Penalties Prove Decisive in 3-2 SO Loss against Norfolk

Johan Harju scores the game-winner in the shootout against Schaefer. Photo by Kyle Mace

It was a big day for the special teams as the Hershey Bears took on the rival Norfolk Admirals.

Patrick McNeill scored during a first period power play. He was skating between the face-off circles when he stopped the puck with his foot. He kicked it in front of him and shot a sweet wrister past Dustin Tokarski.

During the second period, the Admirals countered with a power play goal of their own. They got Nolan Schaefer moving and he couldn’t cross the crease in time to stop a shot from Alex Berry. Tie game after two periods.

As it always seems to with these teams, it came down to a big third period. The Admirals took their first lead of the game almost halfway through the period while (you guessed it) on the power play. It was speedy play and a fast pass to the middle where James Wright tipped it past Schaefer.

But Kyle Greentree was ready to respond! Just a minute later, Greentree gave Hershey a second wind by scoring five-hole on Tokarski. And get this: it wasn’t on the power play!

I’m sure that after seven games in nine nights, overtime during the seventh game was not deserved. Nevertheless, the Bears found themselves in sudden death, fighting for that extra point. Sean Collins was whistled for a delay of game late in overtime and the Bears killed it off to move the game to the shootout.

The Admirals only scored once, but that was all they needed. Tokarski stopped all five Hershey skaters. Bears lose 3-2 (SO).

Tokarski is just unreal. We all keep waiting for him to show signs that he’s human but he’s the epitome of a “hot goalie” right now. Nevertheless, the Bears should be proud of the way they played tonight. It was a fantastic all-around effort and they definitely have a well-deserved rest coming up this week. See you Friday.

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Schaefer Shines Despite 3-2 Shootout Loss to Pirates

It took a shootout for the Portland Pirates to defeat the Hershey Bears.

The Bears traveled up North yesterday to play a rare regular season game against the Portland Pirates. Mathieu Perreault gave Hershey the early lead with an absolutely beautiful goal. He skated the puck from one end of the ice to other and blew right through the Portland defense. It was one of those goals that you could watch a replay of over and over again.

His goal stood as the only one through two periods of play.

It was a fairly quiet game except for whenever Sheldon Souray and Tim Conboy were on the ice at the same time. Conboy had a controversial hit on Maxime Lacroix that Souray took offense to and they dropped the gloves. Souray had the takedown. Thankfully, Lacroix was okay.

During the next period, the teams started shoving at the whistle and Conboy and Souray decided to have a rematch. If Conboy was looking for redemption, he didn’t get it because Souray delivered a vicious knockout punch.

The Bears started the third period on the man advantage but the Pirates shut them down. Right after the successful kill, the Pirates tied the game up when Mark Voakes fought through the play and Nolan Schaefer had to face him alone. He tried him best to stone him but was unsuccessful.

The Pirates scored again during a late period power play. Schaefer tried to grab the shot in his glove but he ended up just tipping it and it bounced over him and into the net. Just when it started looking grim, the Bears had a 4-on-3 power play at the very end of the period. It took a couple attempts but Patrick McNeill tied it up with a nice shot down low. Spurred on by this goal, the teams went to overtime. When that didn’t solve anything, we moved on to the shootout.

It was ironic that the game came down to goaltending since the goalies from both teams were playing great games. Unfortunately, David Leggio came out on top today, stopped all four of the Bears shootout attempts. The Pirates scored twice on Schaefer and the Bears lost 3-2.

Guess we’ll have to wait another day for Mark French’s 100th career win…

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Depleted Penguins defeat Injured Bears, 4-1

Nolan Schaefer had a rough night against the Penguins. Photo by Kyle Mace

It’s that time again: the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins came to town. While this game did not go the way we wanted it to go, it’s easy to imagine how fun a game would be with both teams at full strength.

I’ll admit that I began fearing the worst after the Penguins scored early in the first period. It took a little while for either team to get their first shot on goal, but the Penguins made their first shots efficient. They were able to get in Nolan Schaefer‘s face and covert a rebound shot.

