Syracuse Crunch Destroy Hershey Bears, 5-2

Braden Holtby very clearly disagrees with the call on the Syracuse goal. Photo by Kyle Mace

The Bears wrapped up this 3-in-3 with a Sunday matinée game against the Syracuse Crunch. With one win and one loss already, this game decided whether it would be a winning or losing record for the weekend.

The Crunch got the first lead of the night on just their second shot of the game. There wasn’t much Braden Holtby could do as Matt Kennedy spun around and deflected the puck off Dmitry Orlov‘s leg.

But the Bears tied it up at the end of the period during a delayed penalty call. Brian Willsie took at shot and it bounced out to Kyle Greentree was behind Jean-Philippe Levasseur and had a mostly empty net to shoot at. Tie game.

Enter controversy. At first, it looked like the second period was going to wrap up without a scoring change. The Bears got a late period power play but it was Syracuse that scored. Nick Bonino was left alone and had a bit of a breakaway right up to the goal. He deked a few times and took a quick shot. The puck flipped past Holtby and appeared to hit the crossbar and bounce back out. The goal light never went off but referee Francis Charron said it was good.

The replay that played in-house was a little hard to decipher but I’m still not convinced it went in. Many people were pointing to the fact that the water bottle that was resting on the netting jumped, usually signaling a good goal. Tim Leone, who most likely got a better look at the replay, had this to say:

I’d be interested to hear what some of you who saw it in person have to say, especially those seated near the goal.

Despite leading in shots on goal 26 to 11, the Bears were down a goal going into the third period. It took just under twelve minutes before the Bears were able to tie it up. They threw a bunch of shots towards Levasseur and Greentree ended up scoring on his own rebound to get his second goal of the night.

However, the Crunch didn’t take long to respond. They couldn’t even finish announcing Hershey’s goal when Syracuse regained their lead on a strange goal. I can’t fault Holtby too much on this first two goals, but this was one he should have had. He was flush up against the post but a Crunch player was able to sneak it past him after Holtby tried to poke check it away.

Then the wheels fell off and Syracuse scored on a 2-on-1 rush with a minute and a half left. The final nail in the coffin was the empty net goal with five seconds left. Hershey loses 5-2.

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Bears beat the Whale for French’s 100th Coaching Win

The Bears celebrate Brian Willsie’s goal, which proved to be the game-winner.

Break out the Brass Bonanza! The Hershey Bears came to town to play their first game against the Connecticut Whale (though they did play them earlier in the season when they were still the Hartford Wolfpack).

Kyle Greentree scored the first goal of the night with a nice shot from between the face-off circles. New addition, Andrew Kozek (who was playing in his first game as a Bear) had the primary assist to register his first point as a Bear.

The Bears extended their lead during the second period when Connecticut had an iffy line change. Greentree dished a long pass to Brian Willsie who was waiting up ice. Once he got the puck, Willsie raced towards the net, took aim, and scored. 2-0 Bears.

The Whale finally broke the shutout during the third period when Kris Newbury darted through the zone and right up to the net. There wasn’t much Nolan Schaefer could do to stop it. Connecticut couldn’t muster up any more goals and Bears win 2-1!

You know what that means? We finally get to congratulate Coach Mark French on his 100th AHL coaching victory! He is the fastest coach in AHL history to reach the 100 win plateau. We can’t even begin to say how much French has done for the Bears. We know the team is in great hands with him. Now the race begins to 200 wins!

Just a heads up to our readers: we will not be covering the game tomorrow night against the Adirondack Phantoms. Instead, we’ll be in Virginia with our Russian Machine Never Breaks brothers at the RMNB Party 2: Electric Boogaloo. If you’re free, head down to Arlington and have fun while donating money to the Brian St. Louis Family Fund.

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Worcester holds off Hershey Comeback, Win 3-2


Dmitry Orlov’s first AHL goal isn’t enough to stop the Worcester Sharks.

And so the road trip rolls on…

Tonight, the Bears faced the Worcester Sharks. You may remember the last time these two teams met Brian Willsie almost fought Worcester goaltender, Alex Stalock.

Thankfully for Willsie, Stalock wasn’t playing tonight but that didn’t mean that this game would be any easier.

All was well at first. The Bears were putting some good shots on goal and even got the early lead. It was none other than Dmitry Orlov who gave the Bears the lead, scoring his first career AHL goal. It was a hard shot from the face-off circle that goaltender Tyson Sexsmith couldn’t handle. Orlov has been paired with Sheldon Souray for four games now. Between the pure skill, the physicality, and the hard shots, that pairing has to put some fear in the opposing teams. I definitely would not want to be facing down those guys.

However, the Sharks tied it up in the same period. The Sharks were attacking and the Bears couldn’t clear the zone. After a couple of quick shots, Nolan Schaefer tried his best but couldn’t stop the last shot and Worcester scored.

During the second period, the Bears badly outshot the Sharks 16 to 7. Unfortunately, it was the Sharks who came ahead though. The Sharks killed off a Hershey 5-on-3 power play and then scored in the minutes afterwards. It was a bit of a fluky goal as Brandon Mashinter flung the puck towards the goal and it tipped off Schaefer and into the net.

The third period saw the Bears on the wrong side of a 5-on-3. Boyd Kane and Ashton Rome were whistled for penalties and the Worcester didn’t miss the opportunity. With two Bears in the box, the Sharks scored. There was a glimmer of hope later on when Rome dished out a perfect pass to Maxime Lacroix who backhanded it past Sexsmith. It wouldn’t be enough to push the Bears to victory and they lose 3-2.

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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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