucoin (who was playing his first game since being sent down from Washington), but it looked like a Penguin may have deflected into his own goal.

The third period was when things started heating up. The Bears had to protect a one-goal lead and the Penguins were running on all cylinders and making some amazing offensive plays. There were many close calls in the third period that had all the Hershey fans holding their breath. The Penguins, desperate to not get shut out on such a large stage, were dangerous. But Hershey stepped up to the challenge, even managing to kill of a few poorly timed penalties.

Braden Holtby was the number one star of the game, stopping all 25 shots that he saw. He was able to make clutch saves and shut out the hated rivals in front of the 13,567 fans inside the Consol Energy Center.The Bears set a nice standard for the Capitals to follow when they step out onto Heinz Field on January 1st. Go get ’em.

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Hershey Shames Binghamton in 6-1 Victory


Joel Rechlicz is all smiles after fighting three Bingo Senators in one night. Photo by Kyle M.

Wow…what is there to say about this game?

Before the game, the Washington Capitals called up Keith Aucoin in time to play against the Montreal Canadiens. I admit that I was one of the ones worried about how Hershey would play tonight against the Binghamton Senators. Top line? We don’t need no stinkin’ top line! Hershey put together one of the best offensive efforts we’ve seen all season. Now if I were to actually go into detail about every Hershey goal, this recap would be five miles long.

Basically, Sean Collins started the game off on the right foot with his first goal of the season. Kyle Greentree then scored twice. Dmitri Kugryshev scored a goal and then had a sweet assist on Nikita Kashirsky’s goal (his first goal as a Bear). Zach Miskovic made sure the Senators didn’t escape the second period and scored with 13 seconds left in the period. Six goals, five different goal scorers, eleven different players with points. Good times had by all.

Oh yeah, and the Senators did manage to score once. Dany Sabourin was a bit out of position and they scored just seconds into a power play while Andrew Joudrey was in the box for interference.

The real story of the night? “The Wrecker,” Joel Rechlicz. I’m not sure how many minutes he played exactly (not many), but everyone will remember him tonight. He got a hat trick alright, a hat trick of fights.

Round 1: vs Francis Lessard. You may remember their last bout as the fight that gave Rechlicz the double black eyes. Lessard seemed hesitant to start throwing the punches and kept skating away when Rechlicz would close in on him. Rechlicz had a huge finish with a lot of rights straight to Lessard’s face. Decision: Rechlicz

Round 2: vs Cody Bass. I’m not completely sure this was a wise decision for Bass, who is much smaller than Rechlicz. He picked the fight though and when you ask, you shall receive the fists of fury. Decision: Rechlicz.

Round 3: vs Tim Spencer. This might have been the closest fight of the night. Another marathon fight with two strong guys. But another big finish pushed Rechlicz to the end. Decision: You guessed it, Rechlicz.

Rechlicz received a game misconduct (automatic after three majors). Lessard wanted a rematch and had to settle for fighting Patrick Wellar. However, that was over quickly and Wellar didn’t even have time to actually drop his gloves.

To sum up: Hershey blows Binghamton out of the water with a 6-1 win. The Bears are now 4-1 against the Senators and have outscored them 27 to 9. And Rechlicz now has three enemies on the Senators team. Good night.

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