Eakin skates during his first NHL game. Photo by Mitchell Layton/NHLI via Getty Images. November 1st, 2011 will always been a special day for Cody Eakin - it was the day of his first NHL game. Luckily for him, it…
Brian Willsie defends against Nicolas Blanchard. Photo by Checkers SmugMug
In a rare Tuesday night game, the Bears had to make up for their poor showing against the Charlotte Checkers on Sunday. And they looked pretty good, even without Keith Aucoin, Mathieu Perreault, and Lawrence Nycholat. Bumped up to the first line, Marcus Johansson did a solid job filling in at center. He was making good plays and logging a lot of playing time. No points but, at the end of the night, he had one shot on goal and a +1 rating.
For Dany Sabourin, it was a shot at redemption. I’m thinking Todd Ford is nursing a minor injury or the coaches really want to try and boost Sabourin’s confidence. Either way, he was able to make the big saves when the team needed him to and rack up those statistics we want to see. He stopped 37 out of 39 shots, giving him a scintillating .949 save percentage. Not-so-coincidentally, his defense was helping to clear the crease and block shots. The team worked together for a full 60 minute effort and the score certainly showed it. On the other end of the ice, the Bears chased starting goaltender, Justin Pogge, out of the crease after he let in two goals on three shots. Mike Murphy finished the game.
I think Kyle Greentree might love playing in Charlotte. He has scored two goals in both games against Charlotte. He came into town with three goals and left with seven. Tonight, he scored the second and fourth game on the night.
Francois Bouchard opened scoring just under 6 minutes into the game. Patrick Wellar potted the game-winning goal during the second period and the Bears led 3-0. A few minutes later, things got a little scary as Charlotte scored two goals and made it a close game. Thankfully Hershey remained composed and regained an insurance goal before Boyd Kane added on an empty net goal to secure the win.
Bryan Rodney and Boyd Kane take a ceremonial face-off before the first game between these two clubs. Photo by Checkers SmugMug
The Hershey Bears played their very first game against the Charlotte Checkers, a new team this year after the Albany River Rats were relocated. For the Bears, it was a game to forget.
Dany Sabourin continues to be a main focus of the season but not for good reasons. He had one good showing in Syracuse but has put up very mediocre numbers otherwise. He is a talented goaltender but he has not been himself this season. It’s not much of a stretch to wonder if he will be released from his contract if he can’t get back on track. I think you can see that his team is having difficulty being confident in Sabourin. He made some stellar saves in the third period after puttin up abysmal numbers during the second period. I brought up this discussion on Twitter and would like to hear some more answers: Would you rather have Sabourin or Daren Machesney?
Keith Aucoin played tonight after hurting his knee in the game against Manchester. He played for about half the game until he fell on his knee again. He stayed on the bench at first but then took that fateful walk down the tunnel and never returned. Unfortunately, this means the end of his point streak, which had reached ten games. Get well soon!
The power play was able to click late in the game to save Hershey from complete embarrassment. Both goals went to Kyle Greentree, his fourth and fifth goals of the season. Brian Fahey had a pretty good night, with primary assists on both goals. He also had some excellent plays to help out Sabourin.
Marcus Johansson had a pretty quiet night. No points or penalties and only two shots on goals. Hershey probably could have used him to step up with the absence of Aucoin.
And so Hershey loses the first ever meeting between these two teams with a score of 4-2. Rematch is set for Tuesday night.