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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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 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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Are Sheldon Souray’s Days in Hershey Numbered?

Sheldon Souray Hershey Bears

There are only four more home games until the NHL trade deadline on 2/28 (Photo by Kyle Mace)

All good things have to come to an end, right? Despite accumulating only three goals and eight assists in 22 games with the Bears, interest in banished Oilers’ defenseman Sheldon Souray has rapidly picked up over the weekend. First, there was a blog post on ESPN, where Pierre LeBrun suggested that the Rangers were interested in a veteran presence on their blue line:

Rangers interested in defensemen: The Rangers’ power play has consistently struggled (23rd), so a veteran point man such as Kaberle, Bryan McCabe or Sheldon Souray would likely interest the Blueshirts. Each would also provide a veteran presence on a really young Rangers blue line.

Then tonight, TSN took that one step further:

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Bears add another win by beating the Checkers 1-0

Sheldon Souray scores the only goal of the game. (Photo credit: Kyle Mace)

It seemed like the Bears played a man down for most of the game. Despite that, they were able to prevail. A late power play goal from Sheldon Souray lifted the Bears over the Checkers.

The first period was a little slow. Each team registered only 5 shots on goal for the entire period.  Both teams were missing some passes and seemed to be playing not to lose rather than to win.  This makes sense since they both needed points from the game.

The second period started the same way that the first ended.  At the begining of the period Braden Holtby had to come up big.  Charlotte picked up the puck behind the Bears net.  Holtby had to make a save stretching from post to post.  He then came up with another big save on the rebound.  The reminder of the period saw a few more chances (and a few more penalties) than the first, but the result was the same.  At the end of two periods it was locked at 0-0.

The third period started out with a high sticking double minor on Keith Aucoin at 1:24.  This was followed by a Sheldon Souray cross checking penalty at 2:49.  The Checkers had a full two minutes of 5 on 3 power play.  The Bears penalty killers came up HUGE!  They killed off both penalties and turned the momentum squarely in their favor.  At 9:50 in the third period, the Checkers took a penalty giving the Bears their first full two minutes of power play time in the game.  Unlike the 20-30 second power plays that they had before, they made this one count.  Aucoin sent the puck across the point to a waiting Souray.  Souray fired away and found the back of the net.  That was the only goal of the game, and the Bears held on to that lead to get another win.

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Hershey’s Home Stand is Perfect, beat Falcons 4-3


Sheldon Souray celebrates another win with Dany Sabourin. Photo by Kyle Mace

Before I dive into this game recap, I want to congratulate John Walton on calling his 1,000th game. Fans of any team should appreciate Walton and all that he has done for Hershey. It wouldn’t be half as interesting to listen without you, John. It would be an understatement to say that I hope he’s around for 1,000 more.

And now about the game. After getting snowed in last time and having to push the game to tonight, the two teams were going pretty strong right from the start.

The Springfield Falcons had a some notable names in the starting line-up. Mike Commodore was in, playing his first game for the Springfield Falcons. But the bigger name for Hershey fans was the return of Kyle Wilson. The Reeses Cup mascot dropped the puck in a ceremonial face-off and Andrew Gordon and Wilson took it together. It was nice to see two former teammates together again, even if they were wearing different jerseys.

Speaking of Gordon, he was the first Bear to find the back of the net. With a nice pass from Keith Aucoin, Gordon scored short side on David LeNeveu. Sean Collins, who is having a pretty good season, made it a two goal lead with a missile from center point.

The Falcons cut Hershey’s lead in half when they scored ten seconds into their first power play of the night. The second period was fairly quiet but Brian Willsie added some insurance with a power play goal of his own.

The Falcons looked like they were on the cusp of a comeback during the third period when John Moore got Springfield within one goal of tying. Steve Pinizzotto didn’t take too kindly to this and just moments later scored a sweet goal where he danced around the Falcons goaltender.

Kyle Wilson wasn’t willing to accept defeat and scored a goal with 17.8 seconds left in the game after a botched clearing attempt by Sabourin. The Bears were able to stave off any last chances from Springfield and won 4-3.

Hershey took advantage of this four game home stand and gained eight points in the standings. These four wins are crucial ones and have shown just what this time is capable of. Dany Sabourin played great, winning all four games. He has proven that we can rely on him even when we don’t have Braden Holtby with us.

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