Bears Fall Short in Season Opener

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.

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Bears Drop Fourth Straight, Lose 3-2 (SO)

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.

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Hershey Bears Take Down Syracuse Crunch, 2-1

Photo by Jim Commentucci / The Post-Standard.

It’s no secret that a big part of tonight’s game was Andrew Gordon facing off against his former team. But when the Hershey Bears play the Syracuse Crunch, you have to put friendships to the side.

Speaking of Andrew Gordon, he had a primary assist on the first goal of the game. Rick Schofield fired a one-timer that blazed past Braden Holtby to give the Crunch the lead. But Cody Eakin tied it up before the end of the period. He ended Hershey’s power play woes with a great shot against Antero Niitymaki.

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Bears Start Holiday Break with 5-2 Victory against SYR

Your #4 Star of the night, Joel Rechlicz and Santa. All photos by Kyle Mace.

Tonight, against the Syracuse Crunch, the Bears hosted their social media promotion night, a nifty gimmick for those involved in the internet side of sports fandom. Luckily, the players gave us plenty to tweet about.

Known for their strong starts, the Bears were buzzing right away. Matt Ford continued his point streak when he scored on the first shot of the game. Unfortunately, a Syracuse 5-on-3 power play killed some of the momentum, especially when Patrick Maroon scored on Dany Sabourin. Sabourin made a great initial save but Maroon was there for the rebound. Tie game.

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Bears’ Effort Rewarded with 4-1 Win against Crunch

Bodies flew as the Bears beat the Crunch. Photo by Jim Commentucci / The Post-Standard.

The Bears have had a tough time against the Syracuse Crunch so far this season. They seemed determined that tonight would not see the same fate.

It’s a strange concept to have Graham Mink on the third line but it paid off. Mink was able to muscle the puck away from the Crunch and pass to Matt Pope, who snapped it past Iiro Tarkki. That beautiful goal was Pope’s first as a Hershey Bear.

Later in the period, the Crunch managed to tie it up on the power play. Braden Holtby was screened by Patrick Maroon and possibly his own teammate. Maroon tipped the shot. But the Bears wouldn’t let that get them down! Moments afterwards, Chris Bourque had a breakaway. He was stopped by Tarkki but the Bears maintained possession and Tomas Kundratek scored his first goal as a Bear!

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Hershey’s Losing Skid Continues against Syracuse

Boyd Kane (seen here last season) scored against Syracuse. Photo by Lauren Long / The Post-Standard.

It is the start of a new weekend and a chance for the Bears to begin turning their luck around. After losing three of the last four games, the Bears were looking for a strong game from start to finish. Playing on the road, the Bears got that strong start against the Syracuse Crunch.

It only took 24 seconds to get started. Boyd Kane scored on the first shot of the game against Iiro Tarkki. A few minutes later, the Crunch scored on the power play to tie it up. Then, Jacob Micflikier earned a goal when he and his linemates continued to poke at a loose puck in the goal crease.

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Bears rebound and down Crunch 7-0

Photo by Kyle Mace.

A night after taking a beating from the Pens, the Bears looked to turn things around. And the looked to do it with Dany Sabourin in the net. Sabourin hasn’t played a game in over a week since he’s been riding the pine in Washington with Michal Neuvirth hurt. Sabourin’s first couple touches looked like he had a little rust. After that there was no doubt that he was fully in the game.

In the first half of the opening period, the Bears had some trouble making it cleanly through the neutral zone. This was causing poor entries into the offensive zone and little time spent there. It looked a little like it was going to be another night like last night. As the period wore on, things started to get better. The crunch still had the shot advantage, however Dmitry Orlov was the one that opened up the scoring. From that point forward the momentum started to turn in the Bears favor. They increased the pressure in the Crunch zone and with 3.1 seconds left to go in the first period Jacob Micflikier upped the lead to 2-0.

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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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“Pittsburgh Hangover” Crunch beat Bears 4-2


The Crunch celebrate a goal against Dany Sabourin. Photo by Kyle M.

Fresh off their statement win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Pittsburgh, the Bears traveled back to Hershey to take on a struggling Syracuse Crunch team.

It seemed like a lot of Syracuse’s goals and scoring chances came when there was a turnover by a Hershey defenseman. The Crunch did a good job of keeping the pressure up and making Hershey pay for mistakes like that. They got their first goal when John Mitchell beat out Johann Kroll and took the puck from him right in front of the goal. Trevor Smith was left alone and converted on a bounce from the back wall to give Syracuse another goal.

Kyle Greentree scored Hershey’s first goal of the night when Syracuse was already up 2-0. He had a nice shot on the power play to cut the lead in half. Unfortunately, Syracuse repaid the favor the next period by scoring on a power play of their own. Add on another Syracuse goal towards the end of second period and suddenly Hershey was down 4-1.

Dany Sabourin has an iffy record in front of the home crowd. It’s nights like this that it’s almost become expected of him when he starts in Hershey. After Syracuse scored their fourth goal, he was pulled. Braden Holtby was able to shut the door the rest of the way.

Keith Aucoin gave the Bears a bigger chance at a comeback when he scored in the third period. His deflection of a Sean Collins shot was able to elude the Syracause goaltender. Sadly, it wouldn’t be enough to power the comeback. Mark French even opted to play with four forwards and one defenseman in the final few minutes of the game, hoping for some last minute offensive magic.

Overall, the Bears threw 47 shots at Timo Pielmeier. Read that again: 47 shots. And only two went in. It should come as no surprise when I tell you that Pielmeier was awarded the number one star of the game.

Call it a hot goalie, call it fatigue, whatever you’d like but the four-game winning streak had to end there. The Bears wrap up 2010 with a loss. The start of the new year means it is time a strong second half to push Hershey to playoffs and help defend the championship. Happy New Year!

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Bears dominate Crunch with a 5-1 victory

After Wednesday’s loss to the Worcester Sharks, Mark French was mad. The coaches held a closed door meeting that had us a little afraid for the players. We obviously don’t know what was said but it made tonight’s game against the Syracuse Crunch all that more important. Hershey needed to make a statement.

The first period was pretty even. Syracuse would draw first blood when Patrick Maroon scored his first goal as a member of the Crunch. It would be their only goal of the night. Andrew Gordon tied the game during a 5-on-3 power play before the end of the period.

The second period was key for the Bears. Hershey spent the majority of the period dominating the offensive zone, so much so that Syracuse opted for a goaltender change. This switch was most likely an attempt to wake up the rest of the team and not so much a reflection of Timo Pielmeier’s performance. Before the switch, Mathieu Perreault found the back of the net thanks to an assist from Gordon. Andrew Joudrey added a one-timer from Steve Pinizzotto that eluded Pielmeier.

For the rest of the game, the Bears tried to minimize Syracuse’s scoring chances as much as possible. Gordon scored his second goal of the night and 14th goal of the season. After killing off a penalty, Hershey regrouped and Kyle Greentree scored Hershey’s fifth and final goal of the night.

It’s easy to assume that Dany Sabourin was chosen to start in tonight’s game due to his previous success in Syracuse. Sabourin recorded his first win of the season in this building. He also shutout the Crunch in the last meeting between these two teams. After tonight’s game, he remains undefeated in Syracuse as Hershey wins 4-1.

There you go. A full 60 minute effort proves what Hershey is capable of. Let’s hope that meeting was the kick the Bears needed to turn this season around for good.

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