Corporal Shawn Petterson drops the puck before tonight’s Bears-Phantoms game (Photo courtesy @PhantomsHockey)
It has been no lie the Hershey Bears have been struggling of late in November. The Bears hopped the bus to head north to Adirondack Saturday morning, while being victims of defeat in five of their last six games. The Bears fired 24 shots on net, but the power play was no where close to effective in a 3-1 loss to the Phantoms.
HERSHEY, PA – Tomas Kundratek skates by as Braden Holtby looks on after Wilkes-Barre scores their fourth goal of the game (Kyle Mace – Sweetest Hockey on Earth)
Adam Oates is gone, but the Hershey Bears slump remains. Following Wednesday night’s 4-0 loss to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, the Washington Capitals announced that Caps head coach and Hershey Bears co-coach Adam Oates would no longer be on the Bears bench. Oates had been in Hershey and on the Bears bench for every game this season. Members of the Caps staff will also return to Washington.
HERSHEY, PA – Zach Hamil celebrates his goal against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in Hershey’s 3-2 win (Kyle Mace – Sweetest Hockey on Earth)
Sunday the Hershey Bears faced off against their I-81 rivals from Wilkes-Barre Township to close out the month of October. A night after celebrating the first win of the season at Giant Center and a stellar 35-save shutout by Braden Holtby, the Bears hung for a 3-2 victory.
If the Hershey Bears were to pick a location to open their season on the road, it likely would have been Syracuse. The last five seasons the Onondaga County War Memorial has been a very successful road rink for the Bears. Entering Saturday’s match-up, the Bears have posted a 8-1-0-1 record in Syracuse dating back to the 2007-08 season. But the winning pattern didn’t hold up Saturday night as former Norfolk Admiral, Cory Conacher posted two points and earned first star honors in a 4-3 Crunch with over Hershey. It was the first opening night loss for Hershey dating back to October 2007.
HERSHEY, PA – Braden Holtby and Adam Oates speak before Group B’s practice at Giant Center Sunday (Kyle Mace – Sweetest Hockey on Earth)
Hockey season is back, and the Bears are back on the ice. The first day of camp came with some big news when Adam Oates was name co-coach of the Bears until a CBA is agreed on.
Robert Bortuzzo jumps into the celebration pile after the Penguin’s second goal (All photos by Kyle Mace)
After a rough start to the series, the Hershey Bears came back and won back to back game to send the series back to Wilkes-Barre. After a good first period, the Bears gave up two goals in seven seconds to the Baby Pens to drop the series in five game, losing by a score of 2-1.
Bears Graham Mink (left) and Zach Miskovic (right) celebrate with Cameron Schilling after Schilling’s goal during Friday’s game (Photo by Kyle Mace)
There was a confidence among the Hershey Bears that we hadn’t seen in quite a while, on Friday night. It was a resolve to show their fans and themselves that this team wasn’t about to let the season end, as easily as it looked to be ending after the first two games of the series. The Bears beat the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins on Friday night 4-1 to even the best of five series at two games each.
The outcome of Mark French’s frustration (All photos by Kyle Mace)
Dany Sabourin has been living by the motto “No Rest” these past couple of weeks. Out of the last 13 Bears game Sabourin has started 12 of them. The one he didn’t start, he was backing up Braden Holtby in Washington. After all of the games and travel for Mr. Sabourin, he might need some rest after tonight’s game. It wasn’t a busy game, but one that felt like it was going to go on forever. Connecticut only had 26 shots on the night, but one got through. The one that got through would be the only puck that saw the back of the net as Hershey would lose, 1-0.
Jean-Francois Jacques scores in the shootout to give the Crunch the extra point in the standing (Photo by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears are supposed to feed players to the parent club Washington Capitals, but on Saturday night it was the Bears fans who got to taste the “Cheese” again. Former Bears goaltender Daren Machesney returned to Hershey from South Carolina, playing his first game as a Bear since the 08-9 season. Dany Sabourin was called up to Washington, to back up the other Bears goaltender Braden Holtby, as the Caps finished the regular season against the Rangers. Machesney played well, but the Bears only picked up one point against Syracuse in a 3-2 shootout loss.
Braden Holtby stops Bryan Lerg in the shootout (All photos by Kyle Mace)
The Hershey Bears came into tonight’s game facing a nine-game home losing streak to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Last night, Wilkes-Barre play-by-play announcer Tom Grace said of today’s game that the Baby Pens will win their tenth straight at Giant Center and start calling it the Penguins’ second home. After today’s game, Grace might need to rethink what he said. Hershey came back from a 3-2 deficit in the third to win the game 4-3 in a shootout.