Thankfully, the Bears were able to prevent a further deficit but they still never really got their offense going until very late in the first period. The Bears didn’t even register their first shot on goal until they had a power play halfway through the period.

The game finally started getting exciting during the second period. The Bears tied it up on the power play when Boyd Kane deflected a Brian Fahey shot. Immediately afterwards, the Bears were whistled for two penalties close together and had to kill off a 5-on-3 for almost a full two minutes. Led by Kane, Andrew Joudrey, and Sean Collins, the penalty kill unit did a fine job keeping it a tie game.

But Wilkes-Barre wouldn’t let Hershey take over and they regained the lead a few minutes later. Once again, they got in close to Schaefer and Geoff Walker scored on a nice assist from his teammate behind the net.

Even though they were behind, Hershey was definitely still in it. And they cranked it up for the third period. In the first half especially, they were getting some good shots off in attempts to tie it up.

Sadly, the game got away from them. Schaefer was screened and Joey Mormina scored to give the Penguins the insurance they need to control the game again. The Bears pulled the goalie for the final minute and a half but were unable to convert. To make things worse, the Penguins scored on the empty net. The Bears need to manage more than 16 shots on goal if they want to defeat these stronger teams. Bears lose 4-1.

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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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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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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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Ford leads Bears to 2-1 SO Victory Against Monarchs

The Hershey Bears traveled to Manchester to play the Monarchs for a rare mid-week game. Coincidentally, the goalie match-up was the exact same as when the teams played in Hershey back on Halloween. Todd Ford had his first start and win of the season and Jeff Zatkoff was pulled after allowing four goals on five shots.

I can only think of one word to describe this game: calm. Not too many penalties, not too many goals, not too many scrums. Last time the two teams met, Hershey blew Manchester out of the water with an 8-3 win. This time it was much closer.

By the start of the third period, the teams were even at 1-1. Hershey scored first. Keith Aucoin, falling down, passed to Boyd Kane. Kane’s shot rebounded to Patrick McNeill who slid it past Zatkoff. The second period saw the Monarchs tie it up on a rebound shot of their own.

The third period saw no end result and so we pushed on to overtime.

It got a little scary when Bud Holloway, who had already scored once, had a shot in between the face-off circles when he was hooked by Kane. But the Bears killed that off and it came down to the shootout.

Through four rounds, neither team was able to score and it was looking like we might have another extended shootout. But Kane, back against the wall, came up big and scored in the bottom of the fifth round. Bears win, 2-1!

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Despite Early Lead, Bears Lose to Moose 5-4 (SO)


Kevin Connauton ends the shootout in the seventh round. Photo by Kyle Mace

It’s always an interesting game with the Manitoba Moose and the Hershey Bears meet.

Dmitry Kugryshev took control of the game early by blasting the puck past a moving goaltender. He sprawled to make the save, but Kugryshev was one step ahead of him. There was some pushing and shoving but the first period ended without scandal.

The second period held the majority of the action for this game. Kyle Greentree added a brief insurance goal after Hershey broke up a Manitoba play in their own zone and took off. The Moose briefly cut Hershey’s lead in half but Keith Aucoin got a shot in close on goaltender Eddie Lack to regain the two-goal lead.

After going through a scoring drought for most of December and January, Francois Bouchard seems to have his touch back. He had perfect placement to bang home a rebound less than a minute after Aucoin scored.

By the end of the period though, it was 4-3 Hershey when Manitoba fought back. They even scored with just 3.3 seconds left in the period to send the Bears to the locker room shaking their heads.

Things started getting chippy in the third period. Both Greentree and Andrew Gordon ended up on the wrong side of some hits in the corner. Each continued to play but they definitely looked rattled for a little bit. The Hershey crowd was already fuming after neither hit was penalized and it didn’t help that the Moose then tied it up after Aucoin was called for mouthing off to the referee.

The game went to overtime but the score didn’t change. It took seven rounds in the shoot out before either team could score. The coaches cycled through their players but the goalies stopped every one. That is until Kevin Connauton finally beat Todd Ford in the bottom of the seventh round. Moose win 5-4.

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